Install the product first as a simple topology configuration to familiarize yourself with its features in a test environment. When you are familiar with the advanced features, you can design advanced topologies that apply specifically to your application server environment.
The following graphic represents a supported topology of the product. In this topology, the on demand router (ODR) is between the HTTP server tier and the application server tier. The ODR, with the assistance of the autonomic managers, categorizes and prioritizes the work before routing work to the appropriate nodes. The potential nodes are marked with a circle. The deployment manager is the centralized management communication vehicle, as indicated by the dotted lines.
Install the deployment manager on a separate workstation than the application server nodes to prevent unmanaged work from occurring on the nodes. Deactivating the deployment manager also deactivates preferred coordinators and, therefore, reduces high availability. The solid lines represent the request processing links.
When you are familiar with the product in a simple topology, you can add layers of complexity to your test environment. Include a firewall to secure your environment, and stress test to see the product features in action. Typically, when the workload increases, you must ensure that you have enough resources to manage the workload and that the resources configure and function together. You can also include Internet Protocol (IP) sprayer in this configuration to eliminate any single point of failure, and make this topology highly available. An IP sprayer distributes requests from one IP address to multiple IP addresses.