1
Introduction

This document is a collection of common practices regarding development and deployment of Oracle9iAS. It covers common mistakes, product usage scenarios, and also provides a review checklist for different phases of Oracle9iAS deployment. Some of the practices may be generic to Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and not specific to Oracle9iAS.

The document introduces the J2EE and Web Cache install type of Oracle9iAS, and then discusses the practices associated with each Oracle9iAS component. The practices are then bound together with some complete deployment examples.

1.1 About Best Practices

A best practice is, in general, a recommendation or a common practice on how to perform certain tasks and actions. This recommendation may involve a combination of tools and manual processes to achieve a desired result.

The best practices in this document are deliberately kept brief. They do not include the detailed steps. Those are covered in other documentation library books.

1.2 About Oracle9iAS J2EE and Web Cache Install Type

Oracle9iAS Release 2 can be installed in different ways- J2EE and Web Cache install type offers the most basic install. In this paper, the term Oracle9iAS is used to refer to this installation type. This book will discuss the following components:

• Oracle9iAS Web Cache: This is the first component of Oracle9iAS to receive requests. For both static and dynamic requests, it can cache the results, thus reducing the workload of the Web server machines behind it.

• Oracle HTTP Server: This is the Oracle9iAS component that services HTTP requests. It responds to requests forwarded to it by Oracle9iAS Web Cache. The Oracle HTTP Server sub-system is comprised of a Web server (based on Apache), a Perl execution environment, and a PL/SQL and OC4J routing system. Unless mentioned otherwise, a reference to Oracle HTTP Server usually is a reference to the Web server piece within Oracle HTTP Server.

• Oracle9iAS Containers for J2EE (OC4J): This is the J2EE-compliant container in Oracle9iAS. It provides clustering capabilities for the J2EE components -servlets, Java Server Pages (JSP), and Enterprise Java Beans (EJB). It also contains other mechanisms, such as Java Object Cache, which provides distributed caching capabilities.

• Oracle Enterprise Manager: Oracle Enterprise Manager is a Web-based administration tool for Oracle9iAS Release 2.

• Infrastructure Repository: This is a database or file-based repository for Oracle9iAS Release 2. It is used to persist deployment and configuration information for other Oracle9iAS components.

• Clustering Infrastructure Components: There are some components (Oracle Process Manager and Notification Service, mod_oc4j, and Distributed Configuration Manager) that work in tandem to provide significant clustering capabilities in Oracle9iAS Release 2.

Figure 1-1 below displays the components deployed in a clustered scenario.

Figure 1-1 Clustered Components

Text description of the illustration asbpt001.gif

For detailed information on Oracle9iAS components and features, refer to the product documentation.

1.3 Audience

This document is intended for all users of Oracle9iAS: application designers, developers, deployers, and administrators. It is assumed that the reader has sufficient knowledge about J2EE and relevant Web technologies and terms.

The reader is also assumed to be familiar with basic Oracle9iAS terminology. This document does not explain the terms to the beginner, but does cover the nuances of different options that a feature may provide.

See Also: Oracle9i Application Server Concepts Guide

1.4 Document Organization

This document as a whole focuses on Oracle9iAS Web Cache, Oracle HTTP Server, OC4J, J2EE programming, Oracle9iAS Portal, Oracle Internet Directory, and Oracle9iAS deployment. Other mature technologies like Perl and PLSQL have sufficient associated literature, and are not covered here. An application server running J2EE applications is still impacted by the basic practices in Java programming - specially the performance-related practices.

These are covered first, followed by J2EE practices: JSPs, servlets, and EJBs. We then cover practices on some of the frameworks Oracle9iAS provides, for example, BC4J and Java Object Cache.

Oracle9iAS Web Cache practices then elaborate the different manners in which Oracle9iAS Web Cache may be leveraged. The overall security practices then provide some tips to secure deployment.

This document also describes some deployment architectures with respect to placing different components along with firewalls.

1.5 References and Relation to Other Documents

Most of the performance related practices are covered in more detail in the Oracle9iAS Performance and Tuning Guide. The sections on servlets, BC4J, and data access rely heavily on this.

In the clustering sections, the following two white papers were referenced:

• Oracle9iAS: Scalability, Availability, and Manageability of J2EE and Web Clusters at:

  http://otn.oracle.com/products/ias/ohs/collateral/r2/clusters.pdf
  
  

• mod_oc4j: A Technical Overview at:

  http://otn.oracle.com/products/ias/ohs/collateral/r2/mod_oc4j_wp.pdf
  
  

Other references as appropriate to certain sections or practices are alluded to within the description of the best practice.