IBM® Sametime® consists of a variety of servers and clients, and can be deployed to suit many different environments. The deployment instructions are organized by feature set, beginning with the minimum components that are necessary to support instant messaging, and then expanding the deployment to include features such as audio and video support, and conferencing.
You can provide failover and load balancing in your deployment by creating a cluster of multiple IBM® Sametime® servers of the same type. All Sametime servers can be clustered except for the Sametime System Console, and the Video MCU and TURN Server components of the Sametime Media Manager.
Deploy and cluster IBM® Sametime® Bandwidth Manager servers using IBM WebSphere Application Server 7.
Configure load balancing with IP forwarding.
The installation worksheets are organized according to feature area, such as instant messaging, audio video, and common components. Use the installation worksheets to record DNS-registered host names, database names, IP addresses, ports to open, credentials, and other information. The checklist contains sample tables already filled out, and blank tables for you to fill out.
Install an IBM® Sametime® fix by downloading packages and installing with the Update option.
Many IBM® Sametime® servers use common components to support either an individual server or a server cluster. Installation Manager and WebSphere® Network Deployment are required prerequisites for most Sametime servers. DB2® and Sametime System Console must be installed once for the deployment. IBM Load Balancer is used in a clustered environment. Follow the instructions for each type of deployment to determine which common components you need to install.
Instant messaging features are provided primarily by the IBM® Sametime® Community Server, which supports presence, text chats, and two-way phone calls.
Meeting features are provided primarily by the IBM® Sametime® Meeting Server, which creates online "meeting rooms" where users can present information and share applications. If you deploy the Sametime Media Manager, conferences can include audio and video features as well.
Audio and video features are provided primarily by the IBM® Sametime® Media Manager, which supports point-to-point and multipoint calls. The Sametime Media Manager uses standard audio and video codecs so that it works with products from other audio and video vendors.
SIP trunking allows IBM® Sametime® users to make SIP-based phone calls from their installed Sametime clients.
Deploy the First Party Call Control (FPCC) feature by configuring settings in the IBM® Sametime® Connect and Sametime Embedded client installation packages and then distributing the updated packages to users.
Clients in a local IBM® Sametime® community can communicate with users in other communities through the Sametime Gateway.
The IBM® Sametime® Connect client or Sametime Embedded Client has to be installed on users' computers to use instant messaging and meetings. This section explains how to install these clients.
The Apple iOS client is distributed through the Apple App Store. The Android client is no longer available for download from the IBM® Sametime® Proxy Server. Customers with users who are unable to access the Google Play Store should contact IBM Support to request that a build be provided to them directly.
Expand your Sametime® deployment by clustering servers for performance, scalability, high availability, and failover.
IBM® Sametime® Community Server clusters provide redundancy, load balancing, and failover for community Connections. Sametime Community Servers are clustered as part of an IBM Domino® server cluster. A Sametime Community Server can belong to only one cluster.
Configuring a cluster of IBM® Sametime® Proxy Servers involves several tasks, including synchronizing system clocks, configuring the cluster settings, and optionally deploying an IBM Load Balancer in front of the cluster.
Configuring a cluster of IBM® Sametime® Advanced servers involves several tasks, including synchronizing system clocks, configuring the cluster settings, and deploying a load balancer in front of the cluster, either deploying IBM Load Balancer or another load balancer product.
Cluster the IBM® Sametime® Base Meeting Server prior to clustering the other types of Sametime Meeting Servers.
A cluster of Sametime® servers requires a minimum of two nodes, a primary node and a secondary node, and at least one WebSphere® proxy server to handle routing and caching tasks. To reduce the resource load on product nodes and avoid port conflicts, you can choose to install a stand-alone WebSphere proxy server on a separate computer instead of using the instance that was installed on a Sametime node. If you plan to have both the WebSphere Application Server and the WebSphere proxy server on the same computer, ensure it has been properly sized to handle the multiple workloads.
You have the option to adjust the ports of the Meeting Servers so they are consistent within the cluster. Any port can be used as long as it is available on all of the servers and does not create a conflict if there are multiple servers on the same host. Typically the ports used on the primary node are also set on each of the secondary nodes. The point of this process is not to dictate which port is set on the server, but to guide you through setting each of your servers so the ports are consistent.
Configure a virtual host on the Sametime® Meeting Server to avoid conflicts with other Sametime applications
IBM® Sametime® Meeting Server clusters consist of a minimum of two Sametime Meeting Servers and one or more WebSphere® Proxy Servers and are typically fronted by an intelligent load balancer.
Install a load balancer in front of a cluster of IBM® Sametime® Meeting servers to distribute connections among the servers. The cluster should have at least two IBM WebSphere® HTTP proxy servers deployed in front of it, so that the load balancer can direct connections to those proxy servers for forwarding to the individual Sametime servers in the cluster.
The IBM® Sametime® Media Manager includes several components. You can install the components separately and optionally cluster some of them.
