Consider how your environment will be configured to support the Web services enablement of the service integration bus (SIBus). Determine which of the SIBus Web services roles you want each server or cluster to perform.
The figure shows the main component types and flows for SIBus Web services. Of all these component
types, only three interact directly with the world outside the bus:
- The endpoint listeners.
- The outbound ports (which act as service invokers).
- The service destinations (which provide mediation points).
By configuring these component types for a given
standalone server
or cluster, you enable that server
or
cluster to perform one or more of the following associated SIBus Web services roles:
- Endpoint. Incoming requests to use an internally-hosted service
(an inbound service) are received at an endpoint, then passed to an inbound
port and sent on to the service destination. Responses follow the same path
in reverse.
- Service invoker. When you create an outbound service (a mapping
to an externally-hosted target service) you configure an outbound port for
each port defined in the target service WSDL. The service is invoked by passing
messages between the outbound service and the target service through the most
convenient available port.
- Mediation point A mediation is deployed to a server or
cluster, then configured for a specific service destination. The mediation
acts on messages that pass through the mediation point (service destination).
The action taken by a mediation depends upon the specific instructions you
give in the mediation handler. For example, you can use a mediation to change
the contents of a message, or to choose a particular forward route for a message.
For each of these roles, you must install
a selection of the following SIBus Web services applications and resources on the associated
standalone server
or cluster:
- The Service Data Objects (SDO) repository application (used for linking
to the SDO repository database that is used for storing and serving WSDL definitions).
- The service integration technologies resource adapter (used to invoke
Web services at outbound ports).
- The SIBus Web services application.
- One or more endpoint listener applications.
For more information, see Installing the SIBus Web services applications and resources.
You might choose to use a cluster rather than a standalone
application server to support a role for any of the following reasons:
- Reliability.
- Scalability.
- Performance.
For example, in a production environment you would typically use a cluster
to act as an endpoint.
Note: There is actually a fourth role of Configuration
connection point, for which you only need to install
the SDO repository. This role is never provided by a cluster; only a
deployment manager or an unfederated standalone server can act as a configuration
connection point.