High availability

When you install more than one event processor (EP), WebSphere® Application Server, and at least one Cognos® Business Intelligence server, you can implement IBM® Control Center in a high availability environment.

To understand what an IBM Control Center high availability implementation can look like, it is best to first consider a non-high availability implementation as shown in the following diagram:

A diagram of IBM Control Center that is deployed in a non-high availability implementation. In a non-high availability environment of IBM Control Center, you have one Cognos Business Intelligence server, one event processor, and one event repository. There are two databases for IBM Control Center. The Cognos Business Intelligence server database is used for reporting, and the IBM Control Center database is used for processing events and more. You can access your instance of IBM Control Center either through a desktop console or a URL for the web console. You can complete different tasks in the console and web console. The event processor polls Sterling Connect:Direct, Sterling Connect:Express, Sterling Connect:Enterprise, FTP, Sterling B2B Integrator, and Sterling File:Gateway for events. The event processor receives events from a queue for Sterling Secure Proxy and MQ MFT. RESTFUL APIs help IBM Control Center dynamically discover new servers.

In a non-high availability environment with IBM Control Center, your components include the console, web console, reporting database, production database, one EP, one Cognos Business Intelligence server, one WebSphere Application Server, and your selected monitored servers.

The following diagram shows IBM Control Center deployed in a high availability environment:

A diagram of IBM Control Center that is deployed high in a high availability environment. In a high availability environment of IBM Control Center, you can have multiple Cognos Business Intelligence servers, multiple event processors, and multiple event repositories. You can choose though to only enable one Cognos Business Intelligence server, and one event repository. In a high availability environment, you can configure a load balancer to evenly distribute web console sessions across multiple instances of the WebSphere Application Server. There are two databases for IBM Control Center. The Cognos Business Intelligence server database is used for reporting, and the IBM Control Center database is used for processing events and more. You can access your instance of IBM Control Center either through a desktop console or a URL for the web console. You can complete different tasks in the console and web console. The event processor polls Sterling Connect:Direct, Sterling Connect:Express, Sterling Connect:Enterprise, FTP, Sterling B2B Integrator, and Sterling File:Gateway for events. The event processor receives events from a queue for Sterling Secure Proxy and MQ MFT. RESTFUL APIs help IBM Control Center dynamically discover new servers.

In a high availability environment with IBM Control Center, your components include the console, web console, reporting database, production database, load balancers, multiple EPs, multiple instances of WebSphere Application Server, multiple Cognos Business Intelligence servers, an event repository, and your selected monitored servers.

High availability with event processors

In a high availability environment, the servers that are monitored by a failed EP can be temporarily reassigned to other EPs in the cluster. If multiple EPs are installed, the controller EP periodically checks to see whether any EPs in the cluster are down. If the controller EP detects that an EP is down, the controller EP temporarily distributes the servers that the EP monitors to other EPs. You can configure an EP to run for event processing purposes without running a WebSphere Application Server or Cognos Business Intelligence server.

High availability with controller event processors

All EPs in a cluster periodically check whether the controller EP is active. The first EP that notices that the controller EP is down takes over as the controller EP. When the controller EP is back online, it joins the cluster as a normal EP.

High availability with the console

When a console connects to an EP in the cluster, you can view all servers that are monitored by all EPs in the cluster and their property information. With the console, you can also perform the following actions for the servers that are monitored by any EPs in the cluster:

  • Pausing or resuming monitoring
  • Refreshing the adapter list for a Sterling B2B Integrator server
  • Refreshing the BP list for a Sterling B2B Integrator server
  • Retrieving the license key for a Sterling B2B Integrator server
  • Resetting the Max Concurrent Process Count
  • Testing connection
  • Turning on or turning off the debug level logging
You cannot pause or resume monitoring, test connections, or turning on and off debug level logging with dynamically discovered servers.

The consoles also supports failover. When a console connects to an EP in the cluster and the EP goes down, the console automatically connects to another active EP in the cluster.

High availability with WebSphere Application Server

Multiple web consoles and event repositories (ERs) can be hosted on multiple WebSphere Application Server. You can configure a load balancer to evenly distribute web console sessions and ER workloads across any WebSphere Application Server that is installed, and to provide failover of web consoles and ERs. In a high availability environment, you can configure a WebSphere Application Server to not automatically shut down when an EP is stopped.

High availability with Cognos Business Intelligence servers

If multiple EPs are implemented and connect to the same databases, you can set up and configure multiple Cognos Business Intelligence servers to support a high availability environment. One Cognos Business Intelligence server works as the primary reporting engine and the other Cognos Business Intelligence servers are the secondary reporting engines. When one Cognos Business Intelligence server is down, all the Cognos Business Intelligence server connections are switched to the other active Cognos Business Intelligence servers. If you install more than one Cognos Business Intelligence server, then you can configure some of the servers to not automatically start when an EP starts. However, when an EP stops the Cognos Business Intelligence server is going to stop.

You can access the workspaces and reports through any web console in the high availability environment.

High availability with databases

IBM Control Center supports native database high availability solutions such as the database high availability solution provided by Oracle Real Application Clusters 12c.

Parent topic: IBM Control Center technical overview
Related concepts:
Application servers
Controller event processor
Reporting and analytics
Servers
Related information:
Getting started with IBM Control Center in a high availability environment
Planning for a high availability environment