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Display Name (?):

Cluster Service

Short Name (?):

Executable (?):

Library (?):

Depends On (?):

Supports (?):

None.

Description (?):

None.

OS (?):

2000 Server, Server 2003, Vista Server

Startup (?):

Default	Home	Workstation	Server	Minimal	Tweaked	Automatic
Disabled	Disabled	Disabled	Automatic	Disabled	Disabled	Disabled

Explanation (?):

The cluster service is used in defining a group of computers as a node that work together as a unified computing resource. On a Windows server there are two types of clusters, known as server clusters and network load balanacing clusters. A server cluster simply provides an environment for large scale applications to perform tasks such as databasing, whereas a network load balancing cluster provides a scalable environment for applications that can be distributed to offload tasks onto a set of computers. What a cluster does is create a logical computer identity of a group of computers allowing applications to grow faster than a single computer's hardware could handle without having the software to exclusively handle the task. This service can be safely disabled if you are not using clustering, but should be removed using the add/remove components dialog instead of just disabling it.