Oracle® Fusion Middleware

Developing JTA Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server

12c (12.1.3)

E41863-02

July 2014

This document is written for application developers who are interested in building transactional Java applications that run in the WebLogic Server environment.

Oracle Fusion Middleware Developing JTA Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server, 12c (12.1.3)

E41863-02

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Contents

Preface

- Documentation Accessibility

- Conventions

1 Introduction and Roadmap

- Document Scope and Audience

- Guide to this Document

- Related Documentation

- Samples and Tutorials

- Avitek Medical Records Application (MedRec) and Tutorials

- New and Changed Features in This Release

2 Introducing Transactions

- Overview of Transactions in WebLogic Server Applications

- ACID Properties of Transactions

- Supported Programming Model

- Supported API Models

- Distributed Transactions and the Two-Phase Commit Protocol

- Support for Business Transactions

- When to Use Transactions

- What Happens During a Transaction

- Transactions in WebLogic Server EJB Applications

- Container-managed Transactions

- Bean-managed Transactions

- Transactions in WebLogic Server RMI Applications

- Transactions Sample Code

- Transactions Sample EJB Code

- Importing Packages

- Using JNDI to Return an Object Reference

- Starting a Transaction

- Completing a Transaction

- Transactions Sample RMI Code

- Importing Packages

- Using JNDI to Return an Object Reference to the UserTransaction Object

- Starting a Transaction

- Completing a Transaction

3 Configuring Transactions

- Overview of Transaction Configuration

- Configuring JTA

- Unregister Resource Grace Period

- Additional Attributes for Managing Transactions

- XA Transaction Cluster Affinity

- Transaction Log Files

- Using the Default Persistent Store

- Setting the Path for the Default Persistent Store

- Setting the Default Persistent Store Synchronous Write Policy

- Using a JDBC JTOG Store

- Last Logging Resource

- XA Transactions without TLogs

- What is a Determiner Resource?

- Configuring XA Transactions without TLogs

- Read-only, One-Phase Commit Optimizations

- Configuring Read-only, One-phase Commit Optimization and Two-phase Commit Disablement

- Monitoring Read-only, One-phase Transaction Statistics

4 Managing Transactions

- Monitoring Transactions

- Handling Heuristic Completions

- Moving a Server

- Abandoning Transactions

- Tuning Transaction Processing

- Manually Resolving Current (Inflight) Transactions

- Manual Commit and Rollback Options

- Transaction Recovery After a Server Fails

- Transaction Recovery Service Actions After a Crash

- Clustering Failover When Using Apache With the WebLogic Proxy Plug-in

- Recovering Transactions For a Failed Non-Clustered Server

- Recovering Transactions For a Failed Clustered Server

- Server Migration

- Manual Transaction Recovery Service Migration

- Automatic Transaction Recovery Service Migration

- Managed Server Independence

- Limitations of Migrating the Transaction Recovery Service

- Preparing to Migrate the Transaction Recovery Service

- Constraining Servers to Which the Transaction Recovery Service Can Migrate

- Viewing Current Owner of the Transaction Recovery Service

- Manually Migrating the Transaction Recovery Service to the Original Server

- How to Remove Transaction Records

- How to Remove the TLog in the LLR Database

- How to Remove the TLog Files from the Default Store

- How to Remove the TLog from a JDBC TLog Store

5 Transaction Service

- About the Transaction Service

- Capabilities and Limitations

- Lightweight Clients with Delegated Commit

- Client-initiated Transactions

- Transaction Integrity

- Transaction Termination

- Flat Transactions

- Relationship of the Transaction Service to Transaction Processing

- Multithreaded Transaction Client Support

- Transaction Id

- Transaction Name and Properties

- Transaction Status

- Transaction Statistics

- General Constraints

- Transaction Scope

- Transaction Service in EJB Applications

- Transaction Service in RMI Applications

- Transaction Service Interoperating with OTS

- Server-Server 2PC

- Client Demarcated Transactions

6 Transaction Recovery Spanning Multiple Sites or Data Centers

- Understanding XA Transaction Recovery in Disaster Recovery

- Requirements for XA Transaction Disaster Recovery

- Example Active-Active Domain Configuration for XA Transaction Recovery

- Additional Information on Maximum Availability Architecture

7 Configuring Secure Inter-Domain and Intra-Domain Transaction Communication

- What is Secure Inter-Domain and Intra-Domain Transaction Communication?

- Requirements for Transaction Communication

- How to Determine the Communication to Use for Inter-Domain Transactions

- Configuring Secure Channel Communication

- Security Interoperability Mode

- Configuring Security Interoperability Mode

- Establish Domain Trust

- Cross Domain Security

- Important Considerations When Configuring Cross Domain Security

- Cross Domain Security is Not Transitive

- Adding Domains to the Exclude List Based on Transaction Participation

- Configuring a Combination of Cross Domain Security and Security Interoperability Mode

