[Version 5.0.2 and later]Balancing workloads with clusters

Why and when to perform this task

To monitor application servers and manage the workloads of servers, use server clusters and cluster members provided by the Network Deployment product.

To assist you in understanding how to configure and use clusters for workload management, below is a scenario. In this scenario, client requests are distributed among the cluster members on a single machine. (A client refers to any servlet, Java application, or other program or component that connects the end user and the application server that is being accessed.) In more complex workload management scenarios, you can distribute cluster members to remote machines.

Steps for this task

  1. Decide which application server you want to cluster.
  2. Decide whether you want to configure replication domains and entries. Replication enables the sharing of data among processes and the backing up of failed processes.
  3. Deploy the application onto the application server.
  4. After configuring the application server and the application components exactly as you want them to be, create a cluster. The original server instance becomes a cluster member that is administered through the cluster.
  5. You can create one or more cluster members of the cluster.
  6. Regenerate the plug-in configuration. After changing configurations to plug-ins, transports or virtual hosts, you must regenerate your Web server plug-in for the changes to take effect.
  7. [Version 5.0.2]If you did not do so when creating a cluster, configure a weight advisor to assist the cluster in balancing the work loads of cluster members.
  8. [Version 5.0.2 and later]Configure a backup cluster that handles requests if the primary cluster fails.
  9. Start all of the application servers by starting the cluster. Workload management automatically begins when you start the cluster members of the application server.
  10. Once you have the cluster running, you can perform the following tasks:

What to do next

You need to define a bootstrap host for stand-alone Java clients. Stand-alone Java clients are clients that are located on a different machine from the application server and have no administrative server. Add the following line to the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) arguments for the client:
-Dcom.ibm.CORBA.BootstrapHost=machine_name

where machine_name is the name of the machine on which the administrative server is running.


Related concepts
Workload management (WLM)
Clusters and workload management
Weight advisors[Version 5.0.2]
Backup clusters[Version 5.0.2 and later]
Replication
Techniques for managing state
Related tasks
Regenerating Web server plug-in configurations
Related reference
Workload management run-time exceptions
Clustering and workload management: Resources for learning



Searchable topic ID:   trun_wlm
Last updated: Jun 21, 2007 8:07:48 PM CDT    WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation, Version 5.0.2
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.wasee.doc/info/ee/ae/trun_wlm.html

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