Home > Workload Solutions > SQL Server > White Papers > Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Big Data Clusters: A Big Data Solution Using Dell EMC Infrastructure > Big Data Cluster services
In the Big Data Cluster to PowerFlex rack, services were balanced across the four nodes. The following figure provides a visual representation of how the Big Data Cluster services were distributed:
Figure 11. Distribution of Big Data Cluster services
The pools used the following nodes:
The fourth node supported the external load balancer. The three SQL master VMs were used in an Always On availability group. SQL Server automatically builds out the Always On availability group when the HA option is selected during deployment. The availability group includes system databases and is integrated into the SQL Server engine so that any newly created databases are automatically added to the availabilty group. The Always On availability group provides the SQL master database architecture with several benefits:
An Always On cluster provides important features for production implementations of Big Data Clusters, such as high availability, offload support, and self-healing capabilities.
This highly consolidated architecture allows customers to start small and grow later as needed. This architecture provides multiple benefits:
In implementing and running Big Data Clusters on the PowerFlex rack, the configuration performed as expected with no challenges or obstacles. The ease of deployment and integration of the PowerFlex rack, Kubernetes through the CSI plug-in, and VMware confirmed that the PowerFlex system is an ideal platform for a Big Data Cluster environment.