Integration of Endeca Server with WebLogic

The Endeca Server is a J2EE application that runs in a J2EE container in the Oracle WebLogic Server. The Endeca Server uses WebLogic 12c (12.1.3). This topic discusses the integration in detail.

The Endeca Server software exposes almost all of its APIs as SOAP Web services. These Web services are implemented using the Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (WebLogic Server version 12.1.3), inside a hosted Web application called the Endeca Server.

The Endeca Server delegates most of its actual query processing to its own internal component, the Dgraph, which is external to the WebLogic Server, is not Java-based, and must be running in each active Endeca Server instance.

For single-node development environments, you can deploy the Endeca Server instance in the single Admin Server in the WebLogic Server. In the Endeca Server cluster, all Endeca Server instances must be running on the WebLogic Managed Servers only.

Important: For performance and troubleshooting purposes, it is preferable to dedicate a WebLogic domain to hosting only the Endeca Server application. In this case, the endeca-server root context is used in the URL pointing to any of the WebLogic Server instances hosting the Endeca Server application.

How the WebLogic Server is used

The Endeca Server application hosted in the WebLogic domain utilizes the following features of the WebLogic Server:
  • The WebLogic deployment tools. You use the Configuration Wizard for creating a WebLogic domain for the Endeca Server. The Endeca Server uses the Administration Console and WLST (the WebLogic Server Scripting Tool) for starting and stopping the Managed Servers hosting the Endeca Server instances.
  • The WebLogic Server security features, for ensuring security of the Endeca Server processing, interfaces, and data.
The Endeca Server does not utilize the following features of the WebLogic Server (this list is not exhaustive):
  • The WebLogic Server message catalog and the default Java Logging API are not used for logging from the Endeca Server. Instead, the Endeca Server uses the Oracle Diagnostic Logging (ODL). Note that any messages from the WebLogic domain itself (and not the Endeca Server application running inside it) utilize the default message catalog and the Java Logging API from the WebLogic Server.
  • The WebLogic Server JDBC modules or resources are not used in the Endeca Server package (as they are not required).
  • The WebLogic Server clusters are not used by the Endeca Server for load balancing and request routing. Instead, the Endeca Server cluster accepts requests on any Endeca Server instance, and utilizes its own routing service. Depending on the deployment strategy, an external load balancer can also be used.