Use this task to route requests from the on demand router (ODR)
to external nodes.
Before you begin
Note: To configure dynamic operations
support for other middleware server types, you can define your other middleware
servers as members of a dynamic cluster. See
Adding middleware servers to configurations
for
more information.
You must have one or more nodes that are not running WebSphere® Virtual
Enterprise. When you perform this task,
you add the nodes that are not running WebSphere Virtual
Enterprise as
generic server cluster ports.
To create and edit
generic server clusters, you need administrator or configurator administrative
privileges.
The following tasks must be completed before you configure
the ODR to send requests to external nodes:
- Create an ODR.
- Configure service classes and transaction classes for the ODR.
About this task
The ODR supports automatic routing to nodes in target cells that
have a deployment manager with WebSphere Virtual
Enterprise installed.
To route to nodes that do not have WebSphere Virtual
Enterprise installed,
configure a generic server cluster. A generic server cluster is a collection
of transport end points that can be used as a target for an ODR routing rule.
Servers and nodes are inferred from the generic server cluster end points
and properties. The inferred servers can be foreign or generic servers. Generic
servers can be stopped and started by a WebSphere Application Server node
agent. Foreign servers are usually not stopped and started by the WebSphere
Application Server node agent. Some examples of foreign servers include Apache
Tomcat or JBoss Application Server.
Procedure
- Optional: Create one or more unmanaged nodes.
You need to create unmanaged nodes in any of the following configuration
situations:
- If you want the remote agent to listen for requests from a port other
than the default port, 9980.
- If you are using a custom statistics collector plug-in to obtain node
speed and average CPU utilization for the work profiler.
- If your nodes are multi-homed, that is, they have more than one network
interface card or multiple host names.
In the administrative console, click System administration > Nodes
> Add node to create an unmanaged node.
- Optional: If the remote agent listens for incoming
requests from a port other than the default port, 9980, specify the stats.collector.remote.agent.port
custom property on the unmanaged node.
- Click .
- For the Name, enter stats.collector.remote.agent.port.
- For the Value, enter the port number
where the remote agent listens for requests.
Remember: Write down the value of this port. You use the
port value when you start the remote agent on the unmanaged node.
- Optional: If you are using a custom statistics collector
plug-in to obtain node speed and average CPU utilization for the work profiler,
define the name of the class as a custom property on the unmanaged node. In
this case, the plug-in might or might not use a remote agent. Before
you configure this custom property, you must have a custom statistics collector
plug-in coded and installed in the lib directory.
- Click .
- For the Name, enter stats.collector.implementation.class.
- For the Value, enter the name of the
custom statistics collector plug-in class. The default is the com.ibm.ws.externalnode.plugins.DefaultStatsCollector class.
- You can specify additional configuration parameters by adding
the stats.collector.config custom property on the unmanaged nodes.
The provider of the custom plug-in must provide you with the information.
The stats.collector.config is not required if you are using the default com.ibm.ws.externalnode.plugins.DefaultStatsCollector class.
- Create a generic server cluster.
- In the administrative console, click .
- Type a Name and select a Protocol for
your generic server cluster.
- Click Apply.
- Specify the generic cluster server end points, or ports.
On the generic cluster server settings page, click Ports.
- Click New to add end points to the generic server cluster.
- Optional: If you configured the remote agent to listen
on a non-default port in a previous step, if you are using a custom statistics
collector plug-in, or if your nodes are multi-homed, that is, they have more
than one network interface card or multiple host names, you must define the
node custom property on the generic server cluster end points.
- In the administrative console, click .
- Define the custom property. Type the name of the
custom property as node. The value of the custom property should
be the name of the unmanaged node that is associated with the generic server
cluster port.
- Click Apply.
- Install your application
on the external nodes using your defined port numbers.
- Enable
external monitoring by enabling the remote agent on all of your external nodes.
- Define routing policies
for generic server clusters.
Before creating routing
rules, you must create the appropriate virtual hosts. The virtual hosts can
be defined in the console by clicking Environment > Virtual hosts.
- Define service policies
for generic server clusters.
Results
The work profiler obtains average CPU utilization and node speed from
external nodes and can route traffic to the external nodes.
What to do next
Continue configuring the on demand router and the autonomic request
flow manager.