Set up dynamic routing for Liberty collectives


Overview

With Dynamic Routing, when servers, cluster members, applications, or virtual hosts are added, removed, started, stopped, or modified; the new information is dynamically delivered to the WebSphere plug-in.

The Dynamic Routing feature routes application requests to all application instances when the application is deployed in multiple collectives. Previously, when routing to multiple collectives, a particular application could exist in only one of the collectives.

The Dynamic Routing feature can use rules to route requests to a smaller set of servers than can handle the request. We can configure rules to permit the request, reject the request, or redirect the request. If a request is permitted, it can be configured to load balance across a set of servers or clusters, and to fail over between servers or clusters.

Warning: When dynamic routing is enabled for one or more Liberty collective controllers, all the endpoints for both the collective members and the collective controllers are available to the WebSphere plug-in. These endpoints include system services that we might not want to expose at the WebSphere plug-in tier. We can apply targeted routing rules to prevent access to these endpoints.

For the Dynamic Routing function to work, the dynamicRouting-1.0 feature is required in collective controllers only. There is no requirement to upgrade every collective member. Dynamic Routing can be used to route to applications installed in any Liberty server in a collective, including WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Liberty, WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core, and WebSphere Application Server Liberty base editions.

To enable Dynamic Routing feature first we install a supported web server, such as the IBM HTTP Server, then we install Web Server Plug-ins for IBM WebSphere Application Server 9.0.0.3 and later, or 9.0.0.2 with interim fix PI27023.


Set up dynamic routing

  1. Install web server plug-ins and fixpack

    1. Download IBM Installation Manager.

    2. Install Installation Manager.

    3. Access online product repositories.

      Use the Installation Manager GUI preferences page:

        File > Preferences

      ...to set URL for the Web Server Plug-in for WebSphere Application Server along with the fixpack.

        http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.PLG.v90

      Note that we need an IBM ID to access the repository.

      Alternatively we can download the media and install from local file system.

    4. Use the installation wizard to install both the web server plug-ins and the fixpack.

    5. When prompted by the wizard, specify the installation location and proceed with the installation.

  2. Set up dynamic routing.

  3. Enable trace for Intelligent Management in the WebSphere plug-in

  4. Configure routing rules


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