Managing nodes

This article describes how to add a node, select the discovery protocol for a node, define a custom property for a node, stop servers on a node, and remove a node.

A node is a grouping of managed or unmanaged servers. You can add both managed and unmanaged nodes to the WebSphere Application Server topology. If you add a new node for an existing WebSphere Application Server to the network deployment cell, you add a managed node. If you create a new node in the topology for managing Web servers or servers other than WebSphere Application Servers, you add an unmanaged node.

To view information about nodes and manage nodes, use the Nodes page. To access the Nodes page, click System Administration > Nodes in the console navigation tree.

You can manage nodes on an application server through the wsadmin
scripting tool, through the Java application programming interfaces (APIs), or through the administrative console. Perform the following tasks to manage nodes on an application server through the administrative console.

(dependent on configuration)

Add a node.

Go to the Nodes page and click Add Node . Choose whether you want to add a managed or unmanaged node, and click Next .
For a managed node, verify that an application server is running on the host for the node that you are adding. On the Add Node page, specify a host name, connector type, and port for the application server at the node you are adding.

For a managed node, do one of the following sets of actions in the table.

If the deployment manager is on And the node that you add to the cell is on Complete the appropriate set of actions:
The distributed platform; iSeries The distributed platform; iSeries Optionally specify a node group and a core group. Click OK .
The distributed platform; iSeries A z/OS system Specify a node group that contains nodes from the same sysplex as the node you are now adding. If no such node group exists, create a node group and then specify that node group. Optionally specify a core group. Click OK .
A z/OS system The distributed platform; iSeries Specify a node group that contains distributed nodes. If no such node group exists, create a node group and then specify that node group. Optionally specify a core group. Click OK .

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.

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 WebSphere Application Server environment and the name of the node is displayed in the collection on the Nodes page.

Both Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) and Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) are now supported by WebSphere Application Server, but restrictions do apply when using both IPv4 and IPv6 in the same cell. When you add a node to a cell, the format in which you specify the name is based on the version of IP that the node is using. For details, see IP version considerations for cells.

Select the discovery protocol.
If the discovery protocol that a node uses is not appropriate for the node, select the appropriate protocol. On the Nodes page, click the node to access the Settings for the node. Select a value for Discovery Protocol . 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.
For a node agent or deployment manager, use TCP or UDP.
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 you 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 you do not have to configure the discovery port for each server or prevent port conflicts since all servers in one node listen to one port instead of to one port for each server.
Define a custom property for a node.
1. On the Nodes page, click the node for which you want to define a custom property.
2. On the Settings for the node, click Custom Properties .
3. On the Property collection page, click New .
4. On the Settings page for a property instance, specify a name-value pair and a description for the property, and click OK .
Synchronize the node configuration.
If you added a managed node or changed a managed node's configuration, synchronize the node's configuration. On the Node Agents page, ensure that the node agent for the node is running. Then, on the Nodes page, put a check mark in the check box beside the node whose configuration files you want to synchronize and click Synchronize or Full Resynchronize.
Clicking either button 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 is important if automatic configuration synchronization is disabled, or if the synchronization interval is set to a long time, and a configuration change has been made to the cell repository that needs to be replicated 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. So 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 will be 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, put a check mark in the check box beside the managed node whose servers you want to stop running and click Stop .
Remove a node.
On the Nodes page, put a check mark in the check box beside the node you want to delete and click Remove Node . If you 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. You can also query them through the Application Server application programming interface (API) or the wsadmin tool .

Sub-topics

Node collection

Add managed nodes

Node installation properties

Related concepts
Node
Node group
Managed object metadata

Related reference
Core group servers

If the deployment manager is on	And the node that you add to the cell is on	Complete the appropriate set of actions:
The distributed platform; iSeries	The distributed platform; iSeries	Optionally specify a node group and a core group. Click OK .
The distributed platform; iSeries	A z/OS system	Specify a node group that contains nodes from the same sysplex as the node you are now adding. If no such node group exists, create a node group and then specify that node group. Optionally specify a core group. Click OK .
A z/OS system	The distributed platform; iSeries	Specify a node group that contains distributed nodes. If no such node group exists, create a node group and then specify that node group. Optionally specify a core group. Click OK .