How does a Neo4J cluster compare to a single instance with the same cumulative RAM and CPUs?

[deemeetree]

How would a 3-instance Neo4J cluster (16 Gb RAM, 2 CPUs each) compare to a single instance 48Gb RAM, 6 CPUs?

Would they be performing similarly or the cluster instances would be slower but more reliable?

Anybody has experience on this?

[jggomez]

Hi, I think is the same. With a cluster you would have ACID. The performances is important but the available too.

Thanks.

[deemeetree]

Ok but don’t you also have ACID in a single-instance Neo4J? It seems to fulfill all the criteria, no?

[jggomez]

No, it is not highly available and consistent with a single server. You have a single point of failure with a single server then have a bad architecture

en.wikipedia.org

Single point of failure

A single point of failure (SPOF) is a part of a system that, if it fails, will stop the entire system from working. SPOFs are undesirable in any system with a goal of high availability or reliability, be it a business practice, software application, or other industrial system. Systems can be made robust by adding redundancy in all potential SPOFs. For instance, the owner of a small tree care company may only own one woodchipper. If the chipper breaks, he may be unable to complete his current jo...

https://neo4j.com/docs/operations-manual/current/clustering/internals/index.html