Although it is frequently possible to install adapters on the same computer
that hosts the integration broker, it is sometimes necessary to distribute the
adapters. This means installing the adapters on a different computer
than the computer on which the broker is installed.
There are several reasons you might want to distribute connectors agents,
including the following:
- You might improve the performance of the business integration system by
relieving the computer that hosts the broker of the load imposed by
adapters.
- You might improve the performance of an adapter by installing it on a
computer close in proximity on the network to the computer that hosts the
application.
- You might not be able to obtain a version of the adapter on the operating
system of the computer that hosts the broker.
Environment 2 in Figure 1 illustrates this type of environment, where the adapter is
distributed to communicate with a mainframe application.
Do the following to prepare a distributed adapter environment within the
enterprise network:
- Obtain computers that satisfy the hardware requirements for each of the
required environments.
For more information about hardware requirements, see Hardware requirements.
- Install the WebSphere MQ client as described in the WebSphere MQ
documentation. Be sure to install the Java Messaging feature.
The supported version of the WebSphere MQ client is listed in Table 5.
- Do the following depending on your integration broker:
- If your integration broker is WebSphere Application Server or one of the
supported messaging brokers, do the following:
- Install the Adapter Framework as described in Installing the Adapter Framework.
- Read the chapter named "Installing and configuring the connector"
in the guide for each adapter you plan to install in the environment and
determine any data handler requirements for the environment.
- Install each data handler required for the environment as described in Installing data handlers.
- Install each adapter required for the environment as described in Installing adapters.
- If your integration broker is WebSphere InterChange Server, do the
following:
- Run the installer for WebSphere InterChange Server on
the distributed computer to install the proper version of the Adapter
Framework on it.
When the InterChange Server Configuration Wizard is presented, specify the
same configuration values as those specified when installing InterChange
Server on the broker host computer.
For more information on installing WebSphere InterChange Server, see the
System Installation Guide for Windows or System Installation
Guide for UNIX.
- Note:
- You should not start this instance of InterChange Server. You are only
installing it to install a compatible version of the Adapter Framework on the
adapter host computer.
- Apply any patches that have been applied to the InterChange Server host
computer to the distributed computer so that the broker and adapter
environments are running at the same patch level.
- Install the adapter as described in Installing adapters on the distributed computer.
At the IBM WebSphere InterChange Server screen, specify the name of the
InterChange Server instance on the broker host computer, rather than the name
of the InterChange Server instance you installed on the adapter host computer
(which you had to install to install the Adapter Framework on the
computer).
- Import the connector definition created in the repository
directory into your development environment as described in the
Implementation Guide for WebSphere Interchange Server.
- Configure the connector as described in the guide for the adapter.
- Deploy the connector to the InterChange Server repository as described in
the Implementation Guide for WebSphere Interchange Server.
- Do the following to configure the environment to communicate with the
broker:
- Open the shared environment file located in the
ProductDir\bin directory in a text editor.
On Windows computers, the shared environment file is named
CWSharedEnv.bat.
On UNIX computers, the shared environment file is named
adapterEnv.sh or CWSharedEnv.sh, depending
on the broker you are using and the version of its release.
- Set the value of the ORB_PORT property to the port over which
the Object Request Broker installed on the broker computer is configured to
communicate.
- Set the value of the ORB_HOST property to the IP address of the
computer on which the broker is installed.
- Perform any adapter-specific installation steps, such as installing the
application client on the adapter host computer, as described in the guide for
each adapter required in the environment.
