The Spotfire Server (in the Security and Routing Tier in the diagram in the Server topology section) is a Java application that runs in Apache Tomcat. It's relatively lightweight and not very demanding of hardware resources.
Its main functions are as follows:
- User authentication
- User routing to Web Player instances
- Spotfire software package distribution (to clients) and deployment management
- Systems administration
- Spotfire library management—serving files and data
Clustering can be used to enable fault tolerance or to scale up the Spotfire Server to meet demand. Note that clustering is very different from scheduling and routing. Clustering applies to the Spotfire Server only and is done using a traditional load balancer. TIBCO supplies another product, ActiveSpaces, which is free to purchasers of the Spotfire Server. It...