The core group bridge service can be configured to share availability information about internal WebSphere Application Server components between core groups. For example, by configuring the core group bridge service, each core group can be aware of the status of all of the application servers that are configured in all of the core groups. Use access point groups to define the core groups that communicate. Do not use the core group bridge service to share application information among core groups.
A core group is a statically defined component of the high availability manager. Each cell must have at least one core group. WebSphere Application Server creates a default core group called DefaultCoreGroup for each cell. For more information about core groups, see Core groups. Two or more core groups can be set up to communicate with each other and share workload management information by defining access point groups. The core groups that communicate can be in the same cell or in different cells.
Core group bridge overview
To configure communication between core groups, you must configure an access point group. An access point group is a collection of the core groups that communicate with each other. Add a core group access point to the access point group for each core group that needs to communicate.
A core group access point is a collection of server, node, and transport channel chain combinations that communicate for the core group. Each core group has one or more defined core group access points. The DefaultCoreGroup has one default core group access point. However, you might consider configuring more than one core group access point for a core group if that particular core group needs to be connected to other core groups that are on different networks. See Advanced core group bridge configurations for more information about configuring core groups to communicate across different networks.
The node, server, and transport channel chain combinations that are in a core group access point are called bridge interfaces. A server that hosts the bridge interfaces is a core group bridge server. The transport channel chain defines the set of channels that are used to communicate with other core group bridge servers. Each transport channel chain has a configured port that the core group bridge uses to listen for messages from other core group bridge servers.
Each core group bridge server must have at least one bridge interface for each core group access point. However, to prevent failure of your configuration, configure multiple bridge interfaces for each core group access point. Then, if one server in one of the bridge interfaces fails, the other bridge interface can still receive information and the core group access point remains functional.
If you are configuring communication between core groups that are in the same cell, create one access point group and add a core group access point for each core group that needs to communicate. See Advanced core group bridge configurations for more information about configuring communication between core groups that are in the same cell.
If you are configuring the core group bridge between core groups that are in different cells, you still use an access point group. However, you must create and configure the access point group for each cell. Each cell has an access point group that contains a core group access point for the core group that is in the cell, and a peer access point for each peer cell.
A peer access point references a core group access point that is configured in a different cell. Each access point group must have one peer access point for each different cell. Do not configure multiple peer access points that reference the same cell.
Each peer access point has one or more peer ports or one proxy peer access point.
A peer port corresponds to a bridge interface that is defined in the peer cell. You can define several peer ports for each peer access point.
Define a proxy peer access point if the peer access point cannot be reached directly by using a peer port, but can be reached by using another peer access point. The proxy peer access point specifies a peer access point that can communicate with the peer core group that cannot be reached directly. The proxy peer must have defined peer ports. Specify one proxy peer or one or more peer ports, but not both. See Advanced core group bridge configurations for more information about proxy peer access points.
The following diagram shows a core group bridge configuration between two different cells that is using peer access points with peer ports.
Related concepts
Advanced core group bridge configurations
Related tasks
Configuring the core group bridge between core groups that are in different
cells