Considerations for a network deployment configuration

Choose a network deployment configuration when your production environment needs features such as capacity, availability, scalability, and failover support.

You must have the following configuration in place to create and configure a network deployment topology:
  • The z/OS® system used to install and configure IBM® Business Process Manager must run UNIX System Services with a zSeries® file system or hierarchical file system configured.
  • Your UNIX user ID must have permission to access the UNIX shell to run the installation and configuration commands from inside the shell. Gaining access to the shell involves modifying your RACF® profile and creating a home directory in the UNIX shell. The home directory is where you begin a UNIX session, and where you store environment variable files that are required to run programs. You can also use the home directory as the main directory for storing your work data.
  • A database management system, typically DB2® for z/OS, must be available.
  • The WebSphere® Application Server for z/OS product code and IBM Business Process Manager for z/OS product code must be installed in the product file system.

When setting up a network deployment environment, WebSphere Application Server for z/OS must be configured on the server with a deployment manager node and an empty managed node that has not been federated to the deployment manager. The empty managed node must be federated only after you have augmented it to contain IBM Business Process Manager for z/OS configuration data.

When configuring a deployment manager node, the following consideration applies when allocating target data sets to hold the configuration JCL. It is possible, though not recommended, to use the same target data sets that you might have used for a stand-alone application server node. The job names for each configuration are very similar to one another, so if you use the same target data sets, it might be difficult to keep the two sets of jobs separate. Therefore, create a new set of target data sets for the deployment manager node and keep the two sets of jobs separate from one another.

All nodes in the network deployment cell are in the same administrative domain, and the JNDI namespace is shared among all servers in the cell. You can start and stop servers independently.