8 Understanding the Deployment Process

This chapter describes the following topics:

• What Is a Deployer?

• General Procedures for Moving from Application Design to Production Deployment

• Diagnosing Typical Problems

8.1 What Is a Deployer?

A deployer is responsible for deploying applications, such as Java EE applications, ADF applications, SOA Composite applications, or WebCenter applications, to WebLogic Server instances or clusters.

A user who is functioning as a deployer should be granted the Oracle WebLogic Server deployer security role. The deployer security role allows deployment operations, as well as viewing the server configuration and changing startup and shutdown classes. To grant this role to a user, use the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console. See "Managing Security Roles" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Help for more information.

8.2 General Procedures for Moving from Application Design to Production Deployment

This section describes the general procedures involved in moving from application design and development to deployment in a production environment. It contains the following topics:

• Designing and Developing an Application

• Deploying an Application to Managed Servers

• Automating the Migration of an Application to Other Environments

8.2.1 Designing and Developing an Application

In many cases, developers use Oracle JDeveloper to create their applications. Oracle JDeveloper is an integrated development environment (IDE) for building service oriented applications using the latest industry standards for Java, XML, Web services, portlets, and SQL. JDeveloper supports the complete software development life cycle, with integrated features for modeling, coding, debugging, testing, profiling, tuning, and deploying applications.

In this environment, you use the integrated Oracle WebLogic Server, which is packaged with Oracle JDeveloper for testing your applications.

For information about developing your applications, see:

• Oracle Fusion Middleware Developing Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server

• Oracle Fusion Middleware Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework

• Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle WebCenter

• Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite

8.2.2 Deploying an Application to Managed Servers

After you have designed and tested your application with the integrated Oracle WebLogic Server, you can deploy the application to a Managed Server instance. For example, you may have installed Oracle WebLogic Server and configured a domain, including a Managed Server, in your production environment and you want to deploy the application to that Managed Server.

The following books provide specific information about deploying the different types of applications:

• For Java EE applications, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Deploying Applications to Oracle WebLogic Server

• For Oracle ADF, see "Oracle Fusion Middleware Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework

• For Oracle WebCenter, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter

• For Oracle SOA Suite, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite

This section provides an outline of the major steps involved when you migrate your application from the integrated Oracle WebLogic Server to an environment separate from the development environment. Those general steps are:

1. Package the application. For Java EE, ADF, and WebCenter applications, you package the application in an EAR file. For Oracle SOA Suite, you package the application into a JAR or ZIP file.

   For information about packaging the application, see:

   • For Java EE applications: "Packaging Files for Deployment" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Deploying Applications to Oracle WebLogic Server

   • For Oracle ADF: "What You May Need to Know About EAR Files and Packaging" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework

   • For Oracle WebCenter: "Packaging and Deploying a Custom WebCenter Application to a WebLogic Managed Server" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle WebCenter

   • For Oracle SOA Suite: "Understanding the Packaging Impact" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite

2. Set up your environment. This includes:

   • Installing and configuring a domain and a Managed Server that is configured with the correct domain template. For example, if you are deploying an Oracle SOA Suite application, the Managed Server must use the Oracle SOA Suite domain template. The appropriate domain template is applied when you create the domain using the Configuration Wizard. Alternatively, you can extend a domain to use another domain template, as described in Section 18.2.

     For more information about installing and configuring for specific components, see:

     • For Oracle ADF: "How to Install the ADF Runtime to the WebLogic Installation" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework

     • For Oracle WebCenter: Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle WebCenter and "Preparing the Target Environment" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter

     • For Oracle SOA Suite: Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle SOA Suite

   • Creating any necessary schemas in an existing database. See Oracle Fusion Middleware Repository Creation Utility User's Guide.

   • Registering the MDS Repository with the Oracle WebLogic Server domain, if your application uses the MDS Repository. For example, Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle WebCenter applications require MDS. Some ADF applications involve customizations using MDS. See Section 13.3.2.1 for information about registering the MDS Repository.

3. If your application uses a database, set up the JDBC data sources.

   For more information about setting up the JDBC data sources, see:

   • For pure Java EE applications: Oracle Fusion Middleware Configuring and Managing JDBC for Oracle WebLogic Server

   • For Oracle ADF: "How to Create a JDBC Data Source for Oracle WebLogic Server" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework

   • For Oracle WebCenter: "Configuring Data Sources" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter

   • For Oracle SOA Suite: "Creating Data Sources and Queues" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite

4. For Oracle SOA Suite, create connection factories and connection pooling. For more information, see "Creating Connection Factories and Connection Pooling" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite.

