IBM BS029ML, WebSphere Portal V6 Self Help Manual

Front cover

IBM WebSphere Portal V6
Self Help Guide

Key recommendations for optimal
configuration and use

Problem avoidance,
determination, and resolution

Best practices for security
and maintenance

Philip Monson

Fang Feng

Jerry Dancy

Shadi Albouyeh

Chakravarthy Kunapareddy

Stephanie Martin

James Roca

John Chambers

ibm.com/redbooks

Redpaper

International Technical Support Organization

IBM WebSphere Portal V6 Self Help Guide

January 2008

REDP-4339-00

Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in “Notices” on
page vii.

First Edition (January 2008)

This edition applies to IBM WebSphere Portal Version 6.

© Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2008. All rights reserved.

Note to U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule
Contract with IBM Corp.

Contents

Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

The team that wrote this Redpaper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Become a published author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .x

Comments welcome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Chapter 1. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 Purpose of this Redpaper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.2 IBM WebSphere Portal Server overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.3 What is new in WebSphere Portal Version 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.4 Administration improvements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1.5 Structure of the Redpaper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Chapter 2. Architecture and planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2.1 Building the right Portal architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

2.1.1 Addressing functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

2.1.2 Addressing integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

2.1.3 Technology choices for connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2.1.4 The System Context Diagram. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2.1.5 Addressing non-functional requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

2.1.6 Frequently asked questions about sizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

2.2 The building blocks of an architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2.2.1 Logical Deployment Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

2.2.2 Node characterization at the specification level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2.3 Operational architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

2.3.1 Adopting a tiered architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

2.3.2 Addressing scaleability and high availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

2.4 Portal deployment considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

2.4.1 In-situ maintenance procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

2.4.2 Two sets of production environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

2.4.3 The dual cluster with two lines of production architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

2.4.4 Moving a configuration between environments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

2.5 Architecting for performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

2.5.1 Scalability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

2.5.2 Guidance regarding vertical and horizontal scaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

2.5.3 WebSphere queuing mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

2.5.4 Choosing a platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

2.5.5 Separation of WCM from Portal Servers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

2.5.6 Separation of Web servers and WebSphere Portal Servers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

2.5.7 JVM recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

2.5.8 Portlet application JVM considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

2.5.9 High availability and HTTPSession failover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

2.6 Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

2.6.1 WebSphere Portal Server security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

2.6.2 Using External Security Managers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

2.6.3 Single Sign-On (SSO) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

2.6.4 Trust Association with WebSEAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved. iii

2.6.5 LTPA token generation with WebSEAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

2.6.6 Other Tivoli Access Manager considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

2.6.7 LDAP Directory Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

2.7 Database considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

2.7.1 WebSphere Portal Server database disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

2.7.2 Database domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

2.7.3 Distinct databases or distinct schemas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

2.7.4 Database high availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

2.8 Portal planning recommendations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

2.8.1 Recommendations for a successful implementation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Chapter 3. WebSphere Portal installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

3.1 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

3.1.1 How do I prepare my system for installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

3.1.2 What is about to happen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

3.1.3 Where do I begin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

3.1.4 Is it working . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

3.2 Database transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

3.2.1 Planning and considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

3.2.2 How do I prepare for the database transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

3.2.3 What is about to happen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

3.2.4 Is it working . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

3.3 Enable security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

3.3.1 Planning and considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

3.3.2 How do I prepare for WebSphere Portal Server LDAP security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

3.3.3 What is about to happen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

3.3.4 Is it working . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

3.4 Problem determination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

3.4.1 Installation problem determination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

3.4.2 Database transfer problem determination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

3.4.3 LDAP security problem determination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Chapter 4. WebSphere Portal security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

4.1 Planning and considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

4.1.1 The basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

4.1.2 WebSphere Member Manager (WMM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

4.1.3 User registry and member repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

4.1.4 Single sign-on (SSO) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

4.1.5 WebSphere Portal login process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

4.1.6 Portal Access Control (PAC). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

4.1.7 Secure communications over SSL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

4.1.8 Integration with Tivoli Access Manager and WebSEAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

4.2 Security configurations and customizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

4.2.1 The default security configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

4.2.2 Reconfigure security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

4.2.3 Change user IDs and passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

4.2.4 Adding application specific attributes to users and groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

4.2.5 Integration with Tivoli Access Manager (TAM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

4.3 Problem determination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

4.3.1 General problem determination recommendations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

4.3.2 Typical portal traces for different security scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

4.3.3 Tools for troubleshooting security problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

4.3.4 Anatomy of configuration files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

iv IBM WebSphere Portal V6 Self Help Guide

4.3.5 Reading portal runtime logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

4.3.6 Typical security configuration problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Chapter 5. WebSphere Portal runtime and services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

