Deployment Overview

 

You can deploy your e-business Web site into a variety of environments with unique network topographies. For example, you can combine WebLogic Portal with proxy servers, load balancers and firewalls to meet your security and performance requirements.

This document describes how to deploy WebLogic Portal servers, enterprise applications, and application data. Table 1-1 describes the components of a WebLogic Portal Web site and indicates the data structures in which the components are deployed.

Table 1-1 Deployment Components

This Component	Provides	Is Deployed As
Application Server	JDBC, JNDI, JMS, JTA, security, HTTP, and other essential services. It is the layer between the Java Virtual Machine platform and the enterprise application.	A set of Java classes, license files, and other files under bea/wlserver6.1 and bea/wlportal4.0. For more information, refer to Files for the Application Server.
Domain and Servers	Configurations for the application server. You can create multiple configurations and use each one to start a separate server instance. A domain also defines clusters, which group servers for the purposes of load balancing and failover. Usually, you configure your domain to contain an Administration Server and one or more Managed Servers.	A directory that contains a config.xml file, optional security certificates, and one or more applications. For more information, refer to Deploying Domains and Server Configurations.
Enterprise Application and Web Application	Management of your customer's experience on your Web site. For example, applications provide portals and portlets, present content and product information, engage customers in promotional campaigns, and process purchases.	A directory tree, either expanded or archived into a single file. For more information, refer to Assembling Your Web Application, and Assembling and Deploying Enterprise Applications.
Application Data	Expresses your business model. It specifies how an application behaves to support your business goals. For example, portlet properties, entitlement segments, rules, Webflows, Pipelines, and campaigns are all expressed as application data.	XML files within a domain. You use the E-Business Control Center to make this data available to an application. For more information, refer to Synchronizing Application Data.
Business Data	Representations of customers, products, and orders. The Customer Registration, Payment, and other services generate this data. For example, User profiles, product catalog, orders and order histories are business data.	Data in the RDBMS repository. You use the WebLogic Portal Administration Tools, database-vendor tools, third-party management tools, and other scripts that the server supplies to manage the data in the RDBMS repository. For more information, refer to Part II Deploying Your Business Data.
Content	The information that you present to your customers. You can add content, such as HTML fragments, directly to your JSPs or use the JSPs to retrieve documents from a content-management system.	Files or data stored in a content management system. WebLogic Portal includes a simple content management system along with integrations with third-party systems. The default content management system stores data in the RDBMS repository. For information about deploying third-party content management systems, refer to the documentation from the third-party vendor.
Security Realm	Authentication of your developers and customers.	Data in the RDBMS repository, if you use the default wlcsRealm or some other RDBMS Realm. You can use other realms, such as LDAP realm, which have other deployment requirements.

Figure 1-1 illustrates a fully deployed Web site.

Figure 1-1 Overview of a Deployed Site