N1 Grid Service Provisioning System User's Guide and Release Notes for the WebLogic 8 Plug-In 1.0

Previous: Installing and Using the WebLogic 8 Environment with the N1 Grid Service Provisioning System
Next: Managing WebLogic Domains, Servers, and Clusters

Creating the WebLogic Infrastructure

Use the WebLogic 8 Common Tasks page as a starting point to create and manage WebLogic servers and clusters.

How to Create a WebLogic 8 Domain and Administration Server

You need to create a domain and Administration Server before you can set up Managed Servers to host your applications. A domain is a set of WebLogic servers that is managed by an Administration Server. All information about the domain is contained in a configuration file that is stored on the Administration Server.

When you create a new domain by installing the AdminServer component, you also:

Configure the domain
Create the Admin Server virtual host

You can use this procedure to create a new domain or you can use this procedure to register an existing domain within the provisioning system by selecting the markOnly option.

Note –

In this document, two similar terms are used: AdminServer and Administration Server. The prepackaged N1 Grid Service Provisioning System WebLogic 8 component is called the AdminServer component. AdminServer represents the provisioning system component and Administration Server represents the installed application running in the WebLogic 8 environment.

Before You Begin

To create a WebLogic 8 domain, you must belong to a user group that has the Run Component Procedures permission on the folder that contains the component. You must also have the Allow on Host Set permission for the host set on which you plan to deploy the component.

Steps

Verify that your WebLogic session variables, WL_DEFAULT_USER and WL_DEFAULT_PASSWORD, are set.

WebLogic session variables must be seven characters long and include a number.

For more information about session variables, see Chapter 5, Session Variables, in N1 Grid Service Provisioning System 5.0 Plan and Component Developer’s Guide.

In the Common Tasks section in the browser interface, click WebLogic 8.

Click the Domain Management: Create link.

The plan's Details page displays.

Click Run.

The Run page displays.

In the Plan Parameters area, select the variable settings for the AdminServer component that you plan to deploy.
- If the variable settings have been established for this component, select the appropriate settings from the menu.
- If the settings are not available from the menu, click Select From List.
  
  The Select Variable Settings From List window displays.
  - To create a new set of variable settings, select Create Set.
    
    The following list provides commonly updated variables for the AdminServer component.
    
    domainName
    
    Required. The WebLogic domain name.
    
    adminPort
    
    Required. The default TCP port for the AdminServer virtual host to use.
    
    Before the domain is created, a check is performed to verify that this port is available.
    
    secureConnect
    
    Optional. True specifies that the SSL port can be used to connect the Administration Server.
    
    production
    
    Required. This variable determines whether the managed server is run in production mode. The default value of production is false. This variable can be set to true or false.
    
    Variables that are updated less often include configuration variables such as the following:
    
    adminManagedServer
    
    Required. The name of the managed server that hosts the domain administration console. The default value is myserver. If performing a markOnly install, set the variable to the server name used during the WebLogic install.
    
    targetRefName
    
    Required. This variable becomes the name of the domain's virtual host. The substitution variable is based on the values for the host name and for the domain name. This variable follows the format :[target:sys.hostName]_weblogic_admin_ :[domainName]. For example, sqa-420_weblogic_admin_wls.
  - To use variable components from another component, click Import Set.
    
    For more information about importing variable sets, see How to Run a Plan in N1 Grid Service Provisioning System 5.0 Operation and Provisioning Guide.

Select the target host.

Target the virtual host that was created when you installed the WebLogic software. See How to Install the WebLogic Software procedure.

Note –
The target host must be a member of the com.sun.weblogic#InstallHS host set.

Deselect the Target Host Set checkbox.

If you are capturing an existing WebLogic domain within the provisioning system, select the markOnly option.

Click Run Plan (Includes Preflight).

How to Create Multiple Domains with Different Passwords

You can create multiple domains using the same user and password. However, if you prefer to have separate passwords for each of your domains, you need to update your WebLogic user and password session variables after each domain installation.

The plan that creates new domains always uses the default session variable names, WL_DEFAULT_USER and WL_DEFAULT_PASSWORD.

Steps

Install the new domain and AdminServer using the default WebLogic session variables, WL_DEFAULT_USER and WL_DEFAULT_PASSWORD.

See How to Create a WebLogic 8 Domain and Administration Server.

Go to the Session Variables page by clicking Session Variables at the top of the browser interface.

Create new session variables for the newly installed AdminServer.

These new session variables have the same value as the default variables with which you installed the AdminServer.

Attribute Name	Default Session Variable Names	New Session Variable Names
`adminUser`	`WL_DEFAULT_USER`	`WL_TEST_USR`
`adminPassword`	`WL_DEFAULT_PASSWORD`	`WL_TEST_PWD`

Go to the host Details page for the AdminServer you created in step 1 and click Edit.

