Guidelines for setting up a cluster

When planning to setup a WebSphere® Portal clusters, you must take into account any cluster planning required for the WebSphere Application Server nodes. If you are not familiar with WebSphere Application Server clustering, find resources here to help you get started.

Before you begin

In WebSphere Application Server, a cluster is composed of multiple identical copies of an application server. A cluster member is a single application server in the cluster. WebSphere Portal is installed as an enterprise application server within the WebSphere Application Server infrastructure. All of the clustering features available within the WebSphere Application Server infrastructure are also available and apply to WebSphere Portal. Thus, a WebSphere Portal cluster is simply a collection of multiple WebSphere Portal servers that are identically configured.

z/OS only note: The server short name must be unique within a cell. If you are planning to build a horizontal cluster, make sure to define a unique short name for all the nodes in the cell.

For additional planning information, refer to the appropriate IBM® WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment version at http://www.ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/was/library/.

Guidelines for implementing cluster environments

Cluster environments should be implemented according to the following guidelines:
  • You can have a mixed 32-bit and 64-bit operating system environment; for example, you can have your deployment manager installed on a 64-bit operating system and your portal node installed on a 32-bit operating system.
    IBM i limitation: Installation in a mixed node environment is not supported in an IBM i environment.
    z/OS note: z/OS® only supports a 64-bit architecture.
  • The WebSphere Portal databases must be transferred to a supported external database, for example: DB2®, Oracle, or SQL Server.
  • There are several approaches you can use to configure an external Web server in a clustered environment. The instructions provided here for installing a WebSphere Portal follow the approach recommended by WebSphere Application Server, which involves using the Plug-ins installation wizard to install the binary plug-in module after the cell has been set up. For a complete description of the recommended procedure for configuring an external Web server in a clustered environment, refer to the following information:
  • The deployment manager node must be installed separately before the cells and clusters can be configured.
  • WebSphere Application Server provides database session persistence and memory-to-memory replication as techniques for HTTP session failover in a clustered environment. Review the following information to determine whether you want to use one of these techniques in your cluster:
  • z/OS only: WebSphere Portal provides the choice to install into a standalone profile or into the managed profile of an existing cell. A WebSphere Portal cluster can be formed from nodes that were installed into a standalone profile, installed into a managed profile, or installed into a combination of standalone and managed.
  • You can create an IBM WebSphere Virtual Enterprise dynamic cluster to run WebSphere Portal. For each node that will be part of the dynamic cluster, follow the "Setting up a cluster" instructions using a WebSphere Virtual Enterprise deployment manager.
    Important for IBM i only: Dynamic clusters are not supported because WebSphere Virtual Enterprise does not support installation on IBM i.
  • The WasRemoteHostName and WasSoapPort properties, located in the wkplc.properties file, must be accurate at all times as many ConfigEngine scripts depend on them. If you are in a standalone environment, these parameters should point to the host name and soap port for the WebSphere_Portal application server. If you are in a clustered environment, these parameters should point to the Deployment manager host name and soap port. Only modify these properties when instructed to during the installation instructions.
  • If you add a node to a cell or change a node's configuration after it has been federated to the deployment manager, synchronize the node's configuration.
  • If you are planning to configure an external security manager to perform authentication or authorization, install and configure the WebSphere Portal cluster first. Verify that the cluster is working properly before proceeding with the configuration of any external security managers.
  • IBM i: Set up a recycling procedure WebSphere Portal database with the following command; this procedure automatically removes the unused journal files: 
    CHGJRN JRN(Your DB2 DB Name/QSQJRN) DLTRCV(*YES)

    Your DB2 DB Name is the value of the release.DbName property, located in the wkplc_dbdomain.properties file.