Workload management

Workload Management (WLM) is the process of spreading multiple requests for work over the resources that can do the work. It optimizes the distribution of processing tasks in the WAS environment. Incoming work requests are distributed to the appservers and other objects that can most effectively process the requests.

Workload management is also a procedure for improving performance, scalability, and reliability of an application. It provides failover when servers are not available.

Workload management is most effective when used in systems that contain servers on multiple machines. It can also be used in systems that contain multiple servers on a single, high-capacity machine. In either case, it enables the system to make the most effective use of the available computing resources.

Workload management provides the following benefits to WebSphere® applications:

1. Balances client processing requests, allowing incoming work requests to be distributed according to a configured WLM selection policy.

2. Provides failover capability by redirecting client requests to a running server when one or more servers are unavailable. This improves the availability of applications and administrative services.

3. Enables systems to be scaled up to serve a higher client load than provided by the basic configuration. With clusters and cluster members, additional instances of servers can easily be added to the configuration.

4. Enables servers to be transparently maintained and upgraded while applications remain available for users.

5. Centralizes administration of appservers and other objects.

Two types of requests can be workload managed in IBM® WAS Network Deployment V5.1:

1. HTTP requests can be distributed across multiple Web containers (Plug-in WLM).

2. EJB requests can be distributed across multiple EJB containers (EJS WLM).

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