Urgent Alteon Load Balancer

Hi,
We are having problems configuring Alteon for weblogic clustering,
simply it is not working. We took the documentation from the BEA site &
applied them to the switch without any luck.
Has anybody got the configuration files etc for Alteon for basic load
balancing? It would be really helpful for us.
TIA,
Vikas

We are having problems configuring Alteon for weblogic clustering,
simply it is not working. We took the documentation from the BEA site &
applied them to the switch without any luck.
Has anybody got the configuration files etc for Alteon for basic load
balancing? It would be really helpful for us.For basic load balancing, use Alteon round robin and give it the WL
addresses. Then you have to hit the balanced IP address of the Alteon and it
should route through.
Or are you trying to use the advanced Alteon features to do sticky load
balancing by parsing the WL cookie?
Peace,
Cameron Purdy
Tangosol, Inc.
Clustering Weblogic? You're either using Coherence, or you should be!
Download a Tangosol Coherence eval today at http://www.tangosol.com/
"Vikas Chawla" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]..
>

Similar Messages

Load Balancing and WLS primary server offset

I've got a load balancer in front of my WLS cluster, and I'm trying to
          set up load balancing based on WLS clustering. What I need to know to
          do this is the offset within the cookie that's responsible for
          determining which machine within the cluster to direct to.
          Any idea how I can get this information?
          thanks,
          cfraser


Chris Fraser wrote:
          > The proxy/plug-in solution sounds pretty cool, but I've got a high speed
          > Alteon Load Balancer already set up. I would prefer to use that as the load
          > balancer to the WL cluster rather than pay to bring another WLS online to do
          > pretty much what the load balancer, that I already own, can do. I know that
          > going this route means that we're probably not going to be able to do things
          > like failover to the secondary when the primary dies, but we will be able to
          > load balance and also have the ability to dynamically add/delete servers
          > from the list of available servers as they are brought up/down.
          In Memory session replication doesn't work without our plugins. I will have to
          do little bit of investigation to figure out if other persistence mechanism's
          would work without our plugins if you are interested in them. I have to remind
          you though that other types of persistence mechanism's we support are slower
          compared to in memory session replication.
          > Are there any plans to work with an Alteon or a Foundry to have their Load
          > Balancers act as the front end to a WLS cluster?
          Currently none. We are taking steps to make the plugin's and cluster more
          robust, we currently don't have any plans to work with other 3rd party vendors.
          > For us it would be ideal, because we wouldn't have to support another piece of
          > software, we would just
          > have to support the hardware based Alteon, which can handle thousands of
          > transactions per second.
          > I understand that the primary and secondary server information is available
          > in the sessionID, I'm just not quite sure how to extract it.
          This information is saved in the cookie. But I wouldn't count that, as we
          have plans to change this. I cannot give your more details.
          > Is there a particular offset within the session ID where it can always be
          > found?
          I don't quite get what you mean here.
          Hope this helps.
          - Prasad
          > thanks for the help,
          > cfraser
          > ----------
          > C h r i s t o p h e r A . F r a s e r
          > Director, Technology
          > macroplay.com, Inc.
          > [email protected]
          >
          > Viresh Garg wrote:
          >
          > > You should be using
          > > -- NES +NSAPI Plugin
          > > -- IIS + ISAPI Plugin
          > > -- WEblogic server acting as proxy
          > > -- Apache +Apache Plugin ( only in Denali)
          > >
          > > front-ending your Weblogic cluster
          > >
          > > These proxies/plug-ins are smart to do a lot of things like:
          > >
          > > -- Load balancing in weblogic cluster
          > > -- Adding/deleting servers dynamically in cluster when the servers
          > > join/leave Weblogic cluster
          > > -- failover to secondary when primary dies.
          > >
          > > As far as the information about primary and secondary is concerned it is
          > > available in session ID.
          > >
          > > --Viresh Garg
          > >
          > > Chris Fraser wrote:
          > >
          > > > I've got a load balancer in front of my WLS cluster, and I'm trying to
          > > > set up load balancing based on WLS clustering. What I need to know to
          > > > do this is the offset within the cookie that's responsible for
          > > > determining which machine within the cluster to direct to.
          > > >
          > > > Any idea how I can get this information?
          > > >
          > > > thanks,
          > > > cfraser

Cluster/load balance weblogic using L4 switch like Alteon

Can I install weblogic as a standalone server on 2 or more server and
          cluster/load balance weblogic using a hardware balancer like Alteon Layer4
          switch (of course I will use a centralised storage to maintain a single copy
          of data which will eliminate syncronizing problem among servers)?
          BTW, Alteon can support persistent binding. The reason to use a Layer 4
          switch is that it is very fast, and this will make the application server
          layer transparent to client, the client can think this is a single server
          (it don't need to know whether there are 5 weblogic servers or 20 weblogic
          servers behind switch), and hardware are more reliable, sacalable and fast.
          I am not sure whether the normal weblogic clustered servers need to
          share/exchange info on the running memory, if it does, this approach will
          fail.