8 Java Transaction API and Oracle WebLogic Extensions

- JTA API Overview

- Oracle WebLogic Extensions to JTA

9 Logging Last Resource Transaction Optimization

- About the LLR Optimization Transaction Optimization

- Logging Last Resource Processing Details

- LLR Database Table Details

- LLR Table Transaction Log Records

- Failure and Recovery Processing for LLR

- Coordinating Server Crash

- JDBC Connection Failure

- LLR Transaction Recover During Server Startup

- Failover Considerations for LLR

- Optimizing Performance with LLR

- Optimizing Transaction Coordinator Location

- Varied Performance for Read-Only Operations Through an LLR Data Source

- Dedicating LLR Tables by Data Source

- Limitations

10 Transactions in EJB Applications

- Before You Begin

- General Guidelines

- Transaction Attributes

- About Transaction Attributes for EJBs

- Transaction Attributes for Container-Managed Transactions

- Transaction Attributes for Bean-Managed Transactions

- Participating in a Transaction

- Transaction Semantics

- Transaction Semantics for Container-Managed Transactions

- Transaction Semantics for Stateful Session Beans

- Transaction Semantics for Stateless Session Beans

- Transaction Semantics for Entity Beans

- Transaction Semantics for Bean-Managed Transactions

- Transaction Semantics for Stateful Session Beans

- Transaction Semantics for Stateless Session Beans

- Session Synchronization

- Synchronization During Transactions

- Setting Transaction Timeouts

- Handling Exceptions in EJB Transactions

11 Transactions in RMI Applications

- Before You Begin

- General Guidelines

12 Using JDBC XA Drivers with WebLogic Server

- Using Oracle Thin/XA Driver

- Set the Environment for the Oracle Thin/XA Driver

- Configure WebLogic Server

- Enable XA on the Database Server

- Oracle Thin/XA Driver Configuration Properties

- Using Other XA Drivers

- Using WebLogic-branded Data Direct Drivers

- Additional Considerations

13 Coordinating XAResources with the WebLogic Server Transaction Manager

- Overview of Coordinating Distributed Transactions with Foreign XAResources

- Registering an XAResource to Participate in Transactions

- Enlisting and Delisting an XAResource in a Transaction

- Standard Enlistment

- Dynamic Enlistment

- Static Enlistment

- Commit processing

- Recovery

- Resource Health Monitoring

- Java EE Connector Architecture Resource Adapter

- Implementation Tips

- Sharing the WebLogic Server Transaction Log

- Transaction global properties

- TxHelper.createXid

- Changes in the Resource Registration Name

- FAQs

- Additional Documentation about JTA

14 Participating in Transactions Managed by a Third-Party Transaction Manager

- Overview of Participating in Foreign-Managed Transactions

- Importing Transactions with the Client Interposed Transaction Manager

- Get the Client Interposed Transaction Manager

- Get the XAResource from the Interposed Transaction Manager

- Cluster-wide Recovery

- Limitations of the Client Interposed Transaction Manager

- Importing Transactions with the Server Interposed Transaction Manager

- Get the Server Interposed Transaction Manager

- Limitations of the Server Interposed Transaction Manager

- Transaction Processing for Imported Transactions

- Transaction Processing Limitations for Imported Transactions

- Commit Processing for Imported Transactions

- Recovery for Imported Transactions

- Transactions that Span Transaction Manager Systems

15 Troubleshooting Transactions

- Overview

- Troubleshooting Tools

- Exceptions

- Transaction Identifier

- Transaction Name and Properties

- Transaction Status

- Transaction Statistics

- Transaction Monitoring

- Debugging JTA Resources

- Enabling Debugging

- Enable Debugging Using the Command Line

- Enable Debugging Using the WebLogic Server Administration Console

- Enable Debugging Using the WebLogic Scripting Tool

- Changes to the config.xml File

- JTA Debugging Scopes

Preface

This preface describes the document accessibility features and conventions used in this guide—Developing JTA Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Documentation Accessibility

For information about Oracle's commitment to accessibility, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program website at http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=docacc.

Access to Oracle Support

Oracle customers have access to electronic support through My Oracle Support. For information, visit http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=info or visit http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=trs if you are hearing impaired.

Conventions

The following text conventions are used in this document:

Convention

Meaning

boldface

Boldface type indicates graphical user interface elements associated with an action, or terms defined in text or the glossary.

italic

Italic type indicates book titles, emphasis, or placeholder variables for which you supply particular values.

monospace

Monospace type indicates commands within a paragraph, URLs, code in examples, text that appears on the screen, or text that you enter.

1 Introduction and Roadmap

This chapter describes the contents and organization of this guide—Developing JTA Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server.

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Document Scope and Audience

- Guide to this Document

- Related Documentation

- Samples and Tutorials

- New and Changed Features in This Release

Document Scope and Audience

This document is written for application developers who are interested in building transactional Java applications that run in the WebLogic Server environment. It is assumed that readers are familiar with the WebLogic Server platform, Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) programming, and transaction processing concepts.

Guide to this Document

- This chapter, Chapter 1, "Introduction and Roadmap," introduces the organization of this guide.

- Chapter 2, "Introducing Transactions," introduces transactions in EJB and RMI applications running in the WebLogic Server environment. This chapter also describes distributed transactions and the two-phase commit protocol for enterprise applications.

- Chapter 3, "Configuring Transactions," describes how to administer transactions in the WebLogic Server environment.

- Chapter 4, "Managing Transactions," provides information on administration tasks used to manage transactions.

- Chapter 5, "Transaction Service," describes the WebLogic Server Transaction Service.

- Chapter 6, "Transaction Recovery Spanning Multiple Sites or Data Centers," describes best practices for XA transaction disaster recovery of WebLogic domains across physical sites to provide active-active disaster recovery (AADR).

- Chapter 7, "Configuring Secure Inter-Domain and Intra-Domain Transaction Communication," describes how to configure secure communication between servers during a transaction.

- Chapter 8, "Java Transaction API and Oracle WebLogic Extensions," provides a brief overview of the Java Transaction API (JTA).

- Chapter 10, "Transactions in EJB Applications," describes how to implement transactions in EJB applications.

- Chapter 11, "Transactions in RMI Applications," describes how to implement transactions in RMI applications.

- Chapter 12, "Using JDBC XA Drivers with WebLogic Server," describes how to configure and use third-party XA drivers in transactions.

- Chapter 13, "Coordinating XAResources with the WebLogic Server Transaction Manager," describes how to configure third-party systems to participate in transactions coordinated by the WebLogic Server transaction manager.

- Chapter 14, "Participating in Transactions Managed by a Third-Party Transaction Manager," describes the process for configuring and participating in foreign-managed transactions.

- Chapter 15, "Troubleshooting Transactions," describes how to perform troubleshooting tasks for applications using JTA.

Related Documentation

This document contains JTA-specific design and development information. For comprehensive guidelines for developing, deploying, and monitoring WebLogic Server applications, see the following documents:

- Developing Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server is a guide to developing WebLogic Server applications.

- Deploying Applications to Oracle WebLogic Server is the primary source of information about deploying WebLogic Server applications.

