Chapter 2 Managing Portals and Portal Server Instances

This chapter explains multiple portals and how to manage a portal and Portal Server instances. The topics provided include the following:

• Understanding Multiple Portals

• Setting Up Portals

• Setting Up Portal Server Instances

Understanding Multiple Portals

Multiple portals share the same user set. The features of multiple portals include the following:

• A portal is identified by a URL. For example: http://hr.xyz.com/portal or http://eng.xyz.com/portal

• Multiple portals share the same user repository — the same Access Manager and the Directory server. You use Access Manager to manage end users, and you do not need to synchronize end-user data in LDAP with any other repository. All related data related to end users resides in only one directory server.

• You can deploy multiple portals and Portal Server instances on one or more hosts. For example, one host may have two portal server instances serving content for one portal and three Portal Server instances serving another portal. Each Portal Server instance must run inside a different web container instance.

All portals share these components:

• Rewriter - Although this component is shared, you can define a different rule set for each portal.

• SSO Adapter - Although this component is shared, you can define a different adapter for each portal.

• All Secure Remote Access services

The following components have a one-to-one relationship with portals:

• Desktop - Each portal has an independent Desktop.

• Subscriptions - This is configured differently per portal.

• WSRP - Producer and Consumer - Independent set of Producers and Configured Producers for each portal.

Search can have a many-to-many relationship with portals:

• One portal can use one search server.

• Many portals can use a single search server.

• Each portal can use more than one search server.

End users see different content for different portals and can customize the each portal's Desktop. Single sign-on between portals is possible. An end user who has access to two portals at a corporation would typically experience the following sequence:

• Types in a URL for Portal One and authenticates using the corporate identify.

• Views personalized content on Portal One.

• Types in a URL for Portal Two without needing to provide authentication.

• Views personalized content on Portal Two.

Portals that use different Access Managers are not multiple portals. They are independent and unrelated portals, each with its own set of users.

Access Manger can be a collection of its own instances, all using the same set of Directory Server instances. Different Access Managers are two unrelated Access Managers, not different instances of the same Access Manager.

Setting Up Portals

A portal consists of one or more portal server instances that deliver the same content and are mapped to a single Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The content and services delivered by a portal are common to all its instances.

Multiple portals share the same user set. These portals can be deployed on one or more hosts, but they all share the same user repository — the same Access Manager and the Directory server.

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Note –

Portals that use different Access Managers are not multiple portals. They are independent and unrelated portals, each with its own set of users.

Access Manger can be a collection of its own instances, all using the same set of Directory Server instances. Different Access Managers are two unrelated Access Managers, not different instances of the same Access Manager.

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This section explains how to complete the following tasks:

• To List Portals

• To Create a Portal

• To Delete a Portal

• To Export Portal Data

• To Import Portal Data to a Portal

To List Portals

You can view a list of Portal Servers that are already set up.

1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

2. Select the Portals tab.

Equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin list-portals

To Create a Portal

During Portal Server installation, a default portal named portal1 is created. You can also create a new portal server using the Create Portal wizard.

1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

2. Select the Portals tab.

3. Click the New Portal button to launch the wizard.

4. Provide a unique name for the Portal Server, for example, portal5.

5. Type a URI that enables end users to access the Portal Server, for example, /portal.

6. Select a web container type.

   The available types are the following:

   • Sun Java^TM System Web Server 6.0

   • Sun Java System Web Server 7.x

   • Sun Java System Application Server 8.x

   • BEA WebLogic 8.1SP4/SP5

   • IBM WebSphere 5.1.1.6

7. (Optional) Change the default web container instance properties.

   For information, see Creating a New Portal in Sun Java System Portal Server 7.1 Configuration Guide.

8. Verify the information you supplied.

9. Click Finish to create the new portal.

10. (Optional) View the log file to monitor the process.

    1. Log in to the machine where portal is to be created.

    2. Run the psdadmin set-logger command.

       ./psadmin set-logger -u uid -f password -m component-type -O logger-name

Equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin create-portal

Templates for webcontainer.properties for supported web containers are in the portal-install-dir/template directory.

To Delete a Portal

You can delete all existing instances of a portal on all hosts and clean up the portal's data in the Access Manager LDAP directory.

