webmethods broker cluster with both brokers reading/writing to different SANs

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1

Hi

I wanted to ask if it is possible to create a webMethods broker cluster with both brokers reading/writing to different SANs as opposed to utilizing the same SAN.

Thanks!

2

That wouldn’t be a Broker Server cluster. That would be 2 independent Broker Servers.

You could join Brokers from those Broker Servers into a single territory, but that’s different from a cluster.

3

Thanks for the insight!

What if both SANs are periodically synchronized? Meaning we make both SANs have the same data in case one of them fails. Could it then be considered a cluster?

4

Before asking what if both of them are synchronized. I should have asked if they indeed can be synchronized…
Is this possible?

5

Not to my knowledge. You’d need to sync/diff the contents of the files, which I do not think is possible. Certainly not while the Broker Servers are running. Generally, you do not want to be messing with the Broker Server data store files in any way.

Generally speaking, active/passive clustering is sufficient for up-time needs (the Broker Server is a pretty solid performer). Active/passive is really the only HA option for Broker Server.

6

Agree with Rob, best to go this route and leave the broker files alone. Active/passive works very well for the broker.

7

We decided to have an active-passive configuration as you recommended.

Thanks for the insight.

8

Speaking of SAN, I am doing Broker HA with Windows Cluster and contemplating usage of SAN vs shared disk. Are there any best practices around using SAN? I need to respond to some questions like - number of LUNs and the size of each LUN? RAID type? Disk type?

9

Don’t know of any written best practices for SAN although I have used that configuration for broker in the past as well as with my current architecture. Questions from your storage guys seem a little to detailed to me. Raid type, disk type, LUNs should all be hidden by the SAN, kinda of the point of the SAN.

I would think telling them your space requirements, growth requirements and availability requirements should be more than enough information for them to allocate you space on the SAN and provide the mount points back to your system admins.

10

Has anybody done Broker 6.5 active passive setup without and PS help? Would appreciate if you could share on how it’s done.

11

I think they’ve finally relented and now provide the Broker HA document on Advantage without requiring a PS engagement. The doc version may be 7.x but the broad steps should still apply to 6.5.