Network deployment provides the capacity, scalability, and robustness that is generally required of a production environment. In network deployment, a group of servers can be used collaboratively to provide workload balancing and failover. The servers are managed centrally, using a single administrative console.
Network deployment in WebSphere® ESB builds upon network deployment functions implemented in WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment. If you are familiar with network deployment in WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment, the concepts are the same. WebSphere ESB adds the concept of deployment environments to network deployment.
What you need to read about network deployment depends on whether you are upgrading WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment or implementing WebSphere ESB with no previous experience of WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment.
WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment, as its name implies, supports network deployment of applications. If you already have a WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment installation, which you are upgrading with WebSphere ESB, you are familiar with the concept of network deployment. You probably have one or more network deployment cells each with its deployment manager and managed nodes. You can augment their profiles to support WebSphere ESB, using the WebSphere ESB Profile Management tool. After augmentation, the servers still continue to function as application servers, but they are also capable of supporting mediation modules.
In network deployment, you install WebSphere ESB on one or more host systems and then create a deployment environment. IBM® supplies a number of deployment environment patterns to help you configure the clusters, servers and middleware that you need to host mediation modules.