Installing and configuring Red Hat Decision Manager in a Red Hat JBoss EAP clustered environment
Abstract
Preface Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
As a system engineer, you can create a Red Hat Decision Manager clustered environment to provide high availability and load balancing for your development and runtime environments.
Prerequisites
- You have reviewed the information in Planning a Red Hat Decision Manager installation.
 
Chapter 1. Red Hat Decision Manager clusters Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
By clustering two or more computers, you have the benefits of high availability, enhanced collaboration, and load balancing. High availability decreases the chance of a loss of data when a single computer fails. When a computer fails, another computer fills the gap by providing a copy of the data that was on the failed computer. When the failed computer comes online again, it resumes its place in the cluster. Load balancing shares the computing load across the nodes of the cluster. Doing this improves the overall performance.
There are several ways that you can cluster Red Hat Decision Manager components. This document describes how to cluster the following scenarios:
Chapter 2. Red Hat Decision Manager clusters in a development (authoring) environment Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
Configuration of Business Central for high availability is currently technology preview.
			You can configure Red Hat Decision Manager as a clustered development environment to benefit from high availability. With a clustered environment, if a developer is working on $node1 and that node fails, that developer’s work is preserved and visible on any other node of the cluster.
		
Most development environments consist of Business Central and at least one Decision Server .
To create a Red Hat Decision Manager clustered development environment, you must perform the following tasks:
- Configure Red Hat JBoss EAP 7.2 with Red Hat Data Grid 7.3.1 on a machine.
 - Configure AMQ Broker, a Java messaging server (JMS) broker, on a machine.
 - Configure an NFS file server on a machine.
 - Download Red Hat JBoss EAP 7.2 and Red Hat Decision Manager 7.6, then install them on each machine that is to become a cluster node.
 - Configure and start Business Central on each cluster node to start the operation of the cluster.
 
Red Hat Data Grid is built from the Infinispan open-source software project. It is a distributed in-memory key/value data store that has indexing capabilities that enable you to store, search, and analyze high volumes of data quickly and in near-real time. In a Red Hat Decision Manager clustered environment, it enables you to perform complex and efficient searches across cluster nodes.
A JMS broker is a software component that receives messages, stores them locally, and forwards the messages to a recipient. AMQ Broker enables your applications to communicate with any messaging provider. It specifies how components such as message-driven beans, Enterprise JavaBeans, and servlets can send or receive messages.
2.1. Installing and configuring Red Hat Data Grid Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
Install and configure Red Hat Data Grid for the Red Hat Decision Manager clustered environment for more efficient searching across cluster nodes.
Use the following instructions to configure a simplified, non-high availability environment on a separate machine.
For information about advanced installation and configuration options, and Red Hat Data Grid modules for Red Hat JBoss EAP, see the Red Hat Data Grid User Guide.
Do not install Red Hat Data Grid on the same node as Business Central.
Prerequisites
- A Java Virtual Machine (JVM) environment compatible with Java 8.0 or later is installed.
 - 
						A backed-up Red Hat JBoss EAP installation version 7.2 or higher is available. The base directory of the Red Hat JBoss EAP installation is referred to as 
EAP_HOME. - Red Hat Decision Manager is installed and configured.
 - Sufficient user permissions to complete the installation are granted.
 
Procedure
Navigate to the Software Downloads page in the Red Hat Customer Portal (login required), and select the product and version from the drop-down options:
- Product: Data Grid
 - Version: 7.3
 
Download and unzip the Red Hat JBoss Data Grid 7.3.0 Server (
jboss-datagrid-7.3.0-1-server.zip) installation file to the preferred location on your system.The unzipped directory is referred to as
JDG_HOME.To run Red Hat Data Grid, navigate to
JDG_HOME/binand enter one of the following commands:On Linux or UNIX-based systems:
./standalone.sh -c clustered.xml
$ ./standalone.sh -c clustered.xmlCopy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow On Windows:
standalone.bat -c clustered.xml
standalone.bat -c clustered.xmlCopy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow 
2.2. Downloading and configuring AMQ Broker Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
AMQ Broker enables your applications to communicate with any messaging provider. It specifies how components such as message-driven beans, Enterprise JavaBeans, and servlets can send or receive messages.
To configure AMQ Broker for a high availability Red Hat Decision Manager clustered environment, see Using AMQ Broker.
You can use the following procedure to configure a simplified, non-high availability environment.
Procedure
Navigate to the Software Downloads page in the Red Hat Customer Portal (login required), and select the product and version from the drop-down options:
- Product: AMQ Broker
 - Version: 7.2.0
 
