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Oracle WebLogic Server Node Manager

This topic provides a high-level description of Oracle WebLogic Server Node Manager. For more information about Node Manager, see Oracle® Fusion Middleware Node Manager Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebLogic Server 11g Release 1 (10.3.1) in the Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Release 1 Documentation Library.

Node Manager is an optional Oracle WebLogic Server utility that allows you to manage server instances from a remote location. Using Node Manager, you can do the following:

• Start, shut down, and restart an administration server
• Start, shut down, suspend, and restart managed servers
• Restart the administration server and managed servers
• Monitor servers and view the log files

NOTE:  It is recommended that you use Node Manager if your Oracle WebLogic Server environment hosts applications with high-availability requirements.

A node manager process is not associated with a specific Oracle WebLogic domain but with a computer. You can use the same Node Manager process to control server instances in any Oracle WebLogic Server domain, as long as the server instances reside on the same computer as the node manager process. Node Manager must run on each computer that hosts Oracle WebLogic Server instances that you want to control with Node Manager.

Oracle WebLogic Server supports the following two versions of Node Manager:

• Java-based. Java-based Node Manager runs within a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) process. It is recommended that you run it as a Windows service on a Windows operating system and as an operating system service on UNIX platforms, allowing it to restart automatically when the computer is rebooted. This version of Node Manager determines its configuration from the nodemanager.properties file.
• Script-based. Script-based Node Manager is for UNIX and Linux operating systems. This script is based on the UNIX shell scripts but uses Secure Shell (SSH) for increased security. SSH is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a secure channel between two networked devices and implements ID-based security.

NOTE:  Java-based Node Manager provides more security than the script-based version. However, the advantage of the script-based Node Manager is that it can remotely manage servers over a network that has been configured to use SSH. No additional server installation is required. You copy the scripts to the remote computer.