Just working through the installation of the newly released Broker 6.5.2 featuring great new administrative bells and whistles only available through the My webMethods Server (MWS).
Now, in order to administer Broker, you will need a DBA to install the Portal database for you if you don’t have those admin rights.
I’m not sure that adding this dependency on Portal and the Portal DB is worth whatever new admin features were introduced.
I just can’t wait until I need MWS to configure a remote invoke server in the DMZ where database access is not allowed.
I talked with some folks at webMethods yesterday about this because it is really causing me some issues on instance planning and footprints. Basically the response was that there is agreement that one MwS should be able to administer multiple IS instances and brokers.
They have not really started on moving the admin functionality to MwS other than the broker piece. But it sounds like one MwS will be able to handle the admin functions when they get to that. It would be very bad if there had to be a one to one relationship between MwS and IS server or broker.
Have you been able to tell if the Portal database is actually storing broker specific stuff? If so can you manage multiple brokers from that panel?
Maybe I’m being too cynical but this sucks. Requiring one (relatively complex) product to administer another is stupid. They’re going to “enhance” their way into oblivion. I long for the day when wM claimed “we’ll never have our own portal.” Ha. Who’s asking for this kinda stuff? What about the friggin web services updates in IS? How 'bout that instead of yet another attempt at centralized administration!!!
BTW, my MwS install (Portal Configurator) has been running for over 2 hours now in the “Intializing the Portal Server. Please wait” phase. I am working remote from my database connected over VPN, so it’s way slower than if I were local to my DB.
However, I would agree with the “this sucks” sentiment just now.
Okay, it is a bit complex to install and configure. It takes forever for the install to run. But… It is pretty cool. The number of new features is pretty slick. I like being able to browse the queues and see the actual content/delete as well plus it has incorporated the other older tools into the interface like document tracker even the graphical broker monitor.
I won’t mention that the document references in the Readme don’t exist yet.
The interface is much more intuitive as well. None of this will lead me to upgrade by brokers to 6.5.2 but I do like the functionality.
