Preparing the primary node on Linux

Before creating your high availability environment, you must install IBM^® WebSphere^® Portal Express on your primary node and then configure your database, your user registry, and your network deployment manager.

Prerequisites: Preparing prerequisite and corequisite software on Linux; Preparing for WebSphere Portal Express Server on Linux

Perform the following tasks to prepare your primary node:

Installing WebSphere Portal Express on Linux
IBM WebSphere Portal Express is installed as a single component, complete with an integrated database for storing information. This allows you to get WebSphere Portal Express up and running quickly for a proof of concept phase where you can immediately begin building and working with it. You can also expand your environment to include high availability failover, a more robust database, and LDAP-based authentication.
Configure WebSphere Portal to use a remote database
For high availability, using a remote database is preferred. For improved performance databases can be distributed across multiple database servers. Databases should also be configured for failover. Configuring the database for failover is beyond the scope of this documentation. Refer to the database product documentation for the most authoritative guidance about setting up databases for fail over.
Configuring WebSphere Portal Express to use a user registry on Linux
Configure user registry security on IBM WebSphere Portal Express to protect your server from unauthorized users. You can configure a stand-alone LDAP user registry or you can add LDAP user registries and/or database user registries to the default federated repository. After configuring your user registry, you can add realms for Virtual Portals or a lookaside database to store attributes that cannot be stored in the LDAP user registry.
Configuring the primary node to communicate with the deployment manager on Linux
After installing IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment and installing IBM WebSphere Portal Express on the primary node, you must configure the primary node and the deployment manager to use the database and the user registry and to communicate with each other.

Parent topic: Setting up a production environment on Linux

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