Adding a node to a WebSphere® cell managed by a Network Deployment Manager
 Technote (troubleshooting)
 
Problem(Abstract)
Here are some things to check if you experience difficulty adding a node to an existing WebSphere cell.
 
Resolving the problem
There are two methods of adding a node to a WebSphere® cell:
Use the administrative console
To add the node using the administrative console, follow these steps:
  • Make sure a server is running on the node you want to add to the cell (federate). If it is not, issue the startServer command from the $WAS_HOME/bin directory on the node. See the Information Center section on the startNode command for more information.
  • In the administrative console, go to the System Administration menu and choose the Nodes option.
  • Click Add Node.
  • Type the correct information in the Add Node field, then click OK.

    Note: in the Host edit box, type the hostname for the node you want to add. JMX Connector Port is the port number used by the node you want to add based on which JMX Connector Type is shown.

When adding a node using the administrative console, use the default node SOAP port of 8880 unless otherwise specified.

Use the addNode Script

Open a command prompt and go to the $WAS_HOME/bin directory. Only base application server installations have this script. If you run the script with no parameters, you see the following:

Usage: addNode cell_host [cell_port] [-conntype <type>] [-includeapps]
[-startingport <portnumber>] [-noagent] [-quiet] [-nowait] [-logfile
<filename>] [-replacelog] [-trace] [-username <uid>] [-password
<pwd>] [-help]

Example command: ./addNode.sh NDHostName 8879

Where the NDHostName is the Network Deployment Manager hostname and 8879 is the default SOAP port for the Network Deployment Manager.

If you don't specify the deployment manger SOAP port, the default of 8879 is used.

Things to check if you are having trouble
  • Can both machines ping each other using hostname?
  • Are your port numbers correct?
  • Is the Network Deployment Manager started? If not, start it by running the $WAS_HOME/bin/startmanager script, then try the addNode command again.
  • Is the node already federated? If yes, check these two things:
  1. Look in the $WAS_HOME/config/cells directory on the node you want to add. Is there a directory with the node name there, or is there a folder with the name of a cell? If the cell folder is there, the node is still added to that specific cell and you must remove the node before you can add it to another cell.

    Note: You can force the removal of a node from Network Deployment Manager if the Network Deployment Manager is not running. Use the following script and command from the $WAS_HOME/bin directory: removeNode -force
  2. Look at the deployment manager machine and the node machine to see if any files are still open from the previous federation.

Tracing the addNode command

Add the following flag to the end of the addNode command:

-logfile <file name and location> -trace

So it looks like this:

./addNode.sh NDHostMachineName 8889 -logfile <file name and location> -trace

This enables tracing and provides more detail about the problem.

Application server and nodeAgent naming

The node name becomes part of any resources created on a node that has been federated in a WebSphere cell. Therefore, it is possible to have an Application Server with the same name on two different nodes in a cell. As long as the node names are unique, there are no naming conflicts with resources created on the nodes.
 
 
Cross Reference information
Segment Product Component Platform Version Edition
Application Servers Runtimes for Java Technology Java SDK
 
 


Document Information


Product categories: Software > Application Servers > Distributed Application & Web Servers > WebSphere Application Server > Install
Operating system(s): Windows
Software version: 5.0
Software edition:
Reference #: 1145880
IBM Group: Software Group
Modified date: Jul 27, 2004