Enabling load balancer health checking for the WebSphere SIP proxy server with the IP routing load balancer

In order for the IBM® WebSphere® SIP proxy server to correctly interoperate with the IP routing load balancer, configure the SIP proxy server to accept and handle all incoming packets from the IP routing load balancer device, and to expect OPTIONS messages from the IP routing load balancer.

Before you begin

Be sure that you have followed the instructions in the article Configuring and Deploying WebSphere SIP Environments and have created a standard WebSphere cell containing 1 proxy server and 8 application servers.

Procedure

  1. On the WebSphere SIP proxy server, log in to the Integrated Solutions Console as the WebSphere administrator.
  2. From the Sametime® System Console, click Servers > Server types > WebSphere proxy servers.
  3. From the list of WebSphere proxy servers, select the WebSphere proxy server you are configuring.
  4. On the Configuration page, in the Proxy Settings section, expand SIP Proxy Server Settings, and then click SIP proxy settings.
  5. In the Load balancer health checking section, in the Load balancer members IP address 1 field, type the physical IP address of the load balancer that sources the SIP health checks. This is the self-ip address of the IP routing load balancer. The load balancer that does the health checkeing is also referred to as a service advisor.
  6. if there is more than one load balancer, in the Load balancer members IP address 2 field, enter the IP address of the second load balancer.
  7. In the SIP health check method name field, type OPTIONS. click OK.

    In step 5, IP address 1 represents the self-ip address of the IP routing load balancer. The IP routing load balancer self-ip is configured during IP routing load balancer network setup. In step 6, OPTIONS is specified as the SIP health check method name. Based on this configuration, this SIP proxy server accepts all OPTIONS messages that have a source address identical to IP address 1, and replies to them with a standard 200 OK response.

  8. Click OK to save the SIP proxy server settings.
  9. Save the change to the master configuration by clicking the Save link in the "Messages" box at the beginning of the page.
  10. Repeat this procedure for every WebSphere proxy server in the cluster.