Planning the HA for Oracle WebLogic Server Installation and Configuration

This section contains the following information you need to plan your HA for Oracle WebLogic Server installation and configuration.

• Configuration Restrictions

• Configuration Requirements

• Standard Data Service Configurations

Configuration Restrictions

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Caution - Your data service configuration might not be supported if you do not observe these restrictions.

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This section provides a list of software and hardware configuration restrictions that apply to HA for Oracle WebLogic Server. Use the restrictions in this section to plan the installation and configuration of HA for Oracle WebLogic Server.

For restrictions that apply to all data services, see the Oracle Solaris Cluster 3.3 3/13 Release Notes.

• HA for Oracle WebLogic Server provides high availability to stand alone Oracle WebLogic Server instances (instances not using Oracle WebLogic Server clustering).

• For a failover file system, all Oracle WebLogic Server instances using that file system must be configured in a single resource group.

• For a multi-master configuration, the Oracle WebLogic software can be installed in a failover or global file system, or in a local file system on all Oracle Solaris Cluster nodes.

• If you want to configure different instances in different resource groups, the Oracle WebLogic Server installation must be on the global file system.

• If the Oracle WebLogic Server cluster directory and other configuration files are installed on the global file system and you want to configure Oracle WebLogic Server in a zone cluster, use the SUNW.HAStoragePlus resource type to make the global file system available to zone cluster nodes. For information on the HAStoragePlus configuration for a zone cluster, see Oracle Solaris Cluster Software Installation Guide.

Configuration Requirements

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Caution - Your data service configuration might not be supported if you do not adhere to these requirements.

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Use the requirements in this section to plan the installation and configuration of HA for Oracle WebLogic Server. These requirements apply to HA for Oracle WebLogic Server only. You must meet these requirements before you proceed with your HA for Oracle WebLogic Server installation and configuration.

For requirements that apply to all data services, see Configuration Guidelines for Oracle Solaris Cluster Data Services in Oracle Solaris Cluster Data Services Planning and Administration Guide.

• If the Oracle WebLogic Server home directory and other configuration files are installed on a failover file system using HAStoragePlus, then all Oracle WebLogic Server resources using that file system should be configured in the same resource group.

• If the Oracle WebLogic Server depends on any database such as Oracle or Sybase, the administrator must make sure that the database is highly available before configuring and starting the Oracle WebLogic Server under HA for Oracle WebLogic Server.

• In Oracle WebLogic Server, the Managed Servers can be configured to start independently in “Managed Server Independence mode.” For HA for Oracle WebLogic Server, the administrator must configure all Managed Servers to be able to start independently.

  To configure the Managed Server in the independent mode, see the relevant Oracle WebLogic Server documentation for the version you are using. For example, for Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3, the documentation is located at http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12840_01/wls/docs103/sitemap.html.

• You can configure separate scripts to start the Oracle WebLogic Server Managed Servers. If separate scripts are configured, the Administration Server URL and the Managed Server name must be set in the START script. The scripts should be able to start each Oracle WebLogic Server instance without arguments.

• If you intend to use a single START script to start several Managed Servers, the Administration URL must be specified in the START script and only the Managed Server name should be taken as the argument to the script. For example, if the script used to start the Managed Server is startMangedWeblogic.sh, then the Managed Server petstore_server should be able to start as follows:

  node1>cd /global/beahome/weblogic700/domain/petstore
  node1>./startManagedWeblogic.sh petstore_server

• The Oracle WebLogic Server START script needs a user name and password. You configure the $DOMAIN_DIR/boot.properties file to store the user name and password which are encrypted after the first startup of the Oracle WebLogic Server. The $DOMAIN_DIR/boot.properties file also enables a smooth shutdown when used with a resource for which the extension property smooth_shutdown is set to TRUE.

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  Note - Starting with Oracle WebLogic Server version 10.3, the boot.properties file must reside in both the $DOMAIN_DIR and $DOMAIN_DIR/servers/server-name/security directories to bypass the need to prompt for user credentials when starting and stopping instances of Oracle WebLogic Server. If the $DOMAIN_DIR/servers/server-name/security directory does not exist or does not include a boot.properties file, create the directory and copy the boot.properties file from the $DOMAIN_DIR. For more information about the boot.properties file for Oracle WebLogic Server version 10.3, see http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12840_01/wls/docs103/server_start/overview.html.

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• All required environment variables must be set in the Oracle WebLogic Server environment file before you start the server. For details about the Oracle WebLogic Server environment file, see the relevant Oracle WebLogic Server documentation for the version you are using. For example, for Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3, the documentation is located at http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12840_01/wls/docs103/sitemap.html. To set the path to the Oracle WebLogic Server environment file, use the Environment_file property described in Appendix A, HA for Oracle WebLogic Server Extension Properties.

• To enable the discovery of running Managed Servers after a failover and restart of an Administration Server, make sure the Administration server START script does not include -Dweblogic.management.discover+=false. This setting disables the Administration Server from discovering its running Managed Servers. For details, see the relevant Oracle WebLogic Server documentation for the version you are using. For example, for Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3, the documentation is located at http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12840_01/wls/docs103/sitemap.html.

• Make sure that the host names used in the Server_url and Monitor_uri_list are resolvable. If you use Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs), then DNS must be enabled and /etc/nsswitch.conf must have the correct entries to resolve the host names using DNS.