- 
						Click Download next to Red Hat AMQ Broker 7.2.0 (
amq-broker-7.2.0-bin.zip). - 
						Extract the 
amq-broker-7.2.0-bin.zipfile. - 
						Change directory to 
amq-broker-7.2.0-bin/amq-broker-7.2.0/bin. Enter the following command and replace the following placeholders to create the broker and broker user:
- 
								
<HOST>is the IP address or host name of the server where you installed AMQ Broker. - 
								
<AMQ_USER>and<AMQ_PASSWORD>is a user name and password combination of your choice. <BROKER_NAME>is a name for the broker that you are creating../artemis create --host <HOST> --user <AMQ_USER> --password <AMQ_PASSWORD> --require-login <BROKER_NAME>
./artemis create --host <HOST> --user <AMQ_USER> --password <AMQ_PASSWORD> --require-login <BROKER_NAME>Copy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow 
- 
								
 To run AMQ Broker, enter the following command in the
amq-broker-7.2.0-bin/amq-broker-7.2.0/bindirectory:amq-broker-7.2.0/bin/<BROKER_NAME>/bin/artemis run
amq-broker-7.2.0/bin/<BROKER_NAME>/bin/artemis runCopy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow 
2.3. Configuring an NFS server Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
A shared file system is required for a Business Central clustered environment and each client node must have access to the shared file system.
You must deploy and configure an NFS version 4 server.
Procedure
- Configure a server to export NFS version 4 shares. For instructions about exporting NFS shares on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, see Exporting NFS shares in Managing file systems. For more information about creating the NFS server, see How to configure NFS in RHEL 7.
 On the server, create an
/opt/kie/datashare with therw,sync,no_root_squashoptions by adding the following line to the/etc/exportsfile:/opt/kie/data *(rw,sync,no_root_squash)
/opt/kie/data *(rw,sync,no_root_squash)Copy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow In this example,
/opt/kie/datais the shared folder,*are the IP addresses allowed to connect to the NFS server, and(rw,sync,no_root_squash)are the minimum options required for NFS. For example:/opt/kie/data 192.268.1.0/24(rw,sync,no_root_squash)
/opt/kie/data 192.268.1.0/24(rw,sync,no_root_squash)Copy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow NoteYou can use another share name instead of '/opt/kie/data'. In this case, you must use this name when configuring all nodes that run Business Central.
On each client node, mount the shared folder in an existing directory:
mount <SERVER_IP>:/opt/kie/data /opt/kie/data/niogit
# mount <SERVER_IP>:/opt/kie/data /opt/kie/data/niogitCopy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow Add the following properties to the
standalone-full-ha.xmlfile to bind the.niogitandmaven-repositorydirectories as nfs shared folders:<property name="org.uberfire.nio.git.dir" value="/opt/kie/data/niogit"/> <property name="org.guvnor.m2repo.dir" value="/opt/kie/data/maven-repository"/>
<property name="org.uberfire.nio.git.dir" value="/opt/kie/data/niogit"/> <property name="org.guvnor.m2repo.dir" value="/opt/kie/data/maven-repository"/>Copy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow 
2.4. Downloading and extracting Red Hat JBoss EAP 7.2 and Red Hat Decision Manager Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
Download and install Red Hat JBoss EAP 7.2 and Red Hat Decision Manager 7.6 on each node of the cluster.
Procedure
Download Red Hat JBoss EAP 7.2 on each node of the cluster:
Navigate to the Software Downloads page in the Red Hat Customer Portal (login required), and select the product and version from the drop-down options:
- Product: Enterprise Application Platform
 - Version: 7.2
 
- 
								Click Download next to Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.2.0. (
JBEAP-7.2.0/jboss-eap-7.2.0.zip). 
- 
						Extract the 
jboss-eap-7.2.0.zipfile. In the following steps,EAP_HOMEis thejboss-eap-7.2/jboss-eap-7.2directory. - Download and apply the latest Red Hat JBoss EAP patch, if available.
 Download Red Hat Decision Manager on each node of the cluster:
Navigate to the Software Downloads page in the Red Hat Customer Portal, and select the product and version from the drop-down options:
- Product: Decision Manager
 - Version: 7.6
 
