Cell custom properties

Cell custom properties

We can configure name-value pairs of data, where the name is a property key and the value is a string value we can use to set configuration properties for a cell. Defining a new custom property for a cell enables us to configure a setting beyond that which is available in the administrative console.
To specify a custom property for a cell:

In the administrative console, click...

System administration > Cell > Custom properties

On the Custom properties page, click New.
On the settings page, enter the name of the custom property to configure in the Name field and the value that to set it to in the Value field.
Click Apply or OK Save to save the configuration changes.
Restart the server on which the cell resides.

com.ibm.websphere.management.disableRemoteHostJobs

Specifies whether to disable the remote host jobs capability in the job manager when we are not using the capability. When true, the remote host jobs capability is disabled. When the property is set to false, the remote host jobs capability is enabled. The default is false.

Property com.ibm.websphere.management.disableRemoteHostJobs
Data type Boolean
Default false

com.ibm.websphere.management.launcher.options

Specify a value of displayServerInFront to display the name of the cell, node, and server in front of the output for the ps -ef command. Use of this property is intended to help identify the process ID of a server. The property has no impact on the server process.

Information Value
Property com.ibm.websphere.management.launcher.options
Data type String
Default none

(ZOS) com.ibm.websphere.process.terminator.deletepid

By default, the autoRestart attribute for the server monitoring policy is set to false because the Automatic Restart Management (ARM) is typically used to manage automatic restarts of the application servers. The autoRestart attribute for the server monitoring policy is defined in the server.xml file.

If set the autoRestart attribute to true because we do not want to use ARM to manage the server automatic restarts, we must also add the com.ibm.websphere.process.terminator.deletepid cell custom property to the cell configuration and set this custom property to true. If we change only the setting on the autoRestart attribute, the servers in the cell keep restarting in response to a stopImmediate command.

Information Value
Property com.ibm.websphere.process.terminator.deletepid
Data type Boolean
Default false

enableAdminAuthorizationCache

By default, caching for authorization is enabled. Caching can be disabled by setting this property value to false.
{
wsadmin> set c [$AdminConfig list Cell]
wsadmin> $AdminConfig create Property $c {{name enableAdminAuthorizationCache}{value false}}
}
When true, there should be a lower number of RACF authorizations.

IBM_CLUSTER_CALLBACK_TIMEOUT

Length of time the node agent waits for cluster data to be gathered after a client submits the first request for that cluster. We do not need to specify a value for this property if the IBM_CLUSTER_ENABLE_PRELOAD custom property is set to true, because in that situation, the data is preloaded during the server startup process.

If the amount of time specified for this property is not sufficient for the amount of cluster data that needs to be gathered, NO_IMPLEMENT: No Cluster Data Available exceptions might still occur the first few times a client sends requests to a cluster. Specifying an appropriate length of time for this property or specifying a value of 0, which eliminates the timeouts completely prevents the NO_IMPLEMENT: No Cluster Data Available exceptions from occurring because the cluster data is gathered within the specified length of time.

Information Value
Property IBM_CLUSTER_CALLBACK_TIMEOUT
Data type Integer
Default 180000, which is equivalent to 3 minutes

IBM_CLUSTER_CUSTOM_ADVISOR_THREAD_POOL_SIZE

Number of threads in the thread pool used to run the custom advisors.

There is one thread pool used to run all the custom advisors configured on a proxy server. If there are more custom advisors configured than there are threads in the pool, and the polling interval and other circumstances are such that more custom advisors should be running at the same time than there are threads in the pool, some custom advisors get queued up and run as soon as a thread becomes available.

Information Value
Property IBM_CLUSTER_CUSTOM_ADVISOR_THREAD_POOL_SIZE
Data type Integer
Range 1 - 50
Default 5

IBM_CLUSTER_ENABLE_ACS_DELAY_POSTING

Specifies whether publishing of updates to the ActiveClusterSet is delayed. Enabling this custom property provides a performance improvement in large SIBus topologies and configured destinations, which results in a reduction of Messaging Engine Start and Stop times.

When true, publishing of updates is delayed.

When false, updates are published immediately.

Information Value
Property IBM_CLUSTER_ENABLE_ACS_DELAY_POSTING
Data type Boolean
Default true

IBM_CLUSTER_ENABLE_CAR_DELAY_POSTING

Specifies whether publishing of updates to the ClusterDescription is delayed. Enabling this custom property provides a performance improvement in large service integration bus (SIBus) topologies and configured destinations, which results in a reduction of messaging engine start and stop times.

When true, publishing of updates is delayed.

When false, updates are published immediately.

Information Value
Property IBM_CLUSTER_ENABLE_CAR_DELAY_POSTING
Data type Boolean
Default true

IBM_CLUSTER_ENABLE_PRELOAD

Specifies whether the preload logic runs at server startup on the node agent. Without preload, a node agent only loads the data for a cluster after the node agent receives the first request for that cluster.

