The term membership scheme refers to the manner in which group membership is managed in a cluster. A cluster consists of several processes, and each of these processes is known as a member. In the context of Axis2, each member is an Axis2 process. The Axis2 clustering implementations support several membership schemes. Next, we will take a look at the three membership schemes supported by Axis2, and how the clusters are configured to support these membership schemes. We will be looking at:
Static membership
Dynamic membership
Hybrid membership
In this scheme, only a defined set of members can be in a group. The Group Membership Service (GMS) will detect members joining or leaving the group. External members cannot join the group. Each node may obtain group member details from a central repository or configuration file.
In the figure, S1 up to S5 are static members. These static members can join or leave the group at any time. However, these members need to...