Table Of Contents
Overview of the Cisco Workload Agent for OS/390
Overview of the Cisco Workload Agent for OS/390
The Cisco Workload Agent for OS/390 is the component of the Cisco MultiNode Load Balancing (MNLB) feature set that runs on an OS/390 host.
The Cisco Workload Agent for OS/390 supports MNLB as follows:
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The IBM Workload Manager (WLM) provides OS/390 system capacity information to the Cisco Workload Agent for OS/390.
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The Cisco Workload Agent for OS/390 uses TCP to pass the OS/390 system capacity information to the Services Manager (the Cisco LocalDirector). The Cisco Workload Agent for OS/390 supports the IBM TCP/IP stack and the Sterling/IOS390 TCP/IP stack.
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The Services Manager uses the OS/390 system capacity information to distribute incoming TCP connection requests and UDP packets among the available hosts, balancing the workload.
Invoking multiple Cisco Workload Agent for OS/390s can provide Agent-to-Services Manager backup capability, providing continuous coverage in the event that one Agent fails.
The components of an MNLB system are as follows:
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Services Manager—makes workload balancing decisions
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Forwarding Agent—sets up connections according to the Services Manager
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Workload Agents—provide feedback to the Services Manager
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Backup Services Manager—provides redundancy for the Services Manager
Figure 1-1 shows the relationship of these components to each other.
Figure 1-1 Components of an MNLB System
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