Using the Routing Manager Services

A routing manager is a subsystem that establishes and manages connections between a client and a server address space. The routing manager handles these connections rather than individual work requests; the requests are processed only after they arrive in the server address space. The routing manager is responsible for balancing the client connections across a set of eligible servers, with the assistance of the routing manager services.

Routing manager services perform two main functions:

• Automatically starting and maintaining server address spaces as needed by the workload across the sysplex. Installations then do not have to manage the address spaces manually, nor do they have to monitor workload fluctuations that change the number of address spaces needed. Workload management automatically adjusts to changes in the workload.
• Balancing the workload among the servers in the sysplex by deciding on the best server and providing the server routing information when a server is requested by the routing manager.

Routing manager services differ from sysplex routing services in the following ways:

• Routing manager services provide automatic management of address spaces.
• Routing manager services include the server's performance index when selecting the best available servers.
• With routing manager services, workload management decides on a server and passes its identity to the routing manager, instead of offering the routing manager a choice of several servers.

This chapter presents a model of how the routing manager services are intended to be used. Routing manager services combines the use of the “find server” function with application environments and enclaves. See Updating a Service Definition with Application Environment Information for a discussion of defining policy for application environments.

It is strongly recommended that server address spaces associated with a routing manager use enclave services to manage the work requests according to goals set by the customer. Be aware that enclaves are mutually exclusive with the execution delay monitoring services described in earlier chapters. For a discussion of enclaves and a comparison to delay monitoring, see Creating and Using Enclaves.