1 Introduction

This guide explains how to install Oracle Business Transaction Management. The information provided in this guide can help you install and configure a general purpose Business Transaction Management system suitable for experimenting with the system functions and use cases. The deployment configuration and resources required in a production environment can vary based on a variety of factors, such as anticipated throughput, message size and type, the number of applied monitoring policies, and so forth. An Oracle consultant can help you determine the appropriate configuration and resource requirements for your specific needs.

This chapter provides a high-level description of the product architecture, a description of the product packaging, and general deployment guidelines.

Architecture

At the highest level, Business Transaction Management consists of three types of components:

  • Central servers – The central servers are application EAR files that you deploy to an application server. There are three central servers. You deploy only one instance of each of these servers, and for performance considerations you should deploy each to a separate application server. You must not deploy any of the central servers to an application server that hosts services or components you intend to monitor. The central servers are:

    • Main Server (btmMain.ear) – Contains all the central Business Transaction Management system services and user interface applications, including the sphere. The sphere is the Business Transaction Management component that manages the Business Transaction Management environment. In addition, btmMain.ear contains a subdeployment for the F5 intermediary.

    • Performance Server (btmPerformanceServer.ear) – Contains the service-level management components. Deploy btmPerformanceServer.ear on an application server other than where btmMain.ear or btmTransactionServer.ear are deployed.

    • Transaction Server (btmTransactionServer.ear) – Contains the transaction management components. Deploy btmTransactionServer.ear on an application server other than where btmMain.ear or btmPerformanceServer.ear are deployed.

  • Observers – Observers are sets of libraries that you install into the application server that hosts the business applications you want to monitor. The observers monitor messages and calls between the components of your applications. Observers are capable of monitoring many types of components, and are classified according to the types they monitor as well as the application server they are designed to run in.

  • Monitors (btmMonitor.ear) – Monitors collect application performance and usage measurements from observers. The monitor is an application EAR file that you deploy to an application server. For large systems, you can deploy multiple monitors, either as singletons or replicates. For performance reasons, you should not deploy the monitor on an application server where the central servers are deployed.

Business Transaction Management also requires access to an Oracle RDBMS for storing performance measurements, logging messages, and maintaining the environment model and Business Transaction Management configuration.

The diagram below shows a typical distributed application environment, and the relationship of the Business Transaction Management components to that environment.

Figure 1-1 Deployment of Business Transaction Management components in a typical application environment

Description of Figure 1-1 follows
Description of "Figure 1-1 Deployment of Business Transaction Management components in a typical application environment"

Business Transaction Management is designed for use in a distributed application environment in which the various Business Transaction Management components are deployed onto multiple machines and application servers.

Technically, you can install all the central servers into a single application server, but such a deployment scenario is not recommended for production environments. Installation in a single application server can be useful for demonstrations and for learning how to use the product, but this scenario might not scale successfully with a large number of business services or high volume of message traffic, just to name a few factors.

We recommend that you deploy each of the central servers to separate application servers. The Performance and Transaction components, in particular, typically perform a large amount of performance analysis computations. Dividing processes across application servers allows you to control memory and processor resources.

You should also deploy the monitor to an application server separate from the central servers. Depending on your monitoring requirements, you might need to deploy multiple monitors. You can deploy monitors either as singletons or as replicates behind a load balancer. For information about replicating the monitor, refer to Chapter 7, "Installing Monitors."

Observers must always be installed outside the application server hosting the central servers or monitors.

Packaging

Oracle distributes Business Transaction Management by way of ZIP files. The central servers and monitor are packaged together in BTM_Servers_*.zip (the * refers to the Business Transaction Management version number). The ZIP file's archive directory contains the central server and monitor deployments. Table 1-1 describes these deployments:

Table 1-1 The archives directory of BTM_Servers_*.zip contains the central servers and monitor in the following EAR files.

Deployment Name Sub-deployments Deployment strategy

btmMain.ear

btmcentral.war

btmcontainer.war

btmhelp.war

btmui.war

f5Intermediary.war

Deploy once per Business Transaction Management environment.

btmPerformanceServer.ear

btmcontainer.war

btmperformance.war

Deploy once per Business Transaction Management environment on a separate application server from btmMain.ear and btmTransactionServer.ear.

btmTransactionServer.ear

btmcontainer.war

btmtransaction.war

Deploy once per Business Transaction Management environment on a separate application server from btmMain.ear and btmPerformanceServer.ear.

btmMonitor.ear

btmmonitor.war

Deploy as many as needed on separate application servers from any of the central servers.

Observers are packaged in individual ZIP files according to platform and observer type. Table 1-2 lists the release 12.1.0.3 observers. The * in the ZIP file names refers to the observer version number, for example, 12.1.0.3.

Table 1-2 Observers distributed with release 12.1.0.3.

Observer ZIP File Name Description

BTMObserver_Wls_10.3_Universal_*.zip

Contains the observer for JavaEE, Oracle SOA Suite, Oracle Service Bus 11gR1, and Oracle Fusion Applications (ADF-UI, ADF-BC and SOA deployments) running in WebLogic 10.3.

BTMObserver_OEG_11.1.1.6_OEG_*.zip

Contains the observer for Oracle Enterprise Gateway 11.1.1.6.

BTMObserver_Oc4j_10.1_Soa10g_*.zip

Contains the observer for an Oracle Containers for Java (OC4J) instance running within Oracle SOA Suite 10g.

BTMObserver_Iis_6-7_Wcf35_*.zip

Contains the observer for WCF 3.5 on Microsoft IIS version 6 or 7.

The observers listed in Table 1-3 are distributed as part of release 12.1.0.1. These observers are not included with, but are compatible with, release 12.1.0.3.0. You should install these observers if you require monitoring on their designated platforms. (The * in each ZIP file name refers to the observer version number, for example, 12.1.0.1.0.) Installation instructions for these observers are not included in the current release of this installation guide. You can find installation instructions for these observers in the installation guide for release 12.1.0.2.2.

Table 1-3 Release 12.1.0.1 observers not included with, but compatible with, release 12.1.0.3.

Observer ZIP File Name Description

BTMObserver_Wls_9.2_JavaEE_*.zip

Contains the observer for JavaEE on WebLogic 9.2.

BTMObserver_Wls_10.3_Osb10gR3_*.zip

Contains the observer for Oracle Service Bus 10gR3 on WebLogic 10.3.

BTMObserver_Was_6.1_JavaEE_*.zip

Contains the observer for JavaEE on WebSphere 6.1.

BTMObserver_Jboss_4.3_JavaEE_*.zip

Contains the observer for JavaEE on JBossEAP 4.3.