Creating clusters

Clusters consist of one or more application servers. When you create a cluster, you can
choose one existing application server to add to the cluster. The rest of the servers must
be new and can be created when you create the cluster or later.

When creating a cluster, it is possible to select the template of an existing application

server for the cluster without adding that application server into the new cluster. For this
reason, consider creating an application server with the server properties that you want as
a standard in the cluster first, then use that server as a template or as the first server in the
cluster.

To create a new cluster:

1. Select Servers | Clusters.

2. Click New.

Figure 4-31 Creating a new cluster

3. Enter the information for the new cluster:

Cluster name: Enter a cluster name of your choice. On z/OS, you will also be asked for
the short name for the cluster.

Prefer local: This setting indicates that a request to an EJB should be routed to an EJB
on the local node if available.

Configure HTTP session memory-to-memory replication: WAS supports session

replication to another WAS instance. In this mode, sessions can replicate to one or more
WAS instances to address HTTP Session single point of failure.
4. Create first cluster member: The first cluster member determines the server settings for
the cluster members.
Figure 4-32 First cluster member

Member Name: Type a name of the new server to be added to the cluster. On z/OS, you
will also be asked for the short name for the server.

Select Node: Node on which this new cluster member is created.

Server weight: The value for this field determines how workload is distributed. For
example, if all cluster members have identical weights, work is distributed among the
cluster members equally. Servers with higher weight values are given more work. A rule
of thumb formula for determining routing preference would be:

% routed to Server1 = weight1 /(weight1+weight2+...+weight n)

In the formula, n represents the number of cluster members in the cluster.

 Generate unique HTTP ports: Generates unique port numbers for every transport that is
defined in the source server, so that the resulting server that is created will not have
transports that conflict with the original server or any other servers defined on the same
node.

Select basis for first cluster member:

If you select Create the member using an application server template, the settings for the
new application server are identical to the settings of the application server template you
select from the list of available templates.

If you select Create the member using an existing application server as a template, the
settings for the new application server are identical to the settings of the application server
you select from the list of existing application servers.

If you select Create the member by converting an existing application server, the
application server you select from the list of available application servers becomes a
member of this cluster.

If you select None. Create an empty cluster, a new cluster is created, but it does not
contain any cluster members.

Click Next.

5. Create additional cluster members: Use this page to create additional members for a
cluster. You can add a member to a cluster when you create the cluster or after you
create the cluster. A copy of the first cluster member that you create is stored as part of
the cluster data and becomes the template for all additional cluster members that you
create.

To add a member, enter a new server name, select the node, and click Add Member.
Figure 4-33 Additional cluster members

6. When all the servers have been entered, click Next.

7. A summary page shows you what will be created.
8. Click Finish to create the cluster and new servers.
9. Save the configuration.

Viewing cluster topology

The console provides a graphical view of the existing clusters and their members. To see
the view...

1. Select Servers | Cluster Topology.

2. Expand each category.
Figure 4-34 Cluster topology view

3. Select a server will take you to the configuration window for the application server.

Managing clusters

Application servers within a cluster can be managed as independent servers. A second

option is to manage all the servers in the cluster using a single button:

1. Select Servers | Clusters.

2. Check each cluster you want to work with and select one of the following options:

Start: Use this option to start all servers in the cluster.

Stop: Use this option to stops all servers in the cluster. This allows the server to finish
existing requests and allows failover to another member of the cluster.

Ripplestart: Use this option to Stop, then start all servers in the cluster.

ImmediateStop: Stop all servers immediately.

Working with virtual hosts

For an example of defining and using a new virtual host, see 14.1.4, Defining the Plants
by WebSphere virtual host.
A virtual host is a configuration enabling a single host machine to resemble multiple host
machines. It consists of a host alias or aliases, which consist of a host name and a port
number. If you specify an asterisk (*) as a host name, all host names and IP addresses that
the Web server can receive will be mapped to that virtual host.

There are two virtual hosts defined during installation: default_host and admin_host.

- The default_host virtual host is intended for access to user applications, either through
the HTTP transport or through a Web server. At installation time, it is configured as the
default virtual host for the server1 application server. It is configured to match requests
to ports 80, 9080, and 9443 for any host name.
- The admin_host virtual host is used for access to the WebSphere console. It is
configured to match requests to the secure ports 9090 (HTTP transport) and 9043 (Web
server) for any host name.
- The proxy_host virtual host includes default port definitions, port 80 and 443, which are
typically initialized as part of the proxy server initialization. Use this proxy host as
appropriate with routing rules associated with the proxy server.

When you install an application, you associate a virtual host with each Web module in the
application. By associating a virtual host with a Web module, requests that match the host
aliases for the virtual host should be processed by servlets/JSPs in this Web module. The
Web server plug-in also checks the URI of the request against the URIs for the Web
module to determine whether the Web module can handle them or not.

A single virtual host can be associated with multiple Web modules unless each
application has unique URIs. If there are same URIs among applications, different virtual
hosts must be created and associated with each of the applications.

Creating a virtual host

By default, default_host is associated with all user application requests. There are some
cases in which multiple virtual hosts should be created, for example:

Applications having conflicting URIs

Support for extra ports, such as port 443 for SSL
Keep clear independence of each virtual host for applications and servers

The configuration of a virtual host is applied to an entire cell. To create a new virtual
host...

1. Select Environment | Virtual Hosts and then click New.

2. Enter a name for the virtual host and click Apply.
3. Click Host Aliases in the Additional Properties pane.
4. Click New.
5. Enter values for the Host Name and Port fields and click OK.

The host aliases are not necessarily the same as the host name and port number of the
WASs. They are the host names and port numbers that the Web server plug-in is
expecting to receive from the browser. The Web server plug-in will send the request to
the application server using the host name and port number in the transport setting for
that server. If the Web server is running on a separate machine from WebSphere, then the
host aliases are for Web server machines.

Mapping HTTP requests to host aliases is case sensitive and the match must be
alphabetically exact. Also, different port numbers are treated as different aliases.

For example, the request http://www.myhost.com/myservlet does not map to any of the
following:

http://myhost/myservlet

http://www.myhost.com/MyServlet

http://www.myhost.com:9876/myservlet

If the Web server plug-in receives a request that does not match one of the virtual hosts,
then an HTTP error will be returned to the user.

Simple wild cards can be used on the host aliases. A * can be used for the host name, the
port or both. It means that any request will match this rule.

If the virtual host is used in a cluster environment, all host aliases used by servers in the
cluster should be registered in the virtual host. For information about how to do this, see
7.3.1, Regenerating the plug-in configuration file.
6. Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) mappings associate a file name
extension with a type of data file, such as text, audio, or image. A set of MIME types is
automatically defined for you when you create a virtual host. To see or alter the MIME
types associated with this new virtual host, click MIME Types in the Additional
Properties section of the virtual host.
7. Click New to add a MIME type.
8. Enter the MIME type and extension. Click Apply to continue adding new types or click
OK if you are finished.
9. Click Save on the taskbar and save your changes.

Important: If you create, delete, or update virtual hosts, regenerate the Web server plug-in.