5.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

5.1.1 Portal runtime architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

5.1.2 Portal foundation and framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

5.1.3 Portal Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

5.2 Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

5.2.1 Knowing where to start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

5.2.2 Tuning advice for the IBM Java Virtual Machine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

5.2.3 Tuning advice for the SUN Microsystems Java Virtual Machine (JVM) . . . . . . . 145

5.2.4 WebSphere resource pools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

5.2.5 Web container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

5.2.6 Data source tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

5.2.7 WebSphere security tuning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

5.2.8 WebSphere session management tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

5.2.9 WebSphere Member Manager tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

5.2.10 Portal configuration services tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

5.3 Problem determination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

5.3.1 Identify the failing component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

5.3.2 JVM problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

5.3.3 Some common problems and workarounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

5.4 Portal administration tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

5.5 Runtime monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

5.5.1 What to monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

5.5.2 Useful resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Appendix A. Using IBM tools to find solutions and promote customer self-help . . 169

IBM Support Assistant (ISA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

How does ISA help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

How do I obtain, install, and access ISA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Best practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Use case examples - Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Use case examples - Product Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Use case examples - Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Use case examples - Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

IBM support site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

How does the support site help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

How can I access the support site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Best practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

IBM online communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

How do online communities help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

How can I access the online communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Best practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

IBM RSS feeds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

How do RSS feeds help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

How can I access the IBM RSS feeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Best practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

IBM Support Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

How does the IBM Support Toolbar help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

How can I obtain the IBM Support Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Contents v

IBM Education Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

How does the IBM Education Assistant help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

How can I access the IBM Education Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Best practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

IBM Guided Activity Assistant (IGAA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

How does the IBM Guided Activity Assistant help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

How can I access the IBM Guided Activity Assistant (IGAA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Best practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Appendix B. Maintenance: Fix strategy, backup strategy, and migration strategy. . 207

Backup strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Overview of the backup process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Our approach to backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Some additional best practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Fix strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Overview of the maintenance strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Our approach to maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Overview of the fix strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Our approach to fixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Some additional best practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Migration strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

What is about to happen: a simple overview of the migration process . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Where do you start: planning and considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Is it working: verify the migration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

When a problem occurs: troubleshooting techniques to help identify the problem . . . . 221

Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Post migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

How to find a solution: using IBM Self-Help tools and support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

What is next: typical next steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Related publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

IBM Redbooks publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Other publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

How to get IBM Redbooks publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Help from IBM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

vi IBM WebSphere Portal V6 Self Help Guide

Notices

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© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved. vii

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The following terms are trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation in the United States,
other countries, or both:

AIX 5L™
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Cloudscape™
developerWorks®
Domino®
DB2®
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i5/OS®

IBM®
Lotus®
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Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

viii IBM WebSphere Portal V6 Self Help Guide

Preface

This IBM® Redpaper focuses on considerations for the optimal configuration and use of IBM
WebSphere® Portal Server. We provide you with the information you need to deploy and
manage your WebSphere Portal infrastructure, with the goal of problem avoidance. However,
if issues occur, the reader is introduced to the various tools and techniques for problem
determination and problem solving, including obtaining and installing fixes, how to contact
support, and what type of information you should provide before engagement.

This guide is a must have resource for IT architects and administrators throughout the life
cycle of a WebSphere Portal environment, from conception and planning to use and
maintenance

The team that wrote this Redpaper

This Redpaper was produced by a team of specialists from around the world working at the
International Technical Support Organization, Cambridge, MA.Center.

Philip Monson is a Project Leader at the ITSO Lotus® Center in Cambridge MA. Phil has
been with Lotus / IBM for 17 years, joining the company when the early versions of Notes
were rolled out for internal use only. He has served in management, technical, and consulting
roles in the IT, Sales, and Development organizations.

Fang Feng is an Advisory Software Engineer in the IBM Software Group. He joined the
WebSphere Portal Level 2 support team in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, in 2002.
His areas of expertise include Portal security, system administration, WebSphere Member
Manager, and XMLaccess. He has been working with IBM for 11 years. He holds a Doctor of
Philosophy in Computer Science from Texas A&M University.

Jerry Dancy is a Senior IT Specialist who works as a Technical Lead for the WebSphere
Portal Server Level 2 Support team. He has five years of experience in WebSphere Portal
Server support and previously worked as an Oracle® DBA for four years. He holds a degree
in Accounting and CIS from Appalachian State University. His areas of expertise include
installation, upgrading, configuration, and clustering of WebSphere Portal. He also has
worked on and has led many projects to improve WebSphere Portal Server serviceability. He
has written extensively on WebSphere Portal Server installation, configuration, and
clustering. Jerry is also an author of the IBM Redbooks® publications WebSphere Portal V5.0

Production Deployment and Operations Guide, SG24-6391 and WebSphere Portal Version 6
Enterprise Scale Deployment Best Practices, SG24-7387.

