While WebSphere® Application Server provides session management function, this support does not scale under extreme request loads. WebSphere eXtreme Scale comes bundled with a session management implementation that overrides the default session manager for a Web container and provides better scalability and more robust configuration options.
Embedded scenario
In the embedded scenario, the WebSphere eXtreme Scale servers are collocated in the same processes where the servlets run. The session manager can communicate directly with the local ObjectGrid instance, avoiding costly network delays.
If you are using WebSphere Application Server, place the supplied objectgridRoot/session/samples/objectGrid.xml and objectgridRoot/session/samples/objectGridDeployment.xml files into the META-INF directories of your Web archive (WAR) files. eXtreme Scale automatically detects these files when the application starts and automatically starts the eXtreme Scale containers in the same process as the session manager.
You can modify the objectGridDeployment.xml file depending on if you want to use synchronous or asynchronous replication and how many replicas you want configured.
Remote servers scenario
In the remote servers scenario, the eXtreme Scale servers run in different processes than the servlets. The session manager communicates with a remote eXtreme Scale server. To use a remote, network-attached eXtreme Scale server, the session manager must be configured with the host names and port numbers of the eXtreme Scale catalog service cluster. The session manager then uses an eXtreme Scale client connection to communicate with the catalog server and the eXtreme Scale servers.
If the eXtreme Scale servers are to be started in independent, stand-alone processes, start the eXtreme Scale containers using the objectGridStandAlone.xml and objectGridDeploymentStandAlone.xml files that are supplied in the session manager samples directory.