So My understanding is:
          Alteon with WL 6.0 can do load balancing for:
          entity bean
          stateless session bean
          but can't do load balancing for:
          stateful session bean (will persistent/sticky binding solve part of the
          problem except fail-over)
          in-memory replication
          am I right?
          Pao Wan
          "Don Ferguson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
          news:[email protected]...
          > It is possible to configure Alteon to understand the WebLogic 6.0 cookie
          format
          > and have a proxy-less cluster configuration that performs load balancing
          and
          > fail over of session state.
          >
          > It is also possible to configure Alteon's hardware-based SSL decryption
          for really
          > fast HTTPS processing.
          >
          > We are working on a white paper that describes how to configure Alteon for
          use
          > with WebLogic Server 6.0.
          >
          > -Don
          >
          >
          > Robert Patrick wrote:
          >
          > > Cameron,
          > >
          > > I believe that BEA tested their new proxy-less web clustering solution
          with
          > > load-balancing products from Alteon and several other vendors
          (Arrowpoint ?--
          > > which is now Cisco). However, it was my understanding that these
          products do
          > > not understand how to decrypt our cookies and extract IP addresses but
          rather
          > > these products are capable of doing sticky load balancing based on the
          Session
          > > ID contained in our cookie.
          > >
          > > If this is correct, then what this means is that when the primary server
          fails,
          > > the request will be routed to "some other server" in the cluster but not
          > > necessarily the one that holds the secondary copy of the user's session.
          The
          > > change in WLS 6.0 is that WLS will accept these misdirected requests and
          it will
          > > go out to the correct server and "migrate" the session to the server
          that
          > > received the request making that server the new primary (and
          regenerating the
          > > Session ID).
          > >
          > > I am sure if this is wrong that our product manager or one of our
          engineers will
          > > correct me (please?)...
          > >
          > > Hope this helps,
          > > Robert
          > >
          > > Cameron Purdy wrote:
          > >
          > > > Hi Robert,
          > > >
          > > > FWIW - There are several vendors (Primeon? Arrowpoint?) who claim to
          > > > understand WL cookies and parse the IPs out. (I haven't verified it
          myself
          > > > though.)
          > > >
          > > > --
          > > > Cameron Purdy
          > > > Tangosol, Inc.
          > > > http://www.tangosol.com
          > > > +1.617.623.5782
          > > > WebLogic Consulting Available
          > > >
          > > > "Robert Patrick" <[email protected]> wrote in message
          > > > news:[email protected]...
          > > > > There are not any hardware vendors (yet) that can understand
          WebLogic's
          > > > session
          > > > > ID. While you might be able to use the load balancer without the
          proxy on
          > > > 5.1,
          > > > > you would not be able to take advantage of in-memory replication
          failover
          > > > unless
          > > > > you only had two machines in the cluster. Like you said, everything
          will
          > > > work
          > > > > with 6.0 regardless of how the load balancer works (though you
          really,
          > > > really
          > > > > want to minimize the number of times the requests come into the
          wrong
          > > > server by
          > > > > utilizing sticky load balancing).
          > > > >
          > > > > Hope this helps,
          > > > > Robert
          > > > >
          > > > > Cameron Purdy wrote:
          > > > >
          > > > > > Rajesh,
          > > > > >
          > > > > > I meant that it would work in lieu of a proxy (such as Apache or
          NES)
          > > > with
          > > > > > 5.1, but only if both the hw load balancer and WL were set up to
          use
          > > > > > cookies. Some hw load balancers rely on IP and that doesn't
          work -- AOL
          > > > > > connections for example can change the source IP on the fly.
          Others
          > > > produce
          > > > > > their own cookies, that will work. Some even can use WL cookies
          and
          > > > parse
          > > > > > them to determine where to go. According to what I've read, with
          6.0 if
          > > > the
          > > > > > WL primary dies or for some other reason the request shows up at
          the
          > > > "wrong"
          > > > > > server, it will be handled correctly. That means you are pretty
          safe
          > > > with
          > > > > > hw load balancers and 6.0, almost regardless of the sticky
          > > > implementation
          > > > > > that they use.
          > > > > >
          > > > > > --
          > > > > > Cameron Purdy
          > > > > > Tangosol, Inc.
          > > > > > http://www.tangosol.com
          > > > > > +1.617.623.5782
          > > > > > WebLogic Consulting Available
          > > > > >
          > > > > > "Rajesh" <[email protected]> wrote in message
          > > > > > news:[email protected]...
          > > > > > >
          > > > > > > Hi Cameron,
          > > > > > > Can you elaborate on how it would work with WL5.1 since no in
          memory
          > > > > > replication
          > > > > > > would happen if the servers are standalone.
          > > > > > >
          > > > > > > "Cameron Purdy" <[email protected]> wrote:
          > > > > > > >Yes, this will work fine with WL6. (WL5.1 will work fine as
          long as
          > > > > > cookies
          > > > > > > >are used by the load balancer.)
          > > > > > > >
          > > > > > > >--
          > > > > > > >Cameron Purdy
          > > > > > > >Tangosol, Inc.
          > > > > > > >http://www.tangosol.com
          > > > > > > >+1.617.623.5782
          > > > > > > >WebLogic Consulting Available
          > > > > > > >
          > > > > > > >
          > > > > > > >"paowan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
          > > > > > > >news:[email protected]...
          > > > > > > >> Can I install weblogic as a standalone server on 2 or more
          server
          > > > and
          > > > > > > >> cluster/load balance weblogic using a hardware balancer like
          Alteon
          > > > > > Layer4
          > > > > > > >> switch (of course I will use a centralised storage to
          maintain a
          > > > single
          > > > > > > >copy
          > > > > > > >> of data which will eliminate syncronizing problem among
          servers)?
          > > > > > > >>
          > > > > > > >> BTW, Alteon can support persistent binding. The reason to use
          a
          > > > Layer
          > > > > > > >4
          > > > > > > >> switch is that it is very fast, and this will make the
          application
          > > > > > server
          > > > > > > >> layer transparent to client, the client can think this is a
          single
          > > > > > server
          > > > > > > >> (it don't need to know whether there are 5 weblogic servers
          or 20
          > > > > > weblogic
          > > > > > > >> servers behind switch), and hardware are more reliable,
          sacalable
          > > > and
          > > > > > > >fast.
          > > > > > > >>
          > > > > > > >> I am not sure whether the normal weblogic clustered servers
          need to
          > > > > > > >> share/exchange info on the running memory, if it does, this
          > > > approach
          > > > > > will
          > > > > > > >> fail.
          > > > > > > >>
          > > > > > > >>
          > > > > > > >
          > > > > > > >
          > > > > > >
          > > > >
          >

