Overview of IBM Business Process Manager hybrid

configurations on System z
Brian Venn (vennb@uk.ibm.com)
Software Developer
IBM

09 April 2014

This article describes a hybrid approach to configure an IBM Business Process Manager
setup on System z. This hybrid approach ensures that applications can make optimum use of
the available hardware and software resources.

Introduction
In version 8.5 of IBM Business Process Manager (BPM), a new deployment environment
configuration option was introduced, AdvancedOnly. You can use the AdvancedOnly setup if you
want WebSphere Process Server or WebSphere Enterprise Server Bus (ESB) functionality only,
without any functionality that was originally contained in WebSphere Lombardi Edition. This new
configuration allows you to create a "hybrid topology" on System z, where workloads can run on
the hardware and use system resources more efficiently.

Hybrid topologies enable better optimization

Figure 1 shows a representation of different types of workloads that are run in an enterprise
environment. You can see that the workloads that are data intensive or require a high amount of
input and output are better suited to run on the mainframe architecture, whereas the CPU intensive
workloads are more suited for a distributed setup. Applications that require frequent access to data
located in DB2 z/OS or IMS or z/OS transactions in CICS, IMS, and WebSphere MQ would
run best if co-located with the resources that they require.

Copyright IBM Corporation 2014

Overview of IBM Business Process Manager hybrid
configurations on System z

Trademarks
Page 1 of 10

developerWorks

ibm.com/developerWorks/

Figure 1. Workload types and where they run best

Co-locating resources
An important consideration in a hybrid setup is the ability to co-locate system resources on a z/OS
setup. Co-location means that the data and the application using the data reside in the same z/OS
instance. Figure 2 shows an illustration of what exactly is meant by co-location, with the left-hand
side of the image showing what is correctly meant by co-location.

Figure 2. Co-location of resources

A co-located setup has the following advantages:

Increases cross memory speed
Avoids encryption overhead
Propagates the Security ID
Overview of IBM Business Process Manager hybrid
configurations on System z

Page 2 of 10

ibm.com/developerWorks/

developerWorks

Exploits z/OS transaction management (RRS)

Avoids serialization of parameters
Executes in a single thread
Processes that frequently interact with CICS, IMS, and DB2 z/OS benefit most from co-location on
z/OS, all of which saves processor usage, increases robustness, and improves security.

WebSphere optimized local adapters

WebSphere optimized local adapters (WOLA) is a cross-memory mechanism for inbound and
outbound calls for WebSphere Application Server on z/OS. Figure 3 shows examples of the types
of applications that can take advantage of WOLA.

Figure 3. WOLA

The benefits of WOLA are:

Based on local comm cross-memory access (a z/OS exclusive)
Bi-directional, WebSphere Application Server outbound or inbound to WebSphere Application
Server
CICS security and transaction propagation
1.5 to 6 times faster than other local solutions
Avoids serialization of parameters
Allows all the z/OS players to call one another like peers to leverage all of your assets

Database connection types

There are two types of database connections available: Type 2 or Type 4. Figure 4 shows a
comparison and the benefits between using Type 2 and Type 4 database connections in a z/OS
mainframe environment.
Overview of IBM Business Process Manager hybrid
configurations on System z

Page 3 of 10

developerWorks

ibm.com/developerWorks/

Figure 4. Comparing Type 2 and Type 4

As seen in Figure 4, the CPU benefits as the Type 2 connection uses cross memory technology,
which eliminates the CPU usage associated with the TCP stack and DB2 DDF.

Hybrid approach: A solution scenario

To illustrate where the advantages described above can be implemented in a production System z
topology, we'll walkthrough a BPM solution that takes advantage of a hybrid setup.
In this scenario, there are three main parts to the solution based on a large multinational company
ordering system. The main parts of the system are:
The orders are placed by the Order entry team (Step 1 in Figure 5). Each customer has an
ID number, which is used to access their full details, such as full name and address. These
details are entered by hand.

Overview of IBM Business Process Manager hybrid

configurations on System z

Page 4 of 10

ibm.com/developerWorks/

developerWorks

Figure 5. Order processing BPD flow

The customer details are stored in a DB2 v10 database. A BPEL application developed in
IBM Integration Designer retrieves the customer details from the database. This application is
invoked from the BPD flow (Step 2 in Figure 5), and illustrated in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Customer lookup application

Once the customer's full details have been retrieved from the database via their ID number,
an automated credit check is performed using these details based on their order history
and other outstanding debt. The automated credit check is another BPEL application that
interfaces with CICS and IMS to retrieve the customer's historical data. This application is
invoked from the BPD flow (Step 3 in Figure 5) and illustrated in Figure 7.
Overview of IBM Business Process Manager hybrid
configurations on System z

