Contents

List of Examples

List of Figures

List of Tables

Title and Copyright Information

Preface

• Audience
• Documentation Accessibility
• Related Documents
• Conventions

Part I Configuration and Deployment

1 Introduction

• 1.1 What Is Production Operations?
• 1.2 Overview of Production Operations
  • 1.2.1 Setting Up a Team Development Environment
  • 1.2.2 Configuring the Portal Cluster
  • 1.2.3 Building and Deploying the EAR File
  • 1.2.4 Propagating a Portal Application
  • 1.2.5 Performing Round-Trip Development
• 1.3 Getting Started
  • 1.3.1 Using this Guide
  • 1.3.2 Related Guides

2 Managing a Team Development Environment

• 2.1 Introduction
• 2.2 Choosing a Source Control Vendor
• 2.3 Creating a Shared WebLogic Portal Domain
  • 2.3.1 What is a WebLogic Portal Domain?
  • 2.3.2 Getting Started
  • 2.3.3 Creating a WebLogic Portal Domain Template
  • 2.3.4 Creating the Shared Domain
  • 2.3.5 Starting WebLogic Server
  • 2.3.6 Configuring and Tuning the Domain
• 2.4 Managing Databases
  • 2.4.1 Developing Against an Enterprise-Quality Database
  • 2.4.2 Using Different Databases in Development and Production
  • 2.4.3 Knowing When You are Making Changes to the Database
  • 2.4.4 Using the Derby Database
  • 2.4.5 Removing Unneeded Database Components
• 2.5 Creating and Sharing the Portal Application
  • 2.5.1 Create or Locate the Eclipse Workspace Directory
  • 2.5.2 Create a Portal EAR Project
  • 2.5.3 Create Portal Web Projects
  • 2.5.4 Create a Datasync Project (Optional)
  • 2.5.5 Check in the Portal Application
  • 2.5.6 Check Out the Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse Application
• 2.6 Using J2EE Shared Libraries in a Team Environment
  • 2.6.1 Overview
  • 2.6.2 Shared Library Rules of Precedence
  • 2.6.3 Deployment Descriptors and Shared Libraries
  • 2.6.4 Shared Library Manifest File Contents
• 2.7 Sharing Portal Resources: Sample Scenario
  • 2.7.1 Introduction
  • 2.7.2 Packaging Resources to Share
  • 2.7.3 Receiving and Incorporating Shared Resources
    • 2.7.3.1 Importing the Shared Library into Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse
    • 2.7.3.2 Importing the Shared Library into a Deployed Application
• 2.8 WebLogic Portal Coding Best Practices
  • 2.8.1 Sharing Java Projects
  • 2.8.2 Supporting Cross-Platform Development
  • 2.8.3 Editing Definition Labels for Portal Components
  • 2.8.4 Testing a Cluster Configuration
• 2.9 Managing Binary Files in Source Control
  • 2.9.1 General Procedure for Working with Binary Files
  • 2.9.2 Updating Users, Groups, Roles, and Entitlements
  • 2.9.3 Updating Other Security-Related Files
• 2.10 Configuring Facets
• 2.11 Alternative Domain Sharing Techniques
  • 2.11.1 Determining the Middleware Home Directory (MW_HOME)
    • 2.11.1.1 Importance of the Middleware Home Directory
    • 2.11.1.2 Managing Multiple Middleware Home Directory Locations for Your Team
  • 2.11.2 Creating and Sharing the Portal Domain
    • 2.11.2.1 Plan a Common Directory for Domains
    • 2.11.2.2 Create the Domain
    • 2.11.2.3 Check the Domain into Source Control
    • 2.11.2.4 Start the Server
    • 2.11.2.5 Configure and Tune the Domain

3 Configuring a Portal Cluster

• 3.1 Overview
• 3.2 Prerequisite Tasks
  • 3.2.1 Set up a Production Database
  • 3.2.2 Locate JMS Queue and JDBC Data Sources
  • 3.2.3 Choose a Cluster Architecture
    • 3.2.3.1 Single Cluster
    • 3.2.3.2 Multi Cluster
  • 3.2.4 Determine the Domain Network Layout
  • 3.2.5 Install WebLogic Portal
• 3.3 Creating Your Clustered Domain
  • 3.3.1 What is a Domain?
  • 3.3.2 Creating the Customized Domain
    • 3.3.2.1 Initial Configuration
    • 3.3.2.2 Completing the Configuration
• 3.4 Configuring the Administration Server
• 3.5 Setting up JMS Servers
• 3.6 Creating Managed Server Directories
  • 3.6.1 Introduction
  • 3.6.2 Creating the Managed Server Domains
• 3.7 Zero-Downtime Architectures
  • 3.7.1 Overview
  • 3.7.2 Single Database Instance
  • 3.7.3 Portal Cache

