Introduction

This chapter introduces the Crystal Enterprise Framework and the components that make up its architecture. It describes how each of the services or daemons that are part of the Crystal Enterprise Framework operate and what role they have in an information infrastructure. The chapter also discusses the benefits of having a distributed architecture: vertical scalability, horizontal scalability, innate load balancing, failover, high availability, and tune-ability—the capability to tailor the system to a particular environment and type of load.

This chapter uses a progressive approach: considering the highest level first, and then approaching each part of that whole in more detail.

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