z/OS: Select an alternate protocol provider for a core group
Currently, no alternative protocol providers are available for the IBM i and distributed platforms. Alternate protocol providers for z/include the OS Cross-system Coupling Facility (XCF)-based provider, which uses less system resources than the default discovery protocol and Failure Detection Protocol, especially during times when the core group members are idle. An alternate protocol provider generally use less system resources because it does not perform the member-to-member TCP/IP pinging that the default protocol providers use to determine if a core group member is still active.
- Understand the concepts described in the Core group Discovery Protocol and Core group Failure Detection Protocol topics.
- Verify that all of the servers that are members of the core group are at v7.0 or higher. If the core group contains servers at a version earlier than 7.0, then use the default discovery protocol and the default Failure Detection Protocol.
- Verify that all of the servers that are members of the core group are running on the same operating system. The alternative protocol provider can only be used in an homogenous environment. If the cell contains any servers running on different operating systems, use the default discovery protocol and default Failure Detection Protocol. For example, we cannot have an environment where some of the members of the core group are running on z/OS and other members are running on a Linux operating system.
- Verify that the system meets all of the system requirements for
your alternate protocol provider.
For example, if we are going to use the z/OS Cross-system Coupling Facility as your alternate protocol provider, verify that the z/OS VTAM component is configured to start with the XCFINIT parameter set to YES. Starting VTAM with XCFINIT=YES specified in ATCSTRxx enables TCP/IP to utilize the services that the z/OS Cross-system Coupling Facility provides. See the z/OS product library for more information about VTAM and the z/OS Cross-system Coupling Facility.
To select an alternate protocol provider for a core group, complete the following steps.
Tasks
- In the administrative console, click...
- Servers > Core Groups > Core group settings > core_group_name
- In the Additional Properties section, click Discovery and failure detection.
- Select Use alternative protocol providers
- In the Factory class name field, specify the fully qualified class name of the factory used to create the alternate protocol provider.
For example, the fully qualified class name for the alternative protocol provider that enables XCF to establish and monitor communication between members of this core group is com.ibm.ws.xcf.groupservices.LivenessPluginZoSFactory.
- Click OK and then click Review.
- Select Synchronize changes with nodes> Save.
- Restart all members of the core group.
After the servers restart, all communication between members of this core group is established and monitored by the selected alternate protocol provider.
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