Urgent: Load balance the shared services server

Hello Experts,
One of my customer would like to know that is there a way to load balance the shared services server i.e., Register one essbase server with more than one Shared services server, so that if one shared services fails the other can authenticate the logins for the essbase server.
Also, referred the following weblink for 11x, Table 3. EPM System High Availability and Load Balancing Matrix
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12825_01/epm.111/epm_high_avail_11111/frameset.htm?ch01s04.html
Do we have any docs for version 9x?
Environment:
Essbase 9.3.1.3.00
OS : IBM AIX on POWER Systems (64-bit) 5.3
Any suggestions would be of great help. Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Sonal

I would not attempt any changes until 9.3.1 service fix #16 is released.
Oracle is back-porting clusterware support to with service fix # 16.
HSS 9.3.1sf 16 "active passive failover cluster with Oracle Clusterware 11g, for hss web app and openldap"
Based on the Oracle escalated support resources I have been in touch with solutions are not supported. Please realize this is not load-balancing and is fail-over support only.
To my knowledge there is not a "active-active" 9.3.1 Shared Services that is supported by Oracle.
You can read more about an active-passive fail-over at: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/bi/pdf/epm-hss-high-avail-windows-whitepaper.pdf
They are supposed to release a 9.3.1 white paper once service fix #16 is fully released and has been client tested.
Regards,
John

Web cache load balancing web forms - Urgent

Hi,
I have two servers(server 1 and server 2) with BI(forms and reports) installation. Infrastructure is running on another unix server( server 3).
I can access forms application on server A and server B using URL :
http://server1.gnb.ca:7778/forms90/f90servlet?config=test
http://server2.gnb.ca:7778/forms90/f90servlet?config=test
Web cache is installed on both server 1 and server 2.
I want to load balance forms applications using web cache.I looked in metalink and i din't find a detailed document to do this.
specially i am not clear on What parameters / how to setup
1) site information for application
2) origin server
3) site to server mapping
I am following doc # 229900.1 from metalink. If someone can give steps to do this is appreciated.
Thanks

Hi, I can't exactly answer this as am not aware of Forms. But, as such, Web Cache does a good load balancing work provided you configure it well. Probably, you should try posting this in Forms forum too.
Regards,
Priyanka GES

User restrication on load balance VIP

we need to implement below requirement can any one suggest how to imlement it
1.Sticky command
Once a connection is opened to a physical server, any requests coming from a particular client always go to that server, until either the timeout is reached or the user session is terminated
2.Client-assigned load balancing
All requests coming from a specific client always go to the same physical server. This is done through recognition of the clients IP address.
3.User session restrictions
User name / IP session restriction based on parameter values(ie only 1 user can login at a time).
Please find the below config
service test1
ip address 10.8.1.25
protocol tcp
keepalive type http
keepalive port 80
active
service test2
ip address 10.8.1.26
protocol tcp
keepalive type http
keepalive port 80
active
content DSS-R1
protocol tcp
vip address 10.8.1.1
port 80
advanced-balance sticky-srcip-dstport
add service test1
add service test2
active
please suggest me how to implement all three points whereas point 3 is very crucial & urgent.

