Using the WLS Administration Console

This topic describes how to use the WebLogic Server Administration Console, which includes tabs for configuring BEA Liquid Data for WebLogic^TM. It includes the following sections:

• Using the Administration Console to Manage Liquid Data
• Starting the Administration Console
• Overview of the Administration Console
• Finding the Liquid Data Node in the Navigation Tree

 

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Using the Administration Console to Manage Liquid Data

You can configure, manage, and monitor Liquid Data through the BEA WebLogic Server Administration Console. When Liquid Data is installed, it is deployed as an application in an instance of WebLogic Server. When you start the Liquid Data Server, the hosting WebLogic server is automatically started. Upon installation, Liquid Data becomes a managed resource known to the WLS JMX management framework. You will use the tabs on the Liquid Data node in the Administration Console to ad and configure Liquid Data data sources.

 

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Starting the Administration Console

To start the Administration Console:

1. Start the WebLogic Server in the WebLogic domain in which Liquid Data is deployed. For more information, see Starting WebLogic Server and the Liquid Data Server.

2. Open a web browser (either Netscape 4x or higher, or Internet Explorer 4.x or higher) and open the following URL:

   http://hostname:port/console

   Where

   • hostname is the machine name or IP address of the host server
   • port is the address of the port on which the host server is listening for requests (7001 by default)

   For example, to start the Administration Console for a local instance of WebLogic Server (running on your own machine), type the following URL in a Web browser address field:

   http://localhost:7001/console/

   If you started the Administration Server using Secure Socket Layer (SSL), you must add s after http, as follows:

   https://hostname:port/console

   Note: On Windows, you can start the Administration Console through the start menu: Start—>Programs—>BEA WebLogic Platform 7.0—>Liquid Data for WebLogic 1.0—>Start Admin Console

3. When the login page appears, enter the user name and the password you used to start the Administration Server.

   Note: To change certain Liquid Data server settings, such as caching or file swapping, you must log in with a username that belongs to the LDAdmin group.

If you have your browser configured to send HTTP requests to a proxy server, then you may need to configure your browser so that it does not send Administration Server HTTP requests to the proxy. If the Administration Server is on the same machine as the browser, then ensure that requests sent to localhost or 127.0.0.1 are not sent to the proxy.

The Administration Console is accessible via a URL in the following form:

http://localhost:7001/console/

 

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Overview of the Administration Console

When you start the Administration Console, a server home page is shown in the main display area on the right. You can use the topic links on the home page initially to navigate to top level resource nodes, or use the navigation tree in the left pane. The left pane in the Administration Console contains a hierarchical tree — the domain tree — for navigating to tables of data, configuration pages and monitoring pages, or accessing logs. By selecting (that is, left-clicking) an item in the domain tree, you can display a table of data for resources of a particular type (such as WebLogic Servers) or configuration and monitoring pages for a selected resource.

You can expand and collapse nodes in the tree by clicking on the + and - signs next to the nodes as follows:

• A plus sign is (+) next to a node indicates that the node contains subnodes it is expandable. To expand a collapsed container node, click on the + beside it. Its next level subnodes will display. You can continue expanding subnodes if they have + next to them.
• A minus sign (-) next to a node indicates that the node is a container that is fully expanded. To collapse an expanded container node, click on the - beside it.
• A node with neither - or + beside is either an empty folder with no resources as yet or a fixed resource with no subnodes. As you add resources to folders, these will become expandable containers.

To manage Liquid Data you will need to access and use console pages for standard WebLogic Server resources as well as console pages specific to Liquid Data resources.

For a detailed overview on using the Administration Console, see Starting and Using the Administration Console in the BEA WebLogic Server Administration Guide.

 

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Finding the Liquid Data Node in the Navigation Tree

The Liquid Data node is under the domain node is under the domain node at the Administration Console navigation tree. In the figure below, the navigation tree for the Liquid Data Samples server is shown. The domain name for the Samples is ld_samples.

To access the Liquid Data data source configuration and monitoring tabs, click the Liquid Data node in the navigation tree.