Samples and Tutorials

In addition to this document, Oracle optionally provides a variety of code samples and tutorials for developing transactional applications. The examples and tutorials illustrate WebLogic Server in action, and provide practical instructions on how to perform key application development tasks. You can start the Examples server from the ORACLE_HOME\user_projects\domains\wl_server directory, where ORACLE_HOME is the directory you specified as Oracle Home when you installed Oracle WebLogic Server. For more information, see "Sample Applications and Code Examples" in Understanding Oracle WebLogic Server.

Avitek Medical Records Application (MedRec) and Tutorials

MedRec is an end-to-end sample Java EE application shipped with WebLogic Server that simulates an independent, centralized medical record management system. The MedRec application provides a framework for patients, doctors, and administrators to manage patient data using a variety of different clients.

MedRec demonstrates WebLogic Server and Java EE features, and highlights Oracle-recommended best practices. MedRec is optionally installed in the WebLogic Server installation. You can start MedRec from the ORACLE_HOME\user_projects\domains\medrec directory, where ORACLE_HOME is the directory you specified as Oracle Home when you installed Oracle WebLogic Server. For more information, see "Sample Applications and Code Examples" in Understanding Oracle WebLogic Server.

New and Changed Features in This Release

This release includes the following new and changed JTA features:

- XA transaction affinity improves performance by allowing server instances that are participating in a global transactions to service related requests rather than load-balancing these requests to other member servers. See XA Transaction Cluster Affinity.

- Improved XA transaction performance by eliminating TLogs when XA transactions span a single Transaction Manager (TM). XA transaction resources (Determiners) are used during transaction recovery when a TLog is not present. See XA Transactions without TLogs.

- Support for XA transaction recovery of WebLogic domains across physical sites as part of a Disaster Recovery (DR) solution See Transaction Recovery Spanning Multiple Sites or Data Centers.

For a comprehensive listing of the new WebLogic Server features introduced in this release, see What's New in Oracle WebLogic Server.

2 Introducing Transactions

This chapter describes a basic overview of transactions, when to use a transaction, how a transaction is processed, and example transaction code.

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Overview of Transactions in WebLogic Server Applications

- When to Use Transactions

- What Happens During a Transaction

- Transactions Sample Code

Overview of Transactions in WebLogic Server Applications

This section includes the following sections:

- ACID Properties of Transactions

- Supported Programming Model

- Supported API Models

- Distributed Transactions and the Two-Phase Commit Protocol

- Support for Business Transactions

ACID Properties of Transactions

A fundamental feature of WebLogic Server is transaction management. Transactions are a means to guarantee that database changes are completed accurately and that they take on all the ACID properties of a high-performance transaction, including:

- Atomicity—all changes that a transaction makes to a database are made as one unit; otherwise, all changes are rolled back.

- Consistency—a successful transaction transforms a database from a previous valid state to a new valid state.

- Isolation—changes that a transaction makes to a database are not visible to other operations until the transaction completes its work.

- Durability—changes that a transaction makes to a database survive future system or media failures.

WebLogic Server protects the integrity of your transactions by providing a complete infrastructure for ensuring that database updates are done accurately, even across a variety of resource managers. If any one operation fails, the entire set of operations is rolled back.

Supported Programming Model

WebLogic Server supports transactions in the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) programming model. WebLogic Server provides full support for transactions in Java applications that use Enterprise JavaBeans, in compliance with the Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) Specification 3.0. WebLogic Server also supports the Java Transaction API (JTA) Specification 1.1. Both specifications are published at the following locations:

Specification

Location

EJB 3.0

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javaee/ejb/index.html

JTA 1.1

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javaee/jta/index.html

Supported API Models

WebLogic Server supports the Java Transaction API (JTA), which is used by:

- Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) applications within the WebLogic Server EJB container.

- Remote Method Invocation (RMI) applications within the WebLogic Server infrastructure.

For information, see the following API Javadoc.

- http://docs.oracle.com/javaee/6/api/javax/transaction/package-summary.html

- http://docs.oracle.com/javaee/6/api/javax/transaction/xa/package-summary.html

Distributed Transactions and the Two-Phase Commit Protocol

WebLogic Server supports distributed transactions and the two-phase commit protocol for enterprise applications. A distributed transaction is a transaction that updates multiple resource managers (such as databases) in a coordinated manner. In contrast, a local transaction begins and commits the transaction to a single resource manager that internally coordinates API calls; there is no transaction manager. The two-phase commit protocol is a method of coordinating a single transaction across two or more resource managers. It guarantees data integrity by ensuring that transactional updates are committed in all of the participating databases, or are fully rolled back out of all the databases, reverting to the state prior to the start of the transaction. In other words, either all the participating databases are updated, or none are updated.

Distributed transactions involve the following participants:

- Transaction originator—initiates the transaction. The transaction originator can be a user application, an Enterprise JavaBean, or a JMS client.

- Transaction manager—manages transactions on behalf of application programs. A transaction manager coordinates commands from application programs to start and complete transactions by communicating with all resource managers that are participating in those transactions. When resource managers fail during transactions, transaction managers help resource managers decide whether to commit or roll back pending transactions.

- Recoverable resource—provides persistent storage for data. The resource is most often a database.

- Resource manager—provides access to a collection of information and processes. Transaction-aware JDBC drivers are common resource managers. Resource managers provide transaction capabilities and permanence of actions; they are entities accessed and controlled within a distributed transaction. The communication between a resource manager and a specific resource is called a transaction branch.

The first phase of the two-phase commit protocol is called the prepare phase. The required updates are recorded in a transaction log file, and the resource must indicate, through a resource manager, that it is ready to make the changes. Resources either vote to commit the updates or to roll back to the previous state. What happens in the second phase depends on how the resources vote. If all resources vote to commit, all the resources participating in the transaction are updated. If one or more of the resources vote to roll back, then all the resources participating in the transaction are rolled back to their previous state.