Shadi Albouyeh is an experienced WebSphere Portal Software Engineer. She has been
working in WebSphere Portal support for over four years since graduating with a B.S degree
in Computer Science from North Carolina State University (Raleigh). She is currently the
Team Lead of the Portal-Install L2 support team and has previously worked on the
WebSphere Portal-API L2 support team. She focuses now on the WebSphere Portal
Installation and Configuration aspect of the product, supporting customers with installation
and configuration, clustering, enabling security, database transfer, Fix Pack installs, and
upgrades.

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved. ix

Chakravarthy Kunapareddy is a Senior technical consultant and an IBM certified
professional working with Ascendant Technology (http://www.atech.com), a premier IBM
Business Partner. He has over six years of consulting experience with the IBM suite of
products of WebSphere Portal, WebSphere Application Server, Tivoli® Access Manager,
DB2®, and WebContent Management. He is an experienced infrastructure consultant with
expertise in planning, architecture, installation, configuration, deployment, and
troubleshooting. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science and Engineering from
Bharathidasan University, India.

Stephanie Martin is a Systems Integration Professional in IBM Integrated Technology
Division. Since joining IBM in 2001, she has worked in the IBM Early Deployment Center
(EDC), designing and implementing beta, proof of concept, and enterprise scale solutions of
Lotus software offerings. She currently acts as the EDC's Infrastructure and Administration
lead for the award-winning IBM Workplace™ for Customer Support Portal.

James Roca is a Senior Consulting IT Architect with the IBM Software Group. He has spent
the last two and a half years assigned to the Asia Pacific region to build and promote
technical skills, and to champion leading edge Portal architectures. Previously, James worked
at the IBM China Software Development Lab and the IBM Hursley Development Lab, in the
capacity of IT Architect and Solution Consultant. He jointly developed the Portal Perform
guide for the IBM EMEA geography. He is also credited with developing the Portal Build &
Validate method, which, when adopted, minimizes implementation failure. Most recently,
James took over as the Leader at Large of the IBM Worldwide Portal Community. James
previously co-authored the WebSphere V3.5 Handbook, SG24-6161 and IBM WebSphere
V4.0 Advanced Edition Security, SG24-6520.

John Chambers is a Knowledge Engineer for IBM WebSphere Portal support in the US. He
has been supporting WebSphere Portal for more than six years and is currently focusing on
improving the quality of support content, self-help information, and tools available to
customers. John has been with IBM support for 12 years, since receiving his degree in
Geology from Guilford College in North Carolina.

Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:

Thomas Hurek, WebSphere Portal Chief Programmer Fix Packs and Architectural Lead L3,
IBM Software Group

William Trotman, WebSphere Portal L2 Support, IBM Software Group

Lauren Wendel, Product Manager - WebSphere Portal, IBM Software Group

Flemming T Christensen, Technical Quality Champion - Lotus, IBM Software Group

Walter Haenel, Portal Architect for Deployment and Operations, IBM Software Group

Yen Li Yong, IBM Software Services, IBM Software Group, IBM Malaysia.

Brett Gordon, WebSphere Portal L2 Support, IBM Software Group

Become a published author

Join us for a two- to six-week residency program! Help write a book dealing with specific
products or solutions, while getting hands-on experience with leading-edge technologies. You
will have the opportunity to team with IBM technical professionals, Business Partners, and
Clients.

x IBM WebSphere Portal V6 Self Help Guide

Your efforts will help increase product acceptance and customer satisfaction. As a bonus, you
will develop a network of contacts in IBM development labs, and increase your productivity
and marketability.

Find out more about the residency program, browse the residency index, and apply online at:

ibm.com/redbooks/residencies.html

Comments welcome

Your comments are important to us!

We want our papers to be as helpful as possible. Send us your comments about this paper or
other IBM Redbooks publications in one of the following ways:

򐂰 Use the online Contact us review form found at:

ibm.com/redbooks

򐂰 Send your comments in an e-mail to:

[e-mail]

򐂰 Mail your comments to:

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Dept. HYTD Mail Station P099
2455 South Road
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601-5400

Preface xi

xii IBM WebSphere Portal V6 Self Help Guide

Chapter 1. Introduction

This chapter provides you with an overview of this Redpaper, highlights some of the new
features in IBM WebSphere Portal Version 6, and provides a general description of what will
be covered in each chapter.

1

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved. 1

1.1 Purpose of this Redpaper

The WebSphere Portal Self Help Guide focuses on the who, what, where, when, and why of a
WebSphere Portal Server Version 6 deployment. The goal of this guide is to introduce and
explain the various scenarios that you should consider before, during, and after the
installation of WebSphere Portal Server. Our mission as authors is to arm you with the
conceptual information that you need to deploy and manage your portal infrastructure, with
the goal of problem avoidance. We do recognize that even in the best of circumstances
problems can occur, so we also introduce you to various tools and techniques for problem
determination and problem solving, including obtaining and installing fixes, how to contact
support, and what type of information you should provide before engagement.