When true, cluster data is loaded on the node agent at startup, and does not have to be created and propagated at run time.

When false, the cluster data is created and propagated the first time there is a request to a cluster, which sometimes causes NO_IMPLEMENT: No Cluster Data Available exceptions the first few times a client sends requests to a cluster.

Information Value
Property IBM_CLUSTER_ENABLE_PRELOAD
Data type Boolean
Default true

IBM_CLUSTER_ENABLE_NON_DEFAULT_COOKIE_NAMES

Specify true to override the cookie name at the server, application, or module level so that the proxy server can maintain session affinity with multiple applications on different clusters. The proxy server can maintain the session affinity since it can recognize session cookies other than JSESSIONID.

If we change any session management configuration, wait until all members of the cluster have been updated with the new configuration before doing a ripple start of the cluster. Otherwise, session failover might not work.

If we change the application or module session management configuration, wait until all members of the cluster have been updated with the new configuration before stopping and then restarting the application. Otherwise, session failover might not work.

Information Value
Property IBM_CLUSTER_ENABLE_NON_DEFAULT_COOKIE_NAMES
Data type Boolean
Default false

IBM_CLUSTER_ENABLE_SERVLET30_NON_DEFAULT_COOKIE_NAMES

Specify true to indicate that a cookie name is specified in a web.xml file or in a ServletContextListener instance so that the proxy server can maintain session affinity with multiple applications on different clusters. The proxy server can maintain the session affinity since it can recognize Servlet 3.0 session cookies other than JSESSIONID.

If we configure both Servlet 3.0 non-default cookies and non-default cookies at the server, application, or module level, the Servlet 3.0 cookies have the highest precedence.

If we change any session management configuration, wait until all members of the cluster have been updated with the new configuration before doing a ripple start of the cluster. Otherwise, session failover might not work.

If we change the application or module session management configuration, wait until all members of the cluster have been updated with the new configuration before stopping and then restarting the application. Otherwise, session failover might not work.

Information Value
Property IBM_CLUSTER_ENABLE_SERVLET30_NON_DEFAULT_COOKIE_NAMES
Data type Boolean
Default false

IBM_CLUSTER_PURGE_NOTIFICATIONS

Specifies whether references to identities are deleted when there are no ClusterObservers registered for notifications on those identities. When an identity is deleted, all related posts on the BulletinBoard about that identity are cleared. Setting this property to true enables the references to identities that do not have any ClusterObservers registered on them to be deleted.

Typically there are many destinations defined in a Service Integration Bus (SIB) hierarchical scenario. If set to false, and a product, such as the WebSphere Process Server is installed on top of WAS, the Workload Management (WLM) does not properly allow data stored on the Bulletin Board to be garbage collected. This situation can cause a slow memory leak if certain tasks, such as the installing and uninstalling applications, are repeated without restarting the process. If the process is restarted all posts associated with that server are automatically removed, thus preventing the memory leaks.

Information Value
Property IBM_CLUSTER_PURGE_NOTIFICATIONS
Data type Boolean
Default false

IBM_CLUSTER_REUSE_ORIGINAL_IOR

Specify whether a Java thin client or server process can make continuous connection attempts until the cluster data is available to pass back to the client. The cluster data is then used for all future attempts.

Information Value
Property IBM_CLUSTER_REUSE_ORIGINAL_IOR
Data type Boolean
Default true

IBM_CLUSTER_RIPPLESTART_NOTIFICATION_TIMEOUT

Amount of time the ripplestart function waits for processes to shut down before restarting them. If we attempt a ripplestart and the processes have not shutdown before the start operation begins, one or more of the processes will not restart.

Information Value
Property IBM_CLUSTER_RIPPLESTART_NOTIFICATION_TIMEOUT
Data type Integer
Default 300000 milliseconds (5 minutes)

IBM_CLUSTER_USE_LEGACY_COMPRESSOR

Starting with v6.1.0.37, Workload management (WLM) uses a new procedure for compressing and extracting data being sent between processes. This procedure reduces compression overhead in large WebSphere Process Server and service integration bus topologies, that have 2,000 or more destinations. This procedure also prevents compressed data from being lost if a series of bytes to be compressed could not actually be compressed because every byte is unique. This situation could potentially cause a loss of data because of how WLM previously handled the uncompressed data.

This optimized compression and decompression procedure is appropriate for most environments. However, if this procedure causes problems in the environment, add the IBM_CLUSTER_USE_LEGACY_COMPRESSOR custom property to the cell settings, and set it to true. When true, WLM handles data compression and decompression the same way that it did before v6.1.0.37 or later was installed.

If we add this custom property to the cell settings, we must synchronize the nodes, and restart all the processes in the cell before this change goes into effect.

