Creating a collective

For multiple WebSphere® DataPower® XC10 Appliances to be grouped for availability, scalability and management purposes, you must create a collective.

Before you begin

Before you can create a collective, you must have Appliance administration access to the consoles for the appliances that you want to add to the collective.

About this task

Creating a collective requires that all the host names and secret keys for all the appliances are added to the configuration of one appliance. The appliances can communicate all configuration information. This information includes data grids, monitoring information, users and groups, and collective memberships.

[Version 2.1 and later] All of your appliances must be at the same firmware level before you add them to a collective. For more information about running firmware upgrades, see Updating the firmware.

Procedure

  1. Select a single appliance to which you are adding the host names and secret keys for the other appliances in the collective. For each of the other appliances, open a new browser window and complete the following steps:
    1. In the user interface, click Collective > Members.
    2. The appliances in the collective are listed. The current appliance that you are logged in to is marked with the console icon (Current appliance icon). Note the Host name and Secret key for the current appliance.
      Table 1. Appliance states
      Icon Definition
      Current appliance icon Indicates the appliance that you are logged in to, and that the appliance is running.
      Started Indicates that the appliance is started and is available for configuration and use.
      Stopped Indicates that the appliance is stopped and is not available.
  2. Add the host name and secret key from each appliance to one of the appliances in the group.
    1. In the user interface, click Collective > Members.
    2. Click the add icon (Add an appliance to the collective icon ).
    3. Enter the Host name and Secret key for the appliance that you want to add to the collective.
      Note: The appliance added to the collective now shares the same users, groups, TLS security and secret key as the current appliance in the collective. For example, if the current appliance is Appliance 1 and you added Appliance 2 to the collective, then the users and groups from Appliance 2 are lost. Appliance 2 inherits the users and groups of Appliance 1.
  3. Monitor the progress of the addition of the appliances to the collective with the Tasks view. In the user interface, click Tasks.

Results

The appliances are grouped into a collective for scalability and management purposes.

What to do next

To remove a member from the collective, select the collective member and click Delete (Delete icon).