Package Management

Overview

The following sections describe how to set up and manage your Adapter for PeopleSoft packages, set up Access Control Lists (ACL), and use the adapter in a clustered environment.

Adapter for PeopleSoft Package Management

The Adapter for PeopleSoft is provided as a package called WmPeopleSoftAdapter. You manage the WmPeopleSoftAdapter package as you would manage any package on the Integration Server.

When you configure connections and adapter services, define them in user-defined packages rather than in the WmPeopleSoftAdapter package. Doing so will allow you to manage the package more easily.

As you create user-defined packages in which to store connections and adapter services, use the package management functionality provided in Designer and set the user-defined packages to have a dependency on the WmPeopleSoftAdapter package. That way, when the WmPeopleSoftAdapter package loads or reloads, the user-defined packages load automatically. See the following diagram:

Package management tasks include:

Package Dependency Requirements and Guidelines

Following are dependency requirements and guidelines for user-defined packages. For instructions for setting package dependencies, see the IBM webMethods Service Development Help for your release.

  • A user-defined package must have a dependency on its associated adapter package, WmPeopleSoftAdapter.
  • The WmPeopleSoftAdapter package has a dependency on the WmART package.

    These first two dependencies ensure that at startup the Integration Server automatically loads or reloads all packages in the proper order: the WmART package first, the adapter package next, and the user-defined packages last. The WmART package is automatically installed when you install the Integration Server. You should not need to manually reload the WmART package.

  • If the connections and adapter services of an adapter are defined in different packages, then:
    • A package that contains the connections must depend on the adapter package.
    • Packages that contain adapter services must depend on their associated connection package.
  • Keep connections for different adapters in separate packages so that you do not create interdependencies between adapters. If a package contains connections for two different adapters, and you reload one of the adapter packages, the connections for both adapters will reload automatically.
  • The Integration Server will not allow you to enable a package if it has a dependency on another package that is disabled. That is, before you can enable your package, you must enable all packages on which your package depends. For information about enabling packages, see Enabling Packages.
  • The Integration Server will allow you to disable a package even if another package that is enabled has a dependency on it. Therefore, you must manually disable any user-defined packages that have a dependency on the adapter package before you disable the adapter package. For information about disabling packages, see Disabling Packages.
  • You can name connections and adapter services the same names provided that they are located in different packages and folders.

Enabling and Disabling Packages

About this task

Important: Before you manually enable a user-defined package, you must first enable its associated adapter package (WmPeopleSoftAdapter). Similarly, if your adapter has multiple user-defined packages, and you want to disable some of them, disable the adapter package first. Otherwise, errors will be issued when you try to access the remaining enabled user-defined packages.

Enabling Packages

About this task

All packages are automatically enabled by default.

To enable a package

Procedure
  1. Open the Integration Server Administrator if it is not already open.
  2. In the Packages menu of the navigation area, click Management.
  3. Click No in the Enabled column. The server displays a and Yes in the Enabled column.
    Note: Enabling an adapter package will not cause its associated user-defined packages to be reloaded.

Disabling Packages

About this task

When you want to temporarily prohibit access to the elements in a package, disable the package. When you disable a package, the server unloads all of its elements from memory. Disabling a package prevents the Integration Server from loading that package at startup.

A disabled adapter will:

  • Remain disabled until you explicitly enable it using the Integration Server Administrator.
  • Not be listed in Designer.

To disable a package

Procedure
  1. Open the Integration Server Administrator if it is not already open.
  2. In the Packages menu of the navigation area, click Management.
  3. Click Yes in the Enabled column for the package that you want to disable. The server issues a prompt to verify that you want to disable the package. Click OK to disable the package. When the package is disabled, the server displays No in the Enabled column.

Group Access Control

To control which development group has access to which adapter services, use access control lists (ACLs). You can use ACLs to prevent one development group from inadvertently updating the work of another group, or to allow or deny access to services that are restricted to one group but not to others.

For general information about assigning and managing ACLs, see the IBM webMethods Service Development Help for your release.

Adapter for PeopleSoft in a Clustered Environment

What is IBM webMethods Integration Server Clustering?

Clustering is an advanced feature of the webMethods product suite that substantially extends the reliability, availability, and scalability of IBM webMethods Integration Server. Clustering accomplishes this by providing the infrastructure and tools to deploy multiple Integration Servers as if they were a single virtual server and to deliver applications that leverage that architecture. Because this activity is transparent to the client, clustering makes multiple servers look and behave as one.

For details on IBM webMethods Integration Server clustering, see the IBM webMethods Integration Server Clustering Guide for your release.

