Configuring Instance Selection

On This Page:

service_manager.properties Modifications
Instance Definition List
Multi-Instance ServiceManager Logon Page

It is possible to configure ServiceManager to provide its users with the ability to specify which ServiceManager instance they should connect to. By default the standard deployment does not present this option; all connections are against the ServiceManager/ServiceOptimizer instance specified in URL entered within the browser (for example http://spower:8080/SERVICEManager).

In certain scenarios customers may wish to deploy multiple ServiceManager/ServiceOptimizer instances, for example a customer may wish to have both live and non-production deployments available to their users. This can be achieved by configuring the ServiceManager instances appropriately.

It should be noted that the authentication and usage of any specified instance is specific to that ServiceManager/ServiceOptimizer instance. All required instances of ServiceManager should initially be installed normally, as described in preceding sections before instance selection is configured. Configuration is a two stage affair - modification of the ServiceManager properties file and the creation of a ServiceManager instance selection file.

service_manager.properties Modifications

To enable this functionality a new entry must be specified within the service_manager.properties file for each of the instances in question

Name Default Value Description Examples

instance.selection.file

not defined

Specifies the location of the instance selection data file. If this property is not defined, or specifies an invalid file location, then this ServiceManager instance will revert to its default operation (of not presenting the user with an Instance Selection control).

If the definition is of a fully qualified pathname (such as s\:\\production\share\svm_instance_config.xml) then that specific file is used.

If the definition solely gives the filename, then the file is assumed to be located within the sm_properties directory.

instance.selection.file=svm_instance_config.xml

This example specified the file as svm_instance_config.xml that should contain a list of ServiceManager/ServiceOptimizer instances available to the user. The file svm_instance_config.xml is expected to reside in the same directory as the service_manager.properties file.

instance.selection.file=s\:spower\\manager\\svm_instance_config.xml

In this example the list of available instances is specified by as a fully qualified pathname. In this case this instance definition file could be shared by multiple ServiceManager instances (assuming the mounted S-drive is available to all instances). Note the use of the escape character "\" when specifying the drive name and directory delimiters.

Instance Definition List

The instance definition file is specified using XML according to the DTD opposite.

This file may contain an arbitrary number of instance definitions, where each definition must contain a name and valid URL. Note that duplicate entries (by way of name) are discarded.

In the example, two ServiceManager instances are defined, the first with a description the second without. If a description is specified then it is displayed within the "Instance Selection" control displayed within the logon page.

Note that each element can have the following maximum sizes:	name	< 40
	url	< 256
	description	< 120 characters

A template svm_instance_config.xml is supplied with the ServiceManager release.

<!ELEMENT SERVICEManager:InstanceConfig (instance*)>   
<!ELEMENT instance (name, url,description?)>
<!ELEMENT name (#CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT url (#CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT description (#CDATA)>

<?xml version="1.0"?>
	<SERVICEManager:InstanceConfig>
		<instance>
            <name>Production</name>
            <url>http://spprod:8080/SERVICEManager</url>
            <description>This is the production SERVICEManager system
                         for version 9.2.0</description>
        </instance>
        <instance>
            <name>Test</name>
            <url>http://sptest:8080/SERVICEManager</url>
        </instance>   
</SERVICEManager:InstanceConfig>

Multi-Instance ServiceManager Logon Page

Assuming correct setup, whenever the user specifies the URL for any one of the multiple instances with an instance.selection.file specified, the user will be presented with a logon page similar to the following:

Having selected the required instance the browser is then redirected to the appropriate ServiceManager instance.