MobileFirst Server
consists of several components. An overview of MobileFirst Server
architecture is provided for you to understand the functions of each component.
Unlike MobileFirst Server V7.1.0
or earlier, the installation process for V8.0.0 is separated from the development and deployment of
mobile app operations. In V8.0.0, after the server components and the database are installed and
configured, MobileFirst Server can be
operated for most operations without the need to access the application server or database
configuration.
The administration and deployment operations of the MobileFirst artifacts are done through MobileFirst Operations Console, or the REST API of the MobileFirst Server administration service. The operations can also be done by using some command
line tools that wrap this API, such as mfpdev or
mfpadm. The authorized users of MobileFirst Server can modify the server-side configuration of mobile applications, upload, or
configure server-side code (the adapters), upload new
web resources for Cordova mobile apps, run application management
operations, and more.
MobileFirst Server offers
extra layers of security, in addition to the security layers of the network infrastructure or the
application server. The security features include the control of application authenticity and the
access control to the server-side resources and the adapters. These security configurations can also
be done by the authorized users of MobileFirst Operations Console and the
administration service. You determine the authorization of the MobileFirst
administrators by mapping them to security roles as described in Configuring user authentication for MobileFirst Server administration.
A simplified version of MobileFirst Server that is
preconfigured and does not need software prerequisite such as database or an application server is
available for developers. See Setting up the MobileFirst Development Server .
For production purpose, you can use an installation of MobileFirst Server
on-premises or deploy MobileFirst Server to the
cloud. For more information about deploying MobileFirst Server to the
cloud, see Deploying MobileFirst Server to
the cloud.
MobileFirst Server
components
The architecture of the MobileFirst Server
components is illustrated as follows:
MobileFirst Server is
composed of several components.
- Core components of MobileFirst Server
- MobileFirst Operations Console, the
MobileFirst Server administration service, the MobileFirst Server live
update service, the MobileFirst Server
artifacts, and the MobileFirst runtime
are the minimum set of the components to install. The runtime provides the MobileFirst services
to the mobile apps that run on the mobile devices. The administration service provides the
configuration and administration capabilities. You use the service via MobileFirst Operations Console, the live
update service REST API, or command line tools such as mfpadm or
mfpdev. The live update service manages configuration data and is used by the
administration service. These components require a database. The database table name for each
component does not have any intersection. As such, you can use the same database or even the same
schema to store all the tables of these components. For more information, see Setting up databases. It is possible to install more than
one instance of the runtime. In this case, each instance needs its own database. The artifacts
component provides resources for MobileFirst Operations Console. It does
not requires a database.
- Optional components of MobileFirst Server
- The MobileFirst Server push
service provides push notification capabilities. It must be installed to provide these capabilities
of the mobile apps use the MobileFirst Push
features (Push notification). From
the perspective of mobile apps, the URL of the push service is the same as the URL as the runtime,
except that its context root is /imfpush. If you plan to install the push
service on a different server or cluster than the runtime, you need to configure the routing rules
of your HTTP server. The configuration is to ensure that the requests to the push service and the
runtime are properly routed. The push service requires a database. The tables of the push service
have no intersection with the tables of the runtime, the administration service, and the live update
service. Thus, it can also be installed in the same database or schema. The MobileFirst
Analytics service and MobileFirst Analytics Console
provide monitoring and analytics information about the mobile apps usage. Mobile apps can provide
more insight by using the Logger SDK.
The MobileFirst
Analytics service does not need a database. It stores its data locally on disk by using
Elasticsearch. The data is structured in shards that can be replicated between
the members of a cluster of the Analytics service.
For more information about the network flows and the topology constraints for these components,
see Topologies and network flows.
Installation process
The installation of
MobileFirst Server
on-premises can be done by using the following ways:
- The Server Configuration
Tool - a graphical wizard
- Ant tasks through the command line tools
- Manual installation
In the next sections, more information about the installation of
MobileFirst Server
on-premises is provided. You can find:
- A getting started tutorial that guides you through a complete installation of MobileFirst Server farm on
WebSphere® Application Server Liberty
profile. The tutorial is based on a simple scenario for you to try out the installation either in
graphical mode or in command line mode.
- A detailed section (Installing MobileFirst Server for a production environment) that contains details about the installation prerequisites, database setup, server
topologies, deployment of the components to the application server, and server configuration.