Adding a cluster as a member of a bus

You can add a server cluster as a member of a service integration bus so that it can use the bus to communicate. When a cluster is added to the bus, all servers in the cluster are added to it, and at least one messaging engine is created. The members of a service integration bus are the application servers and clusters within which messaging engines for that bus can run.

Before you begin

To add a cluster to a bus, the following resources must be defined:
  • A service integration bus.
  • A cluster. For a high availability configuration, the cluster should contain at least two nodes, each with a server on, that is, at least two physical machines.
  • A location for the message store for the messaging engine. Each messaging engine uses a message store to preserve operating and recovery information.
    • To use a file store, you need a file location.
    • To use a data store, you need a suitable data source, such as a relational database, that is accessed through a JDBC data source.

      You can use the default JDBC data source and Derby JDBC Provider for its data store. If you do not want to use the default data source configuration, you can use a different data source or you can configure the data store to use a different JDBC provider.

    If you want any of the messaging engines in the cluster to fail over to another server, all servers that might host each messaging engine need access to the message store for that messaging engine.

About this task

When you add a server cluster as a member of a bus, consider the following points:
  • If you use messaging engine policy assistance, one or more messaging engines are created and configured, according to the messaging engine policy type you select. You can choose one of the predefined messaging engine policy types, which are designed to support frequently-used configurations, or choose a custom messaging engine policy type, where some configuration settings are created automatically but you can customize them.
  • If you do not use messaging engine policy assistance, one messaging engine is created. This messaging engine has default properties and uses the default core group policy for service integration, Default SIBus Policy. After adding the bus member, you can create more messaging engines and can configure one or more new core group policies to customize the way that the messaging engines are managed. It is advisable to create a new, separate, core group policy for each new messaging engine, including the first one. It is not advisable to alter the default policy for service integration. Use this procedure if you are already familiar with it. Otherwise, use messaging engine policy assistance.
  • If you are working in a mixed-version cell, a service integration bus running in this version of the product can only include WebSphere® Application Server Version 6 bus members that are running in the following versions of the product:
    • 6.0.2 (Fix Pack 23 or later)
    • 6.1.0 (Fix Pack 13 or later)
  • If security is enabled, and the bus has mixed-version bus members, the bus members establish trust by using an inter-engine authentication alias. If you add a server cluster as a bus member at WebSphere Application Server Version 6, and it is the first bus member at this level, you must select or create an authentication alias during this task. This action sets the inter-engine authentication alias.
  • If you subsequently delete a bus member and then re-create it, you must manually delete the old data source to ensure that the messaging engines will restart after the bus member has been created. Refer to Data store life cycle and Removing a messaging engine from a bus for details.