For the purposes of this Redpaper, our concentration is focused on the underlying framework
that composes the WebSphere Portal Server core (that is, access control, integration,
administration, and presentation). Our goal is to assist you in answering such questions as:

򐂰 What tools can I use to obtain sizing estimates for my portal environment?

򐂰 When/Why should I convert my portal server(s) from Cloudscape™ to an external

database?

򐂰 What can I do to optimize the runtime in my portal environment?

򐂰 How do I convert my portal server(s) from a test LDAP to a production LDAP?

򐂰 Why are dual lines of production important in a portal cluster?

For customers looking to leverage the additional services and features that WebSphere Portal
offers, we do provide information about recommended supplemental materials that help make
up WebSphere Portal’s portfolio, such as WebSphere Content Management, Portal
Document Manager, and Personalization, among others.

For customers who are looking to install and configure a enterprise deployment of
WebSphere Portal Server Version 6, refer to the IBM Redbooks publication, WebSphere
Portal Version 6 Enterprise Scale Deployment Best Practices, SG24-7387.

For existing customers looking for a step-by-step guide to migrate their WebSphere Portal
Server environment from Version 5.1 to Version 6, we encourage you to read the Redpaper
IBM WebSphere Portal V6: Best Practices for Migrating from V5.1, REDP-4227.

This Redpaper is oriented toward Portal Administrators and IT Architects at all levels of
administration and architectural design. A working knowledge of J2EE™ Architecture and
WebSphere Application Server administration, as well as a basic understanding of Java™
programming concepts, are assumed.

2 IBM WebSphere Portal V6 Self Help Guide

1.2 IBM WebSphere Portal Server overview

Figure 1-1 shows an overview of IBM accelerators for WebSphere Portal.

Figure 1-1 IBM Accelerators for WebSphere Portal

IBM WebSphere Portal Version 6 is an enterprise portal solution with the complete portal
services that are necessary to deliver a single point of personalized interaction to
applications, content, business processes, and people for a unified user experience.
WebSphere Portal improves overall productivity and customer satisfaction. WebSphere Portal
provides for improved operational efficiency and productivity, as well as accelerated
application and content deployment, by integrating some of the best technology that IBM has
to offer. WebSphere Portal is a responsive and reliable portal platform, with a wealth of
solutions available to address the needs of your On Demand Business, all from a recognized
leader in the enterprise portal market.

Chapter 1. Introduction 3

1.3 What is new in WebSphere Portal Version 6

Figure 1-2 shows an example of a business portal solution.

Figure 1-2 Example of business portal solution

IBM WebSphere Portal Version 6.0 delivers new features, functions, and performance that
helps to improve the efficiency of your organization, the speed of your application
deployment, and the utilization of your IT assets.

Some of the new features in Version 6 include:

򐂰 A new user interface featuring AJAX and drag and drop customizations to help portal

users accomplish more with fewer clicks.

򐂰 Portal Applications can be enhanced with orchestrated flow and electronic forms services

that allow employees, partners, and customers to execute transactions faster.

򐂰 Application templating and easier portlet development accelerates application deployment

and customization through the innovative use of services-oriented architecture (SOA).

򐂰 Inline content editing and powerful personalization help increase employee productivity

and customer satisfaction.

򐂰 Intuitive administration tools and performance improvements deliver responsiveness and

reliability at lower cost.

򐂰 A set of add-on business-ready packages or “accelerators” that support a quicker ROI and

shorter implementation for specific business problems.

򐂰 Improved operational efficiency and productivity by linking the right people, process, and

information so transactions are executed quickly and accurately.

򐂰 Accelerated application and content deployment through new tools and the innovative use

of services oriented architecture (SOA).

򐂰 Lower overall cost of portal deployment with faster performance and easier administration.

4 IBM WebSphere Portal V6 Self Help Guide

򐂰 Responsiveness and reliability, delivered by a leader in the enterprise portal market.

1.4 Administration improvements

There are a number of enhancements and new features in Version 6 that are central to
administration. Some of the highlights include:

򐂰 Portal configuration management integrated with WebSphere Application Server

configuration management for easier operation of clustered portal installation, less manual
steps, and reduced risk for failure.

򐂰 Attribute Based Administration: Provides the option Use Personalization Rules to show or

hide pages and portlets based on user attributes. Visibility Rules allows administrators the
option to display Web content based on any type of information, including LDAP attributes,
time of day, or session information.

򐂰 Multiple LDAP support: Realms can now be pointed to one user registry or multiple user

registries, reducing the need for investing and implementing a directory consolidation
solution.

򐂰 Data Domains: Portal now allows the separation of portal data into multiple domains.

Domains can be shared across multiple independent lines of production, aligning with the
24/7 requirements of an enterprise scale deployment.

򐂰 Web Content Management Clustering: Multiple nodes can share the same repository

(JCR), providing a single point of administration for multiple WCM servers.

򐂰 Policies: Simple management by assigning policies to control the behavior of a resource.