5. Create a connection to the target Managed Server.

   From Oracle JDeveloper, you can deploy your applications to Managed Server instances that reside outside JDeveloper. To do this, you must first create a connection to the server instance to which you want to deploy your application.

   For more information, see:

   • For Oracle ADF: "How to Create a Connection to the Target Application Server" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework

   • For Oracle WebCenter: "Configuring Connections" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter

   • For Oracle SOA Suite: "Creating an Application Server Connection" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite

6. For Oracle SOA Suite, create a SOA-MDS connection, if the SOA composite application shares metadata with other composites. See "Creating a SOA-MDS Connection" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite.

7. Create a configuration plan or deployment plan, which contains information about environment-specific values, such as JDBC connection strings or host names of various servers. For more information, see:

   • For pure Java EE applications: "Creating a New Deployment Plan to Configure an Application" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Deploying Applications to Oracle WebLogic Server

   • For Oracle SOA Suite: "Introduction to Configuration Plans" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite

8. Migrate application security, such as credentials, identities, and policies. For more information, see:

   • For pure Java EE applications: "Migrating Security Data" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Securing Oracle WebLogic Server

   • For Oracle ADF: "Preparing the Secure Application for Deployment" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework

   • For Oracle WebCenter: "Configuring Security" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter

   • For Oracle SOA Suite: "Enabling Security" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite

9. Create a deployment profile. A deployment profile packages or archives a custom ADF, WebCenter, or SOA application and associated files so that the application can be deployed to an Oracle WebLogic Server Managed Server instance. Deployment profiles are created at project and application level.

   For more information, see:

   • For Oracle ADF: "How to Create Deployment Profiles" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework

   • For Oracle WebCenter: "Creating Deployment Profiles" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle WebCenter

   • For Oracle SOA Suite: "Optionally Creating a Project Deployment Profile" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite

10. Migrate Oracle JDeveloper extensions for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle WebCenter. Table 8-1 shows the extensions and where they are documented:

    Table 8-1 Oracle JDeveloper Extensions

    Component	Extension	See
    Oracle WebCenter	WebCenter extensions	"Creating and Provisioning a WebLogic Managed Server Instance" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter
    Oracle SOA Suite	SOA extensions	"Installing Additional Oracle Fusion Middleware Design Time Components" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle JDeveloper

    
    

11. Deploy the application to a Managed Server.

    For more information, see:

    • For pure Java EE applications: "Exporting an Application for Deployment to New Environments" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Deploying Applications to Oracle WebLogic Server

    • For Oracle ADF: "Deploying the Application" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework

    • For Oracle WebCenter: "Deploying the Application to a WebLogic Managed Server Instance" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter

    • For Oracle SOA Suite: "Deploying SOA Composite Applications" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite

8.2.3 Automating the Migration of an Application to Other Environments

You can automate the migration of an application by using WLST or ant scripts. This makes it easier to deploy your application to multiple environments or Managed Servers and to deploy updated versions of the application.

For more information about using scripts to migrate an application to other environments, see:

• For pure Java EE applications: "Using the WebLogic Scripting Tool" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Oracle WebLogic Scripting Tool

• For Oracle ADF: "Deploying Using Scripts and Ant" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework

• For Oracle WebCenter: "Creating and Provisioning a WebLogic Managed Server Instance" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter

• For Oracle SOA Suite:"Managing SOA Composite Applications with Scripts" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite

8.3 Diagnosing Typical Problems

The following describes some of the typical problems that you may encounter when you deploy an application to a Managed Server:

• Connection information. Ensure that you have correctly configured the connection to the target Managed Server. See Steps 4, 5, and 6 in Section 8.2.2.

• Oracle JDeveloper extensions. Ensure that you have migrated any Oracle JDeveloper extensions. See Table 8-1.

• Data sources. Ensure that you have correctly configured JDBC data sources. See Step 3 in Section 8.2.2.

• Security configuration. Ensure that you have migrates application security, such as credentials, identities, and policies. See Step 8 in Section 8.2.2.

In addition, see the following for information about troubleshooting SOA applications:

• "Troubleshooting Common Deployment Errors" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite