HCL Commerce production environment overview

HCL Commerce is separated into different applications that run within Docker containers. HCL provides the following Docker images that you can deploy to run your HCL Commerce application.

Transaction server Docker image

This image contains the Transaction server, running on the WebSphere Application Server. The Transaction server contains the transactional business logic and APIs that serve the other servers of an HCL Commerce application. By default, when you deploy the container, the container is called ts-app.

Note: If you migrate your store from IBM Websphere Commerce Version 7 or IBM Websphere Commerce Version 8, your store is running in the Transaction server Docker, not the Store server Docker.

IBM HTTP Server Docker image

This image contains IBM HTTP Server, which is used as the web server to access the HCL Commerce tooling such as the Management Center and the Administration Console. By default when you deploy the container, the container is called ts-web.

Search server Docker image

This image contains the Search server to run the Solr search index. This image utilizes WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Liberty as its application server. By default when you deploy the container, the container is called search-app.

The Search server Docker image can be set as different search node types:

search-master

Handles indexing from the staging or authoring node, and provides read/write capabilities. Multiple-node configurations are not supported for the search-master; there can be only one. To set the Docker image as the search-master, specify the following Docker parameters:

SOLR_MASTER=true
SOLR_SLAVE=false

search-repeater

Triggers by index replication and synchronizes the index from the search-master. Search-repeater does not provide write capabilities. To set the Docker image as a search-repeater, specify the following Docker parameters:

SOLR_MASTER=true
SOLR_SLAVE=true

search-subordinate

Synchronizes index from the search-repeater. To set the Docker image as the search-subordinate, specify the following Docker parameters:

SOLR_MASTER=false
SOLR_SLAVE=true

Store server Docker image

This image contains the Store server to serve store assets including JSP files, e-Marketing Spots, and images. This image utilizes WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Liberty as its application server. By default when you deploy the container, the container is called crs-app.

Note: If you migrate your store from IBM Websphere Commerce Version 7 or IBM Websphere Commerce Version 8, your store is running in the Transaction server Docker, not the Store server Docker.

Customization server Docker image

This image contains the Customization server, which runs custom code that you can create to extend HCL provided xC extension points. This image utilizes WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Liberty as its application server. By default when you deploy the container, the container is called xc-app.

Utility server Docker image

This image contains a utility project that holds scripts to service HCL Commerce operations such as loading access control policies, loading store data, and cleaning database of obsolete objects. By default when you deploy the container, the container is called ts-utils.

In addition to the Docker images, you will need to use an IBM Db2, or Oracle database. For development and test environments you can use the preconfigured Db2 Docker container.

For more information, see:

You can build on top of the HCL provided Docker images to include custom code, custom configurations, and additional third party certificates. With the HCL Commerce application running on containers, you can deploy new containers separately as needed.

Sample HCL Commerce production system

Assuming that you cluster the containers and you have an authoring and live environment, your system of containers and container interactions might resemble the following scenario with a HCL Commerce Version 9 store on the remote Store server (crs-app):

Note: You might notice that the Transaction server web server (ts-web) does not exist on the live instance. For a native remote HCL Commerce Version 9 store, the ts-web container is not required. Storefront requests are handled directly by the Store server (crs-app). If you need access to HCL Commerce tools directly on the live instance (for example, to make emergency updates to your live store through the tools), then you can also deploy ts-web to your live instance.

If you migrated your store from WebSphere Commerce Version 7 or Version 8, then your store resides on the Transaction server (ts-app) instead of the Store server (crs-app). In this instance, a Transaction server web server (ts-web) is required to serve static assets. For more information, see Migrating a legacy WebSphere Commerce store.

HCL Commerce in production

Ensure that you have a strategy for managing and maintaining the container lifecycle of your production environment. For more information, see Planning your production environment infrastructure.