1/ is done with the advanced-balance command.
I would suggest to replace the current one with 'advanced-balance sticky-srcip' since the destination port is always 80 [per config].
2/ you can force a client to go to a particular server with an acl and the prefer option.
ie:
acl 1
clause 10 permit tcp x.x.x.x destination content owener/DSS-R1 prefer test1
clause 99 permit any any destination any
apply all
acl enable
3/ we will need more details.
Not much can be done so, because the CSS only counts active connections.
So, you can restrict 1 user at a time with the command 'maxconn 1' but I'm not sure if it will help.
You should test it first and see if it does what you need.
Regards,
Gilles.

Enabling server-side load balancing with Oracle 10g RAC

Hi, all.
I created a RAC database on vmware by using DBCA.
By default, remote_listener and tnsname.ora have been configured.
The followings are part of dba_services from my RAC database.
NAME, GOAL, ENABLED, CBL_GOAL
SYS$BACKGROUND NONE NO SHORT
SYS$USERS NONE NO SHORT
DEVDB NO LONG
By default(created by DBCA), server-side load balancing is enabled for
the RAC database, DEVDB??
--> GOAL of DEVDB is null, but CBL_GOAL IS LONG.
After creating a RAC db by using "DBCA", do I need to do something
for server-side load balancing??
If so what I need to do?? How can I test it??
And what is beneficial in enabling server-side loadbalancing ??
Is it good in the real world??
Thanks for reading.
Best Regards.
Message was edited by:
user507290

[urgent] 10gR2 RAC Load Balancing Configuration (client and server side)!!
[urgent] 10gR2 RAC Load Balancing Configuration (client and server side)!!
Virag

Load balancing and session sharing

Hi,
in my company we have the following situation:
We have 2 instances of the same web application on differend servers.
An external load balancer (Alteon) routes the requests to these instances.
The problem:
If one instance is shutting down, all the sessions of this app are gone. These users has to login again.
The question:
Is it possible to avoid this?
Is is possible to keep these session, so the users don't have to login again?
Maybe with a kind of session sharing between these 2 instances?
using:
oc4j standalone - 10.1.3.1
OS: Windows
thank you
Marcus

The solution:
Multicast IP replication is the default replication protocol used in a standalone OC4J installation
see: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B32110_01/web.1013/b28950/cluster.htm#BABBHGHJ
-> Configuring Multicast Replication

Using StoneBeat WebCluster load balancing with WebLogic

          Hi,
          I have done some testing of WebLogic Server with my company's StoneBeat WebCluster
          distributed load balancing software. This might be one more option to consider
          as a load balancing solution for WLS. It is advanced in the sense that load balancing
          is really dynamic, there are no single-points of failure (distributed architecture)
          and there is a very good, configurable test subsystem that runs on each cluster
          node to check for overload situations, HW/OS failures, ...
          In the initial testing, the WebCluster load balancing works with WebLogic replication,
          although there are some cases that need mroe consideration (please see below).
          I had to get a patch to WLS6SP1 on NT to make WLS' multicast work when there are
          several NICs on the cluster nodes.
          However, there is one case which causes problems:
          - I have 3 cluster nodes
          - P: 2, S: 3 (SessionServlet = 1)
          - 2: offline - P: 3, S: 1 (SessionServlet = 2; WebCluster randomly selected a
          new node to handle the connection)
          - 2: online - P: 2, S: ? (SessionServlet = 3, WebCluster redistributes the load
          when a node goes online)
          - 2: offline
          - P: 3, S: 1 (__SessionServlet = 1__) NB!
          The log messages show that when node 2 comes back online it retrieves the replica
          from the secondary (node 1) and not from the primary (node 3). After a while (5-6
          minutes), node 3 tries to update the replica on node 1. Node 1 considers this
          a stale update request and removes the Primary 16... (node name) and then the
          secondary for 16... (the replicated object). Then there's a message (still on
          node 1) that it is unable to find object 16... Back on node 3 the primary for
          16... is removed.
          From the WLS6 documentation (under the discussion of using replication with external
          HW load balancing solutions) I thought that this case would have been handled:
          - it is stated that after the failure of a node, if the HWLB box sends the next
          request to a node where there is no replica, WLS is able to retrieve the replica
          - to be fair, this is what happens: when node 2 came back online, it retrieved
          the replica from node 1 (the secondary) - I suppose that there is an assumption
          that if a request arrives to a node without a replica, the primary __must have
          failed__
          Is there any way to get around this problem?
          Admittedly, WebCluster has a problem in that the stickyness of connections is
          not perfect: - when a node goes online, a connection that was correctly persisted
          (based on either source-ip or source-network address) may be moved to a new node
          since the load is redistributed. Our load balancing is very dynamic, but doesn't
          maintain a list of who is connected to which node when resistribution takes place
          Regards,
          Frank Olsen
          Stonesoft


