Administration Server Best Practices

The Administration Server in a WebLogic SIP Server 2.0.1 installation is required only for configuring, deploying, and monitoring J2EE services and applications; all SIP container configuration is performed using the container's sipserver.xml configuration file.

Note: If an Administration Server fails due to a hardware, software, or network problem, only management, deployment, and monitoring operations are affected. Managed Servers do not require the Administration Server for continuing operation; J2EE applications and SIP features running on Managed Server instances continue to function even if the Administration Server fails.

BEA recommends the following best practices for configuring Administration Server and Managed Server instances in your WebLogic SIP Server domain:

Run the Administration Server instance on a dedicated machine. The Administration Server machine should have a memory capacity similar to Managed Server machines, although a single CPU is generally acceptable for administration purposes.
Configure all Managed Server instances to use Managed Server Independence. This feature allows the Managed Servers to restart even if the Administration Server is unreachable due to a network, hardware, or software failure. See Replicating a Domain's Configuration Files for Managed Server Independence in the WebLogic Server 8.1 documentation.
Configure the Node Manager utility to automatically restart all Managed Servers in the WebLogic SIP Server domain. See Configuring, Starting, and Stopping Node Manager in the WebLogic Server 8.1 documentation.

Should an Administration Server instance or machine fail, remember that only configuration, deployment, and monitoring features are affected, but Managed Servers continue to operate and process client requests. Potential losses incurred due to an Administration Server failure include:

Loss of in-progress management and deployment operations.
Loss of ongoing logging functionality.
Loss of SNMP trap generation for WebLogic SIP Server.

To resume normal management activities, restart the failed Administration Server instance as soon as possible.