Cluster terminology

Host

The physical machine on which one or more Guidewire applications run.

Application instance

An individual PolicyCenter deployment. It is possible to run multiple application instances on the same host.

PolicyCenter server

The application server associated with each application instance. For production environments, Guidewire supports JBoss, Tomcat, WebLogic, and WebSphere servers. If running multiple servers on the same host, each server must map to a different physical port.

Server role

A categorization of each application instance in the cluster by its function, as defined by its role. Examples of server roles are ui (manages user interface requests), batch (manages batch processing), and messaging (manages messaging and message destinations).

You define server roles using the cluster <registry> element in config.xml. See Cluster member roles for more information. See also Understanding the configuration <registry> element.

Cluster

A grouping of two or more Guidewire application instances that have a common configuration and function as an integrated unit. Typically, each server in the cluster has one or more roles or function. Most often, if there are multiple servers assigned the ui role, the cluster contains a third-party load balancer as well.

The individual application instances in the cluster must all connect to a common database.

Cluster member

A single application instance within a Guidewire cluster.