WS-Transaction and mixed-version cells

You must consider WS-Transaction policy type enablement and behavior, and the WS-Transaction specification level to use, when a cell contains servers at different versions; for example, WebSphere® Application Server Version 7.0 or later and WebSphere Application Server Version 6.1 Feature Pack for Web Services.

WS-Transaction policy type enablement

For a Version 6.1 Feature Pack for Web Services server, you can enable the WS-Transaction policy type by including it in a policy set, but you cannot configure it. For a Version 7.0 or later server, you can both enable and configure the WS-Transaction policy type. Configuration information is written to the WS-Transaction policy type file.

In a cell with both Version 6.1 Feature Pack for Web Services and Version 7.0 or later servers, the following behavior occurs:
  • If a Version 6.1 Feature Pack for Web Services server reads a WS-Transaction policy type file that is generated by a Version 7.0 or later server, the server enables the WS-Transaction policy type, but ignores any configuration information in the file.
  • If a Version 7.0 or later server reads a WS-Transaction policy type that is generated by a Version 6.1 Feature Pack for Web Services server, the server enables the WS-Transaction policy type by using a value of Supports for the WS-AtomicTransaction and WS-BusinessActivity protocols. This value is equivalent to the existing behavior of a Version 6.1 Feature Pack for Web Services server.

WS-Transaction specification level

WebSphere Application Server supports the WS-Transaction 1.0, WS-Transaction 1.1 and WS-Transaction 1.2 specifications. In practice, version 1.2 of the WS-Transaction standard is functionally equivalent to version 1.1, so within WebSphere Application Server, wherever WS-Transaction 1.1 is supported, WS-Transaction 1.2 is also.

A WebSphere Application Server Version 6.x server supports WS-Transaction 1.0. A Version 7.0 or later server supports WS-Transaction 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2.

No special restrictions apply to a cell with both Version 6.x and Version 7.0 or later servers, except for a mixed-version cluster that requires failover for high availability. In a mixed-version cluster, a Version 7.0 or later server might fail over to an earlier version server that does not support WS-Transaction 1.1, and that therefore cannot recover WS-Transaction 1.1 protocol messages. In this situation, there are the following implications:
  • For a cluster of Version 7.0 or later servers that are configured to fail over and that are configured to use WS-Transaction 1.1 or 1.2, you cannot add an earlier version server to the cluster.
  • For a mixed-version cluster, where the servers are configured to fail over, any Version 7.0 or later server configured to use WS-Transaction 1.1 or 1.2 cannot fail over to a server in the cluster configured to use WS-Transaction 1.0.
  • For a cluster of servers that are configured to fail over, any Version 7.0 or later server in the cluster that is configured to use WS-Transaction 1.1 or 1.2 cannot start if there are also servers at an earlier version.

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Timestamp icon Last updated: March 5, 2017 17:24
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