򐂰 Domino® and Extended products: Configuration of Domino and Extended Products and

portlets is now automated by the Domino-Portal Integration Wizard, saving manual steps
for the administrator.

򐂰 WebSphere Process Server support for most platforms: As of WebSphere Process Server

Version 6.0.2, remote connectivity through the process server client can now be done from
WebSphere Portal Server; also, single server installations of process portal can now be
federated and clustered.

Chapter 1. Introduction 5

1.5 Structure of the Redpaper

Figure 1-3 gives an overview of the structure of this Redpaper.

Planning

and

Architecture

Maintenance

Installation

and

Configuration

Self
Help

Tools and
Additional

Resources

Performance

and

Runtime

Figure 1-3 Structure of this guide

This section describes how the Redpaper was constructed and provides a summary of the
information that is contained within the chapters.

Regardless of the complexity of your deployment, the greatest factor in how successful a
customer solution will be is how well it is planned. In Chapter 2, “Architecture and planning”
on page 9, we provide a roadmap discuss the planning and design of your WebSphere Portal
environment. Project Managers, Business Sponsors, Software Developers, and other key
stakeholders in your organization are strongly encouraged to review the material covered
here.

Security

Chapter 3, “WebSphere Portal installation” on page 55” covers the installation and
configuration of WebSphere Portal Server using the flexible deployment options for the most
common topologies.

WebSphere Portal Server provides a number of mechanisms to help keep your assets
protected. In Chapter 4, “WebSphere Portal security” on page 85, we discuss the different
components in WebSphere Portal that provide the security features and how they can be
integrated into your infrastructure to provide a secure solution.

A Web portal is an integrated solution that requires the collaboration of many teams to
implement. Any low-peforming part of the integrated solution can cause overall portal
performance degradation. In Chapter 5, “WebSphere Portal runtime and services” on
page 137”, we discuss how topology, application design, back- and front-end resources, and
other factors can greatly impact the user experience and provide information about
monitoring tools that can help to prevent bottlenecks.

6 IBM WebSphere Portal V6 Self Help Guide

Functional challenges, can affect even the best thought out and executed deployments. In
Appendix A, “Using IBM tools to find solutions and promote customer self-help” on page 169,
we discuss the usage of the various support tools to enable customers to self- recover from
operational challenges more quickly.

Appendix B, “Maintenance: Fix strategy, backup strategy, and migration strategy” on page 207
is broken up into three parts: maintenance, backup, and migration. For the maintenance
portion, we show you how staying current with the latest maintenance releases to leverage
the included fixes to preventively fixes issues, and when to switch to later releases to
introduce additional features. Performing regular backups is the surest way to protect your
systems and critical data from loss due to hardware/software failure. The information and
guidelines presented in Appendix B, “Maintenance: Fix strategy, backup strategy, and
migration strategy” on page 207 on backup strategy are provided to help you to understand
your backup software and hardware options, and encourage you to perform system backups
regularly. Finally, in the Migration section, we briefly discuss the migration path for
WebSphere Portal Server Version 5.1 customers looking to migrate to WebSphere Portal
Server Version 6 and the tools and resources available to help you in planning and
implementation.

Chapter 1. Introduction 7

8 IBM WebSphere Portal V6 Self Help Guide

Chapter 2. Architecture and planning

IBM understands and recognizes that many customers need to make important decisions
about their WebSphere Portal Server solution, both prior to and during a deployment.

With intimate knowledge of the challenges and pitfalls that go hand in hand with managing
many large scale WebSphere Portal deployments, this chapter sets out to provide the reader
with an informed approach to planning, architecting, and implementing a successful Portal
deployment.

2

Although this chapter is written with a bias towards enterprise scale WebSphere Portal Server
deployments, the principles nevertheless remain applicable to smaller deployments.

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008. All rights reserved. 9

2.1 Building the right Portal architecture

WebSphere Portal Server architectures come in many shapes and forms. This is in part
attributed to the demands of modern day e-business, where the need to establish a robust,
open, scalable, and strategic infrastructure platform to set the standard for system reuse and
interoperability exists. WebSphere Portal Server achieves all of these goals through the
establishment of an extensible framework of services, and then, by being deployed as an
Enterprise Application on top of either WebSphere Application Server or WebSphere Process
Server (certain restrictions apply).

Leveraging upon the strengths of the underlying WebSphere technology make it possible for
WebSphere Portal Server to support everything from the small workgroup (WebSphere Portal
Express) to the high-volume enterprise, to the geographically distributed Portal. Indeed, IBM
recognizes that “one size does not fit all” when it comes to planning and architecting a Portal
solution.

To the experienced Portal Solution team, functional and operation aspects need to be
considered with equal rigor and importance when implementing a successful Portal solution.

It is acknowledged that the principles of good architectural design and development go hand
in hand with the adoption of a suitable methodology. Indeed, the IBM Global Services Method
(GS-Method or GSM) has been the basis for many successful WebSphere Portal Server
deployments. However, the merits and application of such methodologies are beyond the
scope of this particular Redpaper.

