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Managing WebSphere DataPower SOA Appliances via the WebSphere Application Server V7 Administrative Console

Andrew A. Das (aadas@us.ibm.com), Senior IT Specialist, IBM
Andrew Das photo
Andrew A. Das is a Senior IT Specialist for WebSphere Datapower SOA appliances. In his prior role, he was part of the WebSphere Application Server Web Services Interoperability development team, where he was responsible for evaluating Web services standards and their interoperability with IBM products and other vendor products. You can reach Andrew at aadas@us.ibm.com.

Summary:  WebSphere Application Server V7 includes administrative function to manage multiple DataPower appliances using the Administrative Console (also known as the Integrated Solutions Console). This administrative function is based on the WebSphere DataPower Appliance Manager, and provides a comprehensive set of capabilities to manage multiple appliances that share the same configuration, or firmware replicas of an appliance designated as the master (primary) appliance.

Date:  24 Mar 2010
Level:  Intermediate
Also available in:   Chinese  Portuguese

Activity:  6533 views
Comments:  

Introduction

This article shows you how to manage multiple IBM® WebSphere® DataPower® appliances using the WebSphere Application Server V7 Administrative Console (Admin Console). The article describes the following configuration and other tasks:

  1. Verifying Appliance Manager settings
  2. Creating a new appliance entry for a master appliance
  3. Adding another appliance
  4. Uploading and provisioning new firmware
  5. Creating a managed set
  6. Assigning managed domains in a managed set
  7. Synchronizing firmware and configurations

Terminology

Managed set
A collection of appliances that share the same hardware type, model type, and feature license set. A managed set synchronizes sharable appliance settings, managed domains, and firmware across multiple appliances.
Sharable appliance settings
The global attributes for an appliance that can be shared with other appliances. For example, NTP configuration and SNMP configuration are sharable appliance settings, but appliance-specific settings, such as IP address and role-based management attributes are not sharable appliance settings.
Master appliance
The appliance in the managed set that is used to synchronize sharable appliance settings and managed domains for all appliances within the managed set. Each managed set must have at least one master appliance. Each managed set might also have subordinate appliances.
Managed domain
A domain on the master appliance that has been added to a managed set in the DataPower Appliance Manager, which uses the managed domain to synchronize configuration changes to the subordinate appliances that are part of the managed set.
Task
A long-running request that you have asked the DataPower appliance manager to process.

Before you get started

  1. Verify that each DataPower Appliance you want to add has a firmware level of 3.6.0.4 or later. The DataPower Appliance Manager can manage appliances at this firmware level.   Do not use the DataPower firmware levels of 3.6.0.28, 3.6.0.29, or 3.6.0.30 for a managed set, as these firmware levels may cause the DataPower Appliance Manager to unnecessarily create new shareable appliance settings versions, or domain versions, and then synchronize these new versions across the managed set.
  2. Verify the XML Management Interface (specifically AMP) endpoint (default port 5550), is enabled on each appliance.
  3. Ensure that firmware levels that will be provisioned are compatible with the devices (firmware version, intended model type, appliance type, and licensed features provided by libraries in the firmware). The appliance manager allows the firmware types to be deployed only to matching appliances.
  4. While installing WebSphere Application Server, ensure that you select the Deployment Manager profile in the selection for profile creation. Otherwise, you will not see the DataPower Administration navigation links in the Admin Console.

Configuration tasks

This section provides the detailed configuration steps for managing DataPower Appliances.

1. Verifying Appliance Manager settings

  1. Log into the Admin Console and navigate to Servers => DataPower => Appliances.
  2. Verify whether the Appliance Manager is up by navigating to Servers => DataPower => Appliance Manager settings:

    Figure 1. Appliance Manager settings
    Appliance Manager settings

2. Creating new appliance entry for a master appliance

  1. Navigate to Servers => DataPower => Appliances.
  2. Click New and fill in the following information:
    1. Name (for example, xi50e)
    2. Host name (for example, xi50e.nivt.raleigh.ibm.com)
    3. Administrative port (for example, 5550)
    4. User ID (appliance’s admin user ID)
    5. Password (appliance’s admin password)


    Figure 2. Create a new appliance
    Create a new appliance

  3. Click OK.
  4. Click Tasks. The resulting screen indicates the status of the long-running task of adding a new appliance:

    Figure 3. Tasks view
    Tasks view

  5. Click on Servers => DataPower => Appliances. The new appliance should be listed. Since the appliance will take some time to provision, the status and synchronization states will not be available until the provisioning is complete.
  6. At this point, your appliance object has been created successfully, unless you see errors in the Tasks view.

3. Adding another appliance

  1. Navigate to Servers => DataPower => Appliance manager settings.
  2. Click New and fill in the following information
    1. Name (for example, dp14)
    2. Host name (for example, dp14.nivt.raleigh.ibm.com)
    3. Administrative port (for example, 5550)
    4. User ID (appliance’s admin user id)
    5. Password (appliance’s admin password)
  3. Click OK.
  4. Click on Tasks. The resulting screen indicates the status of the long-running task of adding a new appliance.
  5. Click on Servers => DataPower => Appliances. The new appliance should be listed. Since the appliance will take some time to provision, the status and synchronization states will not be available until the provisioning is complete.

    Figure 4. List of created Appliances
    List of created Appliances

  6. At this point, your second appliance object should be created successfully, unless you see errors in the Tasks view.

4. Uploading and provisioning new firmware

  1. Navigate to Servers => DataPower => Firmware.
  2. Click New and browse to the firmware (.scrypt2) image that needs to be uploaded. Ensure that you have uploaded at the very least, a version of the firmware that is installed on the planned master appliance. Otherwise, synchronization during the creation of managed sets will fail.

    Figure 5. Add new firmware
    Add new firmware

  3. Click OK:

    Figure 6. Firmware upload confirmation
    Firmware upload confirmation

  4. Click on Tasks to view the status of the long-running process.
  5. If the task completed successfully, navigate to Servers => DataPower => Firmware.
  6. Click on 3.7.2.1, for example, to view additional details of the firmware:

    Figure 7. Additional Firmware details
    Additional Firmware details

  7. At this point, your firmware has been uploaded successfully.

5. Creating a managed set

  1. Navigate to Servers => DataPower => Managed sets.
  2. Click New. Enter the name of the managed set (for example, MyManagedSet1), and include the master appliance from the list (for example, dp1):

    Figure 8. Create a new managed set
    Create a new managed set

  3. Click Next. At this step, you might have 0 – n additional appliances visible that can be added to the managed set.
  4. Add the previously configured appliance (for example xi50e) to the managed set list:

    Figure 9. Add appliance to a managed set
    Add appliance to a managed set

  5. Click Next and you will see a summary of actions.
  6. Click Finish. Until the task is complete, the status of the appliance will be appear as unavailable:

    Figure 10. Create a managed set confirmation
    Create a managed set confirmation

  7. Click on Tasks to view the status of the long-running operation:

    Figure 11. Tasks associated with creating a managed set
    Tasks associated with creating a managed set

  8. Once the tasks have successfully completed, you can view the status of the managed set. The status change is indicated by the updated icon.

6. Assigning managed domains in a managed set

  1. Navigate to Servers => DataPower => Managed sets. Click on MyManagedSet1. Notice the list of managed and un-managed domains -- by default all domains are un-managed. Here you can select the domains that you would like to be propagated and synchronized with other (subordinate) appliances within this managed set.
  2. For example, aob_odbc can be selected as a managed domain:

    Figure 12. List of domains in a managed set
    List of domains in a managed set

  3. After clicking Manage, a long-running task is triggered.
  4. Click Tasks to view the status. It will take some time before the task completes successfully.
  5. Now navigate to Servers => DataPower => Managed sets. Click on MyManagedSet1. Expand managed and un-managed domains on the resulting screen:

    Figure 13. List of managed domains in a managed set
    List of managed domains in a managed set

  6. The selected domain aob_odbc is now available for provisioning under the managed domains list. If you click on aob_odbc, you can view additional details.
  7. You have now successfully created a managed domain on the master appliance within a managed set.

7. Synchronizing firmware and configurations

  1. Navigate to Managed sets => MyManagedSet1 and click Change firmware:

    Figure 14. Provision a different firmware version
    Provision a different firmware version

  2. You can select the first radio button and select a different firmware version from the drop-down.
  3. Once you click OK, the synchronization process will begin and all appliances with MyManagedSet1 will be updated with the selected version.
  4. You have now successfully provisioned a new or different firmware version across all the appliances in MyManagedSet1.

Conclusion

This article introduced you to DataPower appliance management terminology and showed you how to configure and administer DataPower Appliances, using the WebSphere Application Server V7 Admin Console.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to John S. Graham for his guidance and support in ensuring the accuracy of the content in this article


Resources

About the author

Andrew Das photo

Andrew A. Das is a Senior IT Specialist for WebSphere Datapower SOA appliances. In his prior role, he was part of the WebSphere Application Server Web Services Interoperability development team, where he was responsible for evaluating Web services standards and their interoperability with IBM products and other vendor products. You can reach Andrew at aadas@us.ibm.com.

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