Support for Business Transactions

WebLogic JTA provides the following support for your business transactions:

- Creates a unique transaction identifier when a client application initiates a transaction.

- Supports an optional transaction name describing the business process that the transaction represents. The transaction name makes statistics and error messages more meaningful.

- Works with the WebLogic Server infrastructure to track objects that are involved in a transaction and, therefore, coordinates these objects when the transaction is ready to commit.

- Notifies the resource managers—which are, most often, databases—when they are accessed on behalf of a transaction. Resource managers then lock the accessed records until the end of the transaction.

- Orchestrates the two-phase commit when the transaction completes, which ensures that all the participants in the transaction commit their updates simultaneously. It coordinates the commit with any databases that are being updated using Open Group's XA protocol. Many popular relational databases support this standard.

- Executes the rollback procedure when the transaction must be stopped.

- Executes a recovery procedure when failures occur. It determines which transactions were active in the machine at the time of the crash, and then determines whether the transaction should be rolled back or committed.

- Manages transaction timeouts. If a business operation takes too much time or is only partially completed due to failures, the system takes action to automatically issue a timeout for the transaction and free resources, such as database locks.

When to Use Transactions

Transactions are appropriate in the situations described in the following list. Each situation describes a transaction model supported by the WebLogic Server system. Keep in mind that distributed transactions should not span more than a single user input screen; more complex, higher level transactions are best implemented with a series of distributed transactions.

- Within the scope of a single client invocation on an object, the object performs multiple edits to data in a database. If one edits fails, the object needs a mechanism to roll back all the edits. (In this situation, the individual database edits are not necessarily EJB or RMI invocations. A client, such as an applet, obtain a reference to the Transaction and TransactionManager objects, using JNDI, and start a transaction.)
For example, consider a banking application. The client invokes the transfer operation on a teller object. The transfer operation requires the teller object to make the following invocations on the bank database:

- Invoking the debit method on one account.

- Invoking the credit method on another account.

If the credit invocation on the bank database fails, the banking application needs a way to roll back the previous debit invocation.

- The client application needs a conversation with an object managed by the server application, and the client application makes multiple invocations on a specific object instance. The conversation may be characterized by one or more of the following:

- Data is cached in memory or written to a database during or after each successive invocation.

- Data is written to a database at the end of the conversation.

- The client application needs the object to maintain an in-memory context between each invocation; that is, each successive invocation uses the data that is being maintained in memory across the conversation.

- At the end of the conversation, the client application needs the ability to cancel all database write operations that may have occurred during or at the end of the conversation.

What Happens During a Transaction

This topic includes the following sections:

- Transactions in WebLogic Server EJB Applications

- Transactions in WebLogic Server RMI Applications

Transactions in WebLogic Server EJB Applications

Figure 2-1 illustrates how transactions work in a WebLogic Server EJB application.

Figure 2-1 How Transactions Work in a WebLogic Server EJB Application

WebLogic Server supports two types of transactions in WebLogic Server EJB applications:

- In container-managed transactions, the WebLogic Server EJB container manages the transaction demarcation. Transaction attributes in the EJB deployment descriptor determine how the WebLogic Server EJB container handles transactions with each method invocation. For more information about the deployment descriptor, see "Implementing Enterprise Java Beans" in Developing Enterprise JavaBeans, Version 2.1, for Oracle WebLogic Server.

- In bean-managed transactions, the EJB manages the transaction demarcation. The EJB makes explicit method invocations on the UserTransaction object to begin, commit, and roll back transactions. For more information, see weblogic.transaction.UserTransaction in the Java API Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.

The sequence of transaction events differs between container-managed and bean-managed transactions.

Container-managed Transactions

For EJB applications with container-managed transactions, a basic transaction works in the following way:

1. In the EJB's deployment descriptor, the Bean Provider or Application Assembler specifies the transaction type (transaction-type element) for container-managed demarcation (Container).

2. In the EJB's deployment descriptor, the Bean Provider or Application Assembler specifies the default transaction attribute (trans-attribute element) for the EJB, which is one of the following settings: NotSupported, Required, Supports, RequiresNew, Mandatory, or Never. For a detailed description of these settings, see Section 17.6.2 in the Enterprise JavaBeans Specification 2.0.

3. Optionally, in the EJB's deployment descriptor, the Bean Provider or Application Assembler specifies the trans-attribute for one or more methods.

4. When a client application invokes a method in the EJB, the EJB container checks the trans-attribute setting in the deployment descriptor for that method. If no setting is specified for the method, the EJB uses the default trans-attribute setting for that EJB.

5. The EJB container takes the appropriate action depending on the applicable trans-attribute setting.

- For example, if the trans-attribute setting is Required, the EJB container invokes the method within the existing transaction context or, if the client called without a transaction context, the EJB container begins a new transaction before executing the method.

- In another example, if the trans-attribute setting is Mandatory, the EJB container invokes the method within the existing transaction context. If the client called without a transaction context, the EJB container throws the javax.transaction.TransactionRequiredException exception.

6. During invocation of the business method, if it is determined that a rollback is required, the business method calls the EJBContext.setRollbackOnly method, which notifies the EJB container that the transaction is to be rolled back at the end of the method invocation.

Note:

Calling the EJBContext.setRollbackOnly method is allowed only for methods that have a meaningful transaction context.

7. At the end of the method execution and before the result is sent to the client, the EJB container completes the transaction, either by committing the transaction or rolling it back (if the EJBContext.setRollbackOnly method was called).

Bean-managed Transactions

For EJB applications with bean-managed transaction demarcations, a basic transaction works in the following way:

1. In the EJB's deployment descriptor, the Bean Provider or Application Assembler specifies the transaction type (transaction-type element) for container-managed demarcation (Bean).

2. The client application uses JNDI to obtain an object reference to the UserTransaction object for the WebLogic Server domain.

3. The client application begins a transaction using the UserTransaction.begin method, and issues a request to the EJB through the EJB container. All operations on the EJB execute within the scope of a transaction.

