Administration

Administrators can use a browser interface, a command-line interface, or the Desktop to manage Portal Server. This topic provides the following sections:

• Management Console

• Command-Line Interface

• Administration Tag Library and Portlets

Management Console

Portal Server provides a management console, a browser interface, for performing administrative tasks required for managing the Portal Server. The tasks include:

• Managing multiple portals and their operations

• Setting up and managing containers and channels

• Customizing the Desktop for end users

• Enabling end users to personalize the Desktop

• Managing multiple search servers

• Tracking both end-user and system activities

  • End-user clicks on the standard Desktop

  • Configuration settings, statistics about channel actions, and statistics about Desktop requests and responses

  • Runtime information about the Portal Server and the Secure Remote Access server

For more information about the management console, see Chapter 5, Understanding the Management Console

Command-Line Interface

Portal Server software provides a command-line interface (CLI). The CLI allows portal administrators to do the following:

• Perform administrative tasks by typing commands using the keyboard

• Automate regularly recurring management tasks by incorporating them into scripts

The CLI offers a number of psadmin subcommands for managing portal tasks. These include subcommands for:

• Managing multiple portals and portal instances

• Deploying portal and portlet WAR files

• Managing the search server

• Managing Secure Remote Access server

• Managing monitoring

• Managing portal logging

Most subcommands commands are written specifically to mimic functions in the browser interface. For management functions that have no special commands, administrators use standard UNIX commands.

For information about all psadmin subcommands, see the Sun Java System Portal Server 7 Command-Line Reference.

Administration Tag Library and Portlets

Portal Server provides an administration tag library for developing administration portlets that enable a portal to be managed from the Desktop instead of from the management console. Administrators can use this tag library to do the following:

• Modify out-of-the-box administration portlets

• Develop portlets with new administration functionality

• Support user management, provider management, and portlet and WSRP management tasks

• Create and administer channels that are based on JSPProvider

• Write custom administration portlets with a custom user interface

• Write administrative portlets to manage any custom channel

Administrators can use administration portlets to grant delegated administration status to specified users. Portal Server provides a sample set of administration portlets that can be used to design a basic Desktop for delegated administrators.

For more information see Sun Java System Portal Server 7 Developer Sample Guide and Tag Library for Delegated Administration.