An alternative to clustering is to implement Enterprise Vault building blocks. This is part of a straightforward methodology for deploying Enterprise Vault in a way that is both scalable and reliable. You can easily extend a solution made from building blocks to increase capacity. In addition, you can configure building blocks for several different failover schemes such as active/passive and active/active.

A building block is a repeatable unit of Enterprise Vault functionality hosted on an application server. By adding sufficient building blocks, Enterprise Vault can be extended to scale to the largest of workloads, as shown in Figure: Enterprise Vault building blocks.

Each building block comprises a set of Enterprise Vault services that deliver the same functionality.

The combined services form a unit known as a building block, which is identified by a building block name.

Each building block is hosted on a particular server, but in the event of a disaster on that server Enterprise Vault can failover a building block to another server (without the need for clustering technology). Failover does not require any reconfiguration on the desktop and users are unaffected.

Figure: Enterprise Vault building blocks

See Building blocks and high availability