- If a call to any of these operations raises an exception (either explicitly or because of a communication failure), catch the exception and use the UserTransaction.rollback method to roll back the transaction.

- If no exceptions occur, the client application commits the current transaction using the UserTransaction.commit method. This method ends the transaction and starts the processing of the operation. The transaction is committed only if all of the participants in the transaction agree to commit.

4. The UserTransaction.commit method causes the EJB container to call the transaction manager to complete the transaction.

5. The transaction manager is responsible for coordinating with the resource managers to update any databases.

Transactions in WebLogic Server RMI Applications

Figure 2-2 illustrates how transactions work in a WebLogic Server RMI application.

Figure 2-2 How Transactions Work in a WebLogic Server RMI Application

For RMI client and server applications, a basic transaction works in the following way:

1. The application uses JNDI to return an object reference to the UserTransaction object for the WebLogic Server domain.
Obtaining the object reference begins a conversational state between the application and that object. The conversational state continues until the transaction is completed (committed or rolled back). Once instantiated, RMI objects remain active in memory until they are released (typically during server shutdown). For the duration of the transaction, the WebLogic Server infrastructure does not perform any deactivation or activation.

2. The client application begins a transaction using the UserTransaction.begin method, and issues a request to the server application. All operations on the server application execute within the scope of a transaction.

- If a call to any of these operations raises an exception (either explicitly or because of a communication failure), catch the exception and the use the UserTransaction.rollback method to roll back the transaction.

- If no exceptions occur, the client application commits the current transaction using the UserTransaction.commit method. This method ends the transaction and starts the processing of the operation. The transaction is committed only if all of the participants in the transaction agree to commit.

3. The UserTransaction.commit method causes WebLogic Server to call the transaction manager to complete the transaction.

4. The transaction manager is responsible for coordinating with the resource managers to update any databases.

For more information, see Chapter 11, "Transactions in RMI Applications."

Transactions Sample Code

This section includes the following sections:

- Transactions Sample EJB Code

- Transactions Sample RMI Code

Transactions Sample EJB Code

This section provides a walkthrough of sample code fragments from a class in an EJB application. This topic includes the following sections:

- Importing Packages

- Using JNDI to Return an Object Reference

- Starting a Transaction

- Completing a Transaction

The code fragments demonstrate using the UserTransaction object for bean-managed transaction demarcation. The deployment descriptor for this bean specifies the transaction type (transaction-type element) for transaction demarcation (Bean).

Notes:

In a global transaction, use a database connection from a local JDBC data source—on the WebLogic Server instance on which the EJB is running. Do not use a connection from a JDBC data source on a remote WebLogic Server instance.

These code fragments do not derive from any of the sample applications that ship with WebLogic Server. They simply illustrate the use of the UserTransaction object within an EJB application.

Importing Packages

Example 2-1 shows importing the necessary packages for transactions, including:

- javax.transaction.UserTransaction. For a list of methods associated with this object, see the online Javadoc.

- System exceptions. For a list of exceptions, see the online Javadoc.

Example 2-1 Importing Packages

import javax.naming.*;
import javax.transaction.UserTransaction;
import javax.transaction.SystemException;
import javax.transaction.HeuristicMixedException
import javax.transaction.HeuristicRollbackException
import javax.transaction.NotSupportedException
import javax.transaction.RollbackException
import javax.transaction.IllegalStateException
import javax.transaction.SecurityException
import java.sql.*;
import java.util.*;

Using JNDI to Return an Object Reference

Example 2-2 shows how look up an object on the JNDI tree.

Example 2-2 Performing a JNDI Lookup

Context ctx = null;
Hashtable env = new Hashtable();

env.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY,
"weblogic.jndi.WLInitialContextFactory");

// Parameters for the WebLogic Server.
// Substitute the correct hostname, port number
// user name, and password for your environment:
env.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, "t3://localhost:7001");
env.put(Context.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL, "Fred");
env.put(Context.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS, "secret");

ctx = new InitialContext(env);

UserTransaction tx = (UserTransaction)
ctx.lookup("javax.transaction.UserTransaction");

Starting a Transaction

Example 2-3 shows starting a transaction by getting a UserTransaction object and calling the javax.transaction.UserTransaction.begin() method. Database operations that occur after this method invocation and prior to completing the transaction exist within the scope of this transaction.

Example 2-3 Starting a Transaction

UserTransaction tx = (UserTransaction)
ctx.lookup("javax.transaction.UserTransaction");
tx.begin();

Completing a Transaction

Example 2-4 shows completing the transaction depending on whether an exception was thrown during any of the database operations that were attempted within the scope of this transaction:

- If an exception was thrown during any of the database operations, the application calls the javax.transaction.UserTransaction.rollback() method.

- If no exception was thrown, the application calls the javax.transaction.UserTransaction.commit() method to attempt to commit the transaction after all database operations completed successfully. Calling this method ends the transaction and starts the processing of the operation, causing the WebLogic Server EJB container to call the transaction manager to complete the transaction. The transaction is committed only if all of the participants in the transaction agree to commit.

Example 2-4 Completing a Transaction

tx.commit();

// or:

tx.rollback();

Transactions Sample RMI Code

This topic provides a walkthrough of sample code fragments from a class in an RMI application. This topic includes the following sections:

- Importing Packages

- Using JNDI to Return an Object Reference to the UserTransaction Object

- Starting a Transaction

- Completing a Transaction

The code fragments demonstrate using the UserTransaction object for RMI transactions. For guidelines on using transactions in RMI applications, see Chapter 11, "Transactions in RMI Applications."

Note:

These code fragments do not derive from any of the sample applications that ship with WebLogic Server. They simply illustrate the use of the UserTransaction object within an RMI application.

Importing Packages

Example 2-5 shows importing the necessary packages, including the following packages used to handle transactions:

- javax.transaction.UserTransaction. For a list of methods associated with this object, see the online Javadoc.

- System exceptions. For a list of exceptions, see the online Javadoc.

