ibm connections – managing growth and expansion

Toronto, June 6-7 2016

IBM ConnectionsManaging Growth and

ExpansionWhat to do when you start growing

Victor ToalToalSystems

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What will we talk about today?

• What does a “Normal” Environment look like?• Identify where you need to grow• Why would you want to change/grow?• What Components do you have and what do

you do about them?

Let’s Go!

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Let’s look at some samples of Environments

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Architecture – Non Clustered

Web Layer

Application Layer

Services Layer

User HTTP Traffic

Connections Server 1Deployment Manager

Application Node1

DB2 Server File Server ShareShared File Services

Web Server 1

Access to sharedfile repository

DB Access Share File Services

CNX5.ToalSys.SocialConnections 5.0 Architecture

Non-Clustered

Non Clustered Components:Connections URL: http://cnx5.toalsys.socialServer1: CNXSrv01.intranet.toalsys.comHTTP: HTTP01.intranet.toalsys.comDB2: dbSrv01.intranet.toalsys.comFile server: space01.intranet.toalsys.comConnections Data File Share: \\fileserver.toalsys.social\cnxdata\ORD:\IBM\Connections\Data\shared

Architecture - Clustered

Web Layer

Application Layer

Services Layer

User HTTP Traffic

Connections Server 1Deployment Manager

Application Node1

Connections Server 1Application Node2

DB2 Server File Server ShareShared File Services

Web Server 1

Access to sharedfile repository

DB Access Share File Services

CNX5.ToalSys.SocialConnections 5.0 Architecture

Clustered

Clustered Components:Connections URL: http://cnx5.toalsys.socialServer1: CNXSrv01.intranet.toalsys.comServer2: CNXSrv02.intranet.toalsys.comHTTP: HTTP01.intranet.toalsys.comDB2: dbSrv01.intranet.toalsys.comFile server: space01.intranet.toalsys.comConnections Data File Share: \\fileserver.toalsys.social\cnxdata\

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Identify Where You Need To Grow

Connections has 4 Distinct Layers

• WEB IHS, Proxy Server• APPLICATION WebSphere• DATABASE DB2, SQL, Oracle• FILE SYSTEM Local file system,

remote file system

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Reasons For Growth

• More users• More engagement• Business uptick• Integration of Connections into business processes

causes increased usage• External collaboration causes you to drastically

increase your number of communities • To create redundancy and resiliency in your

environment• To simply make operations easier

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First Things first

Review Performance TuningIf you do not tune your environment, adding

complexity will possibly kill it.• Connections 5.0 performance tuning guide

https://goo.gl/YNbWRr• Connections 4.5 performance tuning guide

https://goo.gl/l3oHrT• Review the Post Install Tasks in the Connections

WIKI• http://goo.gl/gPJ7FF

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Identify The Weak Link

• Just looking at CPU and memory is not enough• Each Component has different characteristics• One weakness can impact another layer,

masking the actual problem• Sometime Network can impact performance –

routing, DNS, network links, network cards … • Example: a slow SANS EVA might impact file

performance, but in reality it is a network issue that shows itself as a slow file system.

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The Web Layer

Components making up the web layer:

• IHS• Proxy Servers• Load Balancers• Any other connected Web Services

(STProxy, ICMail/Email tie-in)

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Adding To the Web Layer

Why Another Web Server?Moving an IHS on to a separate server

Adding an additional/second IHS

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Adding To the Web Layer … continued

• Have you done your homework in terms of performance? Often tweaking the httpd.conf can greatly improve performance

• Multiple HTTP servers will necessitate adding load balancing / switching capability in front of the web servers

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Adding To the Web Layer … continued

• If you are looking at adding redundancy then you need to make sure you are not just kicking the vulnerability can down the rad by now relying on a singular device in front of two web servers …

• But – most systems have a single point of failure someplace, it simply depends on WHAT part and HOW LIKLEY is it to fail and HOW IT FITS INTO OPERATIONS.

• Example: which device is more likely to experience changes and require a reboot: a Windows server running IHS or a dedicated load balancing HW device?

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Adding To the Web Layer … continued

• Adding another HTTP Server:• Install IBM HTTP server on new machine – use

the same configuration settings as the existing server!

• Add another unmanaged node, setup and configure the HTTP server/web server

• Remap all application modules to add the new IHS

• Generate the Plug-in, propagate it, restart IHS and then restart Connections WebSphere servers

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Add HTTP Server

Adding to the Application Layer

Add some WebSphere

“We need more servers!”

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Adding to the Application Layer - WebSphere

Let me ask again:

Have you done any real performance tuning?