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  Note - To avoid any failures due to delays in name-service lookup, the host name used in the Server_url property should be added to the /etc/hosts file. Configure name-service mapping in the /etc/nsswitch.conf file on the servers to first check the local files before trying to access other name services.

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Standard Data Service Configurations

Use the standard configurations in this section to plan the installation and configuration of HA for Oracle WebLogic Server. HA for Oracle WebLogic Server supports the standard configurations in this section.

In addition to the standard configurations provided in this section, the following Oracle WebLogic ServerOracle WebLogic Server configurations are possible.

• Separate START script for each Oracle WebLogic Server (Administration and Managed)

• Single START script for all Managed Servers which takes the Managed Server name as the input

• Setting the user name and password in the $DOMAIN_DIR/boot.properties file

  This configuration enables a smooth shutdown.

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  Note - Starting with Oracle WebLogic Server version 10.3, the boot.properties file must reside in both the $DOMAIN_DIR and $DOMAIN_DIR/servers/server-name/security directories to bypass the need to prompt for user credentials when starting and stopping instances of Oracle WebLogic Server. If the $DOMAIN_DIR/servers/server-name/security directory does not exist or does not include a boot.properties file, create the directory and copy the boot.properties file from the $DOMAIN_DIR.

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HA for Oracle WebLogic Server might support additional configurations. However, you must contact your Oracle service provider for information about additional configurations.

This section describes the following types of configurations:

• Oracle WebLogic Server Configured as a Failover Resource

• Oracle WebLogic Servers Configured as a Multi-Master Resource

• Oracle WebLogic Servers Configured as Multi-Instance

Oracle WebLogic Server Configured as a Failover Resource

Simple Configuration

This simple configuration for HA for Oracle WebLogic Server uses two resource groups configured as follows.

• RG1 containing logical-host-1 and WLS-Admin-Server-resource

• RG2 containing logical-host-2 and WLS-Managed-Server-resource

RG1 and RG2 are failover resource groups.

This configuration is possible only if the Oracle WebLogic Server is installed on the global file system. See Figure 1-1 for an illustration of this configuration.

Figure 1-1 HA for Oracle WebLogic Server Simple Configuration

Configuration 1

In this configuration, RG1, RG2, RG3, and RG4 are failover resource groups configured as follows.

• RG1 containing logical-host-1 and WLS-Admin-resource

• RG2 containing logical-host-2 and WLS-Managed-Server-resource2

• RG3 containing logical-host-3 and WLS-Managed-Server-resource3

• RG4 containing logical-host-4 and WLS-Managed-Server-resource4

This configuration is possible only if the Oracle WebLogic Server is installed on the global file system.

Configuration 2

In this configuration, RG1, RG2, and RG3 are failover resource groups configured as follows.

• RG1 containing logical-host-1, WLS-Admin-resource, and WLS-Managed-Server-resource1

• RG2 containing logical-host-2, WLS-Managed-Server-resource2, WLS-Managed-Server-resource3, and WLS-Managed-Server-resource4

• RG3 containing logical-host-3, WLS-Managed-Server-resource5, WLS-Managed-Server-resource6, WLS-Managed-Server-resource7

This configuration is possible only if the Oracle WebLogic Server is installed on the global or the failover file system.

Configuration 3

If the Oracle WebLogic Server is installed on a failover file system by using HAStoragePlus, all the Oracle WebLogic Server instances must be configured in the same failover resource group that has a dependency on the failover file system.

RG1 contains logical-host-resource resources and all Administration and Managed-Server resources.

For information about how to register a resource with dependency on an HAStoragePlus resource, see Enabling Highly Available Local File Systems in Oracle Solaris Cluster Data Services Planning and Administration Guide.

See Figure 1-2 for an illustration of this configuration.

Figure 1-2 HA for Oracle WebLogic Server Failover File System Configuration

Oracle WebLogic Servers Configured as a Multi-Master Resource

This example illustrates a multi-master configuration for Oracle Solaris Cluster HA for Oracle WebLogic Server (configured as a cluster).

In multi-master data service configuration, the Oracle WebLogic Server resource is used in a scalable resource group. The Oracle WebLogic Server managed server resource is online on multiple nodes at the same time.

In this configuration shown in Figure 1-3, a single resource group managed-server-rg includes the managed server resources running on Node 1 and Node 2. Each managed server resource depends on a logical host resource and group that can contain multiple nodes.

Figure 1-3 Oracle WebLogic Server Configured as a Multi-Master Resource

Oracle WebLogic Servers Configured as Multi-Instance

Multi-instance is an application configuration topology where multiple instances of the same application provide an aggregation of services. This topology can be achieved independently of using a data service because you can manually start and stop the instances on the cluster nodes. When HA of such instances is required, you can enable a data service for the instances by creating multiple single-node resource groups or a few multi-master resource groups.

The diagram in Figure 1-4 illustrates a multi-instance configuration using single-node resource groups. A single-node resource group is created for each of the managed server resources. The resource groups are represented by managed-server-n1–rg and managed-server-n2–rg in the diagram. Each resource group has a strong positive affinity on a storage resource group hasp–rg and a logical host resource group whose primary node is the node containing the managed server resource group.

Figure 1-4 Oracle WebLogic Server Configured as a Multi-Instance Application With Single-Node Resource Groups