Rick,
You may want to look at the Alteon and F5 configuration we have on edocs.
Take a look at the following URLs for a possible solution
http://edocs.bea.com/wls/docs61/cluster/alteon.html#591902
http://edocs.bea.com/wls/docs61/cluster/bigip.html#591902
Chuck Nelson
DRE
BEA Technical Support

Logon load balance in EDMS

Hi Experts,
We configured Easy document management system (EDMS). We are able to login into the system. But we have three dialogue instances and one application instance. We need to configure logon load balance in EDMS. we already configured logon load balance in our message server. Please help me which connection parameter we need to select and what is the value we have to provide in EDMS.
Please help me this is very urgent.
Regards,
Patan Thavaheer

Dear Experts,
Problem resolved.
Thanks&Regards,
Patan Thavaheer.

HTTP Tunneling and Load Balancing with Weblogic Server 6.1

We use T3 for Java client to application server communication (Weblogic Server
6.1) and keep the session open for the life of the client. We many customers
using this with load balancers and all works fine. We have just started to use
BEA's HTTP tunneling and I have a question concerning how this will work with
load balancers. Since the single T3 connection has been replaced with a series
of stateless HTTP connections, does the BEA tunneling code put session information
in the HTTP header? If so, what information does it place in the header. If
it does we should be able to use that to make sure that the load balancer always
sends HTTP requests with that session to the same application server.
Thanks!
Rick

Rick,
You may want to look at the Alteon and F5 configuration we have on edocs.
Take a look at the following URLs for a possible solution
http://edocs.bea.com/wls/docs61/cluster/alteon.html#591902
http://edocs.bea.com/wls/docs61/cluster/bigip.html#591902
Chuck Nelson
DRE
BEA Technical Support

T3 Load Balancing with Weblogic Server 6.1

We are using rwo weblogic 6.1 servers A and B behind a load balancer with a DNS name (eg. www.loadbalancer.com). We are using T3 for Java client to application server communication. The client creates the Initial context with the load balancer url,creates remote objects using the context, closes the initial context and then tries to get a new initial Context. What we noticed is even though the client closes the first context and gets a new one, the client is always hooked on to only one server making load balancing ineffective. Is there a T3 configuration to release the connection when we close the context ? The documentation says only one T3 is established per client JVM.

Rick,
You may want to look at the Alteon and F5 configuration we have on edocs.
Take a look at the following URLs for a possible solution
http://edocs.bea.com/wls/docs61/cluster/alteon.html#591902
http://edocs.bea.com/wls/docs61/cluster/bigip.html#591902
Chuck Nelson
DRE
BEA Technical Support

Error "Could not retrieve process instance" w UWL-GP thru Load Balancer

Hi,
We're using NW'04s EP SP14 for developing our portal website. An external load balancer balances the load between two portal instances CI & DI.
We are getting an Exception "Could not retrieve process instance: contact your system administrator" when we try to access the UWL Requests through the Load Balancer though it is working fine with the direct HostName in the URL.
SAP Note 1026119 did not solve the issue.
Has anyone faced such an issue before?
Thanks.

Hi
I am getting the same error, but when i tried to retrieve the process instance from nwa I see the process instance to be missing. I could not trace the process instance.
Can you please tell me where else can i look for the process instance.
Its very urgent
Thanks and Regards
Anitha

Monitoring Load balancing in Tuxedo 9.1 and RAC ?

Hi all,
I wrote this question in the old forum bea [http://forums.bea.com/thread.jspa?threadID=300006084], and now I have more question about monitoring of load balancing in tuxedo with RAC:
How can I monitor the load balancing in Tuxedo with RAC?
How can I check that the load balancing of tuxedo is running correctly?
How can I know that group are using my requests?
We need know if the request use the instance ORARAC1 (groups GRP_A1 and GRP_A2) or
use the instace ORARAC2 (groups GRP_B1 and GRP_B2).
There is some tool (similar txrpt) that displays this information in tuxedo 9.1?
Thanks in advance
P.D.: Excuse my english

