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Workload Distribution for the Enterprise
Mark Nesson, Vashti Ragoonath
June, 2008
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 1
Workload Distribution for the Enterprise
Overview
 WebFOCUS installations supports hundreds, even thousands, of
users. Today, it’s becoming more and more difficult to secure skilled
systems administrators to manage systems: So what’s the answer
 We need a self-managing or autonomic solution that will deliver
service 24 hours a day, seven days a week
An autonomic system must be:
 ■ Self-Aware – The system must know what resources it has
available, and how these resources are functioning
 ■ Self-Healing – The system must be able to use its awareness to
correct problems in the delivery of service
 ■ Self-Optimizing – The system must be continuously adjusting its
resources to keep within the limits of performance needed
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 2
Workload Distribution for the Enterprise
WebFOCUS Workload Distribution
 WebFOCUS contains an autonomic server called CLM (Cluster
Load Manager) that has all three characteristics.
 Self Aware because it:
 Knows which servers are running and it continuously measures
their response time
 Monitors all of the servers within the cluster and provides a
central point of management through its own Console
 CLM also maintains metadata describing the capacity of each
computer and the amount of memory available to the servers
 It starts up the servers when it needs to and begins to monitor
their performance
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 3
Workload Distribution for the Enterprise
WebFOCUS CLM
Self Healing because:
 It has the ability to bring servers up and down automatically
 It has the ability to monitor the cluster operation at a central
console resulting in less complexity and improved performance
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 4
Workload Distribution for the Enterprise
WebFOCUS CLM
Self Optimizing because:
 The CLM manages every instance of WebFOCUS. Load balancing
is dynamic. Should the load increase to the point that response
times cannot be maintained within the limits.
 The CLM logs statistics in a log file that can later be used to create
custom reports that converts the data into meaningful information.
The log is an invaluable resource, both for self-assessment and
performance analysis.
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 5
Workload Distribution for the Enterprise
How do we use it?
Installation
 It is a licensed component that can be installed independent of
any other WebFOCUS software.
 Recommended to be installed ideally on its own machine If not,
with the WebFOCUS Client, but not on the Reporting Server
machines.
 For business critical systems, implement CLM Failover.
 CLM listens on a TCP/IP Port and can be started in the same way
as the Reporting Server.
 It has an HTTP Web Console from which one can define rules for
monitoring and dispatching requests to the Remote Servers.
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 6
Workload Distribution for the Enterprise
Configuring CLM
We will demonstrate the basics of configuring the CLM.
 From the CLM Console:
 Enable Cluster Manager (enter License Code) and restart.
 Add Remote Servers to manage
 Can flag Remote Servers as RESERVED
 Can specify startup command to start servers
 Create one or more CLM Clusters
 Add Remote Servers to the Clusters
 Click on Configure the Cluster Manager to specify rules for
Remote Servers
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 7
Workload Distribution for the Enterprise
Specifying Rules for CLM
CLM rules apply to all Remote Servers independent of the cluster to
which they were assigned.
 Polling History
 Polling Interval
 User Query Dispatch Method
 Max Response Time Limit
 Threshold for starting/stopping servers
 Running Average Period
 Cluster Manager Log
 AUTO_CONFIG
 CLM_MAXWAIT
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 8
Workload Distribution for the Enterprise
Specifying Rules for CLM
An explanation of CLM rules:
 Polling History
 If CLM Logging is on, the number of records to keep for each
Remote Server.
 Polling Interval
 How often should CLM poll the Remote Servers to do a health
check?
 User Query Dispatch Method
 What dispatch algorithm to use to determine which server the
request should be routed to?
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 9
Workload Distribution for the Enterprise
Specifying Rules for CLM
An explanation of Dispatch Algorithms:
 Smart ( Default) – based on Response Times
 Random - random
 Round Robin – alternate between nodes in a cluster
 Weighted – each server is weighted according to response times
and then randomly chosen if more than 1 server has the same
weight.
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 10
Workload Distribution for the Enterprise
Specifying Rules for CLM
An explanation of CLM rules:
 Max Response Time Limit
 Average Response time from Remote Server that is used as
the threshold for starting/stopping servers
 Threshold for starting/stopping servers
 Number of poll periods to determine if response times are
consistent before starting/stopping RESERVED servers.
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 11
Workload Distribution for the Enterprise
Specifying Rules for CLM
An explanation of CLM rules:
 Running Average Period
 Average Response time only for the number of polls set by the
threshold for starting/stopping servers. It’s not the average
response time for server lifetime.
 Cluster Manager Log
 Set to ON if logs are to be captured
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 12
Workload Distribution for the Enterprise
WebFOCUS Client and the CLM
The WebFOCUS Client (WFC) has to be configured to communicate
to one or more clusters defined on the CLM.
 Cluster names must match on WFC and CLM
 Specify the hostname and port of the CLM
Example of WFC communicating to CLM cluster node CLUST1
where CLM on different machine from WFC OR CLM and
WFC are using different odin.cfg files.
NODE = CLUST1
BEGIN
CLASS = CLUSTER
REMOTE_CLM_HOST = jetsetter
REMOTE_CLM_PORT = 38121
END
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 13
Workload Distribution for the Enterprise
Case Scenarios
Let’s demonstrate how we can put these rules to use.
Case 1:
I have three servers that are monitored and load balanced by Cluster
Manager. My requirement is whenever the Response Times for
any of those servers exceed 5 seconds, I want to start a
RESERVED server.
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 14
Workload Distribution for the Enterprise
Case Scenarios
Let’s demonstrate how we can put these rules to use.
Case 2:
I have three servers that are monitored and load balanced by Cluster
Manager. My business is mission critical so I need to implement
CLM Failover.
Example of WFC odin.cfg set up for CLM FAILOVER
NODE = CLUST1
BEGIN
CLASS = CLUSTER
REMOTE_CLM_HOST = jetsetter,jetsetter2
REMOTE_CLM_PORT = 38121,48121
END
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 15
Workload Distribution for the Enterprise
Benefits
Here is a list of how features translate to benefits.
■ Lower total cost of ownership
■ Higher system up-time
■ Less human expertise needed
■ More uniform response time
■ More insight into system operations
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 16
Workload Distribution for the Enterprise
Conclusion

Questions and Comments.
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 17