Determining Whether an Enterprise Needs a Messaging Bus

A messaging bus is required only when distributing an application across multiple nodes. As an example, the following figures depict a setup with multiple nodes and help you identify scenarios where a messaging bus might or might not be required.

The following figure shows a scenario where a messaging bus is required.

Messaging Bus Required - Application Entities Deployed Across Multiple Nodes

In the above figure, consider that different entities of a single application (App1) need to be deployed across different nodes. Entity1 (a promoted service) needs to be deployed to NodeA, Entity2 (a component) needs to be deployed to NodeB, and Entity3 (a promoted reference) needs to be deployed to NodeC. A messaging bus is required in this case.

The following figures show scenarios where a messaging bus is not required.

Messaging Bus Not Required - Single Application Deployed to Single Node

In the above figure, consider that a single application (App1) needs to be deployed to a single node (NodeA). A messaging bus is not required in this case.

Messaging Bus Not Required - Single Application Deployed Across All Nodes And Each Node is Distributed with All Entities of the Application

In the above figure, consider that a single application (App1) needs to be deployed across all the nodes (NodeA, NodeB, Node...N) in the environment. Consider that all the components of App1 run on all the nodes all the time and none of the application entities (such as component, service, binding, reference, and so on) are distributed across multiple nodes. A messaging bus is not required in this case. For scenarios like these, you can deploy an application even when the messaging bus is down or not available.

Creating an Enterprise With or Without a Messaging Bus

Using TIBCO Configuration Tool (TCT), you can create an enterprise that:

  • Does not use the messaging bus.

    In this case:

    • All the environments in the enterprise do not use the messaging bus.
    • All the nodes in the enterprise do not use the messaging bus.

    For more information on how to create an enterprise that does not use the messaging bus using the TCT wizard, see Administrator Server Notification and Messaging Bus Server.

  • Uses a messaging bus.

    If you create an enterprise that uses the messaging bus, after the enterprise is created, you can use TIBCO ActiveMatrix Administrator to decide and configure whether an environment should use a messaging bus or not. For more information on how to configure messaging bus settings related to an environment, see TIBCO ActiveMatrix Service Grid Administration Guide.

The following illustration summarizes the messaging bus configuration: