IBM Liberty cluster installation and configuration - assure_dq

An IBM Liberty cluster installation involves setting up multiple Liberty server instances to work together as a cohesive unit, known as a collective. This setup allows for centralized administration, monitoring, and application deployment, enabling efficient management of resources and ensuring high availability. A Liberty cluster can be used for various purposes, including load balancing, failover, and scaling applications to meet demand. This section provides a step-by-step approach to installing and configuring a Liberty cluster, covering essential aspects like downloading the software, setting up the environment, creating a collective, adding members, and deploying applications.

This section provides detailed instructions for installing and configuring an IBM Liberty collective on Linux and Windows systems. A collective in Liberty is a group of servers that work together for administration, monitoring, and scaling purposes.

Liberty installation steps

IBM Liberty is a lightweight, flexible application server. Follow these steps to download and install it.

Download IBM liberty

Note: With the latest Liberty build, using a shared file system is optional. You can set up a horizontal cluster by installing Liberty separately on each node and distributing configuration files through the REST JMX API.

Go to the IBM Liberty download page at https://www.ibm.com/products/websphere-liberty.
Select the appropriate version and platform. Click the Download link.

Follow the instructions to download the installation package.
Extract and install Liberty on each cluster node. For example, use the directory: /opt/liberty/
Within the shared location, create a subfolder called igx, for example: /net/InfogixShare/igx

The above installation folder, /net/InfogixShare/igx, is called <install_folder> throughout the rest of this section.

Install IBM liberty

Extract the package.
Tip: For Linux, use the following command, replacing <version> with the specific version number of the downloaded package:
```
unzip ibm-liberty-<version>-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
```
Tip: For Windows, open Command Prompt and navigate to the extracted directory. Ensure that you have sufficient permissions to install software on your system.
Verify the installation by checking the IBM Liberty installation directory and starting the server.

Additional note for horizontal clusters: Install IBM Liberty individually on each node, rather than using a shared installation directory. Make sure that all nodes can communicate with each other over the network to enable collective management.

Create a collective

To create a collective in IBM Liberty, navigate to the installation directory and execute the following command:

Linux:
```
./server create collective
```
Windows:
```
server create collective
```

This initializes a new collective, setting up a central management group of Liberty servers for streamlined administration and configuration.

Configure security

To configure security for a Liberty collective, you need to generate a collective configuration file. This file includes security settings and other configurations necessary for managing the collective. The command differs slightly depending on the operating system.

Important: Replace password with a secure password of your choice and adjust the file paths as needed for your installation environment.

Linux:


./collective create collective --keystorePassword=password \
--createConfigFile=/opt/ibm/wlp/usr/servers/collective/collective.xml

Windows:


collective.bat create collective --keystorePassword=password --createConfigFile=C:\IBM\Liberty\usr\servers\collective\collective.xml

Add to server.xml

For the collective server, include the collective configuration by adding the following line in the server.xml file:


<include location="/path/to/collective/collective.xml" />

For example:


<include location="Z:/LibertyCluster/Libertyzip/wlp/usr/servers/collective/collective.xml" />

Modify collective.xml

Add quickStartSecurity to collective.xml. Locate the collective.xml file and edit it to include:


<quickStartSecurity userName="psu" userPassword="password" />

Start the Collective

After including the collective location in the server.xml file of each server, follow these steps to start the collective:

Linux:
```
./server start collective
```
Windows:
```
server start collective
```

These commands initiate the collective, making it operational and ready for managing and administering the member servers.

Create and Add Members to the Collective

Create Member Server

To create a new member server, use the following command:

server create <member_name>

Join a Member to the Collective

To add the new member to the collective, use the collective join command as shown below:

Syntax:

collective join <member_name> \
  --host=<collective_controller_host> \
  --port=<collective_controller_port> \
  --user=<collective_admin_user> \
  --password=<collective_admin_password> \
  --keystorePassword=<keystore_password> \
  --createConfigFile=<LIBERTY_HOME>/wlp/usr/servers/<member_name>/member.xml

Example:

collective join member2 \
  --host=us-r9-dq-igx02.syncdi1.us.syncsort.com \
  --port=9443 \
  --user=psu \
  --password=password \
  --keystorePassword=memberKSPassword \
  --createConfigFile=/home/wlp/usr/servers/member1/member.xml

Enable the REST Connector for JMX API Access

To enable REST JMX API functionality, add the REST connector feature to the member.xml file:

<featureManager>
<feature>restConnector-2.0</feature>
</featureManager>

Configure Administrative and Remote File Access

Add the following configuration to server.xml to allow administrative access and remote file management:

<!-- Basic Registry Configuration -->
<basicRegistry id="basic" realm="BasicRealm">
<user name="<WAS_ADMIN>" password="<WAS_PASSWORD>" />
</basicRegistry>

<!-- Administrator Role Configuration -->
<administrator-role>
<user><WAS_ADMIN></user>
</administrator-role>

<!-- Remote File Access Configuration -->
<remoteFileAccess>
<!-- Specific server directory access -->
<writeDir><LIBERTY_HOME>/wlp/usr/servers/<member_name></writeDir>
<readDir><LIBERTY_HOME>/wlp/usr/servers/<member_name></readDir>

<!-- Global servers directory access (optional) -->
<writeDir>/opt/Liberty/wlp/usr/servers</writeDir>
<readDir>/opt/Liberty/wlp/usr/servers</readDir>

<!-- Server config directory variable (optional) -->
<writeDir>${server.config.dir}</writeDir>
<readDir>${server.config.dir}</readDir>
</remoteFileAccess>

Important: For Linux environments, use the full absolute path instead of the ${server.config.dir} variable due to known issues. The variable works correctly on Windows platforms.

Include Member Configuration in Server Configuration

Add the following include statement to your server.xml file to include the member configuration:

<include location="member.xml" />

Start Member Servers

Start each configured member server by running the following command:

server start <member_name>

Verify the JMX REST API is enabled by accessing this URL:

https://<NODE_HOSTNAME>:<NODE_SECURE_PORT>/IBMJMXConnectorREST

Tip: Replace <NODE_HOSTNAME> and <NODE_SECURE_PORT> with the correct values for your environment.

Final Configuration and Deployment

To finalize the setup of your Liberty collective, follow these steps for configuration validation, Liberty configuration, and application deployment.

Extract the downloaded product builds. Run the following script to extract the files to the installation folder:
- For Windows: infogixextract.bat
- For UNIX or Linux: ./infogixextract.sh
Execute Init-config and choose option 2 (websphereLiberty) for appserver.

Validate Configuration Values

Linux:
```
./validate-config-values.sh
```
Windows:
```
validate-config-values.bat
```

Populate Database (optional for existing instances)

Linux:
```
./populate-db.sh <product>
```
Windows:
```
populate-db.bat <product>
```

Deploy Applications

Linux:
```
./deploy.sh
```
Windows:
```
deploy.bat
```

Configure WebSphere Liberty

Linux:
```
./config-websphere-liberty.sh
```
Windows:
```
config-websphere-liberty.bat
```

Common Issues and Troubleshooting

Issue - Server not starting

Solution: Check the logs located in the logs directory of the server for error messages. Ensure that all required environment variables are set correctly, and that the system has sufficient resources.

Issue - Member not joining the collective

Solution: Verify that the correct host, port, user, and password are being used. Check network connectivity between the member and the collective host.

Issue - Security configuration errors

Solution: Double-check the quickStartSecurity credentials in collective.xml and ensure they match the credentials used during the join process.

This guide provides the necessary steps for setting up and configuring an IBM Liberty collective. For further customization and advanced configurations, refer to the official IBM WebSphere Liberty documentation: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/was-liberty.

IBM Liberty cluster installation and configuration - assure_dq - 10.1.0

Assure DQ Server Installation