Enhanced enterprise resilience

Added capabilities let you better handle dynamic workloads and deal with disaster recovery.

Running application in session-independent mode

Session-independent mode was introduced as the default mode for MobileFirst Server, starting with V7.1.0.

The session-independent mode decouples the link between authentication context and HTTP sessions by using an attribute store module for caching the authentication context. In this mode, work between the client and MobileFirst Server is session-independent, allowing IT to auto-scale the network as needed and use a load-balancer without requiring sticky HTTP sessions.

For more information, see Session-independent mode.

Important: By default, new projects that are created in V7.1.0 are session independent. Old projects, even after upgrade, remain session-dependent. For more information about upgrading older apps to work in session-independent mode in V7.1.0, see Upgrading projects to work in session-independent mode.

Disaster recovery: active-active topology

If your system is operating in session-independent mode, you can provide high availability and disaster recovery to your distributed network. The topology involves several instances of IBM MobileFirst™ Platform Server that are deployed in two or more active data centers, in combinations with IBM® Cloudant® and IBM WebSphere® eXtreme scale. Optionally, this configuration might use a load-balancer to determine which site handles the client requests.

For more information, see Disaster recovery: active-active topology.

Using Cloudant as a supporting database for MobileFirst Server and MobileFirst Server administration

When you install IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation, you are now able to use Cloudant as your database management system for MobileFirst Server and MobileFirst Server administration. You can now benefit from a NoSQL local or Cloud-based Cloudant database for your MobileFirst runtime and administration.

To use a Cloudant database, you must have an account at cloudant.com that uses the Cloudant database in the Cloud, or you must install IBM MobileFirst Platform Cloudant Data Layer Local Edition, as described in the Cloudant Data Layer Local Edition user documentation.