4 Deploying Portal Applications

• 4.1 Preparing to Deploy
• 4.2 Overview of Deployment Descriptors and Config Files
  • 4.2.1 Descriptor Merging
  • 4.2.2 Viewing Merged Descriptors
  • 4.2.3 Portal Web Application Deployment Descriptors
  • 4.2.4 Enterprise Application Deployment Descriptors
  • 4.2.5 Configuration Files
• 4.3 Using Deployment Plans
• 4.4 Using Application-Scoped JDBC
• 4.5 Changing the Default Staging Mode
• 4.6 Building a Portal Application
  • 4.6.1 Building in Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse
  • 4.6.2 Building from the Command Line
• 4.7 Deploying the EAR
  • 4.7.1 Deploying to a Development Environment
  • 4.7.2 Deploying to a Staging or Production Environment
  • 4.7.3 Redeploying to a Staging or Production Environment
  • 4.7.4 Deploying an Exploded EAR
• 4.8 Deploying J2EE Shared Libraries
  • 4.8.1 Library Descriptors
  • 4.8.2 Library Versions
• 4.9 Creating Content Repositories
• 4.10 Using Multiple Enterprise Applications in a Single Domain
• 4.11 Application Tuning Tips
• 4.12 Deploying JSR-286 Portlets in a WAR File
  • 4.12.1 Starting the Import Tool
  • 4.12.2 Using the Import Tool
  • 4.12.3 Accessing the Portlets
• 4.13 Using Production Redeployment with WebLogic Portal
  • 4.13.1 What is Production Redeployment?
  • 4.13.2 Conceptual Overview and Limitations
  • 4.13.3 Overview of Basic Steps
  • 4.13.4 Application Redeployment Scenarios
    • 4.13.4.1 Adding, Removing, or Updating a Non-Portal Asset
    • 4.13.4.2 Adding, Removing, or Updating Portal Assets with Database Changes
    • 4.13.4.3 Deploying and Propagating
  • 4.13.5 Production Redeployment Issues and Limitations
    • 4.13.5.1 Application Rollback
    • 4.13.5.2 Memory and CPU Requirements
    • 4.13.5.3 Propagation
    • 4.13.5.4 Database Instances
    • 4.13.5.5 Database Changes
    • 4.13.5.6 Cache Invalidations
    • 4.13.5.7 Content Repositories
    • 4.13.5.8 Applications that Use Expression-Based Roles
    • 4.13.5.9 External Systems
  • 4.13.6 Side Effects of Production Redeployment
    • 4.13.6.1 Customizations
    • 4.13.6.2 Portal Resources
    • 4.13.6.3 Entitlements
    • 4.13.6.4 WSRP
    • 4.13.6.5 System Class Path Changes

Part II Propagation

5 Developing a Propagation Strategy

• 5.1 What is Propagation?
• 5.2 What Tools Does Oracle Provide to Assist with Propagation?
  • 5.2.1 WebLogic Server Administration Console (EAR Deployment)
  • 5.2.2 Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse Propagation Tools
  • 5.2.3 Propagation Ant Tasks
  • 5.2.4 Manual Propagation Steps
  • 5.2.5 Export/Import Utility
  • 5.2.6 Database Vendor Tools (Not Supported)
• 5.3 What Kind of Data Can Be Propagated?
• 5.4 Choosing the Right Propagation Tool
• 5.5 Propagation Roadmap
  • 5.5.1 (1) Development Environments
  • 5.5.2 (2) Source Control
  • 5.5.3 (3) Moving from Development to Staging
  • 5.5.4 (4) Staging Environment
  • 5.5.5 (5) Source Control in the Staging Environment
  • 5.5.6 (6) Perform Offline Tasks
  • 5.5.7 (7) Committing the Final Inventory
• 5.6 Assessing Your Portal System Configuration
• 5.7 General Propagation Scenarios
  • 5.7.1 Example Environment
  • 5.7.2 Scenario 1: Deploying the EAR file for the first time
  • 5.7.3 Scenario 2: Redeploying an EAR file
    • 5.7.3.1 Moving the Datasync Data
    • 5.7.3.2 Scenario 3: Propagating from Staging to Production: Default Scope
    • 5.7.3.3 Scenario 4: Propagating from Staging to Production: Desktop Scope
    • 5.7.3.4 Scenario 5: Propagating from Production to Staging: Both Have Changed
    • 5.7.3.5 Scenario 6: Round-Trip Development
• 5.8 Production Mode Versus Development Mode
• 5.9 Propagation and Proliferation

