Consider how your environment will be configured to support the
Web services enablement of the service integration bus. Determine which of
the bus-enabled Web services roles you want each server or
cluster to perform.
The figure shows the main component types and flows for bus-enabled 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 bus-enabled
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.
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 This role is never provided by a cluster;
only a deployment manager or an unfederated standalone server can act as a
configuration connection point.