Planning for Sametime Proxy services

The IBM® Sametime® Proxy Server is the HTTP interface to the IBM Sametime Community Server. Most chat and meeting features can be delivered by means of an HTTP-based Sametime Proxy Server.

The Sametime Proxy Server is not the same thing as a WebSphere proxy server. The Sametime Proxy Server communicates with the Community Server and the Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) for mobile devices. It is integrated with other mobile devices through configuration. Note that using SSL with self-signed certificates on mobile devices requires manual steps on the device by the user.

The Sametime Proxy Server communicates with the Community Server, Sametime Meeting Server, IBM Connections Server, and Sametime Unified Telephony Server or other TCSPI-enabled server.

The Proxy Server is responsible for the following activities:

  • Hosts the Sametime client for browsers and mobile devices.
  • Provides live names awareness for Sametime Meetings, Business Cards, and custom applications.
  • Replaces the Sametime Java™ Connect and Sametime Connect for Browsers clients.
  • Replaces the Sametime Links Toolkit.

If you will be supporting the use of live names in your Sametime deployment, you should deploy all Sametime Meeting Servers and Sametime Proxy Servers within the same subnet. For best results, configure IBM WebSphere® Application Server Network Deployment with a single subnet for network traffic. You can use one network interface card on a physical computer or logical partition. You can also reference a single domain name system (DNS) server in the network configuration for the physical computer or logical partition.

Sametime Proxy Server clusters

You can create two types of clusters:

  • A vertical cluster resides on the Primary node and includes two or more cluster members, which run the same application.
  • A horizontal cluster includes a Primary node plus one or more Secondary nodes, all running the same application.
Before you can configure a cluster of Sametime Proxy Servers, you must have installed the following servers:
  • The Sametime System Console

    This server can function as the Deployment Manager for the cluster.

    Attention: Each Deployment Manager (including the Sametime System Console when it is used as a Deployment Manager) can support one cluster of each Sametime product. For example, a single Deployment Manager can support a Meeting Server cluster, a Sametime Media Manager cluster, a Sametime Proxy Server cluster, and an Advanced Server cluster. If you want to create additional clusters for a particular product, you must deploy additional Deployment Managers.
  • Sametime Community Servers

    At least one Community Server must be deployed. The Community Server provides presence and awareness for chats.

  • One Sametime Proxy Server installed with the Network Deployment > Primary Node option.

    Every cluster requires one Primary Node. The application server on the Primary Node will function as the cluster's application template. All other application servers in the cluster (nodes and cluster members) will be duplicated from the Primary Node's application server. The Primary node's application server can only belong to one cluster. The Primary Node can be used as a container for additional cluster members when creating a vertical cluster (multiple cluster members on the same physical system).

  • (Horizontal cluster only) One or more servers installed with the Network Deployment > Secondary Node option.

    Secondary nodes are used to horizontally scale your cluster across multiple physical systems. These additional nodes act as containers for additional cluster members, which can be used to balance loads and provide failover within the cluster. During the clustering process, you can deploy additional product application servers on any Secondary Nodes within the cluster, creating a horizontal cluster (one cluster member on each Secondary Node, plus one cluster member or one vertical cluster on the Primary Node).

Load Balancer

A cluster of Sametime Proxy Servers requires a load balancer with session affinity and sticky time to route traffic to the servers.