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e-docs > WebLogic Server > Administration Console Online Help > Using the Administration Console

Administration Console Online Help

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Using the Administration Console

 

Overview

The System Administration Console is a Web browser-based graphical user interface used to manage a WebLogic Server domain. A WebLogic Server domain is a logically related group of WebLogic Server resources that are managed as a unit. A domain includes one or more WebLogic Servers and may also include WebLogic Server clusters. Clusters are groups of WebLogic Servers that work together to provide scalability and high-availability for applications. Applications are also deployed and managed as part of a domain.

One instance of WebLogic Server in each domain is configured as an Administration Server. The Administration Server provides a central point for managing a WebLogic Server domain. All other WebLogic Server instances in a domain are called Managed Servers. In a domain with only a single WebLogic Server instance, that server functions both as Administration Server and Managed Server. The Administration Console is hosted on the Administration Server and is accessible from any Web browser with network access to the Administration Server.

For more information on WebLogic Server domains, see Overview of WebLogic System Administration.

What You Can Do Using the System Administration Console

You can use the System Administration Console to:

System Administration Architecture

The Administration Console uses the JMX API as its underlying architecture. The JMX API models system administration functions using Java objects called MBeans. Each MBean contains a set of attributes that define parameters for various management functions and operations that define administrative actions. The Administration Console allows you to access these MBeans and attributes using a convenient graphical user interface. The values of these attributes are persisted in a domain-wide configuration file called config.xml. (Security attributes, however, are stored in other files.)

You can also perform nearly all of the management tasks that you perform using the Adminstration Console using the WebLogic Server command-line interface. The command-line interface is useful for scripting of WebLogic Server system administration operations and for those who prefer the command-line environment. For more information, see the WebLogic Server Command Reference.

 

Starting and Logging Out of the Administration Console

This section describes how to begin using the Administration Console and how to end your console session.

Starting the Administration Console

  1. Start a WebLogic Administration Server. For more information, see Starting Administration Servers.
  2. Open a Web browser (either Netscape 4x or higher, or Internet Explorer 4.x or higher) and open the following URL: 
    http://hostname:port/console

    Where hostname is the DNS name or IP address of the Administration Server and port is the address of the port on which the Administration Server is listening for requests (7001 by default). If you start the Administration Server using Secure Socket Layer (SSL), you must add s after http as follows:

    https://hostname:port/console

    For more information about setting up SSL for system administration, see Servers-->Keystores and SSL.

  3. When the login page appears, enter the user name and the password you used to start the Administration Server, (you may have specified this user name and password during the installation process) or enter a user name that belongs to one of the following security roles: Administrators, Operators, Deployers, or Monitors.

    The Administration Console allows users to edit configurations or perform other operations based on the role of the username you use to log in to the Administration Console. If the role does not permit editing of configuration data, the data is displayed in the console but is not editable. If you attempt to perform a control operation that is not permitted, such as starting or stopping servers, the console displays an Access Denied error.

Table 1-1 lists the roles and permissions for using the Adminstration Console:

Table 1-1 Global Roles and Permissions

Global Role

Permissions

Admin

View the server configuration, including the encrypted value of encrypted attributes.

Modify the entire server configuration.

Deploy applications, EJBs, startup and shutdown classes, J2EE Connectors, and Web Service components, and edit deployment descriptors.

Deployer

View the server configuration, except for encrypted attributes.

Deploy applications, EJBs, startup and shutdown classes, J2EE Connectors, and Web Service components, and edit deployment descriptors.

Operator

View the server configuration, except for encrypted attributes.

Start, resume, and stop servers by default.

Monitor

View the server configuration, except for encrypted attributes.

This role effectively provides read-only access to the Administration Console, weblogic.Admin utility and MBean APIs.

For more information, see Protecting System Administration Operations in the WebLogic Server Administration Guide.

Note: If you have your browser configured to send HTTP requests to a proxy server, then you may need to configure your browser to not send Administration Server HTTP requests to the proxy. If the Administration Server is on the same machine as the browser, then ensure that requests sent to localhost or 127.0.0.1 are not sent to the proxy.

Logging Out of the Administration Console

To log out of the Administration Console:

  1. Right-click on the Console node in the Navigation Tree.
  2. Select Logout...

 

Getting Help

Extensive documentation on how to use the Administration Console is included with the console application. To get help about an Administration Console screen, click the help icon in the upper right corner of the console.

