Rule Execution Server components

Rule Execution Server is an environment for executing rules. It provides management, performance, security, and logging capabilities.

With Rule Execution Server, you can change the business logic dynamically in both Java™ SE and Java EE environments.

Note: For details of software requirements, see the IBM Support home page.

Rule Execution Server is a set of components that interact with the rule engine. The following table lists these components.

Table 1. Rule Execution Server components
Component Features For more information
Execution unit (XU)
The execution unit provides the following benefits:
  • Scalability
  • High-performance execution of rulesets
  • Execution trace
  • A XU container to create and pool connections of the XU (JCA)
  • Logging
  • Debugging
  • Notification that a RuleApp has been modified
  • Statistics

See Execution unit (XU).

Only the supported application servers provide cluster-wide XU notification and consolidated statistics.

To manage XU in the Rule Execution Server console in an environment that has the management EAR and the XU on different Java virtual machines and different MBean servers, you must enable the TCP/IP management mode. See Changing the default behavior of the management console for details.
Java EE execution components
  • Stateless rule sessions
  • Stateful rule sessions
  • Message-driven (asynchronous) ruleset calls
  • Remote calls through Remote Method Invocation (RMI)
  • Execution trace
  • Ruleset execution interceptors
See the following topics:
Java SE execution components
  • Stateless rule sessions
  • Stateful rule sessions
  • Execution trace
  • Ruleset execution interceptors
See the following topics:
JMX management model and execution model

The JMX management model provides access to runtime JMX MBeans for the Rule Execution Server model.

The JMX execution model provides access to runtime JMX MBeans for the execution unit for notification of changes and retrieval of statistics.

Execution unit (XU) instances run a local JMX MBean Server.

See the following topics:
Management console
The management console provides the following services:
  • 24x7 execution with hot ruleset deployment. Hot deployment is the ability to publish changed applications to a running server without having to restart the server.
  • Web-based management of RuleApps
  • Views of runtime statistics
  • Views of runtime errors and warnings
  • Run server diagnostics
  • Lists of the transparent decision services that are linked to a ruleset, at the level of that ruleset. You can use the console to activate and deactivate a transparent decision service, or to view execution statistics.
See the Rule Execution Server console online help.
Persistence Ant tasks
Rule Execution Server supports persistence Ant tasks. Use them to write RuleApps to a file system or in relational database management systems (RDBMS), or to remove RuleApps from the file system or database. You must first secure access to a file system or a supported RDBMS and local database drivers.
  • Deploy RuleApp
  • Undeploy RuleApp
  • Restore server configuration
  • Save server configuration
For more information, see the following topics:
Attention:

Running execution units (XU) are not notified that a RuleApp has been modified in the file system or database.

Transparent decision services
Hosted transparent decision service
Installed on the same application server as Rule Execution Server, then integrated with Rule Execution Server
Monitored transparent decision service
Generated in Rule Designer and held on the same application server as Rule Execution Server, but as a separate entity. It then accesses Rule Execution Server to execute rules.
See the following topics:
Parent topic: Rule Execution Server basics