Example 2-5 Importing Packages

import javax.naming.*;
import java.rmi.*;
import javax.transaction.UserTransaction;
import javax.transaction.SystemException;
import javax.transaction.HeuristicMixedException
import javax.transaction.HeuristicRollbackException
import javax.transaction.NotSupportedException
import javax.transaction.RollbackException
import javax.transaction.IllegalStateException
import javax.transaction.SecurityException
import java.sql.*;
import java.util.*;

After importing these classes, initialize an instance of the UserTransaction object to null.

Using JNDI to Return an Object Reference to the UserTransaction Object

Example 2-6 shows searching the JNDI tree to return an object reference to the UserTransaction object for the appropriate WebLogic Server domain.

Note:

Obtaining the object reference begins a conversational state between the application and that object. The conversational state continues until the transaction is completed (committed or rolled back). Once instantiated, RMI objects remain active in memory until they are released (typically during server shutdown). For the duration of the transaction, the WebLogic Server infrastructure does not perform any deactivation or activation.

Example 2-6 Performing a JNDI Lookup

Context ctx = null;
Hashtable env = new Hashtable();

env.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY,
"weblogic.jndi.WLInitialContextFactory");

// Parameters for the WebLogic Server.
// Substitute the correct hostname, port number
// user name, and password for your environment:
env.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, "t3://localhost:7001");
env.put(Context.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL, "Fred");
env.put(Context.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS, "secret");

ctx = new InitialContext(env);

UserTransaction tx = (UserTransaction)
ctx.lookup("javax.transaction.UserTransaction");

Starting a Transaction

Example 2-7 shows starting a transaction by calling the javax.transaction.UserTransaction.begin() method. Database operations that occur after this method invocation and prior to completing the transaction exist within the scope of this transaction.

Example 2-7 Starting a Transaction

UserTransaction tx = (UserTransaction)
ctx.lookup("javax.transaction.UserTransaction");
tx.begin();

Completing a Transaction

Example 2-8 shows completing the transaction depending on whether an exception was thrown during any of the database operations that were attempted within the scope of this transaction:

- If an exception was thrown, the application calls the javax.transaction.UserTransaction.rollback() method if an exception was thrown during any of the database operations.

- If no exception was thrown, the application calls the javax.transaction.UserTransaction.commit() method to attempt to commit the transaction after all database operations completed successfully. Calling this method ends the transaction and starts the processing of the operation, causing WebLogic Server to call the transaction manager to complete the transaction. The transaction is committed only if all of the participants in the transaction agree to commit.

Example 2-8 Completing a Transaction

tx.commit();

// or:

tx.rollback();

3 Configuring Transactions

This chapter describes basic configuration tasks related to transactions. These tasks include using JTA, configuring secure transaction communication, using transaction log (TLog) files, and using read-only, one-phase commit optimizations.

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Overview of Transaction Configuration

- Configuring JTA

- Transaction Log Files

- Read-only, One-Phase Commit Optimizations

Overview of Transaction Configuration

The Administration Console provides the interface used to configure features of WebLogic Server, including WebLogic JTA. The configuration process involves specifying values for attributes. These attributes define the transaction environment, including the following:

- Transaction timeouts and limits

- Transaction manager behavior

You should also be familiar with the administration of Java EE components that participate in transactions, such as EJBs, JDBC data sources, and JMS.

Note:

You can also use the WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST; see Understanding the WebLogic Scripting Tool) or JMX (see Developing Custom Management Utilities Using JMX for Oracle WebLogic Server) to configure transaction-related settings.

Configuring JTA

Once you configure WebLogic JTA and any transaction participants, the system manages transactions using the JTA API and the WebLogic JTA extensions. Note the following:

- Configuration settings for JTA (transactions) are applicable at the domain and cluster level:

- At the domain level, attribute settings apply to all servers within a domain. These settings are superceded by any settings at the cluster level. See "Domains: Configuration: JTA" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

- At the cluster level, attribute settings apply to a cluster within a domain. These settings supercede any settings at the domain level. See "Cluster: Configuration: JTA" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

- Monitoring tasks for JTA are performed at the server level. See "Monitor JTA" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

- Configuration settings for participating resources (such as JDBC data sources) are per configured object. The settings apply to all instances of a particular object. See "JDBC Data Source Transaction Options" in Administering JDBC Data Sources for Oracle WebLogic Server and "Configure global transaction options for a JDBC data source" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

Unregister Resource Grace Period

If you have resources that you may occasionally undeploy and redeploy such as a JDBC data source module packaged with an application, minimize the risk of abandoned transactions because of an unregistered resource by setting the Unregistered Resource Grace Period for the domain. The grace period is the number of seconds that the transaction manager waits for transactions to complete before unregistering a resource.

During the specified grace period, the unregisterResource call blocks until the call returns, and no new transactions are started for the associated resource. If the number of outstanding transactions for the resource goes to 0, the unregisterResource call returns immediately.

At the end of the grace period, if there are still outstanding transactions associated with the resource, the unregisterResource call returns and a log message is written on the server on which the resource was previously registered.

Additional Attributes for Managing Transactions

By default, if an XA resource that is participating in a global transaction fails to respond to an XA call from the WebLogic Server transaction manager, WebLogic Server flags the resource as unhealthy and unavailable, and blocks any further calls to the resource in an effort to preserve resource threads. The failure can be caused by either an unhealthy transaction or an unhealthy resource—there is no distinction between the two causes. In both cases, the resource is marked as unhealthy. To mitigate this limitation, WebLogic Server provides the following configuration attributes:

- Maximum Duration of XA Calls—Sets the maximum allowed duration (in milliseconds) of XA calls to XA resources.

- Maximum Duration XA Resource Unavailable—The maximum duration (in milliseconds) that an XA resource is marked as unhealthy.

- Maximum Resource Requests on a Server—Maximum number of concurrent requests to resources allowed for each server in the domain.