Navigating Through the Documentation

When you click the help link, a new browser window opens containing documentation for the Adminstration Console. The text displayed in the right frame of the help window describes the functionality of the console screen you are using and contains links to related task information.

Use the left frame of this window to navigate to other help topics using the Table of Contents, the alphabetical Index, or the Search function.

For general information on a topic, click the Topic List button and select a topic from the list displayed.

You may use the <<<Back and Fwd>>> buttons to step through previously viewed pages.

The Print button prints the current topic.

Configuration Attributes

The console, by default, displays sort descriptive text for each configuration attribute or control. You can choose whether or not to display this text. For more information, see Changing Administration Console Behavior. You can access additional information, such as default and allowable values for each attribute by clicking the Attributes link at the top of the right frame in the help window.

Additional BEA Documentation Available on the Internet

Additional documentation is also available on the BEA e-docs Web site. The text in the help window includes many links to the e-docs Web site. These links are preceded with the label (e-docs). An Internet connection is necessary to view this documentation.

For more information on WebLogic Server system administration, see:

../admin.html

To access additional WebLogic Server documentation, including programming guides, tutorials, and code samples, see

../index.html

 

Configuring Your Domain Using the Administration Console

To configure your domain using the Administration Console, you browse to a page that contains forms that allow you to view or modify configuration attributes or to control various server operations.

Navigating Through the Administration Console

The left pane in the Administration Console contains a navigation tree that you use to navigate to tables of data, configuration pages, monitoring pages, or log files. By selecting (left-clicking) an node in the domain tree, you can display a table of data for a resource or configuration and monitoring pages for a selected resource. If a node in the tree is preceded by a plus sign, you can click on the plus sign to expand the tree to access additional resources. A variety of operations are also accessible by right clicking on a node.

Once you select a node from the navigation tree, in the right panel you will either see a list of configured objects or a tabbed interface. Either select the object you want to configure from the list or select a tab containing the configuration data or control operations you want to work with. A console screen containing configuration attributes or operational controls is displayed.

Some console screens contain a section labeled Advanced. Click the [Show] link to display advanced attributes. Advanced attributes contain seldom-used attributes that usually do not require editing.

Figure 1-1 Advanced Options

Because the Administration Server can manage only a single active domain, you can access only that domain using the Administration Console. If you have separate Administration Servers running, each with its own active domain, you can switch from managing one domain to the other only by invoking the URL of the Administration Console on the Administration Server that you want to access.

Creating New Configuration Objects

To manage a WebLogic Server instance, service, or application, you create configuration objects using the Administration Console. To create a new configuration object:

  1. Select the object you want to create using the Navigation Tree.
  2. Click the link in the right panel labeled Create a new object, where object is the name of a WebLogic Server instance, service, or type of application.
  3. Follow the prompts on the screen to create the object. Once the object is created you can edit its configuration by navigating through the tabs displayed in the right panel.

Deleting Configuration Objects

To delete a configuration object:

  1. Select the object you want to delete using the Navigation Tree.
  2. Right-click on the object name in the Navigation Tree and select Delete. The Administration Console asks you to confirm the deletion.
  3. Select the Yes button.

-Or-

  1. Select the parent object (such as Servers, or EJB Modules) in the Navigation Tree. A table of configured objects appears in the right panel.
  2. Click the icon in the row of the table containing the object you want to delete. The Administration Console asks you to confirm the deletion.
  3. Select the Yes button.

Cloning Configuration Objects

Cloning an object allows you to create an identical object with a new name. This feature can be useful when you need to create many objects, such as server instances, with identical configurations.

To clone an object:

  1. Select the object you want to clone using the Navigation Tree.
  2. Right-click on the object name in the Navigation Tree and select Clone. The Administration Console displays the Configuration page for the object.
  3. Enter a unique name for your object and edit any other configuration attributes that differ from the object you are cloning.
  4. Select the Clone button.

-Or-

  1. Select the parent node of the object you want to clone (such as Servers, or EJB Modules) in the Navigation Tree. A table of configured objects appears in the right panel.
  2. Click the icon in the row of the table containing the object you want to clone. The Administration Console displays the Configuration page for the object.
  3. Enter a unique name for your object and edit any other configuration attributes that differ from the object you are cloning.
  4. Select the Clone button.

