Manage portlets in the cluster

Because all WebSphere Portal servers in the cluster share database, any node can be used to manage portlets. Cluster nodes can run when we are managing portlets. When we deploy a portlet, WebSphere Portal stores the portlet configuration data in the WebSphere Portal database. Then, WebSphere Portal forwards the portlet application's web module and associated configuration to the deployment manager. The deployment manager is responsible for pushing the web module to each node in the cluster.

The deployed portlets must be activated before they can be used. Activation cannot be accomplished until the deployment manager synchronizes the associated web modules to each node in the cluster.

Auto-synchronization of the web modules to each node in the cluster might not happen immediately, or at all. This auto-synchronization depends on how the administrator configured auto-synchronization in the deployment manager. So, WebSphere Portal cannot promise the portlet was successfully synchronized to each node in the cluster and thus cannot automatically activate the portlet during deployment.

1. Deploy the portlets using either the WebSphere Portal Administration page or xmlaccess.sh utility (xmlaccess command).

2. Change to the WP_PROFILE/ConfigEngine.

3. To activate the deployed portlets and to synchronize the changes across all cluster members:

   If we run the activate-portlets task while we are logged in to WebSphere Portal, we must log out and log back in before we can see the updated status for the portlets.

   ./ConfigEngine.sh activate-portlets

4. Use the following information to provide portlets as WSRP services:

   By providing a portlet as WSRP service, a Producer makes the deployed portlet available remotely to Consumers. The WebSphere Portal database stores information about whether a portlet deployed in the cluster is provided as a WSRP service. Because the WebSphere Portal database is shared between the nodes in a cluster, all nodes are updated when we are providing a portlet as a WSRP service.

   The URLs of the Producer services definitions in the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) document always automatically point to the web server running load-balancing in the cluster. This default setting ensures that all requests of Consumers starting WSRP services of the Producer are correctly load-balanced.

   The Producers URLs are generated by first checking the settings of the WSRP SOAP ports, as described in the WSRP documentation. If the SOAP port values are not set, the values of the host.name and host.port properties in ConfigService are used. These values typically point to the load-balancing traffic dispatcher. If no values are specified for either the SOAP ports or in ConfigService, the host name and port of the request used to reference the Producer WSDL document is used.

5. Uninstall portlets in a clustered environment the same way as in a stand-alone environment. Uninstalling the portlet removes the portlet configuration from the databases and all cluster members share database. Therefore, the uninstalled portlet is unavailable to all other members automatically.

See

• Multiple cluster portlet deployment
• Deploy portlets common across clusters
• Change the authentication mode for portlet deployment
• Delete portlets common across clusters
• Multiple clusters: deploying portlets unique to a cluster
• Update portlets common across clusters
• Apply updates to custom applications

Parent Manage the cluster