Logistics Management vs Supply Chain Management
Chapter 1 Logistics
1.1 Logistics Management vs Supply Chain Management
First of all, we must clarify this big semantic matter: what is logistics? what is Supply Chain ? are these two names equivalent?
We can represent this question by this figure
Is SC part of the logistics? or is it the reverse? or is logistics replaced by SC? or are both the same? or are logistics and SC covering partly the same matter but both continue to exist ?
To answer to that question, we have to consider the definition of each concept. We use the definitions commonly accepted by the CSCMP (Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals). These definitions also are used by the APICS (The Association for Operations Management: the global leader and premier source of the body of knowledge in operations management, including production, inventory, supply chain, materials management, purchasing, and logistics.)
The logistics management is that part of the Supply Chain process, which plans, implements and controls the efficient, effective flow and storage of goods, services and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption in order to meet customers’ requirements.
The supply chain management is the integration of key business processes, from the end user through original suppliers that provides products, services and information that add value for customers and other stakeholders.
Thus the answer to our first question is clearly
In a Supply Chain, each enterprise is a partner; each partner is fully responsible for a process that transforms inputs into outputs using some resources and following the rules or norms.
The concept of supply chain suggests a series of processes linked together (they form a chain !).
Figure 3
Somebody is the producer of the raw material, somebody transforms it into a product, somebody incorporates the product into an assembly, somebody stores the finish good, somebody sells it, somebody transports it and finally a retailer sells it to a final customer who is the consumer.
Some of these processes are sourcing, others are manufacturing and others are distribution.
If we illustrate the system for a more complex product, we obtain the hereunder schematic.
The pilot of the Supply Chain must instruct each supplier about when and to whom they have to deliver their products. He must instruct supplier "A" to first supply "B" and later the main manufacturer; for another part, he must instruct "B" to first supply the main manufacturer and later the supplier "C", if it is the right way to get the product on time as promised to the customer.
Figure 4
1.2 Flows
As indicated here above, all the partners are linked (they form a chain). These links cover 3 flows:
1. physical product flow (material flow)
The materials flow from suppliers to customers and from customers to suppliers (reverse flow).
The products are packaged (primary package, secondary package, warehousing package, transport package). Each package fills a specific function. (to see chapter 6). Containers, pallets and some packaging are circulating round trip.
The management of the materials flow must deliver products on time, in the proper sequence, exactly where they are needed.
2. information flow
Information is flowing in both directions, is passing each other, is colliding with others …
The information include order, delivery, inventory level, production status, forecasts, quotation …
The information could be considered as the piloting system of the other flows.
The information is flowing between multiple organizations and enterprises, each one having its own managing system, its own value system ….
3. financial flow
They include credit terms, payment schedules, title ownership arrangements …
A major problem concerns the coordination, the synchronization between all these flows. The final objective of the logistics / supply chain is to reduce costs and to improve service levels at the profit of all the partners of the chain, suppliers, manufacturer and customer. Each activity playing a role in making the product and the services conform to customer requirements (cost, delivery terms, quality …) is concerned.
In the past, each enterprise was trying to strangle other enterprises to obtain the major advantage (and to avoid realizing some effort). The bigger was crashing the smaller.
Today, no single enterprise is solely responsible for the competitiveness of its products and services. The benefit obtained by working in network must be shared between all the members of the chain. The sole strategy that performs is the win-win strategy.
The competitiveness suppose to give a better service, a superior service to the final user of the product / service (decreased delivery times, repairing/exchanging defective parts, maintenance, warranties, price, reliability, performance).
Today, we have to consider the total system wide cost; it includes manufacturing, transportation, packaging, warehousing, distribution, rework, repair, administrative costs. Managing the supply chain is not minimizing a single cost between two entities but, rather, on taking a global system approach to get, at the end, the better result that profits to every chain partner.
If one looks at actions in isolation, it is not possible to have a global view and to identify how an isolated action could have a reverse effect. Each decision taken by a partner of the chain has an effect on the upstream and downstream partners. And this effect could be positive or negative. For example, a supplier will reduce its inventory that leads to increase the delivery terms of the downstream partners; for example, a transportation manager will delay a delivery to increase the volume to transport and to reduce the transportation cost.
1.3 Management
It is obvious that designing and operating a supply chain so that total system wide costs are minimized and system wide service levels are improved is very challenging. It is not easy to do that inside a single enterprise, how more if one must consider several enterprises. We could write that the complexity increase exponentially with the number of partners.
with C = complexity of management, k a function depending of the product and n = number of partners.
The criteria to be considered are:
q the complexity of the network mainly if the partners are located over a large geographical area
q the cultural clash between partners
q the difference of capacities of partners: some are SME, others large enterprises, some are assembler, others are machining and some are giving service … Each partner has its own limits, its own capacities and its own resources. It is not thinkable to build a supply chain only with partners having the same constraints.
