I would add that running one cluster is operationally less work than running multiple.
On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 4:15 AM, David Boxenhorn <da...@taotown.com> wrote: > If I have a database that partitions naturally into non-overlapping > datasets, in which there are no references between datasets, where each > dataset is quite large (i.e. large enough to merit its own cluster from the > point of view of quantity of data), should I set up one cluster per database > or one large cluster for everything together? > > As I see it: > > The primary advantage of separate clusters is total isolation: if I have a > problem with one dataset, my application will continue working normally for > all other datasets. > > The primary advantage of one big cluster is usage pooling: when one server > goes down in a large cluster it's much less important than when one server > goes down in a small cluster. Also, different temporal usage patterns of the > different datasets (i.e. there will be different peak hours on different > datasets) can be combined to ease capacity requirements. > > Any thoughts? > -- Jonathan Ellis Project Chair, Apache Cassandra co-founder of DataStax, the source for professional Cassandra support http://www.datastax.com