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

Installing and Using the WebLogic 8 Environment with the N1 Grid Service Provisioning System

Plug-In Conventions

The provisioning system enables you to provision and manage applications.

Plans and Component Procedures

The WebLogic 8 plug-in provides both plans and component procedures as tools for you to perform tasks. By using plans, you link directly to the functionality you desire. Using component procedures, you have a greater number of tasks that you can perform.

Task Names

The WebLogic8 plug-in organizes tasks in four categories: application tasks, infrastructure tasks, configuration tasks, and advanced tasks. These task categories follow the same convention for describing the task that you need to perform.

Table 4–1 Common Task Names


Task Name	Description
View Installations, View Configurations, View Clusters, View Cluster Members	View a list of where all components of a particular type are installed.
View All	View all components of a particular type within a specified folder.
Create	Links to the component Details page where you can add a new component of this type to the provisioning system. You can create new components by importing them from an existing WebLogic Admin Server or by browsing the file system.
Start or Stop	Links to the component Details page to run the Start or Stop component procedure.
Install, Uninstall, Remove, Join, Leave	Represents a plan that produces the described functionality.

Global Prerequisites

Two prerequisites exist for each task documented in this book.

The WebLogic Administration Server is used to perform or verify many operations. Therefore, to perform any task that alters the WebLogic 8 environment, the Administration Server must be configured within the provisioning system with the correct connection information and running.

Note –
The Administration Server does not need to be online when installing the WebLogic software, creating the WebLogic Domain, or when creating the enterprise application (EAR), web application (WAR), and Java archive (JAR) files.
All tasks within the provisioning system require that you have specific permissions. To perform tasks with the WebLogic plug-in, 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.

For more information about permissions, see Chapter 3, Controlling Access Using Permissions, in N1 Grid Service Provisioning System 5.0 System Administration Guide.

For information about how to update your group membership, see How to Change a User’s Group Membership in N1 Grid Service Provisioning System 5.0 System Administration Guide.

Process Overview

Creating a WebLogic 8 environment within the provisioning system is similar to the process of creating the environment without the provisioning system.

Import the WebLogic 8 plug-in.

See Importing Plug-Ins in N1 Grid Service Provisioning System 5.0 System Administration Guide.
Set the WebLogic session variables: WL_DEFAULT_PASSWORD and WL_DEFAULT_USER.

See Chapter 5, Session Variables, in N1 Grid Service Provisioning System 5.0 Plan and Component Developer’s Guide.
Prepare all hosts.

The WebLogic 8 plug-in contains a new system service that must be distributed to all hosts in the provisioning system. See Preparing a Physical Host in N1 Grid Service Provisioning System 5.0 System Administration Guide.
Install the WebLogic software.

See How to Install the WebLogic Software
Create a WebLogic domain by installing an Administrative Server.

See How to Create a WebLogic 8 Domain and Administration Server.
Create a Managed Server in the new WebLogic domain.

See How to Create a WebLogic Managed Server.
Create and Install the WebLogic license component.

See How to Create a License Component and How to Install a License Component.
(Optional) Create a WebLogic 8 cluster.

See How to Create a WebLogic Cluster.
(Optional) Add a cluster member by assigning existing Managed Servers to the cluster.

See How to Create Cluster Members.
If necessary, configure the application's connection to the database.
1. Configure a connection pool.
  
  See Connection Pool Component Type.
2. (Optional) Configure a Multi Pool.
  
  See Multi Pool Component Type.
3. Configure a data source or transactional data source.
  
  See Data Source and Transaction Data Source Component Types.
If the application uses Java Messaging Service, configure the JMS server.

See JMS Server Component Type.
Capture application files (EARs, JARs, and WARs).

See Capturing and Editing WebLogic Applications.
Deploy applications to targets hosts, host sets, or clusters.

An application can target either a cluster or a Managed Server.

See Installing an Enterprise Application, Installing a Web Application, or Installing a JAR or EJB File.