Creating a proxy server cluster

A proxy server cluster consists of a group of proxy servers. You can use either the wsadmin tool, or the administrative console to create a cluster of proxy servers that can route requests to applications in a cell.

Before you begin

Member proxy servers in a proxy cluster can be created on any node in a cell and share the same proxy configuration. Before you define your proxy server cluster:

  • Determine whether a domain name server (DNS), a load balancer, or a proxy server is going to be used to route requests to the proxy server cluster.
  • Verify that Version 8.5 of the product is installed on the nodes that will belong to the proxy server cluster.

The main reason for creating a proxy cluster is to make it easier to administer multiple proxy servers. For example, if your proxy servers are members of a proxy server cluster, you can specify configuration settings for that proxy server cluster, and the settings are automatically applied to all of the proxy servers in that cluster. Creating a proxy server cluster also enables you to simultaneously start and stop all of the proxy servers in that cluster.

Avoid trouble: A proxy server cluster does not have all of the same functionality that an application server cluster has. For example, because there is no data replication among members of a proxy cluster. failover between proxy servers in the cluster is not supported. If a proxy server is down, all active connections owned by the proxy server go away and then incoming requests fail. Both proxy servers and proxy clusters support the high availability and failover of backend servers, such that the proxy server can detect if a backend server is down and then forward the requests to a server that has the session replicated.

About this task

Complete the following steps to create a proxy server cluster.

Procedure

Click Servers > Clusters > Proxy server clusters > New to start the Create a new proxy server cluster wizard.

Results

You have created a proxy server cluster.

What to do next

Click Servers > Clusters > Proxy server clusters, select the newly created cluster, and then click Start to start the cluster, or click on the name of the new cluster to change its configuration settings, or add additional members to the cluster.