Update the AdminServer's host type attributes.

For example, replace the adminUser value with :[session:WL_TEST_USR].

If you have another domain to install, return to the Session Variables page and update the default WebLogic session variables with the new values to be used for the next domain you plan to install.

How to Create a WebLogic Managed Server

You can run multiple Managed Servers in each domain to host your applications. WebLogic Managed Servers are captured and represented in the provisioning system by Server components. Throughout this book, Server refers to the provisioning system component, while Managed Server refers to the installed instance of the Managed Server running in the WebLogic 8 environment.

You can use this procedure to create a new Managed Server or you can use this procedure to register an existing Managed Server within the provisioning system by selecting the markOnly option.

Note –

If you plan to create a cluster, you need to create the Managed Servers that belong to that cluster before you create the cluster.

Before You Begin

Before you can create a WebLogic Managed Server, the following criteria must be met.

A domain to contain the Managed Server must exist.

For more information, see How to Create a WebLogic 8 Domain and Administration Server.
The domain's AdminServer must be running.

To manually start an AdminServer, run the startAdminServer component procedure from the AdminServer component Details page.
The WebLogic software must be installed on the host on which you plan to install a Managed Server.

See How to Install the WebLogic Software.
You must belong to a user group that has the Run Component Procedures permission on the folder that contains the component. You must also have the Allow on Host Set permission for the host set on which you plan to deploy the component.

Steps

In the Common Tasks section in the browser interface, click WebLogic 8.

Click the Application Server Management: Create link.

The plan's Details page displays.

Click Run.

The Run page displays.

In the Plan Parameters area, select the variable settings for the ManagedServer component that you plan to deploy.

The Server component represents the Managed Server instance within the WebLogic 8 environment.
- If the variable settings have been established for this component, select the appropriate settings from the menu.
- If the settings are not available from the menu, click Select From List.
  
  The Select Variable Settings From List window displays.
  - To create a new set of variable settings, select Create Set.
    
    The following list provides commonly updated variables for the ManagedServer component.
    
    variable set name
    
    Required. A name for the new variable set you create
    
    adminServerHostName
    
    Required. Name of the AdminServer virtual host that hosts the new Managed Server. This value will be in the format remoteAgentName_weblogic_admin_domainName.
    
    You can find the virtual host on the Hosts page. The virtual host will be of type com.sun.weblogic8#AdminServerHS.
    
    targetName
    
    Required. The new Managed Server's name. This name is used in the targetRefName variable to create the Managed Server virtual host.
    
    startupScriptName
    
    Required. The name of the Managed Server's startup script.
    
    The default location of the startup script is /usr/local/bea/user_projects/servers/ domainName/targetName. This location can be changed by setting the altServerRoot component variable.
    
    serverPort
    
    Required if not using SSL. The default value for this variable is 7010. If this port is not available, the Managed Server does not start and an error message displays. After you free the port, you can start the Managed Server by running the Start component procedure on the Managed Server's component Details page.
    
    serverSslPort
    
    Required if using SSL. The default value for this variable is 7020. This port must be available, otherwise the Managed Server does not start and an error message displays. After you free the port, you can start the Managed Server by running the Start component procedure on the Managed Server's component Details page.
    
    production
    
    Required. This variable determines whether the managed server is run in production mode. The default value of production is false. This variable can be set to true or false.
  - To use variable components from another component, click Import Set.
    
    For more information about importing variable sets, see How to Run a Plan in N1 Grid Service Provisioning System 5.0 Operation and Provisioning Guide.

Select the target host or target host set.

The Managed Server resides on the Remote Agent that you target.

Note –
The target host must be a member of the com.sun.weblogic#AdminServer host set.

Deselect the Target Host Set checkbox.

If you are capturing an existing WebLogic Managed Server within the provisioning system, select the markOnly option.

Click Run Plan (Includes Preflight).

How to Create a License Component

This procedure provides the steps on how to create a license component. After the license component is created, see How to Install a License Component to install the license.

Steps

In the Common Tasks section in the browser interface, click WebLogic 8.

Click the License Management: Create link.

The component's Edit page displays.

Type the name of the new license component.

(Optional) Type the components label and description.

Select a host that has a copy of the BEA license on its file system.

Navigate through the host's file system and select the license file.

Click Check In Selected Item.

The component's Check In page displays.

Choose a folder on which you have edit permissions.

Click Continue to Check In.

How to Install a License Component

Before You Begin

Before you can install a license component, one must exist within the provisioning system. See How to Create a License Component.

