#### To Create a Cluster

###### Before You Begin

Before you can create or start a cluster, you must create a node agent or a node agent placeholder. See To Create a Node Agent Placeholder.

1. In the tree component, select the Clusters node.
2. On the Clusters page, click New.

   The New Cluster page appears.

3. In the Name field, type a name for the cluster.

   The name must:

   - Consist only of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, underscores, hyphens, and periods (`.`)

   - Be unique across all node agent names, server instance names, cluster names, and configuration names

   - Not be `domain`

4. In the Configuration field, choose a configuration from the pull-down list.
   - To create a cluster that does not use a shared configuration, choose `default-config` or another existing configuration.

     Leave the radio button labeled “Make a copy of the selected Configuration” selected. The copy of the configuration will have the name cluster_name`-config`. The new configuration inherits the configuration information of the copied configuration.

   - To create a cluster that uses a shared configuration, choose the configuration from the pull-down list.

     Select the radio button labeled “Reference the selected Configuration” to create a cluster that uses the specified existing shared configuration.

5. (Optional) Add server instances.

   You can also add server instances after the cluster is created.

   Before you create server instances for the cluster, first create one or more node agents or node agent placeholders. See To Create a Node Agent Placeholder.

   For each server instance that you are adding, perform these steps:

   1. In the Server Instances To Be Created area, click New.
   2. In the Instance Name field, type a name for the instance.
   3. If the load balancing policy is weighted round-robin, set the weight of the instance for the load balancer.

      Note - You can set the load balancing policy in the Edit Load Balancer Health Checker page. For more information, see To Configure Load Balancer Health Checking.

      In the Weight field, type an integer that represents the weight of the instance.

      For example, if you have two instances, and want one instance to process one request out of every four, and the other instance to process three requests out of four, set the weights to 1 and 3, or 25 and 75, if you prefer to use percentages.

      The default weight is 100.

   4. From the Node Agent pull-down list, choose a node agent.
6. Click OK.

######

###### More Information

Equivalent asadmin command

`create-cluster`

###### See Also

- To Create Server Instances for a Cluster

- To Configure a Cluster

- To Delete a Cluster

- To Configure Server Instances in a Cluster

- To Configure Applications for a Cluster

- To Configure Resources for a Cluster

- To Migrate EJB Timers

- To Upgrade Components Without Loss of Service