Tag Archives: software architecture

List of IBM IT architects on Twitter

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I have created a Twitter list of IBM IT architects. If you are interested in following IBM IT architects on Twitter then follow this list. If you are an IBM IT architect and not on the list, then let me know on Twitter.

Remember that when you follow a list, you do not follow every user on the list. So tweets from the users on the list will not show up in your main Twitter stream. You will have to visist the list to see the tweets. This makes lists a very useful way of keeping up with a group of people when you find it convenient.

Runing Lotus Domino on a mainframe

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Sean Burgess suggested that I blogged about running Lotus Domino on z/OS for a development server so here goes:

I am acting as an IT architect for a system called ePOS which acts as a frontend to a payment solution called IBM Payment Systems. This frontend solution is running on Lotus Domino R8 for z/OS – and was upgraded on August 26 from R7 in order to better consume web services on a backend system. The mainframes in question are two IBM z990 (eServer zSeries 990) running z/OS 1.9.

The system setup for the Domino solution is as follows:

  • development server: single Domino server on a single z/OS LPAR
  • combined test and pre-production server: two Domino servers in a cluster on two seperate z/OS LPARs
  • production server: two Domino servers in a cluster on two seperate z/OS LPARs

Please notice that the two mainframes are responsible for all of the 5 LPARs mentioned above.

Teamstudio CIAO! is used for configuration management of the databases on the development server.

The development server is accessible from the intranet only while the test and production servers are accessible from both intranet and internet. The common IBM LDAP (IBM Bluepages) is used for authentication for the intranet systems while a seperate LDAP server is used for the authentication of internet users. The ePOS application accesses backend systems using Java APIs and web services.

I have previously blogged about architectural patterns and Lotus Domino and in this case the architectural pattern used to access Domino from the internet is the “caching proxy and Domino” pattern combined with the high availability caching proxy pattern. This means that the Domino server cluster is located on the intranet while a redundant reverse proxy server (Tivoli Access Manager WebSEAL) is located in the DMZ.

As mentioned I have the role of being the IT architect for the solution running on these servers. I am not responsible for the actual installation of Domino on z/OS but besides doing architecture work I am also involved in the administration of the Domino servers.

Update August 26: The development server has been upgraded from Domino 7.0.2 to Domino 8.0.2.

IT architect accreditation accomplished

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As announced on Twitter my accreditation package was approved today and I am now an IBM accredited IT architect. This IBM accreditation can be compared to the Open Group level 1 certification called “Certified IT Architect”.

Part of my package included 2 project profiles for projects that were both Lotus Domino based web projects involving teaming with global resource colleagues from IBM India.

Now I will start to focus on my certification package to eventually become an IBM certified IT architect that can be directly compared to the Open Group level 2 certification called “Master Certified IT Architect”.

Jazz is now open to everyone

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Jazz.net is now open to everyone. From the site: “Jazz is an IBM Rational project to build a scalable, extensible team collaboration platform for integrating work across the phases of the development lifecycle“.

According to Andy Patrizio from internetnews.com Jazz can be compared to SourceForge and Subversion.

The Jazz team blog has also been opened up for the public.

[Via Bil Higgins]

Scalability of Rational Performance Tester

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IBM has an interesting case study on using Rational Performance Tester to test the US Open web servers. For the performance test only just two standard PCs running Windows XP were needed in order to generate almost 25,000 hits per minute to a single node.

I have experience using Rational Performance Tester on web projects and I agree with the case study that it is easy to record browsing scenarios and add the recorded scenarios to a test schedule that generates work loads on a web site.

I read the case study via a link from The Rational Tester blog which is run by Brian Bryson from IBM Rational Quality Management. So if you are interested in Rational test tools, keep an eye on Brians blog.

And by the way: there is a draft Redbook on “Using Rational Performance Tester Version 7” with a planned publish date of January 31, 2008.

Rational Tester for SOA open beta program

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An open beta program for Rational Tester for SOA has been announced. Rational Tester for SOA enables you to

  • Validate SOA system functionality and interoperability
  • Ensure system performance
  • Determine maximum system capacity
  • Identify and resolve performance problems of SOA IT solutions

Rational Tester for SOA is powered by IBM Rational Performance Tester and the new IBM Rational Performance Tester Extension for SOA add-on component.

[Via Kelly – thanks!]