Multiple-server enterprise service bus with clustering

A network deployment cell can be used for an enterprise service bus that consists of multiple servers, some or all of which are members of server clusters.

Why and when to perform this task

A server that hosts queue destinations for SCA modules has one messaging engine in the SCA.SYSTEM bus. For many purposes this is sufficient, but such a messaging engine can only run in the server it was created for. The server is therefore a single point of failure; if the server cannot run, the messaging engine is unavailable. By configuring a server cluster as a bus member instead, the messaging engine has the ability to run in one server in the cluster, and if that server fails, the messaging engine can run in an alternative server. This is illustrated in Figure 1.

Another advantage of configuring a cluster bus member is the ability to share the workload associated with an SCA module across multiple servers. For an SCA module deployed to a cluster bus member, the queue destinations used are partitioned across the set of messaging engines run by the cluster servers. The messaging engines in the cluster each handle a share of the messages passing through the SCA module.

To summarize, with a cluster bus member you can achieve either failover, workload sharing, or both, depending on policies that you can configure.

Figure 1. A multiple-server bus with clustered servers for failover
A SCA.SYSTEM bus with a server cluster as its only bus member. The figure illustrates the scenario where a messaging engine has the ability to run in one server in the cluster, and if that server fails, the messaging engine can run in an alternative server.
Figure 2. A multiple-server bus with clustered servers for workload sharing
An SCA.SYSTEM bus with a service cluster as its only bus member. The figure illustrates the scenario where each server in the cluster runs a messaging engine. Each bus destination is partitioned across the messaging engines running in the cluster member.

You can create a multiple-server enterprise service bus with clustering in any network deployment cell. In general, the following steps are involved, as described in Configuring for network deployment.

Steps for this task

  1. Decide which network deployment scenario you are creating.
  2. Configure a network deployment cell with one or more managed nodes.
  3. From the deployment manager administrative console, create clusters on the managed nodes.
  4. Configure the clusters for the SCA runtime.

What to do next

You can now run the WebSphere Process Server samples and deploy service applications into your enterprise service bus.

Last updated: Wed 06 Dec 2006 07:08:08

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