The following figure shows a topology in which cluster members of more than one Application Server are hosted on a physical node.
The example topology is a variation of the basic horizontal scaling topology. Cluster members are not hosted on just a single machine, but are distributed throughout all of the machines in the system. In this example, a cluster member is hosted on Machines B and C. Machine A serves as the Web server for the application and distributes client requests to the Application Server cluster members on each node.
Typical use
Hosting cluster members of multiple Application Servers within a node provides the following benefits:
A drawback of this topology is more complex maintenance. You must maintain cluster members of each Application Server on multiple machines.
Having more than one Application Server on a stand-alone base node
It is possible to use the administrative console of a stand-alone WebSphere Application Server node to create new servers on the node. You must install the administrative console application on each new server to administer the new server. Each Application Server on a stand-alone base node must have its own administrative console.