WebSphere eXtreme Scale Best Practices for Operation and Management

156 WebSphere eXtreme Scale Best Practices for Operation and Management

򐂰 Use it to look at the distribution of keys across shards. An uneven distribution of keys can

indicate a poor hashing algorithm for the key that is used. Either use a separate key, or

add custom code for partitioning (either in your key object’s hashCode() method or via

PartitionableKey).

򐂰 If the data in the grid is short-lived, use xsadmin to determine if there are active clients on

the grid. If the total number of entries across all partitions (at the bottom of -mapsizes

output) is non-zero, there must be active clients that put the entries there.

7.3.1 Using xsadmin in an embedded environment

The xsadmin command-line utility is installed for both stand-alone and embedded WebSphere

eXtreme Scale environments. However, there are a number of preferred practices when using

it in a (distributed) embedded environment where the catalog service and the containers are

running within a WebSphere cell.

Catalog service running in deployment manager process

Assuming that the catalog service is running in the deployment manager and has been set up

using default ports, use the following syntax when running xsadmin from the deployment

manager host. The utility will attempt to connect to the catalog service on the local host:

xsadmin.sh -containers -dmgr

Catalog service running in multiple WebSphere processes

Example 7-11 shows how xsadmin.sh is run against a catalog service domain running across

three separate WebSphere processes. The option -cep is used to specify the host and port

combinations for the three catalog servers in the domain. The port that is used here is the

bootstrap address of the process.

Example 7-11 Using the -dmgr flag

[wasuser@sa-w120lnx1 bin]$ ./xsadmin.sh -dmgr -cep

sa-w120lnx1:9809,sa-w120lnx2:2809,sa-w120lnx3:2809 -containers

Catalog service running with WebSphere security enabled

Most WebSphere Application Server environments will have WebSphere security enabled. In

these environments, the xsadmin utility will work fine, but it will prompt for authentication upon

start-up. Because this command is typically run a number of times, configure authentication

through a properties file.

For authentication, the xsadmin utility relies on the following Secure Association Service

(SAS) client properties file:

$WAS_PROFILE_HOME/properties/sas.client.props

Example 7-12 on page 157 shows what needs to be changed in order to use authentication

with the user name and password provided in the properties file.

Required option: The -dmgr option is required when connecting to a catalog server

running in a WebSphere Application Server process. Even when you are using a separate

host and port number, you still need to include this flag.