Integration Server 8.2 SP2 and higher supports the caching and clustering functionality provided by Terracotta. Caching and clustering are configured at the Integration Server level and Adapter for PeopleSoft uses the caching mechanism that is enabled on Integration Server.

With clustering, you get the following benefits:

  • Load balancing. This feature, provided automatically when you set up a clustered environment, allows you to spread the workload over several servers, thus improving performance and scalability.

  • Failover support. Clustering enables you to avoid a single point of failure. If a server cannot handle a request, or becomes unavailable, the request is automatically redirected to another server in the cluster.

    Note: IBM webMethods Integration Server clustering redirects HTTP and HTTPS requests, but does not redirect FTP or SMTP requests.
  • Scalability. You can increase your capacity even further by adding new machines running IBM webMethods Integration Server to the cluster.

Configuring the Adapter for PeopleSoft For Clustering

When you configure the Adapter for PeopleSoft, you must:

Replicating Packages to IBM webMethods Integration Servers

Each Integration Server in the cluster should contain an identical set of packages that you define using the Adapter for PeopleSoft. That is, you should replicate the Adapter for PeopleSoft services and the connections they use.

To ensure consistency, you should create all packages on one server, and replicate them to the other servers. If you allow different servers to contain different services, you might not derive the full benefits of clustering. For example, if a client requests a service that resides in only one server, and that server is unavailable, the request cannot be successfully redirected to another server.

For information about replicating packages, see the IBM webMethods Integration Server Administrator’s Guide for your release. See also Requirements for Each Integration Server in a Cluster.

Disabling the Redirection of Administrative Services

About this task

As previously mentioned, a server that cannot handle a client's service request can automatically redirect the request to another server in the cluster. However, the Adapter for PeopleSoft uses certain predefined administrative services that you should not allow to be redirected. These services are used internally when you configure the adapter. If you allow these services to be redirected, your configuration specifications might be saved on multiple servers, which is an undesirable result. For example, if you configure two Adapter for PeopleSoft services, one might be stored on one server, while the other one might be stored on another server. Remember that all adapter services must reside on all Integration Servers in the cluster.

To disable the redirection of administrative services

Procedure
  1. Shut down the Integration Server Administrator. For the procedure to do this, see the IBM webMethods Integration Server Administrator’s Guide for your release.
  2. Edit the following file:

    Integration Server_directory\config\redir.cnf

  3. Add the following line to the file: 
    <value name="wm.art">false</value>
  4. Save the file and restart the Integration Server.

Clustering Considerations and Requirements

Note: The following sections assume that you have already configured the IBM webMethods Integration Server cluster. For details about webMethods clustering, see the IBM webMethods Integration Server Clustering Guide for your release.

The following considerations and requirements apply to the Adapter for PeopleSoft in a clustered environment.

Requirements for Each Integration Server in a Cluster

The following table describes the requirements for each Integration Server in a cluster:

All Integration Servers in a given cluster must have identical... For Example ...
Integration Server versions One Integration Server in the cluster cannot be version 6.5 and another Integration Server in the cluster be version 8.0.
Adapter packages All adapter packages on one Integration Server should be replicated to all other Integration Servers in the cluster, as described in Replicating Packages to IBM webMethods Integration Servers.
Adapter connections If you configure a connection to the database, this connection must appear on all servers in the cluster so that any Integration Server in the cluster can handle a given request identically.

If you plan to use connection pools in a clustered environment, see Considerations When Configuring Connections with Connection Pooling Enabled.

Adapter services Each adapter service must appear on all servers in the cluster so that any Integration Server in the cluster can handle the request identically.

If you allow different Integration Servers to contain different services, you might not derive the full benefits of clustering. For example, if a client requests a service that resides on only one server, and that server is unavailable, the request cannot be successfully redirected to another server.

Considerations When Configuring Connections with Connection Pooling Enabled

When you configure a connection that uses connection pools in a clustered environment, be sure that you do not exceed the total number of connections that can be opened simultaneously for that database.

For example, if you have a cluster of two Integration Servers with a connection configured to a database that supports a maximum of 100 connections opened simultaneously, the total number of connections possible at one time must not exceed 100. This means that you cannot configure a connection with an initial pool size of 100 and replicate the connection to both servers, because there could be possibly a total of 200 connections opened simultaneously to this database.

In another example, consider a connection configured with an initial pool size of 10 and a maximum pool size of 100. If you replicate this connection across a cluster with two Integration Servers, it is possible for the connection pool size on both servers to exceed the maximum number of database connections that can be open at one time.

For information about configuring connections for the Adapter for PeopleSoft, see Configuring Adapter Connections.

For more general information about connection pools, see the IBM webMethods Integration Server Administrator’s Guide for your release.