Service integration is a set of technologies that provides
asynchronous messaging services. Use this topic to learn about the
technologies on which WebSphere® Application Server service
integration applications are developed and implemented.
- Service integration buses and bus members
- Application servers or clusters of application servers in a WebSphere Application Server cell can cooperate to provide asynchronous messaging services. Service integration provides asynchronous messaging services, and a group of servers or clusters that cooperate in this way is called a service integration bus. The application servers or server clusters in a bus are known as bus members. You can also add bus members that are WebSphere MQ servers; service integration uses these bus members to write messages to, and read messages from, WebSphere MQ queues.
Different service integration buses can, if required, be connected. This allows applications that use one bus (the local bus) to send messages to destinations in another bus (a foreign bus). Note, though, that applications cannot receive messages from destinations in a foreign bus.
- Messaging engines
- Each service integration server or cluster bus member contains a component called a messaging engine that processes messaging send and receive requests and that can host destinations. To host queue-type destinations, the messaging engine includes a message store where, if necessary, it can hold messages until consuming applications are ready to receive them, or preserve messages in case the messaging engine fails.
- Messaging providers
- WebSphere Application Server applications invoke
asynchronous messaging services by using the Java Messaging Service
(JMS) application programming interface (API) to interface to a messaging
provider. WebSphere Application Server supports a
variety of JMS messaging providers, including service integration
(which is the default messaging provider) and WebSphere MQ as an external JMS messaging
provider.