Create a proxy server cluster using wsadmin

If we run multiple proxy servers on the system, you might want to create a proxy server cluster to make it easier to administer these proxy servers. Use either the console or the wsadmin command to create a proxy server cluster.

A proxy server cluster includes the machines, and nodes that are going to belong to the proxy server cluster. Before you define your proxy server cluster:

• Determine whether a domain name server (DNS), a load balancer, or a proxy server is going to be used to route requests to the proxy server cluster.

• Verify that the same version of the product is installed on the nodes that will belong to the proxy server cluster.

Avoid trouble: A proxy server cluster does not have some of the same functionality that an application server cluster has. For example, a proxy cluster does not provide failover, or high availability support. The main reason for creating a proxy cluster is to make it easier to administer multiple proxy servers. For example, if the proxy servers are members of a proxy server cluster, we can specify configuration settings for that proxy server cluster, and the settings are automatically applied to all of the proxy servers in that cluster. Creating a proxy server cluster also enables you to simultaneously start and stop all of the proxy servers in that cluster.gotcha

Complete the following tasks to create a proxy server cluster.

1. Start the deployment manager.

2. Start the wsadmin utility.

3. Issue one of the following commands.

   The following command creates an empty cluster with no members:

   $AdminTask createCluster {-clusterConfig {-clusterName <name_of_cluster> -clusterType PROXY_SERVER}}

   The following command creates a cluster, and add a proxy server to that cluster:

   $AdminTask createCluster { -clusterConfig {{<name_of_cluster> true PROXY_SERVER}} -convertServer
        {{<node> <name_of_proxy_server> "" "" ""}}}

   The proxy server that we add is used as the template for all subsequent proxy servers that we add to the cluster.

4. Add a member to the cluster:

   If no members exist in the cluster, the first proxy server added serves as the template for subsequent members that we add to the cluster.

   Issue the following command to add a member to the cluster:

   $AdminTask createClusterMember {-clusterName <name_of_cluster> -memberConfig {-memberNode <node> -memberName <name_of_proxy_server>}}

   When a proxy server is added to a cluster, proxy-specific configuration settings for it can only be configured using the wsadmin scripting client.

5. Issue the $AdminConfig save command to save the configuration changes.

6. Start the proxy server cluster.

   Start the proxy server cluster automatically enables request routing.

7. Configure requests to route to the proxy server.

   For DNS-based routing, associate the logical name of the site with the IP addresses of the proxy server cluster members in DNS.

   For Load balancer routing, configure the IP addresses of the cluster members as the target of the virtual cluster.

   For Edge proxy or IBM HTTP Server with WAS plug-in-based routing, generate the plug-in configuration file for the proxy server cluster, and configure the Edge proxy or the WAS plug-in with this information.

Results

The proxy server cluster is created with the members and is enabled for routing traffic.

What to do next

Monitor the traffic.

Related tasks

Start clusters

Monitor the proxy server with PMI

Related information:

Generic server clusters collection

Generic server clusters configuration

Generic server cluster ports collection

Generic server cluster members

URI groups

URI group configuration