HCL WebSphere Portal roadmap: Portal farm

Server farms offer a simple way to build a highly scalable, highly available server environment.

Configure the web server plug-in after transfering the database.

Who should use this roadmap

Use this roadmap if we are an organization with the following requirements:

• An organization that requires a simple way to build a highly scalable, highly available server environment

• An organization that requires an elastic environment where servers can be added or removed dynamically without much effort

• Does not want to depend on a Deployment Manager for deployments

Topology diagram

The topology includes a network load balancer to direct incoming traffic to the farm. Each stand-alone server has a database for JCR and Release domains. The JCR and Release domain cannot be shared between portal servers in a farm. However, the Community, Customization, Likeminds, and Feedback portal database domains can be shared. The share portal database domains are depicted on a common database server.

Prepare for the installation process

Gather information and software before installing HCL WebSphere Portal.

1. Check requirements.

   • Detailed system requirements

2. Get the software.

   • Get the software

Install prerequisite

We can use existing prerequisite software installations. Verify that your existing version is supported. If it is not, upgrade to the appropriate version. Otherwise, install a web server, database server, and user registry server. Typically the database and user registry servers are already installed and configured. However, there might be specific configuration steps that are required to integrate them with the portal server. Visit Install and prepare the prerequisite software for more topic information.

1. Install a web server.
2. Prepare a database server.
3. Prepare a user registry.

Install the HCL WebSphere Portal

Install HCL WebSphere Portal involves preparing the operating system, installing or upgrading the installation manager, and running the installation program.

• Install the HCL WebSphere Portal software

Apply the latest cumulative fix

Portal maintenance is delivered through individual fixes (Fixes) and Combined Cumulative Fixes (CFs), which is recommended to the environment.

HCL WebSphere Portal roadmap: Applying maintenance

Set up a stand-alone server

Start the configuration wizard to set up your stand-alone server. First, transfer your database. The Database Transfer configuration option in the Configuration Wizard assigns users and permissions, creates databases, obtains support for database collation, and transfers the database. After you transfer the database, enable the federated LDAP user registry.

Log in to HCL WebSphere Portal to verify that we have a working portal:

http://hostname.example.com:10039/wps/portal,
where hostname.example.com is the fully qualified host name of the server where
Portal is running and 10039 is the default transport port that is created by DX  Application Server. The port number might be different
for the environment.

1. To get the latest updates for the wizard, apply the most recent Combined Cumulative Fix. For more information about applying the latest fix pack, visit Combined cumulative fix strategy for more topic information.

   Note: Skip this step, if we have the most recent fix pack applied.

2. Access the Configuration Wizard. Go to http://your_server:10200/hcl/wizard.

   Note: If working with HCL WebSphere Portal 8.5 or 9 software level prior to CF18, the wizard address will be: http://your_server:10200/ibm/wizard. After installing CF18, the configuration wizard will automatically be adjusted to http://your_server:10200/hcl/wizard. Restriction: There is a known issue with Chrome version 45.x and the Configuration Wizard. If we are experiencing difficulties, use a different browser when you access the wizard.

3. Log in to the Configuration Wizard with the administrative ID for the configuration wizard profile, cw_profile.

   Note: If the language is not currently supported for the user interface, we might see the English version. For details on supported languages and the language codes for all of the HCL Digital Experience user interfaces, see Supported languages.

4. Select Set Up a Stand-alone Server > Database Transfer.
5. Provide information about the environment.

6. Save the configuration settings.
7. Choose one of the following options:

   • Click Download Files to run the steps remotely.

   • Click Run All Steps to run the steps locally.

8. Optional: If we changed the context root during the installation or configuration of HCL WebSphere Portal, then complete the optional next step from the Configuration Wizard to update parameters with the new context path after after completing Create a Deployment Manager configuration option. For more information about this configuration option and completing the next steps, see Create a deployment manager.
9. Log in to HCL WebSphere Portal to verify that we have a working portal server.

10. Select Set Up a Stand-alone Server > Enable Federated Security.

    Note: If you set Use Administrator IDs stored in the LDAP user registry to yes, the and HCL WebSphere Portal user IDs and passwords are changed to the LDAP user ID and password. If we do not want to change both user IDs and passwords to match the LDAP user ID and password, set this value to no. After we configure the LDAP user registry, we can manually change the user IDs and passwords.

    • Update user ID and passwords

11. Provide information about the environment.

12. Save the configuration settings.
13. Choose one of the following options:

    • Click Download Files to run the steps remotely.

    • Click Run All Steps to run the steps locally.

14. Log in to HCL WebSphere Portal to verify that we have a working portal server.

15. Optional: To shorten the site URL for search engine optimization benefits, we can modify your context root and remove navigational state information from your URL using the Modify Site URLs for SEO configuration option.

    • Configuration Wizard instructions: Modify site URLs for search engine optimization

Configure the web server

Move the web server plug-in from the WebSphere Application Server to the web server.

• Web servers

Tune the servers in the environment

Tune the servers is important to the performance of the portal environment. HCL WebSphere Portal is not tuned for a production environment after installation and deployment. The database needs tuning for improved performance. We can organize the database now or soon after finishing the configuration. We need to tune and maintain the database on a regular basis.

1. Run the performance tuning tool to complete an initial tuning of the servers.

   • Portal server performance tuning tool

2. Check the tuning guide for more instructions. Use the tuning guide for the previous product version when the tuning guide for the current release is unavailable.

   • Performance tuning guide

Choosing the type of portal farm

We can choose from two supported portal farm configurations when setting up the portal farm. We can set up a unique installation where each farm has a unique installation or you can set up one instance that is shared between multiple farm instances. Configure a farm instance with a shared configuration.

Configure an HTTP server

Use a web server to handle load balancing across the portal farm. Set up the HTTP server plug-in on the portal farm.

Configure remote and JCR search

HCL WebSphere Portal provides two distinct search capabilities. We can use both types of search capabilities in a portal farm environment.

1. Configure a remote search.
2. Configure a JCR search.

Parent topic: HCL WebSphere Portal roadmaps for advanced configurations