Implement customization using WebSphere Cloudburst, part 2nd

Customizing with WebSphere Cloudburst, part 2nd: Customizing the WebSphere Middleware environment with WebSphere Cloudburst

Brief introduction

IBM WebSphere Cloudburst Appliance enables you to create an IBM WebSphere Application Server virtual system in a private cloud. These virtual systems are the running instances of the WebSphere middleware environment represented by the WebSphere Cloudburst pattern. Patterns are a logical representation of the WebSphere middleware environment, including WebSphere application Server components, configuration settings, and other customization features. These patterns can represent anything from a single server WebSphere application server environment to a more complex clustered environment (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. WebSphere Application Server Hypervisor Edition

The WebSphere Cloudburst appliance is accompanied by a set of patterns that are built and tuned by IBM. These patterns represent the profound knowledge and best practices that evolve from IBM's more than 10-year-rich WebSphere application Server deployment experience. These patterns provide out-of-the-box values because they can be deployed to a private cloud at any time.

However, because these patterns do not meet the requirements of each possible WebSphere application Server deployment, you need to be able to define a custom WebSphere middleware topology using your own configuration and deployment settings. With the customization capabilities provided by the WebSphere Cloudburst appliance, you can build a highly customizable WebSphere middleware environment and then save these custom configurations as schemas to reuse them if necessary.

customizing WebSphere Cloudburst Mode

To meet the broader topology requirements, WebSphere Cloudburst provides a variety of ways to customize the pattern:

With image extensions, you can customize the image used to define the schema. This approach, which will be discussed in part 4th of this series, supports the application of fixed changes to all topologies, such as the installation of virus detection software.

The WebSphere application Server topology can be adjusted by changing the number and type of nodes.

Built-in WebSphere application Server environment configuration scripts can be included in and identified in the schema. These advanced configuration options provide a well defined and standard common configuration method.

User applications (script form) can be associated with nodes in the topology and support general post installation configurations. Schema authors can try to control the deployment to varying degrees, choosing to lock the deployment time parameters and ensuring that fixed values are used for each deployment.

Start customization Process

The tools for customizing the WebSphere Cloudburst mode are both practical and intuitive. This article will mainly introduce the WebSphere Cloudburst console, which provides a WEB 2.0-style interface to interact with the patterns on the device. However, keep in mind that custom patterns can also be created using the WebSphere cloudburst command line interface.

To create a custom pattern, you can choose to clone an existing schema, or you can create a new schema. To clone an existing mode, select the mode you want to use and click the Clone button on the upper right sidebar. To create a new mode, select the Green Cross icon in the left panel of the Patterns page. Figure 2 shows the two options.

Figure 2. Create a new pattern

Whichever method you use, the dialog box in Figure 3 is displayed so that you can enter schema information.

Figure 3. New Mode dialog box

The schema information contains the name, description, and virtual image that the schema will be based on. You can choose any virtual image that you can access as the basis for the pattern. The choice of a virtual image is critical because it establishes the version of the WebSphere application Server in the schema.

Once you have provided the initial information, you can begin editing mode by clicking the Pencil icon in the upper left toolbar. This displays the Pattern Editor page, where you can customize the WebSphere application Server topology and configuration settings in the new schema.

Modify topology

In pattern Editor, you can edit the WebSphere application Server component that makes up your topology. In this article, you will construct an example pattern named my custom cluster. Initially, this pattern contains a Deployment Manager, two custom nodes, and an IBM HTTP Server. On the Pattern Editor page, the representation of this mode is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. The cluster environment in pattern Editor

For some types of components, the number of components in the pattern can be adjusted using the up/down arrows in the upper-left corner of the virtual part chart. For example, in the My custom cluster, each custom node and IBM HTTP Server component will display one such arrow. Click the arrow to increase or decrease the corresponding quantity in the pattern. Components that typically appear only once in a pattern do not have a quantity adjustment button.

Also note the Virtual Image Parts list in the left panel. This is a set of available WebSphere application Server components that can be included in the schema. The manifest is determined by the image that you selected when you created the pattern. You can add additional components to the pattern by dragging and dropping the components in the left panel onto the pattern canvas. In Figure 5, the Job Manager component is added as part of the My custom cluster mode.

Figure 5. To add a part to a pattern