Links: • Connections 5.0 performance tuning guide

https://goo.gl/YNbWRr• Connections 4.5 performance tuning guide

https://goo.gl/l3oHrT• Review the Post Install Tasks in the Connections WIKI• http://goo.gl/gPJ7FF

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Adding to the Application Layer … continued

What can you do?• Add additional nodes – on existing servers

as well as on new WebSphere servers• Add more cluster members (servers) – on

any node• Expand vertically – adding additional

WebSphere instances and federating them in is simple

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Adding to the Application Layer … continued

What you cannot do:• CAN’T move Connections applications from one

server/JVM to another. Apps will no longer work, upgrades become impossible

• CAN’T change from your current deployment (small, medium, large) to another type of deployment. If you need to do this, consider it to be a migration -> parallel build and cut-over.

• CAN’T cluster WebSphere over a WAN connection – too slow

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Adding to the Application Layer … continued

If adding a physical WebSphere server:• Make sure you set it up the same way as the existing

servers – same drive/folder configuration, database ODBC drivers at same location, member of SPNEGO config, etc. Turn off firewall on server

• Federate the Node to the Deployment Manager, you don’t have to add the default server and apps to the deployment manager

• Make sure that server is up and running correctly, review the logs after running the addNode.bat/.sh command

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Adding to the Application Layer … continued

• When adding Was servers – add them as cluster members on a new node -> they get all the same applications and settings. All default Connections Apps will work right away

• CCM … Cognos … Docs … Surveys/FEB … -> they don’t work out of the box, you need to do actual installation tasks on the new server

• If you are creating NEW WebSphere servers always create them as clusters, even if they are not actually clustered with another server -> that way you can cluster them in the future.

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How To Add A New Cluster

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The Database Layer

There is a New Player in TownAnd It’s Called

“Mo Data”

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Adding to the Database Layer

Here is our usual first question:

If your reason to add to the database layer is performance - have you looked into all the

available performance tuning options?

i/o performance is everything for any database server, tweaking logging and archiving can

make an enormous difference in performance

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Adding to the Database Layer … continued

• IBM documentation does suggest an individual DB2 instance for each database (for large, busy systems)

• But if your dB server is already busy/struggling, then adding an additional instance will only further degrade performance

• If you want to just spread the databases over multiple servers -> that is an easy task

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Adding to the Database Layer … continued• Build any new servers the same as your originating

server, that way moving/restoring databases to them is much easier -> otherwise you get to do a redirected restore

• Add the same user accounts and password on new DB2 servers

• Any new server must be the same or a newer version/FP level of DB2. Your database will be upgraded to the latest version once you restore it to the new server

• You cannot import/restore a database to a server with a lower DB2 release – this will not work.

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Adding to the Database Layer … continued

• If you restore a database to a new DB2 instance, it keeps all of the original settings …i.e. back-ups, logging settings, etc.

• Any Instance-wide settings should be copied/implemented in the new instance

• If you have a busy environment, consider building more than one additional server/instance. It does add to the complexity but if you plan the disk space right (SANS can be tricky) you can gain allot in terms of performance

• Homepage and metrics are great candidates to be moved to a separate server all by themselves – the domino effect of that can improve overall performance

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Adding to the Database Layer … continued

• Consider a common log file archive strategy for all DB2 instances

• Make sure all your servers are backed-up the same way and in the same frequency

• Restores are always a battle of calculated data loss …

• Clustered DB2 is part of the Connections DB2 license – if you feel you absolutely need it, get an experienced professional to design it, build it and MOST IMPORTANT teach you how to maintain it

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Adding to the Database Layer … continued• Review and update all the correct DB2

related variables in WebSphere: IBM console – Resources – JDBC – Data sources

• Each database is entered as a distinctive data source

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Adding to the File System Layer

We have the issue of

“I NEED MORE ROOMor

“YOUR FILE SERVER IS SLOOOOOOOW”

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Adding to the File System

Can you guess my first question?

Performance Tuning anyone?

• What kind of tuning … mainly OS/SANS/i/o of your infrastructure

• Adding direct file upload/download via the IBM HTTP servers can greatly improve i/o stats … WAS is slow and will impact overall performance of your i/o layer

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Adding to the File System … continued

• Just adding to the overall file space is OK – if you have the space and the performance for it

• Files on disk get stored in different sub-folders depending on the date they were added

• Older files are often accessed much less frequently than more recent files

• Strategy – if you have multiple SANS environments you can take advantage of that

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Adding to the File System … continued

• Use multiple mount points for each upload (Files, Wikis, Activities) to spread the load/io over multiple systems

• Take the folders of Files (analysis is key) and move it to a slower/older/less important SANS drive/share.

• This require documentation of the actions you took

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Adding to the File System … continued

• Review back-up and restore procedures

• I personally prefer to move all files of a service rather than re-point individual subfolders …. Less complexity and easier to understand -> it’s WebSphere variables

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Last but not least

THANK THE GUYS and GALS THAT PAID FOR THIS SHINDIG

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