6 Propagation Topics

• 6.1 Flow of a Typical Propagation Session
• 6.2 Before You Begin
  • 6.2.1 Start the Administration Server
  • 6.2.2 Perform a Data Backup
  • 6.2.3 Plan to Inactivate the System During the Import Process
  • 6.2.4 Install the Propagation Tools
  • 6.2.5 Configure Log Files (Optional)
  • 6.2.6 Deploy the J2EE Application (EAR)
  • 6.2.7 Make Required Manual Changes
    • 6.2.7.1 What Kinds of Data Require Manual Changes?
    • 6.2.7.2 Where are Manual Changes Reported?
• 6.3 Propagation Reference Table
• 6.4 Security Information and Propagation
• 6.5 Understanding Scope
  • 6.5.1 Overview
  • 6.5.2 Why Use Scoping?
  • 6.5.3 What are the Risks of Scoping?
  • 6.5.4 Best Practices for Scoping
  • 6.5.5 How to Set Scope
    • 6.5.5.1 Using Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse to Set Scope
    • 6.5.5.2 Setting Scope with Ant Tasks
  • 6.5.6 The Effects of Scoping
    • 6.5.6.1 Scoping to the Enterprise Application Level
    • 6.5.6.2 Scoping to the Desktop Level
    • 6.5.6.3 Scoping to a Repository
    • 6.5.6.4 Scoping to a Content Folder
  • 6.5.7 Scope and Library Inheritance
    • 6.5.7.1 Portal Asset Instances and Inheritance
    • 6.5.7.2 Creating a New Desktop and Disassembling to the Library
    • 6.5.7.3 Decoupling of Property Settings
• 6.6 Using Policies
  • 6.6.1 Introduction
  • 6.6.2 Global Policy Examples
  • 6.6.3 Local Policy Overrides
  • 6.6.4 Using Local Policies with Desktops
  • 6.6.5 Reporting Changes Based on Policies
• 6.7 Previewing Changes and Tuning a Merged Inventory
• 6.8 User Customizations and Propagation
• 6.9 Reviewing Log Files
• 6.10 Rolling Back an Import Process
• 6.11 Federated Portal (WSRP) Propagation
  • 6.11.1 Introduction
  • 6.11.2 WSRP Propagation Procedure
  • 6.11.3 Editing Producer Registration Properties Using the Propagation Tool
  • 6.11.4 If Only Producer(s) are Upgraded to WebLogic Portal 10.2 or Later Versions
  • 6.11.5 If Only Consumer(s) are Upgraded to WebLogic Portal 10.2 or Later Versions
  • 6.11.6 Listing Producer Handles
  • 6.11.7 Updating Producer Registration Handles
• 6.12 Increasing the Default Upload File Size
  • 6.12.1 Copying the Inventory to the Server
  • 6.12.2 Modifying a Deployment Plan
  • 6.12.3 Modifying the web.xml File
• 6.13 Configuring the Propagation Servlet
  • 6.13.1 Configuring the Inventory Temporary Directory
  • 6.13.2 Adding Description Text
  • 6.13.3 Enabling Verbose Logging
  • 6.13.4 Specifying the Verbose Log File Location
• 6.14 Configuring Temporary Space
  • 6.14.1 Temporary Space for Online Operations
  • 6.14.2 Temporary Space for Offline Operations
• 6.15 Propagating Datasync Data in Development Mode

7 Using Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse Propagation Tools

• 7.1 Overview
• 7.2 Security and Propagation
• 7.3 Overview of the Propagation Perspective
• 7.4 Downloading an Inventory File
• 7.5 Creating a Propagation Project
  • 7.5.1 Create a Simple Project
  • 7.5.2 Begin a Propagation Session
  • 7.5.3 Import the Inventory Files
  • 7.5.4 Create a Merged Inventory File
    • 7.5.4.1 Select the Source Inventory File
    • 7.5.4.2 Select the Destination Inventory File
• 7.6 Viewing and Tuning the Merged Inventory
• 7.7 Creating a Final Merged Inventory File
• 7.8 Uploading the Final Inventory to the Server
  • 7.8.1 Deploy the EAR File
  • 7.8.2 Propagate the Final Inventory to the Destination Server
• 7.9 Enabling Verbose Logging

