ibm connections – managing growth and expansion
TRANSCRIPT
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!
#engageug
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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
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