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Add, manage, and remove nodes

A node is a grouping of managed or unmanaged servers.

One of the options to add a managed node enables us to quickly recover a damaged node, similar to the addNode -asExistingNode

To view information about nodes use the Nodes page...

This document discussses managing nodes using the administrative console. We can manage nodes using wsadmin.sh, Java APIs, or the administrative console.

Windows Restriction:


Add a node

  1. Go to the Nodes page and click Add Node.

  2. On the Add Node page, choose a managed or unmanaged node, and click Next.

  3. For a managed node.

    1. Verify an application server is running on the host for the node we are adding.

    2. Specify a host name, connector type, and port for the application server.

    3. Optionally specify a node group and a core group.

      For the node group option to display, a group other than the default node group must first be created. Likewise, for the core group option to display, a group other than the default core group must first be created.

    4. On a Windows operatiing system another page displays where we can register the node agent to run as a Windows service. If security is enabled, we can enter the local operating system user name and password under which we will run the service. If not specified, the service runs under the local system identity. If we run remove the node, the node agent is de-registered as a Window service.

  4. For an unmanaged node, on the Nodes > New page, specify a node name, a host name, and a platform for the new node. Click OK.

The node is added to the WAS environment and the name of the node is displayed in the collection on the Nodes page.

For IPv4 and IPv6 in the same cell, the format of the name we specify is based on the IP version that the node is using.

When nodes are added while LDAP security is enabled, the following exception is generated in the deployment manager System.out log under certain circumstances. If this happens, restart the deployment manager to resolve the problem.


Select the discovery protocol

For a node agent or deployment manager, use TCP or UDP. User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is faster than Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). However, TCP is more reliable than UDP because UDP does not guarantee the delivery of datagrams to the destination. The default of TCP is the recommended value.

  1. On the Nodes page, click the node to access the node setting page.

  2. Select a value for Discovery protocol.

  3. Click OK.

A managed process uses multicast as its discovery protocol. The discovery protocol is fixed for a managed process. The main benefit of using multicast on managed processes is efficiency for the node agent. Suppose we have forty servers in a node. A node agent that uses multicast sends one broadcast to all forty servers. If a node agent did not use multicast, it would send discovery queries to all managed processes one at a time, totaling forty sends. Additional benefits of using multicast are that we do not have to configure the discovery port for each server or prevent port conflicts because all servers in one node listen to one port instead of to one port for each server.

On the Windows operating system, multicast requires a router. If we run the product on a Windows operating system, but the machine the Application Server is on is not connected to the network, the multicast address is not shared with the application servers.


Define a custom property for a node

  1. On the Nodes page, click the node for which we want to define a custom property.

  2. On the node settings page, click Custom Properties.

  3. On the Property collection page, click New.

  4. On the Custom property settings page, specify a name-value pair and a description for the property, and click OK.


Specify a default software development kit for a node

We can select the default software development kit (SDK) for a node on the Java SDKs page of the administrative console. The page lists all software development kits installed on the node. A node can have one default SDK. Servers on the node use the default SDK unless a server overrides the SDK selection and specifies a different SDK.

  1. Go to the Java SDKs page. Click System administration > Nodes > node > Java SDKs.

  2. On the Java SDKs page, select the check box for the SDK that we want servers on the node to use and click Make Default.


Synchronize the node configuration.

After adding a managed node or change a managed node configuration, synchronize the node configuration. On the Node agents page, ensure that the node agent for the node is running. Then, on the Nodes page, select the check box for the node whose configuration files we want to synchronize and click Synchronize or Full Resynchronize.

Clicking either option sends a request to the node agent for that node to perform a configuration synchronization immediately, instead of waiting for the periodic synchronization to occur. This action is important if automatic configuration synchronization is disabled, or if the synchronization interval is set to a long time, and a configuration change is made to the cell repository that needs to replicate to that node. Settings for automatic synchronization are on the File synchronization service page.

Synchronize requests that a node synchronization operation be performed using the normal synchronization optimization algorithm. This operation is fast, but might not fix problems from manual file edits that occur on the node. It is still possible for the node and cell configuration to be out of synchronization after this operation is performed.

Full Resynchronize clears all synchronization optimization settings and performs configuration synchronization anew, so there is no mismatch between node and cell configuration after this operation is performed. This operation can take longer than the Synchronize operation.

Unmanaged nodes cannot be synchronized.


Stop servers on a node

On the Nodes page, select the check box for the managed node whose servers to stop running, and click Stop.


Recover an existing managed node of a deployment manager cell

We can recover an existing damaged node using one of the options to add a managed node. The node must be at the deployment manager level.

  1. Ensure that the existing damaged node is not running. Stop the node agent and any application servers residing on the node.

  2. Create a profile to replace the damaged node and give it the same profile and node names.

    For example, suppose the myNode01 node that has the profile name AppSrv01 stops functioning. To replace it with a new node, create an application server profile named AppSrv01 for node myNode01.

  3. Start the new node, or application server, to use to replace the damaged node.

  4. Use the Recover managed node page to replace the damaged node in the cell with the new node.

    1. In the deployment manager administrative console, click...

              System administration > Nodes > Add Node > Recover an existing node > Next.

    2. For Host, specify the host name or IP address of the node to add to the cell.

      The host value can be an IP address, a DNS name that resolves to an IP address, or the word localhost if the application server is running on the same machine as the deployment manager.

    3. For JMX connector type, select the type of Java Management Extensions (JMX) connectors that communicate with the product when we run a script.

    4. For JMX connector port, specify the port number of the JMX connector of the new node.

      We can find the port number in the console of the new application server node. Click...

        Servers > Server Types > WebSphere application servers > server > Ports

      For example, for a SOAP connector port type, specify the SOAP_CONNECTOR_ADDRESS value for the JMX connector port number.

      (Windows) Also, we can find the port number in the serverindex.xml file of the new profile that is replacing the damaged one. The serverindex.xml file is in...

        profiles/new_profile/config/cells/cell/nodes/node

      For example, for a SOAP connector port type, specify the port value associated with endPointName="SOAP_CONNECTOR_ADDRESS" in the serverindex.xml file.

    5. Specify values for the remaining fields as needed and click OK.

Instead of using the Recover managed node console page to recover a node, we can run the addNode command with the -asExistingNode option from a command line at the bin directory of the damaged application server profile. The name of the new node must match the name of the node where we run addNode with the -asExistingNode option.

We can also use the -asExistingNode option of the addNode command to move a node to a product installation on a different computer but at the same path, to move a node to a product installation on a different operating system or with a different path, or to create new cells from a template cell. See the topic on recovering or moving nodes with the addNode -asExistingNode command.


Remove a node

On the Nodes page, select the check box for the node to delete and click Remove Node. If we cannot remove the node by clicking Remove Node, remove the node from the configuration by clicking Force Delete.


View node capabilities

Review the node capabilities, such as the product version through the administrative console. We can also query them through the Application Server API or the wsadmin tool.

The product versions for WAS are as follows: The base edition of WAS is listed in the version column as Base. The WAS ND product is listed in the version column as ND.


Subtopics

  1. Recover/move nodes using addNode -asExistingNode
  2. Node collection
  3. Node settings
  4. Add a Windows based node as a Windows service
  5. Add managed node settings
  6. Recover managed node settings
  7. Node installation properties
  8. Java SDK collection
  9. Managed and unmanaged nodes
  10. Node groups
  11. Managed object metadata
  12. Get started with wsadmin scripting
  13. Core group servers collection
  14. Custom property settings