Hazelcast Tip: Native Client versus Lite Member

by Enes Akar — Dec 26, 2012

There are two options to connect to Hazelcast cluster.

- Using native client
- Creating a lite member which is practically a node which does not store any data.
At first glance using lite member may seem more attractive as it knows all nodes and where any key-value pair is stored. But we see that in the long term native client is the more scalable and clean approach.
Here a table to summarize the difference between them:
       

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   Native Client Lite Member

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 Performance There is an extra hop as client asks to a member where the data is. Better performance as it knows where data is.

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 Scalability More scalable as you can create any number of client without overhead to cluster operations. Not scalable, as each lite member becomes a node of the cluster that is an overhead for cluster operations.

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 Flexibility and Location Flexible, can be anywhere in LAN or WAN. It must be on the same data center even on the same RAC

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 Near Cache Currently not available Available

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 Distributed executor Can send tasks but cannot receive and execute Can send and receive taks
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