8 Using the Propagation Ant Tasks

• 8.1 Introduction
• 8.2 Before You Begin
• 8.3 Installing the Ant Tasks
  • 8.3.1 Deploying the Propagation Servlet
  • 8.3.2 Testing the Ant Installation
  • 8.3.3 Using the Ant Tasks Outside of a WebLogic Portal Environment
    • 8.3.3.1 Required JARS for Online Tasks
    • 8.3.3.2 Required JARS for Offline Tasks
• 8.4 Overview of Online Tasks
  • 8.4.1 Online Task Summary
  • 8.4.2 Using Online Tasks with HTTPS
  • 8.4.3 Troubleshooting Online Tasks
• 8.5 Overview of Offline Tasks
  • 8.5.1 Offline Task Summary
  • 8.5.2 Troubleshooting Offline Tasks
• 8.6 Scoping an Inventory
  • 8.6.1 Scoping with Ant Tasks
  • 8.6.2 Sample Scoping Workflow
  • 8.6.3 Understanding a Scope Property File
• 8.7 Using Policies
  • 8.7.1 Understanding a Policies Property File
• 8.8 Combining and Committing Inventories

9 Propagation Ant Task Reference

• 9.1 Online Tasks
  • 9.1.1 OnlineCheckMutexTask
    • 9.1.1.1 Attributes
    • 9.1.1.2 Ant Condition Property
    • 9.1.1.3 On Failure
    • 9.1.1.4 Usage
  • 9.1.2 OnlineCommitTask
    • 9.1.2.1 Attributes
    • 9.1.2.2 Modifiers
    • 9.1.2.3 Ant Conditional Support
    • 9.1.2.4 On Failure
    • 9.1.2.5 Usage
  • 9.1.3 OnlineDownloadTask
    • 9.1.3.1 Attributes
    • 9.1.3.2 Modifiers
    • 9.1.3.3 Ant Conditional Support
    • 9.1.3.4 On Failure
    • 9.1.3.5 Usage
  • 9.1.4 OnlineMaintenanceModeTask
    • 9.1.4.1 Attributes
    • 9.1.4.2 Ant Condition Property
    • 9.1.4.3 On Failure
    • 9.1.4.4 Usage
  • 9.1.5 OnlinePingTask
    • 9.1.5.1 Attributes
    • 9.1.5.2 Ant Conditional Support
    • 9.1.5.3 On Failure
    • 9.1.5.4 Usage
  • 9.1.6 OnlineUploadTask
    • 9.1.6.1 Attributes
    • 9.1.6.2 Ant Condition Property
    • 9.1.6.3 On Failure
    • 9.1.6.4 Usage
• 9.2 Offline Tasks
  • 9.2.1 OfflineCheckManualElectionsTask
    • 9.2.1.1 Attributes
    • 9.2.1.2 Ant Condition Property
    • 9.2.1.3 On Failure
    • 9.2.1.4 Usage
  • 9.2.2 OfflineCombineTask
    • 9.2.2.1 Attributes
    • 9.2.2.2 Ant Condition Property
    • 9.2.2.3 On Failure
    • 9.2.2.4 Usage
  • 9.2.3 OfflineDiffTask
    • 9.2.3.1 Attributes
    • 9.2.3.2 Ant Conditional Support
    • 9.2.3.3 On Failure
    • 9.2.3.4 Usage
  • 9.2.4 OfflineElectionAlgebraTask
    • 9.2.4.1 Attributes
    • 9.2.4.2 Ant Condition Property
    • 9.2.4.3 On Failure
    • 9.2.4.4 Usage
  • 9.2.5 OfflineExtractTask
    • 9.2.5.1 Attributes
    • 9.2.5.2 Ant Conditional Support
    • 9.2.5.3 On Failure
    • 9.2.5.4 Usage
  • 9.2.6 OfflineInsertTask
    • 9.2.6.1 Attributes
    • 9.2.6.2 Ant Conditional Support
    • 9.2.6.3 On Failure
    • 9.2.6.4 Usage
  • 9.2.7 OfflineListPoliciesTask
    • 9.2.7.1 Attributes
    • 9.2.7.2 Ant Conditional Support
    • 9.2.7.3 On Failure
    • 9.2.7.4 Usage
  • 9.2.8 OfflineListScopesTask
    • 9.2.8.1 Attributes
    • 9.2.8.2 Ant Conditional Support
    • 9.2.8.3 On Failure
    • 9.2.8.4 Usage
  • 9.2.9 OfflineSearchTask
    • 9.2.9.1 Attributes
    • 9.2.9.2 Ant Conditional Support
    • 9.2.9.3 On Failure
    • 9.2.9.4 Usage
  • 9.2.10 OfflineValidateTask
    • 9.2.10.1 Attributes
    • 9.2.10.2 Ant Condition Property
    • 9.2.10.3 On Failure
    • 9.2.10.4 Usage

