Configure sysplex distributor tier 1 distributed DVIPAs and ports

To define the characteristics of tier 1 DVIPAs for use with target DataPower® appliances, code the VIPADEFINE, VIPABACKUP, and VIPADISTRIBUTE statements with the following parameters in the VIPADYNAMIC block of the TCP/IP profile:

Parameter: Description
TIER1: Appears on the VIPADEFINE or VIPABACKUP statement, and on the VIPADISTRIBUTE statement, and indicates that the DVIPA specified as an IP address on this statement is to be used in a multi-tiered distribution configuration.
groupname: Appears on the VIPADISTRIBUTE statement, and specifies the name of a cluster of equivalent server applications in the sysplex. This name is a required value on the TIER1 parameter of the VIPADISTRIBUTE statement; however, the name is used only when there is a corresponding VIPADISTRIBUTE statement with the TIER2 parameter. The name correlates a VIPADISTRIBUTE TIER1 statement with the corresponding VIPADISTRIBUTE TIER2 statements with the same name.
GRE: Appears on the VIPADISTRIBUTE statement. GRE indicates that the tier 1 target is a non-z/OS® target (a DataPower target), and that GRE is used in distributing requests to the DataPower appliances. GRE is the only routing type supported for DataPower load balancing.
CONTROLPORT port_number: Optionally appears on the VIPADISTRIBUTE statement, and enables configuration of a control port other than the default for the DataPower sysplex distributor agent. The control port must be the same on all VIPADISTRIBUTE TIER1 statements. If a control port is not specified, the default control port is 1702.
DISTMETHOD TARGCONTROLLED: Appears on the VIPADISTRIBUTE statement. TARGCONTROLLED indicates that connection requests are distributed using weights provided by the DataPower sysplex distributor agent, and by availability and capacity of the z/OS server applications in the application group.
DESTIP target_IP_list: Appears on the VIPADISTRIBUTE statement; the target IP address list includes the IP addresses of the DataPower appliances.

For more information about these statements and parameters, see z/OS Communications Server: IP Configuration Reference.

In the following example, clients in the network send requests to IP address 10.91.1.1, port 8080, and the DESTIP list consists of the IP addresses of the DataPower appliances:

VIPADEFINE  TIER1 255.255.255.0 10.91.1.1
VIPADISTRIBUTE DEFINE
   GRE DISTM TARGCONTROLLED
   TIER1 GROUP1
   CONTROLPORT 5601
   10.91.1.1 Port 8080
   DESTIP 201.81.10.1 201.81.10.2
          201.81.10.3 201.81.10.4

The DataPower appliances have been configured with control port 5601. If the CONTROLPORT parameter is not specified on the VIPADISTRIBUTE statement, then the control port is 1702 by default.

DISTMETHOD TARGCONTROLLED indicates that sysplex distributor and the DataPower appliances exchange information about the availability and capacity of the DataPower appliances, and sysplex distributor uses this information to make load-balancing decisions.

These VIPADEFINE and VIPADISTRIBUTE statements are placed in the TCP/IP profile of one sysplex stack, and another sysplex stack on any LPAR in the sysplex might have the following VIPABACKUP statement to enable nondisruptive VIPA takeover:

VIPABACKUP 10 TIER1 10.91.1.1