- 
								Download Red Hat Decision Manager 7.6.0 Business Central Deployable for Red Hat JBoss EAP 7 (
rhdm-7.6.0-decision-central-eap7-deployable.zip). 
- 
						Extract the 
rhdm-7.6.0-decision-central-eap7-deployable.zipfile to a temporary directory. In the following commands this directory is calledTEMP_DIR. - 
						Copy the contents of 
TEMP_DIR/rhdm-7.6.0-decision-central-eap7-deployable/jboss-eap-7.2toEAP_HOME. - Download and apply the latest Red Hat Decision Manager patch, if available.
 - 
						Navigate to the 
EAP_HOME/bindirectory. Create a user with the
adminrole that you will use to log in to Business Central. In the following command, replace<username>and<password>with the user name and password of your choice../add-user.sh -a --user <USERNAME> --password <PASSWORD> --role admin
$ ./add-user.sh -a --user <USERNAME> --password <PASSWORD> --role adminCopy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow NoteMake sure that the specified user name is not the same as an existing user, role, or group. For example, do not create a user with the user name
admin.The password must have at least eight characters and must contain at least one number and one non-alphanumeric character, but not & (ampersand).
You must use LDAP or RH-SSO for high availability environments. For more information, see the Red Hat Single Sign-On Server Administration Guide.
Create a user with the
kie-serverrole that you will use to log in to Decision Server../add-user.sh -a --user <USERNAME> --password <PASSWORD> --role kie-server
$ ./add-user.sh -a --user <USERNAME> --password <PASSWORD> --role kie-serverCopy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow - Make a note of your user names and passwords.
 
2.5. Configuring and running Business Central in a cluster Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
After you install Red Hat JBoss EAP and Business Central you can use Red Hat Data Grid and the AMQ Broker to configure the cluster. Complete these steps on each node of the cluster.
These steps describe a basic cluster configuration. For more complex configurations, see the Red Hat JBoss EAP 7.2 Configuration Guide.
Prerequisites
- Red Hat Data Grid 7.3.1 is installed as described in Section 2.1, “Installing and configuring Red Hat Data Grid”.
 - AMQ Broker is installed and configured, as described in Section 2.2, “Downloading and configuring AMQ Broker”.
 - Red Hat JBoss EAP and Red Hat Decision Manager are installed on each node of the cluster as described in Section 2.4, “Downloading and extracting Red Hat JBoss EAP 7.2 and Red Hat Decision Manager”.
 - An NFS server with a mounted partition is available as described in Section 2.3, “Configuring an NFS server”.
 
Procedure
Mount the directory shared over NFS as
/data. Enter the following commands as the root user:mkdir /data mount <NFS_SERVER_IP>:<DATA_SHARE> /data
mkdir /data mount <NFS_SERVER_IP>:<DATA_SHARE> /dataCopy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow Replace <NFS_SERVER_IP> with the IP address or hostname of the NFS server machine. Replace <DATA_SHARE> with the share name that you configured (for example,
/opt/kie/data).- 
						Open the 
EAP_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone-full.xmlfile in a text editor. Edit or add the properties under the
<system-properties>element and replace the following placeholders:- 
								
<AMQ_USER>and<AMQ_PASSWORD>are the credentials that you defined when creating the AMQ Broker. - 
								
<AMQ_BROKER_IP_ADDRESS>is the IP address of the AMQ Broker. <INFINISPAN_NODE_IP>is the IP address where Red Hat Data Grid is installed.Copy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow 
- 
								
 Optional: If the Red Hat Data Grid deployment requires authentication, edit or add the properties under the
<system-properties>element and replace the following placeholders:- 
								
<SERVER_NAME>is the server name specified in your Red Hat Data Grid server configuration. <SASL_QOP>is the combination of auth, auth-int and auth-conf values for your Red Hat Data Grid server configuration.Copy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow 
- 
								