2.1.1 Addressing functionality

Functionality remains the main driving force behind many of the systems and solutions that
we use each day. Without functionality, a system or solution fast becomes obsolete. Portals
are no exception to this rule.

Although no specific functional requirements are documented within this chapter, as
attempting to do so would prove futile given the uniqueness of many WebSphere Portal
Server deployments, one can dramatically improve the success factor of a deployment by
accurately capturing conditions such as the following:

򐂰 What the specific applications, services, or products are that a WebSphere Portal Server

implementation should support.

򐂰 What the high level capabilities are that an implementation should have, for example,

security, user collaboration, user interface, and so on.

򐂰 What the general use cases are that best describe the business functionality required from

the implementation.

2.1.2 Addressing integration

Integration is not a trivial issue and requires time and effort to accurately establish the most
appropriate solution. A good WebSphere Portal Server architecture, therefore, addresses
integration as early on in a project as possible.

WebSphere Portal Server integration can be loosely classified into the following three
categories.

10 IBM WebSphere Portal V6 Self Help Guide

Presentation Integration

This integration approach represents the simplest method of incorporating content into a
WebSphere Portal Server deployment and is based solely upon the ability to screen scrape,
either through the deployment of an iFrame or Web Clipping Portlet, existing visual content
served by one or more back-end servers. This approach, however, has the severe drawback
that content cannot be personalized or manipulated in any shape or form. Furthermore, in
terms of overall performance, presentation integration does not normally sit well with
enterprise scale deployments due to the lack of any type of brokerage or connection pooling
mechanism for reducing the amount of back-end requests. For example, a Portal page
containing two iFrame portlets will result in two separate back-end calls for a single Portal
page request. This is irrespective of whether the content is served by the same back-end
server or not.

Application or Programmatic Integration

At a high-level, Application or Programmatic Integration provides for the very dexterity that
Presentation Integration does not. Furthermore, because Application or Programmatic
Integration lets you represent information in whatever shape or form is most appropriate to
your target audience, it is the perfect solution for most implementations. The key to achieving
this is the ability to dictate, through a custom coding effort, what happens to the actual data of
a request. This extends to both the presentation and business logic aspects of an application,
for which the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern is arguably the most well known
programming concept. One drawback with this integration approach is the amount of effort
required to create such custom developed components. This can be particularly challenging
when an organization’s core business is other than software development. Indeed, most
organizations can no longer afford the time or the cost of development to write new
applications each time their business requirements change. Instead, they prefer to purchase
Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) portlets or to use wizard driven development, as found in
IBM Rational® Application Developer and IBM Portlet Factory.

Middleware Integration

In a subtle distinction from Application or Programmatic Integration, Middleware Integration
commonly involves the deployment of an intermediary. Such an intermediary may perform
queuing, routing, transformation, workflow, or even business choreography. In addition, an
intermediary maybe used to attain a specific QoS (Quality of Service) or to provide a layer of
abstraction between participants in an implementation. Middleware can also be used to
bridge the gap between different technologies, standards, and even vendors.

2.1.3 Technology choices for connectivity

When considering the various types of integration applicable to a WebSphere Portal Server
deployment, it is also often helpful to understand which type of connectivity best suits the
actual approach. It is also worth remembering that non-technical factors, such as available
skill set and standards within an organization, may influence the choice of a particular type of
connectivity.

Web Services

Web Services are based on an open-standards way of defining and invoking a service. The
implementation of the requestor and provider are hidden from each other, allowing portability
in implementation. The coupling is based on the service interface and a variety of transport
protocols can be used. Both synchronous and asynchronous communication is possible, but
each service defines the mode it supports. The basic stack is comprised of HTTP, XML,
SOAP, WSDL, UDDI, and WSFL. Web Services can employ XML as an encoding schema
that is widely adopted. They are relatively “heavy” to implement, and are best suited to

Chapter 2. Architecture and planning 11

inter-enterprise communication, or adopted as an enterprise wide standard for leveraging an
ESB, for example. Web services are not built to be high performing, so are not suitable for
transactions that require very large throughput.

Messaging

Messaging interfaces such as WebSphere MQ and JMS are based on the asynchronous
exchange of messages between producers and consumers. Point-to-Point and
Publish-Subscribe communication patterns are provided. Messages are placed on a queue
by the sending application, and those messages are then consumed by a receiving
application. With messaging, you take advantage of a simple and common API. You adopt
industry-standard programming models and you make these available on a selection of
operating systems. Messaging provides assured delivery for business critical information.
Messaging provides asynchronous (as well as synchronous) processing for loose coupling of
applications and control of the rate at which information is processed.

Adapters

Adapters provide access to business logic in a tightly coupled manner. An adapter is specific
to a particular Enterprise Information System (EIS) and generally requires client code to be
written to parse the proprietary format of the data provided by the EIS. However, this tight
coupling allows an adapter to map security, transaction information, and other Quality of
Service information between the client and the EIS based on the well-established capabilities
of EIS gateways. While adapters typically provide a synchronous interface, the latest
specifications define an asynchronous mode as well, and some adapters implement this
mode.

