Production Operations User Guide

Introduction to Production Operations

Managing the Portal Life Cycle

Setting Up a Team Development Environment

Configuring the Portal Cluster

Building and Deploying the EAR File

Propagating a Portal Application

Performing Round-Trip Development

Installing the Propagation Software

Updating the Database

Installing the Propagation Utility

Verifying the Propagation Utility Installation

Installing the Export/Import Utility

Running the Export/Import Utility

Managing a Team Development Environment

Choosing a Source Control Vendor

Creating a Shared Portal Domain

The BEA Home Directory

Understanding Why a Common BEA Home Matters

Managing Multiple BEA Home Directory Locations for Your Team

Creating and Sharing the Portal Domain

Best Practices for Creating a Portal Domain to Share with a Team

Excluding Domain Files From Source Control Management

Binary Files in Source Control Management

Developing Against an Enterprise-Quality Database

Creating and Sharing the Portal Application

Creating the Domain and Application Directories

Checking in the WebLogic Workshop Application

Excluding Portal Application Files From Source Control Management

Managing Checkouts of the WebLogic Workshop Application

WebLogic Portal Coding Practices

Java Projects

Cross-Platform Support

Definition Labels for Portal Components

Cluster Configuration

Setting up a Configuration File Template (config-template.xml)

Exclude config.xml From Source Control

Using Multiple Enterprise Applications in a Single Domain

Additional Files Recommended in Source Control

Configuring a Portal Cluster

Setting up a Production Database

Reading the wlw-manifest.xml File

Choosing a Cluster Architecture

Single Cluster

Multi Cluster

Configuring a Domain

Using the Configuration Wizard

Creating a Production Cluster Environment with the Configuration Wizard

Configuring the Administration Server

Increasing the Default Memory Size

Allowing Server Startup Without Requiring Authentication

Setting up JMS Servers

Creating Managed Server Directories

If You Use Node Manager

Increasing the Default Memory Size

Administration Server and WebLogic Portal Dependencies

Portal Feature Dependencies

Dependencies Before and After Cluster Deployment

Administration Portal Dependencies

Error Logging

Understanding Portal Resources

Understanding the Portlet Deployment Life Cycle

Understanding the Database Structure for Storing Portlets

Removing Portlets from Production

Zero-Downtime Architectures

Single Database Instance

Portal Cache

Preparing and Deploying the EAR File

Preparing the EAR File for Deployment

Configuring Portal Application Deployment Descriptors

Modifying Application Deployment Descriptors

Modifying Web Application Deployment Descriptors

Modifying WebLogic Workshop Deployment Descriptors

Creating Content Management Repositories

Compiling with Your Runtime JVM

Building a Portal Application with WebLogic Workshop

Building In the Command Line

Deploying the EAR for a New Application

Using Targeted Deployment

Starting Managed Servers

Configuring Your Proxy Server

Troubleshooting Unresolved URLs

Deploying a Portal Application to the Cluster

Redeploying Applications

Redeploying a Portal Application with weblogic.Deployer

Partial Redeployment with weblogic.Deployer

Deploying JSR-168 Portlets in a WAR File

Starting the Import Utility

Using the Import Utility

Accessing the Portlets

Developing a Propagation Strategy

What is Propagation?

What Kind of Data Can Be Propagated?

What Tools Does BEA Provide to Assist with Propagation?

WebLogic Server Administration Console (EAR Deployment)

Propagation Utility

Datasync Web Application

Export/Import Utility

Manual Propagation Steps

Database Vendor Tools (Not Supported)

Choosing the Right Propagation Tool

Propagation Roadmap

Development Environments

Source Control

Moving from Development to Staging

Staging Environment

Source Control in the Staging Environment

Moving to the Production Environment

Assessing Your Portal System Configuration

General Propagation Scenarios

Example Environment

Scenario 1: Deploying the EAR file for the first time

Scenario 2: Redeploying an EAR file

Scenario 3: Propagating from Staging to Production: Enterprise Scope

Scenario 4: Propagating from Staging to Production: Desktop Scope

Scenario 5: Propagating from Production to Staging: Both Have Changed

Scenario 6: Round-Trip Development

Production Mode vs. Development Mode

Inside the Propagation Utility

The Propagation Utility Sequence

General Propagation Guidelines

Propagating in a Clustered Environment

Propagating Across Networked Systems

Before You Begin

Perform a Data Backup

Plan to Inactivate the System During the Import Process

Install the Patch

Customize the Session Timeout and Inventory/Log File Location (Optional)

Session Timeout Value

Inventory and Log File Location

Deploy the J2EE Application (EAR)

Make Required Manual Changes

Propagation Scope

Setting the Scope

Scope and Library Inheritance

Portal Asset Instances and Inheritance

Creating a New Desktop and Disassembling to the Library

Decoupling of Property Settings

Propagation Scope Reference Table

Security Information and Propagation

User Customizations and Propagation

Datasync Assets and Propagation

Conflict Resolution Using Policies

Identifying Differences Between Assets

Prioritizing Changes Based on Policies

Handling Propagation Conflicts

Rolling Back an Import Process

WSRP Propagation

Overview of WSRP Propagation

Propagating Consumer Applications

Known Problems with WSRP Propagation

Best Practices

Keep Portal Framework Definition Labels and Instance Labels

Do Not Manually Replicate Changes Between Environments

Set the Scope to the Enterprise Application Level

Using the Propagation Utility

Inventory Export Process

Starting the Propagation Utility and Logging In

Viewing the Application Inventory

Exporting the Application Inventory to a File

Reviewing Propagation Utility Export Log Files

Inventory Import Process

Starting the Utility

Selecting the Source Inventory to Import

Loading and Validating the Imported Inventory List

Viewing the Application Inventory

Acknowledging the Quiescence Requirement

Deploying the J2EE Application on the Destination

Setting the Scope

Creating Policies for Merging Inventory Information

Previewing Changes

Summary Statistics

Change Manifest Legend

Pending Change List (Change Manifest)

Exporting the Change Manifest for the Inventory

Making Manual Changes Prior to Propagation

Committing the Inventory Import

Reviewing the Import Log Files

Import Overview Log File

Import Processing Verbose Log Files

Using the Export/Import Utility

Installing the Export/Import Utility

Before You Use the Export/Import Utility

Understanding .portal Files vs. Desktops

Understanding .pinc Files

Understanding Export and Import Scope

Library Scope

Admin Scope

Visitor Scope

Customization

Overview of the Export/Import Utility

What the Utility Moves

What the Utility Does Not Move

Merging and Scoping Rules

Using the Export/Import Utility

Understanding the Properties File

Specifying the Properties File Location

Specifying Parameters in the Properties File

Exporting a Desktop

Editing the Properties File

Running the Build Script

Importing a .portal File

Editing the Properties File

Running the Build Script

Exporting a Page

Editing the Properties File

Running the Build Script

Importing a Page

Editing the Properties File

Running the Build Script

Handling Deletes

Handling Moves

Inner Moves

Outer Moves

Specifying Identifiers

Locating the Definition Label for a Page

Locating the Definition Label for a Book

Managing the Cache

Using the Datasync Web Application

Portal Datasync Definitions

Datasync Definition Usage During Development

Compressed Versus Uncompressed EAR

Datasync Web Application

Removing Content

Working with a Compressed EAR File

Uploading new contents

Bootstrapping from an EAR

Creating a JAR file

Validating Contents

Pulling Definitions from Production

Options for Connecting to the Server

Examples

Usage

Commands

Working with an Uncompressed EAR File

Rules for Deploying Datasync Definitions

Removing Property Sets