Example: Choosing a topology for better performance
WAS provides two Workload Management topologies...
- Single-tier topology
Contains a cluster of servers. Each cluster member contains a Web container and an EJB container.
The single-tier topology has a performance advantage because the Web container and EJB container are running in a single JVM. With the ORB pass by reference enabled, the EJB processing is done on the same thread as the Web container processing.
- Split-tier topology
Consists of a cluster of Web container machines in front of a cluster of EJB container machines. Enables Web and EJB resources to be isolated and separately administered.
The number of WAS machines is the same single-tier topology.
The client driver, the Web server with plug-in, and the back end database are located on separate, dedicated machines.
In the split-tier topology, the ORB pass by reference option is ignored because the Web container and EJB container are in separate JVMs.
A lab experiment using a the Benchmark Sample for WebSphere (Trade3) and a cluster of 6 applications servers found that throughput of the single-tier topology was 10-20% higher than that of the split-tier topology.
Related tasks
Tuning the application serving environment
Related Reference
Object Request Broker service settings