1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

2. Select the Portals tab.

3. From the list of portals, select the portal you want to remove, and click the Delete Portal button.

Equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin delete-portal

To Export Portal Data

You can archive the following portal data in a par file:

• Data stored in the Access Manager directory

• Desktop file system files, located by default in the /var/opt/SUNWportal/portals/portal-id/desktop directory

• Desktop customized classes, located by default in the /var/opt/SUNWportal/portals/portal-id/desktop/classes directory

• Portal Server web applications, located by default in the /var/opt/SUNWportal/portals/portal-id/war directory

• Portal Server web source data, located by default in the /var/opt/SUNWportal/portals/portal-id/web-src directory

After you archive data, you can import the data to the same portal or to a different portal. To export a portal from psconsole:

1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

2. Select the Portals tab.

3. Select a portal from the table.

4. Click the Export button.

5. Specify the par file location on the Portal Server machine and what you want to export:

   • All Desktop data — the exported par includes file system data and display profile data

   • File system data only — the exported par file includes only the desktop file system data, which is data deployed into the portal desktop and portal web-src

   • Display profile data only — the exported par includes only display profile data

Equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin export

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Note –

This command does not support user data in the Directory Server.

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To Import Portal Data to a Portal

You can import into any portal any portal data that you previously exported.

1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

2. Select the Portals tab.

3. Select a portal from the table.

   The Import Desktop Data page appears.

4. Click the Import button and specify the following:

   • The par file path for the imported data. The par file must be located on the Portal Server system.

   • Whether to continue if the storage structure of the portal does not match the archived file you want to import.

5. Redeploy the portal web applications.

   1. Schedule a time to run the psadmin redeploy command.

      Plan to do this step off hours or in system maintenance mode, when your system is not in production. This action redeploys the portal war file, and it logs out users who are running a Desktop, causing them to lose their work.

   2. Run the psadmin redeploy command.

      psadmin redeploy -u amadmin -f passwordfile -p portalID --allwebapps

Equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin import

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Note –

This command does not support user data in the Directory Server.

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Setting Up Portal Server Instances

A Portal Server instance is a web application deployed to a web container. An instance uses a particular Portal Server context URI to serve requests on a specific network port. Each Portal Server instance is associated with a single Portal.

A server instance listens on a particular port, bound to either one IP address or any IP address of the host. For the Portal Server, a server instance corresponds to a deployment container process listening on a port and running a single Java™ Virtual Machine (JVM™ software).

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Note –

Sun Java™ System Web Server and Sun Java™ System Application Server support multiple instances.

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This section explains how to complete the following tasks:

• To List Portal Server Instances

• To Create a Portal Server Instance

• To Delete a Portal Server Instance

To List Portal Server Instances

You can view a list of Portal Server instances that are already set up.

1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

2. Select the Portals tab.

3. Click the name of Portal Server from the table.

4. Select the Server Instances tab.

   The table displays all the instances of the Portal Server you selected.

Equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin list-portals

To Create a Portal Server Instance

Before You Begin

• Create a new instance for an existing Portal Server on your web container instance.

• Start the web container instance.

• Start the administration server of the web container.

1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

2. Select the Portals tab.

3. Select the name of a Portal Server.

4. Select the Server Instances tab.

5. Click on the New Instance button to launch the wizard.

6. Provide the name of the portal identifier.

7. Select a web container type.

   The available types are the following:

   • Sun Java System Web Server 7

   • Sun Java System Application Server 8.2

   • BEA WebLogic 8.1SP4

   • IBM WebSphere 5.1.1.6

8. (Optional) Change the default web container instance properties.

   For information, see Creating a Portal on the Same Node in Sun Java System Portal Server 7.1 Configuration Guide.

9. Verify the information you supplied, and click Finish to create the new portal instance.

   A progress bar displays the status of this procedure. When the procedure is complete, a results page is provided.

10. Click Finish to create your new portal instance.

Equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin create-instance

To Delete a Portal Server Instance

You can delete an instance of a Portal Server.

1. Log in to the Portal Server management console.

2. Select the Portals tab.

3. Select the name of a Portal Server.

4. Select the Server Instances tab.

5. From the table, select the instance you want to remove.

6. Click Delete Instance button.

Equivalent psadmin Command

psadmin delete-instance