Page 5 of 10

developerWorks

ibm.com/developerWorks/

Figure 7. Customer lookup application from BPD flow

Once a credit score has been determined and the order is accepted (Step 4 in Figure 5), the
order is then processed by the stock, invoice, and shipping teams (Steps 5 and 6 in Figure 5).
From an availability perspective, consider the following:
The customerLookup and creditCheck applications are both mission critical applications. If the
customer details cannot be retrieved, or credit checks cannot be performed and orders cannot
be placed and processed.
This company is a multinational company with order teams located globally taking customer
orders. Therefore, the customerLookup and creditCheck applications are often subject to high
workloads during peak ordering times.
Looking at this from a team's perspective, consider the following:
Teams on the ground fulfilling the orders often use web interfaces on mobile devices.
Management and executive teams want access to performance data dashboards to
determine data such as who is working on what and order processing times.
Looking at this from a workload perspective, there are two distinct different workload types
happening here:
Human Centric: Order placing, stock picking, invoicing, and shipping are all tasks that require
human interaction performed by different people in different teams. Therefore, these types of
tasks are best suited to be developed as a BPD flow in IBM Process Designer, with a BPD
coaches serving up various web page interfaces to the relevant teams. The order entry team
enters an order detail and customer number, the stock team picks the stock, the invoicing
team sends the invoice, and the shipping team ships the order. All of which requires human
Overview of IBM Business Process Manager hybrid
configurations on System z

Page 6 of 10

ibm.com/developerWorks/

developerWorks

interaction to key in data and click buttons to confirm that the steps of the process has been
completed by someone.
Automated: The applications retrieving the customer's details based on their ID number, and
then to generate a credit score based on this, are completely automatic and require no human
interaction. These are referred to as a straight through process (STP).

Running workloads where they run best

With the customer lookup application accessing customer data held in a DB2 v10, it makes sense
to take advantage of a DB2 Type 2 connection. Similarly, with the creditCheck application using
both IMS and CICS, the best solution is to co-locate an AdvancedOnly BPM server with CICS and
IMS in order to take advantage of WOLA. Therefore, from an application deployment perspective:
Deploy the Order Process BPD flow to an IBM BPM Standard Edition server running on
zLinux.
Deploy the customerLookup and creditCheck applications to an IBM BPM server with an
AdvancedOnly Deployment environment running on z/OS.
This setup is illustrated in Figure 8.

Figure 8. Hybrid deployment

The left-hand side of Figure 8 shows the BPD Order Process flow is deployed to an IBM BPM
Standard Edition server running on a zLinux server. The workloads running on this server are BPD
flows so only a Standard Edition server is required here. The right-hand side of Figure 8 shows
the customerLookup and creditCheck applications deployed to an AdvancedOnly server running
on a z/OS mainframe. The AdvancedOnly BPM server is co-located with the DB2, CICS, and IMS
products that the applications require.
Overview of IBM Business Process Manager hybrid
configurations on System z

Page 7 of 10

developerWorks

ibm.com/developerWorks/

This is the key concept for the hybrid setup. The zLinux server displays the coaches and
dashboards, which are static HTTP content. As shown from Figure 1, this type of workload is best
handled on a distributed setup.
The straight through processing applications (STP), customerLookup, and creditCheck require no
human interaction. They have access to mainframe resources by taking advantage of co-location
and other mainframe benefits, such as Type 2 and WOLA. Therefore, they are best suited to run
on a mainframe. With different workload types involved in the overall solution, a hybrid topology
allows applications to run efficiently to take full advantage of the resources.

Conclusion
This article described the benefits of a hybrid setup when running a BPM solution with different
workload requirements. When you place your application in the right location, you can take
advantage of both hardware and software resources for a more robust and faster enterprise setup.

Overview of IBM Business Process Manager hybrid

configurations on System z

Page 8 of 10

ibm.com/developerWorks/

developerWorks

Resources

IBM Business Process Manager Information Center

IBM Business Process Manager Advanced for z/OS
IBM Redbook: WebSphere on z/OS Optimized Local Adapters
developerWorks BPM zone

Overview of IBM Business Process Manager hybrid

configurations on System z

Page 9 of 10

developerWorks

ibm.com/developerWorks/

About the author

Brian Venn
Brian Venn is the System Verification Test Team Lead for WebSphere Process
Server, WebSphere ESB, and IBM BPM on z/OS. He has 15 years of experience
in the software industry and has worked at IBM Hursley Lab in the United Kingdom
since 2000. He is an IBM Certified Solution Designer for SOA Solutions and an IBM
Certified Deployment Professional, and he has participated in the authoring of four
WebSphere Process Server and WebSphere ESB certification exams. Brian earned
a Bachelor's degree in Astrophysics from Southampton University in the United
Kingdom.
Copyright IBM Corporation 2014
(www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml)
Trademarks
(www.ibm.com/developerworks/ibm/trademarks/)

Overview of IBM Business Process Manager hybrid

configurations on System z

Page 10 of 10