Configuring cluster communication

The cluster-related plugin implementations that Guidewire provides in the base PolicyCenter configuration are sufficient for most purposes. However, if you need more fine grained control over cluster communications, it is possible to use one of the following methods to provide that control:

• Plugin parameters
• System property overrides

For example, if you need precise control over binding ports, then use one of these methods to configure the ports directly.

Plugin parameters

The cluster plugin implementations that Guidewire provides in the base configuration all support plugin parameters that you can use to reconfigure the plugin. Many plugin parameters are optional. However, depending on the plugin implementation, Guidewire requires that you provide values for a few of the plugins parameters. Guidewire provides default values for each of the supported plugin parameters.

To define a plugin parameter, you manually add that parameter to the plugin definition in the PolicyCenter plugin editor. For example, suppose that you want to directly control the number of threads in the thread pool that handle inbound requests in the ClusterUnicastTransportFactory plugin. In this case, you manually add the poolSize parameter and value to the plugin definition for ClusterUnicastTransportFactory, using the Studio plugin editor.

System property overrides

PolicyCenter provides the ability to reconfigure your plugin configuration using system properties set from a command prompt as you start the application server. One advantage to using system property overrides to set transport values is that you do not have to modify the configuration inside a WAR/EAR file to do so. This makes it easier to use the same WAR/EAR file in different environments.

The exact syntax to use in setting system parameters at application server start is dependent on the application server type. See Setting JVM options in PolicyCenter for more information.