Configure the service bus

Service integration buses

A service integration bus supports applications using message-based and service-oriented architectures. A bus is a group of one or more interconnected servers or server clusters that are members of the bus. Applications connect to a bus at one of the messaging engines associated with its bus members.

The following capabilities are provided by a service integration bus:

·         Any application can exchange messages with any other application by using a destination to which one application sends, and from which the other application receives.

·         A message-producing application, that is, a producer, can produce messages for a destination regardless of which messaging engine the producer uses to connect to the bus.

·         A message-consuming application, that is, a consumer, can consume messages from a destination (whenever that destination is available) regardless of which messaging engine the consumer uses to connect to the bus.

A service integration bus comprises a SIB Service, which is available on each application server in the WebSphere Application Server environment. By default, the SIB Service is disabled. This means that when a server starts it does not have any messaging capability. The SIB Service is automatically enabled when you add the server to a service integration bus. You can choose to disable the service again by configuring the server.

A service integration bus supports asynchronous messaging; that is, sending messages asynchronously. Asynchronous messaging is possible regardless of whether the consuming application is running or not, or if the destination is available or not. Point-to-point and publish/subscribe messaging are also supported.

After an application has connected to the bus, the bus behaves as a single logical entity and the connected application does not need to be aware of the bus topology. In many cases, connecting to the bus and defining bus resources is handled by an application programming interface (API) abstraction, for example the administered JMS connection factory and JMS destination objects.

The service integration bus is sometimes referred to as the messaging bus if it is used to provide the messaging system for JMS applications using the default messaging provide.

Many scenarios require a simple bus topology; perhaps, for example, a single server. By adding multiple servers to a single bus, you can increase the number of connection points for applications to use. By adding server clusters as members of a bus, you can increase scalability and achieve high availability. Servers, however, do not have to be bus members to connect to a bus. In more complex bus topologies, multiple buses are configured, and may be interconnected to form complex networks. An enterprise might deploy multiple interconnected buses for organizational reasons. For example, an enterprise with several autonomous departments might want to have separately administered buses in each location.

Configure the service bus

To configure the service bus, do the following:

1.       From the WebSphere Administrative Console, select Service integration > Buses.

2.       Click New.

3.       Enter the following and then click OK:

– Name: IBASampleBus

– Uncheck Secure.

4.       Click Save and then when prompted click Save to Save to Master Configuration.