10 Propagation Tips and Best Practices

• 10.1 Best Practices
  • 10.1.1 Consult the Sample Ant Script
  • 10.1.2 Maintain a Store of Historical Inventories
  • 10.1.3 Do Not Change Definition Labels and Instance Labels
  • 10.1.4 Do Not Manually Replicate Changes Between Environments
  • 10.1.5 Scope to the Enterprise Application Level
  • 10.1.6 Use Default Scoping and Policy Options
  • 10.1.7 Use Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse to Develop a Propagation Process
  • 10.1.8 Use Ant Tasks for Import and Export
  • 10.1.9 Avoid Propagating Across a Proxy Server or Load Balancer
  • 10.1.10 Ensure That the Cluster Administration Server is Running
  • 10.1.11 Interpreting Error Messages
  • 10.1.12 Restarting Export and OnlineCommit Operations
  • 10.1.13 Improving the Speed of the Online Operations
  • 10.1.14 Using a Microsoft Windows File System
  • 10.1.15 Choosing the Inventory File Transport Protocol
  • 10.1.16 Note and Configure the Manual Changes
  • 10.1.17 Ensure Appropriate Delegated Administration Rights
  • 10.1.18 Avoid LDAP and Database Synchronization Problems
• 10.2 Troubleshooting Common Problems
  • 10.2.1 Propagation Fails Trying to Add an Artifact Because the Artifact Already Exists
  • 10.2.2 Propagation OnlineUpload Task Fails if the User is not Given Upload Permission in WLS Console
  • 10.2.3 Cannot Propagate Between Applications that do not have Identical J2EE Structures
  • 10.2.4 Propagation Download Fails when Propagating a Content Repository; Could Not Read InputStream for a Binary Property

11 Using the Export/Import Utility

• 11.1 Installing the Export/Import Utility
• 11.2 Overview of the Export/Import Utility
  • 11.2.1 What the Utility Moves
  • 11.2.2 What the Utility Does Not Move
  • 11.2.3 Refining Rules for Exporting and Importing
• 11.3 Basic Concepts and Terminology
  • 11.3.1 .portal Files Versus Desktops
  • 11.3.2 Export and Import Scope
    • 11.3.2.1 Library Scope
    • 11.3.2.2 Admin Scope
    • 11.3.2.3 Visitor Scope
  • 11.3.3 Customization
• 11.4 The Export/Import Utility Client Program
• 11.5 Configuring the Export/Import Utility Properties File
  • 11.5.1 Specifying Parameters in the Properties File
  • 11.5.2 Specifying the Properties File Location
• 11.6 Exporting a Desktop
  • 11.6.1 Editing the Properties File
  • 11.6.2 Running the Build Script
• 11.7 Importing a .portal File
  • 11.7.1 Editing the Properties File
  • 11.7.2 Running the Build Script
• 11.8 Exporting a Page
  • 11.8.1 Editing the Properties File
  • 11.8.2 Running the Build Script
• 11.9 Importing a Page
  • 11.9.1 Editing the Properties File
  • 11.9.2 Running the Build Script
• 11.10 Controlling How Portal Assets are Merged When Imported
• 11.11 Controlling How Portal Assets are Moved When Imported
  • 11.11.1 Inner Moves
  • 11.11.2 Outer Moves
• 11.12 Locating and Specifying Identifier Properties
  • 11.12.1 The webapp Property
  • 11.12.2 The portal.path and desktop.path Properties
  • 11.12.3 The page.label and book.label Properties
    • 11.12.3.1 Locating the Definition Label for a Page
    • 11.12.3.2 Locating the Definition Label for a Book
• 11.13 Managing the Cache

12 Using the Datasync Web Application

• 12.1 Portal Datasync Definitions
• 12.2 Datasync Definition Usage During Development
• 12.3 Compressed Versus Uncompressed EAR
  • 12.3.1 Datasync Web Application
  • 12.3.2 Removing Content
  • 12.3.3 Working with a Compressed EAR File
    • 12.3.3.1 Uploading new contents
    • 12.3.3.2 Bootstrapping from an EAR
    • 12.3.3.3 Creating a JAR file
    • 12.3.3.4 Validating Contents
  • 12.3.4 Pulling Definitions from Production
  • 12.3.5 Options for Connecting to the Server
  • 12.3.6 Examples
  • 12.3.7 Usage
  • 12.3.8 Commands
• 12.4 Rules for Deploying Datasync Definitions
  • 12.4.1 Removing Property Sets

A Export/Import Utility Files