Deployment topologies

Edit online

Jazz® Team Server and the associated IBM® Engineering Lifecycle Management applications have three typical deployment topologies and a topology for teams that work and manage their projects independent of each other.

A typical installation consists of the Jazz Team Server and one or more Engineering Lifecycle Management applications. The applications can be deployed on the same application server for small-scale evaluation purposes, or on different application servers for greater scalability and flexibility for future growth. There is one database for the data warehouse and one for each application, including the Jazz Team Server.

To integrate the Engineering Lifecycle Management applications, all of the applications must share a common Jazz Team Server. By using a shared Jazz Team Server, collaboration can occur among applications and a common set of users. A shared server also provides common license administration and common email and LDAP settings. For more information about the advantages of sharing a server, see How many Jazz Team Server to use.

There are three typical Engineering Lifecycle Management deployment topologies and a fourth topology for teams that work and manage their projects independent of each other. In all scenarios, if Jazz Security Architecture is selected as an installation option, a Jazz Authorization Server must be deployed as well.

Deployment topologies

The deployment topologies for the Engineering Lifecycle Management are as follows:

  1. Evaluation topology: In this topology, applications are deployed on a single application server with a shared Jazz Team Server. This topology is ideal for evaluations, demonstrations, and training purposes. However, if you plan to later expand this deployment to a departmental or enterprise topology, start with the single-server departmental topology instead of the evaluation topology.

    The evaluation topology does not meet the demands of a typical production workload because of the limited scalability of the single application server. Use a powerful computer with a lot of memory and a fast disk drive to handle the load of both the application servers and the database servers. This topology uses WebSphere Liberty as the application server and Apache Derby, which is limited to 10 users, as the database.

  2. Departmental topology: In this topology, applications are deployed on one or more application servers with a shared Jazz Team Server. This topology is ideal for midsize deployments, such as single departments or teams. This topology uses WebSphere Liberty, or WebSphere® Application Server. WebSphere Application Server reduces the need to authenticate as you access multiple application servers. This topology also uses an enterprise database management system, such as IBM Db2®, with a dedicated database server on a separate system from the Engineering Lifecycle Management applications.
  3. Enterprise topology: In this topology, applications are on separate application servers with a single shared Jazz Team Server. This topology provides enterprise-wide support for midsize and large teams that collaborate in a distributed environment. This topology uses WebSphere Application Server and an enterprise database management system, such as Db2.
  4. Independent topology: In this topology, applications are on separate application servers, each with its own Jazz Team Server. This independent topology supports diverse teams that work independently of each other in a distributed environment.

    In this independent topology, which is sometimes called a silo installation, you install the Jazz Team Server and an application together on one physical computer or application server and then repeat the process on other servers. Each application has its own Jazz Team Server. However, you cannot take advantage of the collaborative features in this environment because Jazz Team Server is not shared. The Engineering Lifecycle Management applications are expressly designed to promote such collaboration. For more information about the advantages of shared Jazz Team Server, see How many Jazz Team Server to use.

    For topology diagrams and examples, see Standard deployment topologies overview (Deployment wiki article).

    Applications that use separate Jazz Team Server can be manually integrated. For instructions to integrate, see Integrating products on separate Jazz Team Servers.

    Restriction: The independent topology option introduces deployment constraints. You cannot combine applications later. After an application instance is connected to Jazz Team Server, the connection cannot be changed. If you install multiple Jazz Team Server, you cannot take advantage of common administration features for licenses, mail, and LDAP settings. Furthermore, you cannot manage project areas and users with the Lifecycle Project Administration application. Each user consumes one license per Jazz Team Server, which enables all applications that connect with it to function. If you deploy multiple Jazz Team Server, each user consumes a license on each Jazz Team Server.

Online help system deployment

The online help system, clmhelp.war, is installed with Jazz Team Server. For any application that is deployed on a different server, you must configure the location of the clmhelp war file, as described in Configuring the location of the help in a distributed environment. In a WebSphere Application Server environment, the clmhelp.war file must be explicitly deployed, as described in Deploying applications for the IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management on WebSphere Application Server.

Deployment of multiple instances of applications

You can also deploy multiple instances of an application, such as the Change and Configuration Management (CCM) application. If you deploy multiple instances of the same application in the same application server, you must give each instance a separate context root. For example, the context roots for two CCM instances might be ccm1 and ccm2. To connect multiple instances of the CCM application to a shared Jazz Team Server, the instances must all be authenticated from the same authentication realm and thus share the same users. In any deployment, the licenses are managed by Jazz Team Server. For more information about licenses, see Client access license management overview.

When you choose a topology for your deployment, carefully consider both the present and future needs of your team. While it is possible to move applications to a different application server later, this change requires the use of a proxy server to maintain links to that application.