Clustering WebSphere Commerce Search

By completing this task, you can set up WebSphere Commerce Search in a clustered environment. The WebSphere Commerce Search cluster allows you to manage multiple WebSphere Commerce search instances from one WebSphere Application Server console.

Before you begin

If you plan on replicating WebSphere Commerce Search, ensure that you consider the following replication recommendations:
  • Setup one master search index server to hold the master index, which is then replicated to all the search servers that take search traffic. That is, there typically exists a dedicated index-building machine, which is known as the master, to build the index. There can only be one master; it cannot exist on multiple nodes in clustered environments. The master replicates the index to other search engine machines, which are known as targets. The runtime search performance is not affected during the index-building.
  • Set up the master search index server and subordinate search index server (separately) on the same operating system. This set up ensures easier file copy operations between servers.
  • Every deployment manager that has a copy of Solr federated to it, must also have a WebSphere Commerce environment federated to it. Otherwise, fixes and maintenance must be manually applied to each node.

Procedure

Deploying the WebSphere Commerce Search server:
  1. Complete the steps in Federating and clustering the WebSphere Commerce Search server in the advanced configuration.
    The following list shows the high-level tasks that are associated with deploying the WebSphere Commerce Search server in the advanced configuration:
    1. The WebSphere Commerce and WebSphere Commerce Search servers are set up locally on the same machine (standard configuration).
    2. The deployment manager (DMGR) is used to federate the WebSphere Commerce and WebSphere Commerce search servers.
    3. On the new search nodes, custom profiles for WebSphere Commerce Search are created and then federated using the DMGR.
    4. The WebSphere Commerce Search cluster is created with the new cluster members, where the nodes can be reached for clustering.

    After you complete the preceding deployment task, your WebSphere Commerce deployment contains both WebSphere Commerce and WebSphere Commerce Search on the same node and federated using the DMGR.

Clustering the federated environment:

After you federate your WebSphere Commerce environment, you can configure clustering. Clustering provides failover protection and workload balancing.

If you plan on replicating WebSphere Commerce Search, ensure that you consider the following replication recommendations:
  • Setup one master search index server to hold the master index, which is then replicated to all the search servers that take search traffic. That is, there typically exists a dedicated index-building machine, which is known as the master, to build the index. There can only be one master; it cannot exist on multiple nodes in clustered environments. The master replicates the index to other search engine machines, which are known as targets. The runtime search performance is not affected during the index-building.
  • Set up the master search index server and subordinate search index server (separately) on the same operating system. This set up ensures easier file copy operations between servers.
  • Every deployment manager that has a copy of Solr federated to it, must also have a WebSphere Commerce environment federated to it. Otherwise, fixes and maintenance must be manually applied to each node.
  1. Cluster your WebSphere Commerce Search environment and copy the WebSphere Commerce Search files to the nodes:
    1. Follow the steps in Clustering your WebSphere Commerce environment.
    2. Copy the solrhome directory from your master machine to all the search nodes. This copying ensures that the master and subordinate machines all contain the search index data, and that they work together as a cluster.
  2. Update the solr.solr.home value. If more than one node exists, update the value for each node.
    1. Log on the WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Administration Console server.
    2. Expand Servers > Server Types > Application servers.
    3. Select solrWebserver > Process definition > Java Virtual Machine > Custom properties.
    4. Update the value of solr.solr.home to the correct value.
      For example, /opt/WebSphere/CommerceServer80/instances/demo/search/solr/home.