These attributes are configurable at the domain and the cluster level. See "Cluster: Configuration: JTA" and "Domains: Configuration: JTA" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

XA Transaction Cluster Affinity

XA transaction affinity allows server instances that are participating in a global transactions to service related requests rather than load-balancing these requests to other member servers. When Enable Transaction Affinity=true, cluster throughput is increased by:

- Reducing inter-server transaction coordination traffic

- Improving resource utilization, such as reducing JDBC connections

- Simplifying asynchronous processing of transactions

If the cluster does not have a member participating in the transaction, the request is load balanced to an available cluster member. If the selected cluster member fails, the JTA Transaction Recovery Service can be migrated using the "Roadmap for Configuring Automatic Migration of the JTA Transaction Recovery Service" in Administering Clusters for Oracle WebLogic Server.

See "Configure clusters" in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help. You can also enable XA transaction affinity on the command line using -Dweblogic.cluster.TxnAffinityEnabled=true.

Transaction Log Files

Each server has a transaction log which stores information about committed transactions coordinated by the server that may not have been completed. WebLogic Server uses the transaction log (TLogs) when recovering from system crashes or network failures. You cannot directly view the transaction log—the records are in a binary format and are stored in either the default persistent store or a JDBC TLog store for the server.

- Using the Default Persistent Store

- Using a JDBC JTOG Store

- Last Logging Resource

- XA Transactions without TLogs

Using the Default Persistent Store

To take advantage of the migration capability of the Transaction Recovery Service for servers in a cluster, you must store the transaction log in a location that is available to a server and its backup servers, preferably on a dual-ported SCSI disk or on a Storage Area Network (SAN). See Setting the Path for the Default Persistent Store for more information.

If the file system on which the default store saves transaction log records runs out of space or is inaccessible, commit() throws SystemException, and the transaction manager places a message in the system error log. No transactions are committed until more space is available.

Setting the Path for the Default Persistent Store

Each server instance, including the administration server, has a default persistent store, which is a file-based store that is available to subsystems that do not require explicit selection of a particular store and function best by using the system's default storage mechanism. The transaction manager uses the default persistent store to store transaction log records. In many cases, the default persistent store requires no configuration. However, to enable migration of the Transaction Recovery Service, you must configure the default persistent store so that it stores its data files on a persistent storage solution that is available to other servers in the cluster if the original server fails.

See "Configure the default persistent store for Transaction Recovery Service migration" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help for instructions.

Setting the Default Persistent Store Synchronous Write Policy

WebLogic Server uses the default persistent store to store transaction log records. Select a write policy for the default store to change the way WebLogic Server writes records to disk, see "Guidelines for Configuring a Synchronous Write Policy" in Administering Server Environments for Oracle WebLogic Server.

See "Configure the default persistent store for Transaction Recovery Service migration" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help for instructions.

Using a JDBC JTOG Store

You can configure a JDBC TLog store to persist transaction logs to a database, which allows you to leverage replication and HA characteristics of the underlying database, simplify disaster recovery, and improve Transaction Recovery service migration. See "Using a JDBC TLog Store" in Administering Server Environments for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Last Logging Resource

LLR is a performance enhancement option that enables one non-XA resource to participate in a global transaction with the same ACID guarantee as XA. See Logging Last Resource Transaction Optimization.

XA Transactions without TLogs

As described in Transaction Log Files, TLogs are used to resolve in-doubt transactions. However, there can be a significant cost associated with creating and maintaining these files, such as read/write costs, network calls between resource managers, and HA storage.

The following section provides information on how to improve XA transaction performance by eliminating TLogs when XA transactions span a single transaction manager (TM):

- What is a Determiner Resource?

- Configuring XA Transactions without TLogs

- Limitations and Considerations When Configuring Transactions without TLogs

What is a Determiner Resource?

Determiners are JDBC XA and JMS XA resources whose in-doubt transaction records are used during transaction recovery when a TLog is not present.

Best Practices When Using Determiner Resources

The following section provides information on best practices for using determiner resources in global transactions:

- The Determiner resource must be targeted to the server where the global transaction will execute. In a clustered environment, the determiner resource should target a cluster to ensure high availability during a service or server migration.

- To support Transaction Recovery Service migration:

- For JDBC XA resources, target the determiner DataSource to the cluster.

- For JMS XA resources, target the JMS service to the same migratable target used by the custom persistent store. See "Custom Store Availability for JMS Services" in Administering Clusters for Oracle WebLogic Server.

- Configure the minimum number of determiner resources possible. This reduces the number of resources that must be available for recovery.

Configuring XA Transactions without TLogs

The following sections provide information on how to configure, update, and remove determiners in your environment.

- How to Configure a Determiner

- How to Remove a Determiner

Note:

Before you start, review Limitations and Considerations When Configuring Transactions without TLogs

How to Configure a Determiner

To configure a determiner:

1. Ensure that all XA transactions are complete on the server or servers that will host the JDBC XA or JMS XA resources you want to configure as a determiner resource.

2. Stop any server or cluster hosting JDBC XA resources to be used as a determiner.

3. If you have not already done so, in the Change Center of the WebLogic Server Administration Console, click Lock & Edit (see "Use the Change Center" in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help).

4. You can configure a determiner for a domain or for a cluster.

- For a domain: In the left pane of the WebLogic Server Administration Console, select the domain name at the top of the tree.

- For a cluster: In the left pane of the WebLogic Server Administration Console, expand Environment and select Clusters. Then in the Summary of Clusters table, select the cluster you want to configure.

5. In the Configuration: JTA tab, specify list of one or more determiners separated by line breaks in the Determiner attribute.
JDBCA XA resource determiner names have the pattern <XAdsname>+"_"+<dname> , where XAdsname is the name of the data source and dname is the name of the domain. For example:

myDS1_myDomain
myDS2_myDomain

JMS XA resource determiner names have the pattern "WLStore_"+<dname>+"_"+<JMSXAResource>, where JMSXAResource is the name of the JMS persistent store and dname is the name of the domain. If no persistent store is configured, default store is used and the naming convention is "WLStore_"+<dname>"+"_"+"_"+"WLS_"+<server name>, where server name is the name of the server and dname is the name of the domain. For example:

WLStore_myDomain_myStore1
WLStore_myDomain_myStore2
WLStore_XADomain__WLS_myServer

Note: Target the determiner resource to ensure high availability, see Best Practices When Using Determiner Resources.