IBM® Sametime® Bandwidth Manager has its own deployment manager; it is not managed using the Sametime System Console. The Bandwidth Manager is a WebSphere® Application Server-based server. It is the only server in the Sametime server family which is not installed using the IBM Installation Manager or Install Shield based installer. The WebSphere Application Server and the required prerequisites need to be deployed and configured manually according to the instructions in this documentation. To deploy the Bandwidth Manager, you need to collect the information listed in Table 1 of this topic. It is important to note the version of WebSphere Application Server and the WebSphere Application Server Update Installer.
Create an IBM® DB2® database to store information for the IBM Sametime® Bandwidth Manager.
Install the cell profile and create both the deployment manager and application server profiles for the primary Bandwidth Manager node.
Install WebSphere Application Server on a secondary server.
Create the cluster configuration for an IBM® Sametime® Bandwidth Manager cluster. The two application servers that were just installed need to be clustered together before installing the Sametime Bandwidth Manager software. Ensure that the Deployment Manager is running as well as the node agent on each application server. Services are not created for the node agents, so they are started manually. We will also create services for them in a later step.
To perform routing and caching tasks for an IBM® Sametime® Bandwidth Manager cluster, install IBM WebSphere® Application Server on an additional secondary node, federate it to the cell, and then configure that node for use as a WebSphere SIP proxy server.
Configure an IBM® WebSphere® proxy server to perform routing and caching tasks for a cluster of IBM Sametime® Bandwidth Managers. This task is required regardless of where you install the WebSphere proxy server.
After you have federated a new IBM® Sametime® server node to the Bandwidth Manager cluster, remove the Sametime application but leave the IBM WebSphere® proxy server intact.
After creating a cluster, add the SIP ports of each cluster member to the virtual host alias.
After adding ports to the virtual host names, verify that the host names resolve in DNS.
Configure an IBM® WebSphere® SIP proxy server that fronts Sametime® Media Manager components in a load balancing environment. These instructions are for IP forwarding Load Balancers.
Create an additional set of custom properties on each IBM® WebSphere® proxy server to enable it to work with a Load Balancer. Create the complete set of properties on each WebSphere proxy server.
After creating a Sametime® Bandwidth Manager cluster, add the SIP ports of each cluster member to the virtual host alias.
Configure Java™ Virtual Machine settings for the IBM® WebSphere® proxy server operating in front of a cluster of SIP Proxy/Registrars of the IBM Sametime® Media Manager.
Increase the WebContainer thread pool settings of the IBM® WebSphere® proxy server to match the same settings as the IBM Sametime® Meeting Server.
Associate the IBM® WebSphere® proxy servers with a Windows™ service so that you can configure the WebSphere proxy servers to start when Microsoft™ Windows starts.
Associate the IBM® Sametime® Bandwidth Manager servers with a Microsoft™ Windows™ service so that you can configure the Bandwidth Manager servers to start when Windows starts.
Install the IBM® Sametime® Bandwidth Manager on the primary node. The installer will place the Bandwidth Manager on all secondary nodes without running the installation program on those nodes.
Secure the IBM® Sametime® Bandwidth Manager deployment.
Configure the WebSphere® SIP proxy servers to work with the IBM® Sametime® Bandwidth Manager deployment. The WebSphere SIP proxy servers reside behind the Load Balancer.
Configure IBM® Sametime® Bandwidth Manager to use the Sametime Media Manager's SIP Proxy/Registrar.
Use Transport Layer Security (TLS) to secure the IBM Sametime® Bandwidth Manger. Specify the SIP URI for TLS. Assign a secure port to the HTTP URI and Cluster HTTP URI for the Sametime Bandwidth Manager.
To ensure that the IBM® Sametime® SIP Proxy/Registrar correctly routes communications to the Sametime Bandwidth Manager, create routing rules.
The IBM® Sametime® Bandwidth Manager connects to the Sametime Media Manager's SIP Proxy/Registrar component. To ensure that the SIP Proxy/Registrar trusts the connection, you must add the Bandwidth Manager's IP address to the SIP Proxy/Registrar's com.ibm.ws.sip.security.trusted.iplist custom property.
com.ibm.ws.sip.security.trusted.iplist
Setting up the outbound proxy on the IBM® Sametime® Video Manager redirects all SIP INVITE messages to the Sametime Video MCU through the SIP Proxy/Registrar.
Although IBM® Sametime® TURN Server cannot be clustered for high availability, you can provide some additional service by deploying multiple TURN Servers with a load balancer to distribute the workload.
Install an IP routing load balancer according to the product instructions.
Ensure the security of your IBM® Sametime® deployment by deploying servers in the extranet. Deploying Sametime servers in the extranet allows external clients to access Sametime features without directly connecting to servers deployed in your intranet.
Expand the range of features in your IBM® Sametime® deployment by integrating with other products.