Difference between rollout update ,ripple start and Node synchronize in Websphere

1
votes

I have come across those two server terminologies as I have started working with WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment. I'm not a WebSphere administrator. My role is developer, but time to time, I have to deploy application updates, bug fixes, and new releases in production crusted WebSphere environment. Currently I'm blindly following the steps for production update which involve after application update, I usually perform rollout update which in turn deploy the application update into the all the nodes in the server.

My question is - what is the purpose of ripple start?

This is what I have found after researching on WebSphere redbooks. 

Rollout update :-
Rollout Update feature works at the node level. Thus, all cluster members on a node are stopped, updated and then restarted
before the process continues to the next node. 


Ripple start   :-
Use this option to stop and then start all servers in the cluster one at a time.

So based on this understanding, Rollout updates works at node level, Ripple start works at cluster level. I want to know in which practical scenarios i would have to use either of these two methods

1
jakarta-eewebsphere

1 Answers

2
votes

Rollout update is related to updates done to application and ripple start is more useful, when you did changes to server configurations and you need to restart cluster to make the changes effective, or you just want to restart the cluster for some other reason.

Rollout Update

See more details in infocenter - Manage enterprise applications, but in short:

Sequentially updates an application installed on multiple cluster members across a cluster. After you update an application's files or configuration, click Rollout Update to install the application's updated files or configuration on all cluster members of a cluster on which the application is installed. Rollout Update does the following for each cluster member in sequence:

  1. Saves the updated application configuration.
  2. Stops all of the cluster members on one node.
  3. Updates the application on the node by synchronizing the configuration.
  4. Restarts the stopped cluster members.
  5. Repeats steps 2 through 4 for all of the nodes that have cluster members.

Ripple start

Ripple start is a way to restart the servers in cluster. It is not related to the application updates. You may use it to automatically stop and start in sequence all the servers in the cluster instead of doing it manually. For example, if you change JVM settings like heap size in all the servers. See Starting clusters.

Ripplestart combines stopping and starting operations. It first stops and then restarts each member of the cluster. For example, your cluster contains 3 cluster members named server_1, server_2 and server_3. When you click Ripplestart, server_1 stops and restarts, then server_2 stops and restarts, and finally server_3 stops and restarts. Use the Ripplestart option instead of manually stopping and then starting all of the application servers in the cluster.