 - 
						Save the 
standalone-full.xmlfile. To start the cluster, navigate to
EAP_HOME/binand enter one of the following commands:On Linux or UNIX-based systems:
./standalone.sh -c standalone-full.xml
$ ./standalone.sh -c standalone-full.xmlCopy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow On Windows:
standalone.bat -c standalone-full.xml
standalone.bat -c standalone-full.xmlCopy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow 
2.6. Verifying the Red Hat Decision Manager cluster Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
After configuring the cluster for Red Hat Decision Manager, create an asset to verify that the installation is working.
Procedure
- 
						In a web browser, enter 
<node-IP-address>:8080/decision-central. Replace<node-IP-address>with the IP address of a particular node. - 
						Enter the 
adminuser credentials that you created during installation. The Business Central home page appears. - Select Menu → Design → Projects.
 - Open the MySpace space.
 - Click Try Samples → Mortgages → OK. The Assets window appears.
 - Click Add Asset → Data Object.
 - 
						Enter 
MyDataObjectin the Data Object field and click OK. - 
						Click Spaces → MySpace → Mortgages and confirm that 
MyDataObjectis in the list of assets. Enter the following URL in a web browser, where
<node_IP_address>is the address of a different node of the cluster:http://<node_IP_address>:8080/decision-central- 
						Enter the same credentials that you used to log in to Business Central on the first node, where you created the 
MyDataObjectasset. - Select Menu→ Design → Projects.
 - Open the MySpace space.
 - Select the Mortgages project.
 - 
						Verify that 
MyDataObjectis in the asset list. - Delete the Mortgages project.
 
Chapter 3. Decision Server clusters in a runtime environment Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
The primary benefit of clustering a Decision Server runtime environment is load balancing. If activity on one node of the cluster increases, that activity can be shared among the other nodes of the cluster to improve performance.
To create a Decision Server clustered runtime environment, you download and extract Red Hat JBoss EAP 7.2 and Decision Server. Then, you configure Red Hat JBoss EAP 7.2 for a cluster, start the cluster, and install Decision Server on each cluster node.
Optionally, you can then cluster the headless Decision Manager controller.
3.1. Downloading and extracting Red Hat JBoss EAP 7.2 and Decision Server Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
Complete the steps in this section to download and install Red Hat JBoss EAP 7.2 and Decision Server for installation in a clustered environment.
Procedure
Download Red Hat JBoss EAP 7.2 on each node of the cluster:
Navigate to the Software Downloads page in the Red Hat Customer Portal (login required) and select the product and version from the drop-down options:
- Product: Red Hat JBoss EAP
 - Version: 7.2
 
- 
								Click Download next to Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.2.0. (
jboss-eap-7.2.0.zip). 
- 
						Extract the 
jboss-eap-7.2.0.zipfile. Thejboss-eap-7.2/jboss-eap-7.2directory is referred to asEAP_HOME. - Download and apply the latest Red Hat JBoss EAP patch, if available.
 Download Decision Server:
Navigate to the Software Downloads page in the Red Hat Customer Portal and select the product and version from the drop-down options:
- Product: Decision Manager
 - Version: 7.6
 
- 
								Download Red Hat Decision Manager 7.6.0 Decision Server for All Supported EE8 Containers (
rhdm-7.6.0-kie-server-ee8.zip). 
- 
						Extract the 
rhdm-7.6.0-kie-server-ee8.ziparchive to a temporary directory. In the following examples this directory is calledTEMP_DIR. Copy the
TEMP_DIR/rhdm-7.6.0-kie-server-ee8/rhdm-7.6.0-kie-server-ee8/kie-server.wardirectory toEAP_HOME/standalone/deployments/.WarningEnsure the names of the Red Hat Decision Manager deployments you copy do not conflict with your existing deployments in the Red Hat JBoss EAP instance.
- 
						Copy the contents of the 
TEMP_DIR/rhdm-7.6.0-kie-server-ee8/rhdm-7.6.0-kie-server-ee8/SecurityPolicy/toEAP_HOME/bin. When asked to overwrite files, click Replace. - 
						In the 
EAP_HOME/standalone/deployments/directory, create an empty file namedkie-server.war.dodeploy. This file ensures that Decision Server is automatically deployed when the server starts. - Download and apply the latest Red Hat Decision Manager patch, if available.
 - 
						Navigate to the 
EAP_HOME/bindirectory. Create a user with the
kie-serverrole that you will use to log in to Decision Server../add-user.sh -a --user <USERNAME> --password <PASSWORD> --role kie-server
$ ./add-user.sh -a --user <USERNAME> --password <PASSWORD> --role kie-serverCopy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow - Make a note of your user names and passwords.
 To start the cluster, navigate to
EAP_HOME/binand enter one of the following commands:On Linux or UNIX-based systems:
./standalone.sh -c standalone-full.xml
$ ./standalone.sh -c standalone-full.xmlCopy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow On Windows:
standalone.bat -c standalone-full.xml
standalone.bat -c standalone-full.xmlCopy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow 
3.2. Clustering Decision Servers with the headless Decision Manager controller Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
The Decision Manager controller is integrated with Business Central. However, if you do not install Business Central, you can install the headless Decision Manager controller and use the REST API or the Decision Server Java Client API to interact with it.
Prerequisites
- 
						A backed-up Red Hat JBoss EAP installation version 7.2 or later is available. The base directory of the Red Hat JBoss EAP installation is referred to as 
EAP_HOME. - Sufficient user permissions to complete the installation are granted.
 - An NFS server with a mounted partition is available as described in Section 2.3, “Configuring an NFS server”.
 