Steps

In the Common Tasks section in the browser interface, click WebLogic 8.

Click the License Management: View All link.

The Components page displays.

In the row of the license component that you plan to install, click Details.

The component's Details page displays.

In the Component Procedures table, select the Default: Install procedure and click Run.

The plan's Run page displays.

Select the target host.

You target the AdminServer virtual host.

Note –
You do not need to modify the component variables for license installation.

(Optional) If you want to replace an existing license, in the Plan Variables section, select the Replace Rather Than Merge With Existing License option.

Note –
If you choose to replace an existing license, you need to restart the WebLogic domain for the new license to take effect.

Click Run Plan (Includes Preflight).

How to Create a WebLogic Cluster

You might need to create a cluster for the following reasons:

To increase application availability with the server's failover capabilities
To increase throughput by scaling applications across multiple servers

A cluster appears to clients as a single WebLogic Managed Server instance. The server instances that constitute a cluster can run on the same machine, or can be located on different machines. Each cluster member in a cluster must run the same version of WebLogic.

You can use this procedure to create a new cluster or you can use this procedure to register an existing cluster within the provisioning system by selecting the markOnly option.

Before You Begin

Before you create a WebLogic cluster, you must create a WebLogic domain, an Administration Server, and the Managed Servers that you plan to use in the cluster.

To create a WebLogic cluster, you must belong to a user group that has the Run Component Procedures permission on the folder that contains the component. You must also have the Allow on Host Set permission for the host set on which you plan to deploy the component.

Steps

In the Common Tasks section in the browser interface, click WebLogic 8.

Click the Cluster Management: Create link.

The plan's Details page displays.

Click Run.

The Run page displays.

In the Plan Parameters area, select the variable settings for the Cluster component that you plan to deploy.
- If the variable settings have been established for this component, select the appropriate settings from the menu.
- If the settings are not available from the menu, click Select From List.
  
  The Select Variable Settings From List window displays.
  - To create a new set of variable settings, select Create Set.
    
    The following list provides commonly updated variables for the ManagedServer component.
    
    variable set name
    
    Required. A name for the new variable set you create
    
    targetName
    
    Required. The name of the new cluster.
    
    clusterAddress
    
    Optional. This variable can be a DNS host name that maps to multiple IP addresses or a comma-separated list of single address host names or IP addresses. No value is necessary for this variable.
    
    multicastAddress
    
    This variable provides the address that cluster members can use to communicate with each other.
  - To use variable components from another component, click Import Set.
    
    For more information about importing variable sets, see How to Run a Plan in N1 Grid Service Provisioning System 5.0 Operation and Provisioning Guide.

Select the target host.

Because you can only install a cluster on an Administrative Server, the target host is the AdminServer virtual host.

Deselect the Target Host Set checkbox.

If you are capturing an existing WebLogic cluster within the provisioning system, select the markOnly option.

Click Run Plan (Includes Preflight).

How to Create Cluster Members

Cluster nodes are Managed Servers assigned to a cluster. You will want to create cluster members to make your applications highly available and scalable.

When a Managed Server joins the cluster, the applications that are currently targeted to the Managed Server continue to target that server, the application deployment state is preserved. The plan that creates the cluster members automatically stops the Managed Server to add it to the cluster. After the Managed Server is added, the plan restarts the Managed Server.

You can use this procedure to create a new cluster member or you can use this procedure to register an existing cluster member within the provisioning system by selecting the markOnly option.

Before You Begin

Before you can create cluster members, the following requirements must be met.

Managed Servers that you plan to convert to cluster members must exist.

For more information, see How to Create a WebLogic Managed Server.
The cluster that you plan to add nodes to must exist.

For more information, see How to Create a WebLogic Cluster.

To create a cluster member, you must belong to a user group that has the Run Component Procedures permission on the folder that contains the component. You must also have the Allow on Host Set permission for the host set on which you plan to deploy the component.

Steps

In the Common Tasks section in the browser interface, click WebLogic 8.

Click the Cluster Member Management: Join link.

The plan's Details page displays.

Click Run.

The plan's Run page displays.

Choose the Managed Server that you want to add to the cluster.
- Select the Target Host by typing the Managed Server's name or selecting it from a list.
  
  Note –
  The Target Host Set option is automatically selected. If you select a single Managed Server, deselect the Target Host Set checkbox.
- Select the Target Host Set from the menu.

Verify that the plan variable WebLogic Cluster Name contains the correct cluster name.

To specify how long the provisioning system waits before verifying that the server was restarted, type the number of seconds in the Seconds to Wait Before Failing Verify Step field.

If you are capturing an existing WebLogic cluster member within the provisioning system, select the markOnly option.

Click Run Plan (Includes Preflight).