The two most popular type of clusters in WebSphere are static clusters and dynamic clusters. Both a static cluster and dynamic cluster are the same in that the cluster is a collection of one or more WebSphere application servers.

A dynamic cluster contains features that are not available in a static cluster:

• Auto start/stop application servers -  This is controlled by the Application Placement Controller.
• Weight and Dynamic workload management (DWLM) - Route traffic to the application server with the most availability

Refer to this article for the steps on how to create a dynamic cluster. If you still want to create a static cluster, read on.

Vertical cluster vs. Horizontal cluster

Before creating a static or dynamic cluster, you'll want to understand the benefits and drawbacks of a vertical cluster and horizonal cluster.

Create a new static cluster

Refer to this article for the steps on how to create a new static cluster. In this example, cluster1 contains two application servers, server1 and server2.