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Operating Systems: AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, Windows, z/OS

 

Routing requests to external nodes with generic server clusters


Use this task to route requests from the on demand router (ODR) to external nodes.

 

Before you begin

Note: To configure dynamic operations support for other middleware server types, you can define your other middleware servers as members of a dynamic cluster. See Adding middleware servers to configurations for more information.

You must have one or more nodes that are not running WebSphere® Virtual Enterprise. When you perform this task, you add the nodes that are not running WebSphere Virtual Enterprise as generic server cluster ports.

To create and edit generic server clusters, we need administrator or configurator administrative privileges. The following tasks must be completed before you configure the ODR to send requests to external nodes:

  1. Create an ODR.

  2. Configure service classes and transaction classes for the ODR.

 

About this task

The ODR supports automatic routing to nodes in target cells that have a deployment manager with WebSphere Virtual Enterprise installed. To route to nodes that do not have WebSphere Virtual Enterprise installed, configure a generic server cluster. A generic server cluster is a collection of transport end points that can be used as a target for an ODR routing rule. Servers and nodes are inferred from the generic server cluster end points and properties. The inferred servers can be foreign or generic servers. Generic servers can be stopped and started by a WebSphere Application Server node agent. Foreign servers are usually not stopped and started by the WebSphere Application Server node agent. Some examples of foreign servers include Apache Tomcat or JBoss Application Server.

 

Procedure

  1. Optional: Create one or more unmanaged nodes. We need to create unmanaged nodes in any of the following configuration situations:

    • If you want the remote agent to listen for requests from a port other than the default port, 9980.

    • If you are using a custom statistics collector plug-in to obtain node speed and average CPU utilization for the work profiler.

    • If your nodes are multi-homed, that is, they have more than one network interface card or multiple host names.
    In the administrative console, click System administration > Nodes > Add node to create an unmanaged node.

  2. Optional: If the remote agent listens for incoming requests from a port other than the default port, 9980, specify the stats.collector.remote.agent.port custom property on the unmanaged node.

    1. Click System administration > Nodes > node_name > Custom properties > New.

    2. For the Name, enter stats.collector.remote.agent.port.

    3. For the Value, enter the port number where the remote agent listens for requests.
    Remember: Write down the value of this port. You use the port value when you start the remote agent on the unmanaged node.

  3. Optional: If you are using a custom statistics collector plug-in to obtain node speed and average CPU utilization for the work profiler, define the name of the class as a custom property on the unmanaged node. In this case, the plug-in might or might not use a remote agent. Before you configure this custom property, have a custom statistics collector plug-in coded and installed in the lib directory.

    1. Click System administration > Nodes > node_name > Custom properties > New.

    2. For the Name, enter stats.collector.implementation.class.

    3. For the Value, enter the name of the custom statistics collector plug-in class. The default is the com.ibm.ws.externalnode.plugins.DefaultStatsCollector class.

    4. You can specify additional configuration parameters by adding the stats.collector.config custom property on the unmanaged nodes. The provider of the custom plug-in must provide you with the information. The stats.collector.config is not required if you are using the default com.ibm.ws.externalnode.plugins.DefaultStatsCollector class.

  4. Create a generic server cluster.

    1. In the administrative console, click Servers > Generic server clusters > New.

    2. Type a Name and select a Protocol for your generic server cluster.

    3. Click Apply.

    4. Specify the generic cluster server end points, or ports. On the generic cluster server settings page, click Ports.

    5. Click New to add end points to the generic server cluster.

  5. Optional: If you configured the remote agent to listen on a non-default port in a previous step, if you are using a custom statistics collector plug-in, or if your nodes are multi-homed, that is, they have more than one network interface card or multiple host names, define the node custom property on the generic server cluster end points.

    1. In the administrative console, click Servers > Generic server clusters >cluster_name > Additional properties > Ports >host_name> Additional properties > Custom properties > New.

    2. Define the custom property. Type the name of the custom property as node. The value of the custom property should be the name of the unmanaged node that is associated with the generic server cluster port.

    3. Click Apply.

  6. Install your application on the external nodes using your defined port numbers.

  7. Enable external monitoring by enabling the remote agent on all of your external nodes.

  8. Define routing policies for generic server clusters.

    Before creating routing rules, create the appropriate virtual hosts. The virtual hosts can be defined in the console by clicking Environment > Virtual hosts.

  9. Define service policies for generic server clusters.

 

Results

The work profiler obtains average CPU utilization and node speed from external nodes and can route traffic to the external nodes.

 

What to do next

Continue configuring the on demand router and the autonomic request flow manager.


Related tasks

Adding middleware servers to configurations
Enabling external monitoring with the remote agent
Creating ODRs
Defining a service policy
Configure the autonomic request flow manager