You can set up clusters of blueprint design servers for a high-availability
configuration. As with setting up clusters of servers, you store shared files on a system and
set multiple blueprint design servers to use those files.
About this task
To set up blueprint design servers and engines in a clustered configuration, you install
them on separate systems and connect them to the same database and network storage. You can
install as many blueprint design servers and engines as you need. You can install a
blueprint design server and an engine on each cluster node, or you can install blueprint
design servers and engines on separate nodes.
You do not need to install the same number of blueprint design servers and engines. Most
high-availability setups need more engines than blueprint design servers.
Then, you configure a load balancer to distribute the traffic to the blueprint design
servers. Instead of accessing the blueprint design servers and engines directly, users
access the load balancer URL. To the users, that URL appears to host a single instance of
the blueprint design server or engine.
A complete high-availability system of blueprint designers and engines includes the
following systems:
- One or more blueprint design server nodes
- One or more engine nodes
- A database for the engine nodes and the RabbitMQ service
- A database for the blueprint design server nodes
- A shared file system for the blueprint design server nodes
- A load balancer
You can install each of these systems on a separate server, or you can combine some of them to
reduce the number of overall nodes. For example, you can use the same database for the engine nodes
and the blueprint design server nodes. You can also install one or more of the databases, shared
file system, and load balancer on the same server. However, for greatest reliability, install the
load balancer, databases, and shared file system on separate servers. For example, the following
topology diagram includes three blueprint design server nodes, three engine nodes, and a single
server that hosts the databases, RabbitMQ, and shared file system.
Note: These instructions host
the RabbitMQ service and engine database on a single server, and the shared file system on a single
server. For a truly high-availability setup, you must ensure that these systems are stable and
reliable. For example, you can configure automatic backups and have a cold standby system ready, or
you can create a high availability cluster of databases. For a description of configuring a high
availability MySQL cluster,
Database (Galera Cluster) for high availability
.
You can set up a cluster of blueprint design servers and engines independently of the
IBM UrbanCode Deploy
server. You do not necessarily have to have a cluster of IBM UrbanCode Deploy
servers.
What to do next
Add blueprint design servers to the cluster. See
Adding blueprint design servers to clusters.