Information Value
Property IBM_CLUSTER_USE_LEGACY_COMPRESSOR
Data type Boolean
Default false

IBM_CLUSTER_WBI_SUPPORT

Specifies whether the system supports interaction with either WebSphere Business Integration v5.1 clients or WebSphere Process Server for Multiplatforms v5.0.2 clients. If WebSphere Business Integration v5.1 clients, or WebSphere Process Server for Multiplatforms v5.0.2 clients need to send data to the system we must set this property to true. When this property is not included in the cell configuration settings, or if it is set to false, there is an interoperability issue where the data stream being passed back and forth becomes corrupted, which results in the following exception:
Exception stack trace: javax.naming.NamingException:
Error during resolve.  Root exception is rg.omg.CORBA.NO_IMPLEMENT:Trace from server:
  server at host host_name
This property can also be specified as an application server custom property. However, if this property is specified at both levels, the value specified for the property at the server level takes precedence over the value specified for this property at the cell level. To enable the property at the server level, in the administrative console click Servers > Server Type > WebSphere application servers, and then under Server Infrastructure, click Administration > Custom properties.

Information Value
Property IBM_CLUSTER_WBI_SUPPORT
Data type Boolean
Default false

IBM_CLUSTER_WLM_ENFORCE_VHOST_IN_WEBAPP

Set to true causes WLM in the WebSphere proxy server to enforce the virtual host configured in a web application. If a virtual host is configured in a web application, when WLM in the proxy looks for available endpoints, only endpoints on the ports associated with that virtual host are considered.

Information Value
Property IBM_CLUSTER_WLM_ENFORCE_VHOST_IN_WEBAPP
Data type Boolean
Default False

LargeTopologyOptimization

Set this custom property to false to disable all Intelligent Management capabilities:

On demand router, routing rules and policies
Autonomic controllers, which provide dynamic cluster, dynamic workload balancing, overload protection, and elasticity support
Service polices, which provide traffic prioritization
Health management
Application edition manager
Intelligent Management enabled web servers
Intelligent routing and load balancer capabilities of the ODR associated with a DataPower service
Before disabling Intelligent Management, confirm that none of these capabilities is required. By default, Intelligent Management is available, and it is activated by setting configuration options. Most capabilities are inactive until we change a specific Intelligent Management configuration. If Intelligent Management capabilities are not required, set the cell custom property to false, and all Intelligent Management capabilities are disabled. Set this value to false, to disable the Performance Monitoring Infrastructure (PMI). If profiles were created while Intelligent Management was enabled, and if later Intelligent Management is disabled, set the environment variable LargeTopologyOptimization_console=disable, then create the profiles again and the Intelligent Management panels do not display in the administrative console. If we do not create the profiles again, Intelligent Management panels continue to display in the administration console, but they are not operational.

Information Value
Property LargeTopologyOptimization
Scope Cell
Value True, false
Default True

Create cell profiles

Property	com.ibm.websphere.management.disableRemoteHostJobs
Data type	Boolean
Default	false

Information	Value
Property	com.ibm.websphere.management.launcher.options
Data type	String
Default	none

Information	Value
Property	com.ibm.websphere.process.terminator.deletepid
Data type	Boolean
Default	false

Information	Value
Property	IBM_CLUSTER_CALLBACK_TIMEOUT
Data type	Integer
Default	180000, which is equivalent to 3 minutes

Information	Value
Property	IBM_CLUSTER_CUSTOM_ADVISOR_THREAD_POOL_SIZE
Data type	Integer
Range	1 - 50
Default	5

Information	Value
Property	IBM_CLUSTER_ENABLE_ACS_DELAY_POSTING
Data type	Boolean
Default	true

Information	Value
Property	IBM_CLUSTER_ENABLE_CAR_DELAY_POSTING
Data type	Boolean
Default	true

Information	Value
Property	IBM_CLUSTER_ENABLE_PRELOAD
Data type	Boolean
Default	true

Information	Value
Property	IBM_CLUSTER_ENABLE_NON_DEFAULT_COOKIE_NAMES
Data type	Boolean
Default	false

Information	Value
Property	IBM_CLUSTER_ENABLE_SERVLET30_NON_DEFAULT_COOKIE_NAMES
Data type	Boolean
Default	false

Information	Value
Property	IBM_CLUSTER_PURGE_NOTIFICATIONS
Data type	Boolean
Default	false

Information	Value
Property	IBM_CLUSTER_REUSE_ORIGINAL_IOR
Data type	Boolean
Default	true

Information	Value
Property	IBM_CLUSTER_RIPPLESTART_NOTIFICATION_TIMEOUT
Data type	Integer
Default	300000 milliseconds (5 minutes)

Information	Value
Property	IBM_CLUSTER_USE_LEGACY_COMPRESSOR
Data type	Boolean
Default	false

Information	Value
Property	IBM_CLUSTER_WLM_ENFORCE_VHOST_IN_WEBAPP
Data type	Boolean
Default	False

Information	Value
Property	LargeTopologyOptimization
Scope	Cell
Value	True, false
Default	True