Two API manager instances to share one network interface in DataPower?
Hi, Simple question, we have two API management instances (real virtual servers). Lets call them prod and test.
Prod includes catalogs for dev, test and production and API:s are promoted through those catalogs. Test includes a poc catalog. Nothing is moved from test to prod.
Now on my test DataPower device I would like to have the "dev", "test" and "poc" catalogs on the same network interface. Prod datapower only runs the "prod" catalog. Obviously different TCP ports will be used for the different domains in test DP and also the 10 port range will be selected so that it doesn't collide.
Will the setup work with two API manages which create their own domains. How to ensure there isnt a name collision between the domains? What about the changes done into default domain, any issues or conflicts there?
I doubt this might work.IBM API manager needs atleast a seperate interface for each of the APIM domain.We cannot create APIM domains on same interface with different ports.Please let me know if you find otherwise
Refer to this KC article. You can share domains on a single server if the interface/port combination is unique.
This is a good reference, nice find. Table 3 shows how you can differentiate based on port rather than IP.
I would add from a networking perspective it is anti-best practice to start assigning new interfaces just to have more IPs. The simplest way is just to use different ports as outlined here. If you have a business need for more IPs you can just add them as secondary IPs on the existing interface.
Hi @geofromkc & @Chris Sloan I am familiar with that guideline but it actually does not specify whether there is a single API management installation where all the gateway clusters are configured or whether its possible to have two API management installations which could both utilize the same DataPower based according to the principles described in the linked article.
Also a bit related to this I tried to ask what kind of changes does API management do to DataPower default domain to understand whether it would cause conflicts if there are two API management instances. So far I haven't received any feedback on that question: https://developer.ibm.com/answers/questions/268147/what-kind-of-changes-api-connect-does-to-datapower/?smartspace=api
I can't comment on your unanswered question. The behavior you describe is a bit surprising.
There is a POT that IBM provides for API Manager. It creates two Gateway clusters, each with one server, utilizing only one virtual DP node. On the DP node an address is assigned to interface eth0 and one is assigned to eth1. The APIM clusters then create two domains on one appliance. As suggested, you could achieve the same thing by using port 443 for one and 444 for the other.
One could imagine that these two Gateway clusters were defined in completely separate APIM environments, not only in a single APIM configuration. Imagine that you wanted to share the DP appliances between your certification and production environments in order to maximize the investment in DP. Of course, that assumes a multi-server cluster that can handle the projected load.
This should work just fine. For each environment it will make a different domain called APImgmtSOMERANDOMNUMBER (it might be called somewhat differently i don't recall exactly) the random number will avoid that you have name collisions.
Would be great to hear some official IBM feedback as this is not clear at all.