Pros and Cons of Application Isolation/Multiple server instances?

[Ricardo_Lorenzo]

Hi. I'm setting a new server using ColdFusion Enterprise with Apache to migrate several web application from and old server with ColdFusion 7 server. I'm currently doing research regarding multiple server instances in order to have a separate server for production apps and another for development apps (see http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusion/10.0/Admin/WSc3ff6d0ea77859461172e0811cbf363c31-7ff5.html and https://wikidocs.adobe.com/wiki/display/coldfusionen/Using+Multiple+Server+Instanceshttp://). In addition, I'm also doing research regarding application isolation to have separate production application in separate servers. I'm trying to identify all pros and cons for both "Application Isolation" and "Multiple Server Instances" to make a decision on whether I will proceed in applying these techniques. I have found several links that talk about some of the advantages but have not been able to find anything regarding possible disadvantages. Have anyone in this forum has used any of the techniques, and can provide more information/experiences regarding the pros and cons?

[Anit_Kumar]

Hi Ricardo_Lorenzo,

Whether to go for Multiserver instances or Single server, is totally a user requirement based decison. If a user has Single website, or multiple websites (of the same nature, in terms of functionality), usually the part of same domain, then they would go for Single sever installation. One single instance will handle the requests from all the websites (if there are multiple). There would not be a clustering/failover setup within ColdFusion and can use the ColdFusion Standard or Enterprise version.

On the other hand, if a user has multiple websites, all with different functionality and have multiple applications (may or may not) running, then they can go for Multiserver installation. Each website can be configured with individual instances. Clustering can be done within ColdFusion if needed. One would need an Enterprise license of ColdFusion for the same.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Anit Kumar

[BKBK]

The Standard versus Enterprise comparison may guide you.