Table 2-1 gives you some comparisons between the connectivity types.

Table 2-1 Connectivity comparisons

Web Services Messaging Adapters

Interface Coupling Tight. No. An application may

process a variety of
messages.

Transport Coupling Loose. Tight. Tight.

Implementation
Portability

Security Standards defined -

Transaction Support Standards defined -

Synchronous
Invocation

Asynchronous
Invocation

Event Driven Ye s . Ye s . E I S - s p e c i f i c .

Ye s . Ye s . N o .

Vendor-specific. EIS-specific.
Not universally
implemented.

Limited in scope to
Not universally
implemented.

Yes. Custom

Ye s . Ye s . E I S - s p e c i f i c .

queue entry point.

implementation.

Tight.

Ye s .

No.

Reliable Payload
Delivery

12 IBM WebSphere Portal V6 Self Help Guide

Standard Defined. Yes. EIS-specific -

Functionality provided
by actual adapters.

The following recommendations are made with regards to the selection of the most
appropriate connectivity technology:

򐂰 Use Web Services when portability or interface standardization is a prime concern.

򐂰 Use Messaging when high QoS constraints and loose coupling or asynchronous

invocation is needed.

򐂰 Use JCA when high QoS constraints and synchronous invocation are needed.

2.1.4 The System Context Diagram

If there is one diagram that can simplistically represent a WebSphere Portal Server
implementation, or for that matter any other generic software implementation, then it is the
System Context Diagram, as shown in Figure 2-1.

Authenticated

Users

Anonymous

Users

Administrators

Content
Authors

Content

Developers

….

Figure 2-1 System Context Diagram

Portal

Implementation

PDM

WCM

TAM

System A

System B

….

….

Figure 2-1 illustrates the various system components and most significant roles of the
system. Besides that, it helps to identify in high level terms the systems to which a
deployment interfaces. Table 2-2 further explains the various system components and roles.

Table 2-2 System Context Diagram

System Component / Roles Description

Anonymous Users An Anonymous User has access to the limited external Portal

Authenticated Users An Authenticated User is a user that has logged into the Portal

pages, but never signs into the Portal. Anonymous users can
become authenticated users by logging in.

during their current user session.

Chapter 2. Architecture and planning 13

System Component / Roles Description

Administrators Administrators are responsible for the management of the

Portal. They are responsible for adding new portlets, new pages,
new administrative users, and so on.

Content Developers Content Developers are responsible for creating Web Content

Management (WCM) design artifacts, such as site frameworks,
and authoring and presentation templates.

Content Authors Content Authors are a subset of Authenticated Users that are

delegated the responsibility of creating WCM content.

Content Approver Content Approvers are a subset of Authenticated Users that are

delegated the responsibility of approving WCM content. Such
users approve or reject content prior to releasing the content for
delivery.

PDM Portal Document Manager (PDM) is a subcomponent of

WebSphere Portal Server responsible for archiving and
managing documents.

WCM Web Content Management (WCM) is a subcomponent of

WebSphere Portal Server responsible for the complete life cycle
of Web content information.

TAM Tivoli Access Manager (TAM) is an External Security Manager

responsible for providing enterprise wide security.

System A System A is responsible for function X.

System B System B is responsible for function Y.

2.1.5 Addressing non-functional requirements

Capturing the non-functional requirements is a preliminary task that not only provides a
starting point for selecting and sizing the physical components of a Portal solution, but also
establishes such key aspects as availability, backup and recovery, disaster recovery, and
systems management. In terms of the former aspects, a resulting sizing estimate is normally
calculated based on those non-functional requirements giving an approximation of the
physical resources required to support the proposed implementation. Of course, many factors
influence the selection of the physical resources and actual experiences will vary from that of
the sizing estimate for many reasons; the degree of variability can range from the small to the
very significant. For those latter aspects, which by no means are exhaustive, the required
solution characteristics and capabilities take shape and drive the selection of the hardware
and software technologies needed to deliver the proposed implementation, within the
constraints of technology, skills, and budget.

Unfortunately, the non-functional requirements of a solution also tend to be treated as
"second-class citizens" because they do not add any new or improved functionality. Thus,
they typically do not receive the proper attention of executives, the project manager, or even
the technical team. However, a project must address the likes of availability and performance
in all phases of a project life cycle to be successful.

For those customers finding themselves in the unfortunate situation of having selected and
purchased “bare metal: systems, without having undertaken a thorough non-functional
requirements study, the degree of usefulness attributed to fully capturing the non-functional
requirements at a later stage is somewhat limited. There remain a number of key objectives
that the implementation should strive to meet.