q the planning process could be different depending of many factors external to the supply chain. It is normal that an enterprise could be partner of several supply chains (example: the ball bearings supplier belongs to several automotive manufacturers supply chains).
q the supply chain is a dynamic system that evolves over time. Everything can change quickly or frequently either on the customers’ side, either on the suppliers’ side, either the market conditions, either the environmental conditions.
1.4 Three levels of management
As every activity, we have to consider the three levels: strategic, tactical and operational.
a) Strategic level.
The strategic level deals with decisions that have a long-lasting effect on the enterprise.
Every department or service has to fit with the strategy of the enterprise.
q The Supply Chain strategy must deal with the procurement of raw materials and all the components used by the enterprise.
Procurement includes packaging, transportation, documentation, warehousing.
q The Supply Chain strategy must deal with the logistics operations inside the manufacturing plant
This includes the flows through the plant, the interoperations packaging, the information, the traceability …
q The Supply Chain strategy must deal with the distribution and usage of the product by the customer.
This includes the selection of the distribution channels and the operations to supply the retailers, the instructions of use and all the operations covered by the warranty and the after sales service.
The long-lasting effect must be considered by product. If the life cycle of the product lasts several years, the strategic level covers more than 2 years; if the life cycle of the product lasts less than one year (i.e. tamagushi ….), the strategic level is not a fundamental step. But reasonably, the strategic level for the majority of the products covers 2 or 3 years.
Some of the basic questions are: 1) make or buy question;
2) location and capacities of production facilities, warehousing, transportation;
3) technologies to be mastered;
4) machines and equipments to be used, rented or …;
5) layout of the production facilities and warehouses;
6) quantities of products to be purchased, launched in production, stored, packed together, transported;
7) the relevant information for the manufacturing;
8) the training of the operators;
It is obvious that all this has a cost and therefore has to be amortized on several years.
b) Tactical level.
The tactical level concerns generally a period of time of one year. It is prepared during the last quarter of the previous year.
The tactical level has to focus on the expected situation at the end of the previous year to establish a series of significant data as 1) quantities to be distributed on each market;
2) exact quantities of raw materials and components to be purchased and when to place orders 3) the planning of manufacturing by quantities, by specifications, …
4) the distribution activities by month, mainly if the products demand is seasonal;
5) to prepare the impact of the promotions on the distribution;
6) to optimize all the logistics functions;
7) to fix the key indicators to allow a performing management;
8) to establish the calendar of each specific step to reach the annual objective;
9) to match demand and supply
The tactical level is the annual budget.
c) Operational level.
The operational level is the real time management. Some activities are planed on one week, others on a day and the updates are permanent. The operational level has to face the failure of a truck, the illness of a warehouseman or a driver, a urgent non planed order, and so on.
The quality of an organization can be measured by the respect of a well constructed plan and by the reactivity face at unforeseen situations. No waste of time, no waste of resource must be the rule for the operational manager.
He must be able: 1) to meet the better lead-times,
2) to respond to any fluctuation of the demand,
3) to deal with all the products (from fast moving goods to industrial component),
4) to face any unexpected situation.
To do that, he must pilot several logistical drivers as forecasting, transportation means, warehousing facilities, inventory, orders management, sourcing possibilities … and these drivers are fed by information. All these drivers can add value or cost at the customer’s eyes.
q Forecasting allows to feed all the other drivers
q Adapted transportation means allow fast loading and unloading and reduced operational costs by comparison with the value of the transported goods
q Warehousing facilities are located at the best operational place to supply their customers (outbound) and to receive goods from suppliers (inbound); they have well adapted infrastructures to store goods. The objective is to get the better responsiveness, to get the better control on each local market, to get the cheapest cost.
q Inventory must be adapted to the demand: enough to face unexpected demand and not too many what carries overstock and therefore additional costs and ageing products.
q Orders management reduces lead time and allows a full control on all the documents issued from these orders as picking ticket, packing list, invoice, …
q Sourcing possibilities allows a better control on the products arrival, access to the docks without waiting times, better management of the purchase orders …
We can summarize all these concepts by 3 curves as follow and the total logistics cost is the sum of these three costs:
Figure 5
We can represent these situations by the following outline representing three concrete situations:
Figure 6 a Figure 6b Figure 6c
Figure 6a represents 4 suppliers delivering to 1 central warehouse and from this warehouse to the customers;
Figure 6b represents 4 suppliers delivering to 2 central warehouses and each warehouse delivers to its customers;
Figure 6c represents 4 suppliers delivering to several warehouses and each one delivers to its own customers.
It is necessary to determine the number of warehouses, their locations, their sizes, the quantity of products to be stored and the location and number of customers to be supplied to get the best service at the lowest cost. The enterprise must compare the costs of opening more warehouses and the benefits to be closer to the customers.
For another part, it is important to take into account the specificity of the warehouses: only to supply a manufacturing facility, only to supply end customers or supplying both manufacturing facility and end customers. The basic functions are the same but they are several important differences:
