Operating Systems: AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, Windows, z/OS
WebSphere Virtual Enterprise topology terminology
This topic introduces the necessary terminology for creating a topology that involves servers that are outside of the WebSphere® Virtual Enterprise cell.
- Types of servers: three kinds of server processes
- Types of nodes: four kinds of machines
- Deployment targets
Types of servers: three kinds of server processes
- WebSphere Application Server application server
- Any application server that is created and managed by WebSphere Application Server.
- Generic server
- A generic server can be stopped and started by a WebSphere Application Server node agent.
- Foreign server
- A server that does not fit into one of the preceding definitions. For example, a foreign server might be an application server that is not stopped and started by a WebSphere Application Server node agent. A foreign server also might be a database or other type of server.
Types of nodes: four kinds of machines
- WebSphere Virtual Enterprise machine
- Runs the WebSphere Virtual Enterprise node agent, plus any other kinds of servers.
- WebSphere Application Server machine
- Runs a WebSphere Application Server V5.1 or V6.0 node agent, plus any kinds of servers. These machines do not run WebSphere Virtual Enterprise. These machines might be monitored with the remote agent.
- Pure external machine
- A machine that runs foreign servers. It does not run a WebSphere Application Server node agent, but supports external monitoring with the remote agent or middleware agent. You can enable external monitoring on external machines by installing WebSphere Virtual Enterprise for a mixed server environment. See Enabling external monitoring with the remote agent for more information.
- Foreign machine
- A machine that runs foreign servers and does not support monitoring.
Unmanaged machines. WebSphere Application Server stores information about unmanaged machines in the configuration files. Unmanaged machines can have custom properties. Pure external machines and foreign machines might be unmanaged, but also might not have information stored in the configuration files. Machines that do not have any information stored in the configuration files are neither managed or unmanaged.
Deployment targets
A deployment target is a place that can contain a processing tier. There are five kinds of deployment targets:
- WebSphere Application Server application servers that are not clustered
- A static cluster of WebSphere Application Server application servers
- A dynamic cluster of WebSphere Application Server application servers
- 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. Generic server clusters are not collections of generic servers. Servers and nodes are inferred from the generic server cluster end points and properties. The inferred servers can be foreign or generic servers. Generic server cluster end points can have a custom property that identifies its node, or the node is identified by the host name from the end point. The node for a generic server cluster can be any type of node. See Routing requests to external nodes with generic server clusters for more information about configuring generic server clusters.
- External cluster
An external cluster is used for foreign and generic servers that are not referenced by generic server clusters. For example, an external cluster might reference database servers. External clusters cannot be a target, and cannot contain target servers. Servers that belong to an external cluster can run on any type of machine. You must explicitly configure the server placement and speeds of the unmonitored nodes in the ODR cell using the external.placement custom property.
Related tasks
Routing requests to external nodes with generic server clusters
Related reference