14 IBM WebSphere Portal V6 Self Help Guide

The following non-functional requirements are documented to articulate the critical elements
of a successful implementation:

򐂰 Availability

򐂰 Backup and Recovery

򐂰 Capacity Estimates and Planning

򐂰 Disaster Recovery

򐂰 Extensibility/Flexibility

򐂰 Failure Management

򐂰 Performance

򐂰 Scalability

򐂰 Security

򐂰 Service Level Agreements

򐂰 Standards

򐂰 System Management

򐂰 Usability

Tip: A non-functional requirement is not well specified if it is not specific or measurable.
Attainability and measurability are checks that should be performed against each
requirement. A requirement should only be included if it is attainable and realizable.

2.1.6 Frequently asked questions about sizing

The most frequently asked questions in terms of non-functional requirements are typically
those regarding sizing or capacity planning. For example, given a specific Portal deployment
and an anticipated traffic load, what kind of configuration will satisfy the sizing requirements?
For example, Customer X has an initial registered user base of 20,000 potential users. This
figure is however envisaged to rise to 40,000 users in two years time and potentially to an
upper bound of around 60,000 registered users after that. Therefore, the need to architect a
platform that can scale to accommodate the growth forecasted for the next two to five years
exists.

It is important to understand that the definition of the registered user base does not actually
impact the number of users or clients concurrently accessing the solution. Rather, the
registered user base is just the user population that may access the solution at any given
point in time. Internally, WebSphere Portal Server maintains a database entry for all
registered users after their initial login. No constraint, other than the size of the database table
and the size of the selected LDAP user repository, should impede the growth of the registered
user base. A more meaningful metric when sizing any WebSphere Portal Server solution is
the anticipated number of concurrent users or clients. Typically, such values for the number of
concurrent clients are calculated as a percentage of the registered user base.

For example, based on the current metrics supplied by Customer X for their existing Web
deployment, this figure averages at about 2,500 unique user sessions per hour. This would
imply that only 12.5% of the current registered user base actually interacts with the current
solution. By the same calculation, the number of concurrent clients would increase to 5,000
for the projected growth in the registered user base to 40,000. This assumes that the
percentage of clients using the Portal remains stable at 12.5%. However, careful
consideration needs to be taken into account, as this figure may increase once more
applications and functions are brought online within the Portal solution. As such, for Customer

Chapter 2. Architecture and planning 15

X, the actual anticipated estimated rises to 7,500 concurrent clients after two years time,
which then increases the percentage to 18.75%.

Normally, it is common for business requirements to state that a Portal should be able to
handle X number of clients concurrently.

It is important to distinguish between concurrent clients and concurrent active clients; as
such, terminology is often misinterpreted between different parties. Concurrent active clients
have both an active connection to the HTTP server as well as at least one thread of execution
running in the application server. At any point in time, many of the clients connected to the
Portal are not active; they may be thinking, reading, or even drinking coffee. These are
considered as inactive concurrent clients, or more generically as concurrent clients. Based on
our experience, a good starting point is to assume that for every single concurrent active
client there are approximately 10 concurrent inactive clients (1:10). Theoretically, therefore,
an application server capable of supporting 100 active clients will support approximately 1000
concurrent clients (active + inactive).

This assumption breaks down somewhat when the characteristics of WebSphere Portal
Server shift away from that of being a traditional Web-based solution. For example, a Portal
performing more back-end work will effectively shift the assumed work pattern from that of
being a traditional Web-based solution to that of an On-Line Transaction Processing (OLTP)
solution. Such an OLTP solution will place greater demands on system resources, with a
reduced supporting ratio of approximately 1:5 or less.

A further point of debate between different parties is the understanding of Peak Load or
Arrival Rate. It is important to recognize that it may be necessary to plan for such situations
when many users simultaneously access the Portal solution at the same time. This generally
breaks any rule of thumb for concurrency and is indicative of such situations as logins, each
morning between 8am and 9am, or campaign launches. Under such circumstances, is it only
possible to honor each request by

Planning for the Peak.

Attention: A sizing estimate should only ever be used as an approximation of the
hardware resources required to support the proposed implementation. Actual experiences
may vary from the sizing estimate for many reasons. The degree of variability can range
from small to very significant. As such, there is no substitute for not undertaking a full
capacity planning and performance tuning exercise. Failing to implement this critical part of
any project plan is planning to fail.

2.2 The building blocks of an architecture

When faced with the challenge of architecting a WebSphere Portal Server implementation, it
is often useful to take a high-level approach to first define the logical components that
comprise the very architecture that is about to be designed.

For the experienced IT Architect and Portal Practitioner, this commonly embraces two
aspects of design; the component model and the operational model. Component models are
typically focused on identifying the components, their responsibilities, and characteristics
required to deliver the solution requirements. At a conceptual level, the component model
documents the technical architecture at a very high level and does so in a technology
agnostic manner. At a specification level, the component model documents the required
specifications and corresponding realization of all components, which ultimately will be
placed on the operational model, together with a description of their interfaces, dependencies
and collaborations. In common terminology, the component model addresses the logical

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