q to supply a manufacturing facility means many suppliers (for raw materials and purchased components) and a few customers (manufacturing sections).
q to supply end customers means very few suppliers ( final assembly line) and a large number of customers (all the customers for finished products and spare parts)
q other differences concern the quantities, the size, the physical configurations, the variability and predictability of the demand, the unforeseen breakdowns (machines, trucks and trailers …), the capacity of each buffer between each manufacturing or supply process, lead-times acceptable by each downstream customer, size of batches, safety inventory size, risk parameters …
1.5 Supply Chain Information
As here above mentioned, information feeds all the logistics drivers. Therefore, it is important to detail the content of these information. The supply Chain Management manipulates a lot of information that each one affects strongly or weakly the results. Firstly, we have to consider the information that affect directly all the logistics drivers.
Forecast is affected by the economic situation of the market, by the financial situation, by the wealth of the population, by the obstacles to the trade, by the adequacy between the specifications of the product and the needs of the customers … All the data concerning these parameters must be considered as useful information.
Inventory is needed to face the responsiveness to the demand of the market. The Supply Chain Manager must know this requirement to establish correctly the level of inventory for each item as well as the inventory cost.
Transportation information include frequency of each transport vector, capacity of each one, availability, possibility to circulate, cost, particular requirements as national flag or piracy risk ….
Warehousing size and location have important consequences on several managerial decisions
Computerized treatment of all these data allows to simulate the actions and their result, allows a fast and very reactive circulation of the information between all the members of the network, reduces the redundancy of some encoding operations just as the error risk, allows a good traceability of all the decisions and operations, authorizes a real time follow-up, improves the visibility on the various sequences … Information and Communication technologies play a critical role concerning the exchange of information between suppliers, manufacturer, customers, carriers and other services providers. To be performing, every enterprise must master an information system adapted to his needs but also allowing to be networked with all the other members of the Supply chain: it is a very critical competitive advantage to be better than the competition on that aspect. But, everybody understands the major difficulty to interconnect different systems. Information must be cheap, available as soon as needed, without time lag,
1.6 Main actors
As illustrated on the figure 3, each process is requiring resources.
1.6.1 Human resources
The human resources who have an impact on the supply chain are:
q The buyers: they have to reference the suppliers who can work inside a supply chain. They must accept to work as the pilot of the supply chain decides it for the best of all the actors. The buyers must place the purchase orders when it is fixed by the Supply chain organization.
q The designers: they have to design products that it is possible to pack and transport on the best economical way. But they also must design products with the specifications that the suppliers can realize and all the actors of the supply chain can store and transport. Finally, the products must be designed with the objective to be customized at the latest stages of manufacturing.
q The packaging designers: they have to design packaging that can be economically manipulated by each member of the supply chain (size of the racks, trucks…), that correspond to the various quantities (to see §2.2) needed by the actors. It is also important that each packaging can be easily open and closed as frequently as required.
q The manufacturers: they must be flexible to accept small or large batches and evidently the must produce quality on time.
q The sellers: they must work with the precise specifications allowed by the design and with the quantities allowed by the agreement between all the parties.
q The transporters: they must deliver on time and in perfect condition.
q The warehousemen: they must act with the right diligence
q The computer operators: they must deliver the right information at the right time to the right people. Each supply chain member can recuperate the data without risk of mistake or confusion to build the appropriated management system.
1.6.2 Material resources
The material resources must be sufficient, in good conditions, available when needed and well adapted to the products and operations. These conditions are required to be able to link together many process operators. Indeed, if an operator doesn’t master well his process, it is thinkable that he will not be able to respect quality, quantity or delivery date.
This also supposes that the maintenance of all the equipments is well executed.

Modifying the goto URL - load balancer configuration

Hi,
I am trying to find the location of the display.template which I can modify to change the "goto" parameter URL.
Objective:
When I hit my loadbalancer URL "http://172.11.124.23/portal"
It basically can forward the request to ports 8080,8081 or 8082.
but I see the following in the browser after the redirection
http://myportal.domain.corp:8080/amserver/UI/Login?goto=http://172.11.124.23/portal/dt
instead of
http://myportal.domain.corp:8080/amserver/UI/Login?goto=http://myportal.domain.com/portal/dt
so basically I get the acess manager login page but after authentication it goes back to the loadbalancer since the goto URL is'nt right.and load balancer again sends the request back to access manager.So it kinda loops back and forth betn load balancer and access manager.
I read on the forum which says display.template should be modified to correct the goto URL.
I am working in linux env.I tried changing the display.template at the following location but I dont see what I want.
/var/opt/sun/portal/portals/portal1/desktop/default/LoginProvider
Can you point me in the right direction.!
Thanks,
Deepak.

c'mmon guys...help me..its urgent !!!!

Urgent Alteon Load Balancer

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