Starting eXtreme Scale servers using the Eclipse Equinox OSGi framework

WebSphere® eXtreme Scale container servers can be started in an Eclipse Equinox OSGi framework using several methods.

Before you begin

Before you can start an eXtreme Scale container, you must have completed the following tasks:
  1. The WebSphere eXtreme Scale server bundle must be installed into Eclipse Equinox.
  2. Your application must be packaged as an OSGi bundle.
  3. Your WebSphere eXtreme Scale plug-ins (if any) must be packaged as an OSGi bundle. They can be bundled in the same bundle as your application or as separate bundles.
  4. If your container servers are using IBM® eXtremeMemory, you must first configure the native libraries. For more information, see Configuring IBM eXtremeMemory.

About this task

This task describes how to start an eXtreme Scale container server in an Eclipse Equinox OSGi framework. You can use any of the following methods to start container servers using the Eclipse Equinox implementation:
  • OSGi Blueprint service

    You can include all configuration and metadata in an OSGi bundle. See the following image to understand the Eclipse Equinox process for this method:

    Figure 1. Eclipse Equinox process for including all configuration and metadata in an OSGi bundle
    Eclipse Equinox process
  • OSGi Configuration Admin service

    You can specify configuration and metadata outside of an OSGi bundle. See the following image to understand the Eclipse Equinox process for this method:

    Figure 2. Eclipse Equinox process for specify configuration and metadata outside of an OSGi bundle
    Eclipse Equinox process
  • Programmatically

    Supports customized configuration solutions.

In each case, an eXtreme Scale server singleton is configured and one or more containers are configured.

The eXtreme Scale server bundle, objectgrid.jar, includes all of the required libraries to start and run an eXtreme Scale grid container in an OSGi framework. The server runtime environment communicates with user-supplied plug-ins and data objects using the OSGi service manager.
Important: After an eXtreme Scale server bundle is started and the eXtreme Scale server is initialized, it cannot be restarted . The Eclipse Equinox process must be restarted to restart an eXtreme Scale server.

You can use eXtreme Scale support for Spring namespace to configure eXtreme Scale container servers in a Blueprint XML file. When the server and container XML elements are added to the Blueprint XML file, the eXtreme Scale namespace handler automatically starts a container server using the parameters that are defined in the Blueprint XML file when the bundle is started. The handle stops the container when the bundle is stopped.

To configure eXtreme Scale container servers with Blueprint XML, complete the following steps:

Procedure