Service Groups

A service group is a set of service configurations of the same service type that can act as peers (can be configured to perform the same activity in the same setting).

In Sterling B2B Integrator, you can create groups of service configurations. A group can only contain service configurations of one service type.

Service Group Concepts You Should Know

Here are some important concepts about service groups:
  • A service group can include only one service type. For example, a group can contain multiple configurations of the HTTP Client adapter, but cannot contain an HTTP Client adapter configuration and an FTP Client adapter configuration.
  • Groups do not exist as actual entities in the system; groups are only stored as parameters in service configurations.
  • The only way to create or edit a group is by creating or editing a service configuration.
  • A service group cannot have the same name as an individual service or as another group, even if the group is for a different service type.
  • To remove a service group from Sterling B2B Integrator, simply remove all the service configurations from the group. Also, if you delete all the service configurations that are part of the group, the group no longer exists.
  • Once a group no longer exists, you can reuse its name for a new service configuration or group.
  • When writing BPML, to use a service group, refer to it in the same way that you would an individual service configuration. For example, if you had a service group named MyHTTPClients, you could use the statement <participant name="MyHTTPClients"/> in a business process.
  • In the GPM, you can see and select service groups from the config list, the same way that you would select one individual service configuration. (In the config list, service groups are not distinguished from individual service configurations.)

Load Balancing and Failover with Service Groups

In some situations, you may want to use service groups in your Sterling B2B Integrator cluster to enhance load balancing and failover activities for adapters that use perimeter services - for example, the HTTP Client adapter.

In load balancing, if all of the services or adapters in a service group are configured compatibly (identically, except for perimeter server selection), and one of the services in the service group is busy, another service configuration can pick up the business process and begin processing.

With failover support, if one of the services in the service group is disabled, another service in the service group can pick up a business process and begin processing.

To verify that an adapter is load balancing, do the following:
  1. Access the workflow that should contain the adapter that you are expecting to load balance by clicking one of the following:
    • Business Processes > Monitor > Current Processes
    • Business Processes > Monitor > Advanced Search
  2. Within the workflow steps, locate the adapter that you want to check. The adapter might occur many times or only once, depending on the design of the workflow.

    Next to the adapter name is a column showing the node on which this adapter ran for this business process. You will use this information in the next step.

  3. Write down the workflow ID and the name of the node on which the adapter ran.
  4. Check this adapter information on multiple workflows to get an overall picture of the nodes on which the adapter ran.

For more information about using perimeter services with clustering, see Perimeter Services. For more information about clustering in general, see the Clustering.