Editing Configuration Objects

To access the configuration data you want to edit:

  1. Select the node in the Navigation Tree for the server instance, service, or application you want to configure.
  2. Select the tab in the right panel of the console that contains the appropriate configuration parameters.
  3. Edit the configuration data by changing the appropriate fields in the right panel.
  4. Click Apply. Many configuration changes require you to re-start the affected server(s). Non-dynamic attributes that require you to restart a server are labeled with a icon. When you apply changes to a non-dynamic attribute, the icon blinks to remind you to restart the affected server(s).

 

Monitoring Using the Administration Console

To monitor a domain resource either right click on the resource in the navigation tree and select a monitoring option, or navigate to the resource and select the monitoring tab from the right pane. The data displayed represents the current state of the resource. To update the information click the icon in the upper right section of the screen. The data will refresh regularly until you click the icon again. The icon displays a circular animation to indicate when auto-refresh is active. By default, the data refreshes every 10 seconds. You can alter the refresh interval by selecting the Console node and changing the value of Auto-refresh every field.

Changing the Monitoring Interval

When you use the Administration Console to monitor a resource of a WebLogic Server domain, you can set the interval at which the console refreshes the monitored resource. To activate the refresh option, click the refresh icon in the upper right corner of the console window. The graphic displays a circular animation to indicate when a refresh is in progress. To deactivate the refresh option, click the refresh icon again.

To set the refresh interval:

  1. Select the Console node in the navigation tree.
  2. Click the Preferences tab.
  3. Set the refresh interval, in seconds in the Auto-refresh every: field.
  4. Click Apply.

Changing the Monitoring Graph Polling Interval

Some monitoring screens in the Administration Console display real-time graphs of performance data. To change the interval at which monitoring graphs refresh their display:

  1. Select the Console node in the navigation tree.
  2. Click the Preferences tab.
  3. Set the interval, in milliseconds in the Poll for graph data every: field.
  4. Click Apply.

 

Customizing the Administration Console

This sections discusses how you can customize the appearance and functionality of the Administration Console.

Note: The attributes described in this section are not persisted with the domain configuration in the config.xml file.

The following attributes are persisted as browser cookies -- if you access the Administration Console using the same machine and Web browser, these settings are retained:

Changing the Default Language of the Administration Console

If you have a Japanese language version of WebLogic Server, you can change the default language used in the Administration Console and the online help. Normally, the console uses your browser's language settings to determine which language to display, and you do not need to change this setting. To change the default language:

  1. Select the Console node in the navigation tree.
  2. Click the Preferences tab.
  3. Set the language from the drop-down list labeled Language.
  4. Click Apply.

Changing Administration Console Behavior

To change the way the Administration Console displays data:

  1. Select the Console node in the navigation tree.
  2. Click the Preferences tab.
  3. If you want the console to remember the last tab displayed when navigating from node to node using the navigation tree, check the Remember Last Tab check box.
  4. If you want the console to display descriptions of each screen and attribute, check the Display help text for each attribute box.
  5. If you want to console to display the navigation tree (recommended), check the Use Navigation Tree check box.
  6. Click Apply.

Customizing Table Views

When the data displayed is a table of data about resources or objects of a particular type, you can customize the table by adding or subtracting columns. You can also sort the data tables by clicking on the column headers.

To customize the columns that appear in a table:

  1. Navigate to an object table.
  2. Click on the Customize this table link at the top of the table.
  3. Choose one or more attribute to display by selecting the attribute name in the Available section (on the left) of the Columns to display box.
  4. Click the right arrow button to move the column to the Chosen box.
  5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for each column you want to display.
  6. Click Apply

To customize the order in which the rows are sorted for display:

  1. Navigate to an object table.
  2. Click on the Customize this table link at the top of the table.
  3. Choose the attribute to use when sorting the display by selecting the attribute name in the Available section (on the left) of the Sort rows by box.
  4. Click the right arrow button to move the column to the Chosen box.
  5. Click Apply

Viewing the WebLogic Server Version Number

To view information on the version number of your Administration server:

  1. Select the Console node in the navigation tree.
  2. Click the Versions tab. Version numbers are displayed in the right panel.

Viewing Server and Browser Information

To view WebLogic Server version, system properties, and browser header information:

  1. Right-click on the Console node in the navigation tree.
  2. Select View server & browser info

 

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