Enterprise server instances are typically deployed as a scale-up server. This means that performance is improved by adding or replacing the existing hardware components. Ultimately, the servers performance is limited by the machines existing resources.
A Performance and Availability Cluster (PAC) enables you to configure enterprise server instances in a scale-out architecture. In a PAC, multiple enterprise server instances work together, as a single logical entity.
A PAC can provide the following advantages over a single enterprise server instance:
The enterprise server instances in a PAC need to be able to share synchronized user and system data. To facilitate the sharing and synchronicity requirement a PAC uses a data store referred to as a Scale-Out Repository (SOR). There are two specific types of SOR:
You can choose which instances of user data are stored in a SOR using a SOR Model. For example, if only a subset of TSQs need to be shared, then a SOR Model can be used to specify which TSQs are directed to the SOR. Instance data that does not match a SOR Model rule continues to be stored on its local enterprise server instance.