IBM Global Mailbox - components at a glance
A Global Mailbox system includes various components that operate together.
Global Mailbox components | Description | Required or optional | Operating system |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sterling B2B Integrator (application) | Processes the Global Mailbox messages. | Required | Windows, UNIX, AIX, or Linux® |
| Global Mailbox Management node | Manages the Global Mailbox data. | Required. Must be co-located with Sterling B2B Integrator. | Windows, UNIX, or Linux |
| Global load balancer | Distributes work load across data centers. | Required | Not applicable |
| Local load balancer | Distributes work load within a data center. | Required | Not applicable |
| Apache ZooKeeper | Creates distributed locks and coordinates actions across all Global Mailbox nodes. | Required | Linux |
| Apache Cassandra | Stores and replicates metadata across the servers in the Cassandra cluster in all the data centers. | Required | Linux |
| Cassandra Reaper | Used to schedule automatic repairs for the data in Cassandra. | Required | Linux |
| Shared file system, such as GPFS and NFS. | Stores payload data. | Required. Sterling B2B Integrator, Global Mailbox Management node, and replication server access the shared file system. | Windows, UNIX, or Linux |
| NFS Parameter actimeo | You must use actimeo=0 on your NFS mount. If the parameter is not specified, file segments of 0 KB or incorrect size will be displayed. Downloading of large files (in GBs) from the replicated data center may also fail. | Required | Linux |
| Replication server | Replicates payloads from shared disk of one data center to the shared disk to another data center. | Required. Must be installed on each Sterling B2B Integrator and Global Mailbox Management node. | Windows, UNIX, or Linux |
| WebSphere® MQ | Notifies applications about the events related to the Global Mailbox. | Required | Windows, UNIX, or Linux |
| Database cluster | Stores the application configuration, such as users, business processes, and protocol adapters. | Required | Windows, UNIX, or Linux |
| Perimeter server | Reduces network congestion issues and improves scalability for high volume environments through session and thread management. Enhances security by moving security threats further from your secure network and data. | Optional | Windows, UNIX, or Linux |
| Sterling File Gateway | Facilitates the exchange of file-based information securely, in virtually any format, protocol, and file size. | Optional | |
| Sterling Secure Proxy | Masks the IP address and HTTP details of the servers to secure the network and data centers. | Optional | Windows, UNIX, or Linux |
Conceptual diagram
The following diagram shows the relative relationship between the components of Global Mailbox
Sterling B2B Integrator and Sterling File Gateway add Global Mailbox capability for enhanced disaster recovery.
Companies in many industries are under pressure to sustain their operations on a 24 x 7 x 365 basis due to the nature of their business. Whether it is a global supply chain, hospitals providing 24-hour patient care, or the demands of consumer banking, the need to operate without interruption is no longer an option.
What is also common across all industries is a need to exchange a variety of business documents and in many use cases do so in real time. This complexity puts enormous pressure on IT to architect a business-to-business (B2B) integration platform that not only supports a just-in-time exchange of critical business documents but is always available. Complicating these complex challenges is that many companies have chosen to operate regionally dispersed data centers for both performance and disaster recovery purposes. Companies have gone to great lengths to ensure 24 x7 x 365 availability by deploying redundant hardware and software capabilities so they can operate in an active-active or active-passive mode or leverage database technology to minimize disaster recovery downtime.
Sterling B2B Integrator and Sterling File Gateway help companies overcome the challenges of operating without downtime by offering a highly available mailbox architecture for the exchange of files with trading partners. Active-active processing across globally distributed locations enables highly available business operations while built-in application disaster recovery satisfies data preservation requirements. IBM® Global High Availability Mailbox provides the following features for high availability and disaster recovery to Sterling B2B Integrator and Sterling File Gateway:
- Mailbox capabilities
- Access and support for the following protocols:
- File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
- Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
- IBM Sterling Connect:Direct®
- myFileGateway
- B2B architecture for active deployments across data centers
- Application level command and control to manage payloads across data centers
- Consistent view across data centers of what files get processed regardless of data center status
Global Mailbox is integrated w