Creating configurable node types

Configure nodes within a cluster and dedicate them to perform specific services. For greater convenience, you can assign purpose-specific names to your nodes. If a node is not configured with any node type, the node classification feature does not apply to that node.

Create your own node type to categorize nodes by purpose. By using configurable node types, you can optimize resources and improve performance.

Use the -DapplicableNodeTypes JVM argument as a master list for Node classification. Enter node types separated by a comma, for example:
-DapplicableNodeTypes=NodeTypeA, NodeTypeB, NodeTypeC
Provide the same JVM argument across all nodes in a cluster. Only the node types that are specified in this JVM argument are available for Node classification. If you configure the -DapplicableNodeTypes JVM argument, the system recognizes only the node types that are specified in this argument. Specify configurable node types at a startup so you can use them at run-time in your application.
Note: To use node types that Pega provides, define them in the -DapplicableNodeTypes JVM argument along with other node types that you want your system to recognize. For more information, see Node types.

When you use configurable node types and you set the JVM argument -DNodeType=<Universal> , then the agents, listeners, job schedulers, and queue processors will run on all the nodes that you specify in the -DapplicableNodeTypes JVM argument.

For example, the following procedure describes how to configure node types on an Apache Tomcat server.

Note: For other application servers, set the JVM argument by following the documentation for that application server.
  1. Optional: To ensure that all the resources that you map to your node types run correctly, in your run-time system configure your set of applicable node types the same as it is configured in the development system.
    Maintain the same set of applicable node types across all nodes in a cluster.
    Note: If you want to add a new applicable node type at a run-time, start with the first node and continue with the remaining nodes.
  2. Modify the setenv.bat file in the <TOMCAT_HOME>/bin directory, by setting the following JVM argument:

    -DapplicableNodeTypes=<node-type>

    ​where <node-type> is a comma-separate list of node types.

    For example, to start a node with the Search and the BIX type, enter: -DapplicableNodeTypes=Search,BIX. If the same agent is enabled on both node types and there is a conflict in agent schedules, the agent schedule for the node type that is listed first takes precedence. In this example, the agent that is enabled on the Search and BIX nodes runs according to the schedule that is specified for the Search node type.

  3. Verify that you have configured node types successfully by performing the following actions:
    1. In the navigation panel of Admin Studio, click Resources > Node classification.
    2. Check for node types that correspond to the nodes that you configured.

On this specified node, you can associate agents, listeners, job schedulers, and queue processors with the allowed node types only. Agents, listeners, job schedulers, or queue processors that you map to this allowed node type will run only on node types that match the configured classification. For more information, see Mapping agents to node types, Mapping listeners to node types. You map job schedulers and queue processors to node types when you create these rules. For more information, see Creating a Job Scheduler rule, Creating a Queue Processor rule.