We are assisting our client to deploy an apiRequester from CICS using z/OS Connect EE.   The clients server people have provided three IP-address targets for the outbound request which they expect us to use in a round-robin manner, namely try one address if connection fails move to the next address then if that fails move to the final address and if that fails outbound request has failed. 

I can't see any way of doing this within the config (server.xml) of a single server.  Only solution I can see is to create one z/OS Connect EE server for each IP-address and ask the CICS code to do the round-robin usage.  Is my solution correct?

Colin C

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Colin Campbell
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Hello Colin,
Just to ensure I understand your requirement, are you asking for z/OS Connect EE to provide a round-robin / workload balancing option for requests going to (three) remote API endpoints? If so, this is currently not supported and would require the customer to raise an RFE against z/OS Connect EE for customers to vote on.

Best regards,
Alan. 

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Alan Hollingshead
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Hi Alan,
That is exactly what we were originally asked to do.  Turns out it is an interim solution.  When the full solution is deployed the three IP-addresses will be behind a DNS so the round-robin/load balance will be for someone else to work out.
We also learned that these three IP-addresses corresponded to three availability zones of a cloud provider. 
So for the interim solution which should only be in effect a few months we can simply use one IP-address with manual reconfigurations to cover any long(-ish) outages.   Nevertheless this type of cloud provider environment, albeit interim for us, is not unreasonable and I shall discuss the matter of an RFE with the client so it can possibly be part of a proper discussion within the z/OS Community.

Thank you,
Colin C

------------------------------
Colin Campbell
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Wed October 27, 2021 12:48 PM
From: Alan Hollingshead
Subject: Multiple IP-addresses for apiRequester

Hello Colin,
Just to ensure I understand your requirement, are you asking for z/OS Connect EE to provide a round-robin / workload balancing option for requests going to (three) remote API endpoints? If so, this is currently not supported and would require the customer to raise an RFE against z/OS Connect EE for customers to vote on.

Best regards,
Alan. 

------------------------------
Alan Hollingshead
------------------------------

Hi Alan,
We are interested in creating the RFE for consideration.  I don't recall ever doing one so would you be able to give me details or what to do or provide a link if there is an online process.

Regards,
Colin C

------------------------------
Colin Campbell
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Wed October 27, 2021 07:16 PM
From: Colin Campbell
Subject: Multiple IP-addresses for apiRequester

Hi Alan,
That is exactly what we were originally asked to do.  Turns out it is an interim solution.  When the full solution is deployed the three IP-addresses will be behind a DNS so the round-robin/load balance will be for someone else to work out.
We also learned that these three IP-addresses corresponded to three availability zones of a cloud provider. 
So for the interim solution which should only be in effect a few months we can simply use one IP-address with manual reconfigurations to cover any long(-ish) outages.   Nevertheless this type of cloud provider environment, albeit interim for us, is not unreasonable and I shall discuss the matter of an RFE with the client so it can possibly be part of a proper discussion within the z/OS Community.

Thank you,
Colin C

------------------------------
Colin Campbell
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Wed October 27, 2021 12:48 PM
From: Alan Hollingshead
Subject: Multiple IP-addresses for apiRequester

Hello Colin,
Just to ensure I understand your requirement, are you asking for z/OS Connect EE to provide a round-robin / workload balancing option for requests going to (three) remote API endpoints? If so, this is currently not supported and would require the customer to raise an RFE against z/OS Connect EE for customers to vote on.

Best regards,
Alan. 

------------------------------
Alan Hollingshead

Hi Colin,
Please use this link to raise an RFE, and specify z/OS Connect Enterprise Edition for the product name.
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=submitRfe
Kind regards,
Alan.

------------------------------
Alan Hollingshead
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Wed November 03, 2021 01:06 AM
From: Colin Campbell
Subject: Multiple IP-addresses for apiRequester

Hi Alan,
We are interested in creating the RFE for consideration.  I don't recall ever doing one so would you be able to give me details or what to do or provide a link if there is an online process.

Regards,
Colin C

------------------------------
Colin Campbell
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Wed October 27, 2021 07:16 PM
From: Colin Campbell
Subject: Multiple IP-addresses for apiRequester

Hi Alan,
That is exactly what we were originally asked to do.  Turns out it is an interim solution.  When the full solution is deployed the three IP-addresses will be behind a DNS so the round-robin/load balance will be for someone else to work out.
We also learned that these three IP-addresses corresponded to three availability zones of a cloud provider. 
So for the interim solution which should only be in effect a few months we can simply use one IP-address with manual reconfigurations to cover any long(-ish) outages.   Nevertheless this type of cloud provider environment, albeit interim for us, is not unreasonable and I shall discuss the matter of an RFE with the client so it can possibly be part of a proper discussion within the z/OS Community.

Thank you,
Colin C

------------------------------
Colin Campbell


Original Message:
Sent: Wed October 27, 2021 12:48 PM
From: Alan Hollingshead
Subject: Multiple IP-addresses for apiRequester

Hello Colin,
Just to ensure I understand your requirement, are you asking for z/OS Connect EE to provide a round-robin / workload balancing option for requests going to (three) remote API endpoints? If so, this is currently not supported and would require the customer to raise an RFE against z/OS Connect EE for customers to vote on.

Best regards,
Alan. 

------------------------------
Alan Hollingshead