The NetPhantom Cluster Controller is a program that runs several NetPhantom Server processes on the same machine. It manages them by starting the servers as new processes and allows them to be restarted. The Cluster Controller can also run the NetPhantom Server Upgrade facility. It can also run as a Windows Service (in the supported Windows operating systems).

Advantages

1. Clustering several servers is important for large installations with thousands of concurrent users, because a server process in a Java Virtual Machine can be limited in resources, e.g. physical memory, amount of threads or socket connections.
    
2. The Cluster Controller allows all NetPhantom Servers to share a single "server.ini" file with all the settings for the servers. This greatly simplifies the server configuration and upgrade process. The Cluster Controller also allows the NetPhantom Servers to use another Java VM.
    

Running the Cluster Controller as a Windows Service

The Cluster Controller can run as a Windows Service in the supported Windows operating systems in a daemon mode without console or GUI. The purpose of running the Cluster Controller as a Windows Service is that services do not require a user to be logged on in order to run.
 

Special Server Functions with Cluster Controller

There are three functions that behave differently for NetPhantom Servers. For more details see the NetPhantom Cluster Controller documentation.

• Server Shutdown
  When shutting down a server with the server administration program or with the remote command line utility, the server that received the command will shut down. If all servers running in the Cluster Controller are shut down, the Cluster Controller process will exit (or the Windows Service will stop).
   
• Server Restart
  When restarting a server running in the Cluster Controller using the server administration program with option Hard JVM restart, the server in question will perform this function alone, except when a pending Server upgrade is present.
   
• Server Upgrade
  The server upgrade function, using the server administration program, should be carefully controlled by the administrator when using the Cluster Controller. Improper handling could lead to inconsistencies in various files, typically Java classes.