A multi-node cluster is made up of three or more nodes. With a cluster, the Controller and other Events Service clients, the EUM Server and Analytics Agent connect to the Events Service through a load balancer, which distributes load to the Events Service cluster members.

We recommend multi-node clusters for production environments. Multi-node clusters provide the following benefits:

• Safeguards against data loss: multi-node clusters replicate your data. If one node goes down in production, you would have at least two more nodes storing your data. Additionally, the Events Service continues to run as long as one node runs. Should a node go down in a single node deployment, the Events Service stops running and you would lose your data.
• Provides redundancy: in a multi-node cluster, you can swap nodes.

In a single-node deployment, connect through a load balancer or directly to the Events Service.

The nodes in a cluster swap a large amount of data. For this reason, when deploying a cluster, make sure to install all cluster nodes within the same local network, ideally, attached to the same network switch. For more information, see:

• Install the Events Service on Linux
• Install the Events Service on Windows