Procedure
Navigate to the Software Downloads page in the Red Hat Customer Portal (login required), and select the product and version from the drop-down options:
- Product: Decision Manager
 - Version: 7.6
 
- 
						Download Red Hat Decision Manager 7.6.0 Add Ons (the 
rhdm-7.6.0-add-ons.zipfile). - 
						Unzip the 
rhdm-7.6.0-add-ons.zipfile. Therhdm-7.6.0-controller-ee7.zipfile is in the unzipped directory. - 
						Extract the 
rhdm-7.6.0-controller-ee7archive to a temporary directory. In the following examples this directory is calledTEMP_DIR. Copy the
TEMP_DIR/rhdm-7.6.0-controller-ee7/controller.wardirectory toEAP_HOME/standalone/deployments/.WarningEnsure that the names of the headless Decision Manager controller deployments you copy do not conflict with your existing deployments in the Red Hat JBoss EAP instance.
- 
						Copy the contents of the 
TEMP_DIR/rhdm-7.6.0-controller-ee7/SecurityPolicy/directory toEAP_HOME/bin. When asked to overwrite files, select Yes. - 
						In the 
EAP_HOME/standalone/deployments/directory, create an empty file namedcontroller.war.dodeploy. This file ensures that the headless Decision Manager controller is automatically deployed when the server starts. - 
						Open the 
EAP_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone.xmlfile in a text editor. Add the following properties to the
<system-properties>element and replace<NFS_STORAGE>with the absolute path to the NFS storage where the template configuration is stored:<system-properties> <property name="org.kie.server.controller.templatefile.watcher.enabled" value="true"/> <property name="org.kie.server.controller.templatefile" value="<NFS_STORAGE>"/> </system-properties>
<system-properties> <property name="org.kie.server.controller.templatefile.watcher.enabled" value="true"/> <property name="org.kie.server.controller.templatefile" value="<NFS_STORAGE>"/> </system-properties>Copy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow Template files contain default configurations for specific deployment scenarios.
If the value of the
org.kie.server.controller.templatefile.watcher.enabledproperty is set to true, a separate thread is started to watch for modifications of the template file. The default interval for these checks is 30000 milliseconds and can be further controlled by theorg.kie.server.controller.templatefile.watcher.intervalsystem property. If the value of this property is set to false, changes to the template file are detected only when the server restarts.To start the headless Decision Manager controller, navigate to
EAP_HOME/binand enter the following command:On Linux or UNIX-based systems:
./standalone.sh
$ ./standalone.shCopy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow On Windows:
standalone.bat
standalone.batCopy to Clipboard Copied! Toggle word wrap Toggle overflow 
Chapter 4. Additional resources Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
- Installing and configuring Red Hat Decision Manager on Red Hat JBoss EAP 7.2
 - Planning a Red Hat Decision Manager installation
 - Deploying a Red Hat Decision Manager immutable server environment on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
 - Deploying a Red Hat Decision Manager authoring or managed server environment on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
 - Deploying a Red Hat Decision Manager environment on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform using Operators
 
Appendix A. Versioning information Copy linkLink copied to clipboard!
Documentation last updated on Friday, May 22, 2020.