Loadbalancer Administration User Experience

Attendees:
Ken Paulsen, Vince Kraemer, Siraj Ghaffar, Satish Viswanatham, Jagadesh Babu Munta, Anissa Lam, Varun Rupela, Shing Wai Chan, Mike Wright, Jane Young

Summary:

• Pointer to loadbalancer documentation (see slide 4)
  • Hardware Loadbalancers
    • F5 - http://blogs.oracle.com/roller/page/sv96363?entry=setting_up_big_ip_v4
    • Sun Secure Application Switch - http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/appserver/reference/techart/load-balancing.html
  • Software Loadbalancers
    • LB Plugin - http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-2555/6n4r9qo8g?a=view
    • LB Plugin Installation - http://blogs.oracle.com/roller/page/sv96363?entry=installing_load_balancer_using_aps
    • Apache (mod_jk) - http://weblogs.java.net/blog/jfarcand/archive/2006/03/running_glassfi_1.html
• SJS AS 8.1 EE Quick Start Guide - http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-2553

• LB Plugin Installation
  • Absence of installer in GlassFish is a pain for LB plugin installation since it involved many steps. Recommend to use the Java Application Platform Suite installer in the mean time. See Satish's blog.

• Generating loadbalancer.xml
  • Use configure-http-lb-config command to generate the loadbalancer.xml. This xml is used by the LB plugin.
    • Example - asadmin configure-http-lb-config -target cluster1-lb-config "C:\loadbalancer.xml"
    • This command is not working in M1. Refer to bug 6186848.
    • We should allow user to download the loadbalancer.xml in the client host similar to how we treat client jar in deployment.
  • User may also use Admin GUi to generate the loadbalancer.xml (see slide 10)
    • User will not be able to enable applications now. Refer to bug 6347791.
    • Admin GUI team may not be able to fix this bug by M2. We should clarify this in our milestone definition.
    • We should allow user to name and save this file locally. Current experience is not very friendly.

• Auto Apply of Changes
  • SSL setup is not working. We need to fix this. Harsha looked at using Web Server 7. The setup is simpler.
  • We should disable "Apply Changes Now" button when DAS can not communicate with LB.
  • Auto Apply should not be enabled by default. In the DTD, it is false.

• Documentation
  • GlassFish documentation does not talk about clustering. Need to update Quick Start Guide and documentation page.

• Misc
  • Slide 7 refers to HADB which is available in Java ES Bundle only. GlassFish has support for in-memory replication. Larry White will talk about this feature on Oct 18, 2006.
  • ANT target "setup-one-machine-cluster" sometimes hangs. Recommend using asadmin command to create the node-agent. Cluster can be created easily in GUI. For example,
    • asadmin start-domain --user admin --passwordfile <path-to-password-file> domain1
    • asadmin create-node-agent --user admin --passwordfile <path-to-password-file> --port 4848 na1
      • Default master password is "changeit".
    • asadmin start-node-agent --user admin --passwordfile <path-to-password-file> --startinstances=false na1
    • Log on to Administration GUI to create cluster, etc. Use https://localhost:4848. Default user name and password is "admin"/"adminadmin".
  • Setup instructions need to be updated. Satish has sent the information to Dinesh.

Action Items:

• Need EE Quick Start Guide in GlassFish - Ann Hillesland, Carla Mott
• Need clustering documentation in GlassFish - Hanan Lang, Carla Mott
• Module page for Loadbalancer Administration is missing in GlassFish - Satish
• Update current setup instructions - Dinesh, Satish
• Blocking bugs for this feature.
  • Bug 6186848 - configure-http-lb-config is not working - Satish
  • Bug# 6347791 - lb-enable/disable of application is missing in gui. - Anissa
  • Bug# 6461739 - Stickiness is not maintained in the second cluster. - Pankaj
  • Bug# 6340518 - SSL setup - loadbalaner plugin installation with Sun's Web Server. - Satish
• Fix "setup-one-machine-cluster" hang issues. - Dinesh
• File an RFE for installer in GlassFish - Varun
  • Refer to issue number 1040
• Allow user to save loadbalancer.xml into the local machine from browser - Anissa
• Allow user to download the loadbalancer.xml into the local machine in configure-http-lb-config command - Satish
• Clarify M2 definition if bug 6347791 can not be fixed - Anissa
• Disable "Auto Apply Change" when DAS can not contact LB - Anissa