C
change journal
A feature that tracks changes to NTFS volumes, including additions, deletions, and modifications. The change journal exists on the volume as a sparse file.See also NTFS file system.
clean installation
The process of installing an operating system on a clean or empty partition of a computer's hard disk.
cluster
In data storage, the smallest amount of disk space that can be allocated to hold a file. All file systems used by Windows organize hard disks based on clusters, which consist of one or more contiguous sectors. The smaller the cluster size, the more efficiently a disk stores information. If no cluster size is specified during formatting, Windows picks defaults based on the size of the volume. These defaults are selected to reduce the amount of space that is lost and the amount of fragmentation on the volume. Also called an allocation unit.
In computer networking, a group of independent computers that work together to provide a common set of services and present a single-system image to clients. The use of a cluster enhances the availability of the services and the scalability and manageability of the operating system that provides the services.See also availability.See also scalability.
Cluster service
The essential software component that controls all aspects of server cluster operation and manages the cluster database. Each node in a server cluster runs one instance of the Cluster service.See also node.See also server cluster.
cluster storage
Storage where one or more attached disks hold data used either by server applications running on the cluster or by applications for managing the cluster. Each disk on the cluster storage is owned by only one node of the cluster. The ownership of disks moves from one node to another when the disk group fails over or moves to the other node.See also failover.See also node.
cluster-aware
The classification of an application or service that runs on a server cluster node, is managed as a cluster resource, and is designed to be aware of and interact with the server cluster environment. Cluster-aware applications use the Cluster API to receive status and notification information from the server cluster.
COM+
An extension of the COM (Component Object Model) programming architecture that includes a runtime or execution environment and extensible services, including transaction services, security, load balancing, and automatic memory management.See also Component Object Model (COM).
Component Object Model (COM)
An object-based programming model designed to promote software interoperability; it allows two or more applications or components to easily cooperate with one another, even if they were written by different vendors, at different times, in different programming languages, or if they are running on different computers running different operating systems. OLE technology and ActiveX are both built on top of COM.See also ActiveX.