6. Optionally, enable the Write recovery logs when determiners configured attribute to write transaction recovery logs even if one or more determiners are configured.

7. Click Save.

8. To activate these changes, in the Change Center of the WebLogic Server Administration Console, click Activate Changes.
Not all changes take effect immediately—some require a restart (see "Use the Change Center" in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

9. Restart any server or cluster hosting a configured determiner resource.

Your environment is now ready to resume transaction processing.

How to Remove a Determiner

To remove a determiner:

1. Ensure that all XA transactions are complete on the server or servers that host the JDBC XA or JMS XA resources you want to remove as a determiner resource.

2. Stop any server or cluster hosting determiner resources to be removed.

3. If you have not already done so, in the Change Center of the WebLogic Server Administration Console, click Lock & Edit (see "Use the Change Center" in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help).

4. You can remove a determiner for a domain or for a cluster.

- For a domain: In the left pane of the WebLogic Server Administration Console, select the domain name at the top of the tree.

- For a cluster: In the left pane of the WebLogic Server Administration Console, expand Environment and select Clusters. Then in the Summary of Clusters table, select the cluster you want to configure.

5. In the Configuration: JTA tab, remove one or more determiners from the list specified in the Determiner attribute.

6. Click Save.

7. To activate these changes, in the Change Center of the WebLogic Server Administration Console, click Activate Changes.
Not all changes take effect immediately—some require a restart (see "Use the Change Center" in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

8. Restart any server or cluster shut down in Step 2.

Your environment is now ready to resume transaction processing.

Limitations and Considerations When Configuring Transactions without TLogs

The following section provides important information on limitations and considerations when configuring transactions without TLogs:

- Configuring Transactions without TLogs is not supported when:

- More than one TM participates in global transactions

- Global transactions include JTS or LLR resources

- Participating transactions include WS-AT, OTS, WLS/Tuxedo transactions, and transactions that include foreign transaction managers

- Only read operations are executed in the determiner resource as part of the global transaction work.

- parallel-xa-enabled is set to false (default value is true).

- Server and resource checkpoints are still written to the TLOG. Checkpoints are written when the resources are first involved in a global transaction, updated only if there are changes to the transaction participants, and purged only if they are no longer used or become unavailable. Because checkpoints are created early in the transaction, as long as there are no changes to the participants in the global transactions, there is little danger of a checkpoint being out of sync during transaction service migration or transaction recovery spanning multiple sites or data centers.

- Abandon Timeout Seconds is not supported. Recovery is attempted on in-doubt transactions until they are resolved or the resource is administratively removed.

- WebLogic Server will not start if a determiner resource is not available because XA transactions cannot be recovered.

- To change the targeting of a determiner resource, you need to:

1. Ensure that all XA transactions are complete on the server or servers that host the determiner resource.

2. Stop any server or servers hosting the determiner resource.

3. Retarget the determiner resource.

4. Start any server or cluster hosting the determiner resource.

- If more than one server is participating in a global transaction, a transaction entry is written to the TLog.

- If more than one determiner resource is available from the list of specified determiners, the first determiner enlisted is implicitly nominated as the determiner of the transaction.

- Applications can have a combination of global transactions, some that enlist a determiner resource and some that do not. Only those transactions that do not enlist the determiner resource will be written to the TLog.

- This feature does not support Dynamic Clusters.

- This feature supports Whole Server Migration (WSM), see "Whole Server Migration" in Administering Clusters for Oracle WebLogic Server. Service Migration (ASM) is not supported.

Read-only, One-Phase Commit Optimizations

When resource managers, such as the Oracle Database (including AQ and RAC), provide read-only optimizations, Oracle WebLogic can provide a read-only, one-phase commit optimization that provides a number of benefits – even when enabling multiple connections of the same XA transactions – such as eliminating XAResource.prepare network calls and transaction log writes, both in Oracle WebLogic and in the resource manager.

Note:

Read-only, One-phase Commit Optimization requires Oracle DB 11.1.0.7.3PSU or above.

For applications that do not require two-phase commit transactions, you can further optimize performance by also disabling the WebLogic "Two Phase Commit" protocol, which coordinates transactions across two or more resource managers. Disabling two-phase commits, does the following:

- Removes persistent in-doubt logging and locks, as well as bookkeeping overhead in the database.

- Removes all checkpoint logging in WebLogic.

- Enforces and/or tests the assumption that a particular server instance does not require two-phase commit.

- Removes the need for WebLogic migration (whole server or service) recovery, which in turn removes the need for additional assets/capacity, management, etc., involved in such migrations.

Configuring Read-only, One-phase Commit Optimization and Two-phase Commit Disablement

In order to enable the read-only, one-phase commit optimization and disable two-phase commits, configure the following JTA domain configuration attributes:

- Execute XA Calls In Parallel – Set to false to enable the read-only, one-phase commit optimization.

- Enable Two Phase Commit – Optionally, set to false to disable two-phase commit transactions. This disables all transaction logging, including checkpoint records. Any attempt to use two-phase commit will result in a RollbackException being thrown.
Important! The Enable Two Phase Commit setting, which is true by default, should not to be set to false unless it is well-known that the application only uses a resource manager that provides read-only optimization, such as Oracle database, or that the application only uses a single connection to a single resource manager.

Note:

If a XA resource returns an XA_OK vote from a prepare (for example, if it is not an Oracle database), and the WebLogic instance then crashes before rollback can take place, there will be an in-doubt record and locks will be held in the resource manager (database) that will need to be manually resolved.

For more information on all JTA domain configuration options, see "Configuring JTA Domains" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

Monitoring Read-only, One-phase Transaction Statistics

For monitoring purposes, there are five transaction processing statistics on the JTA Monitoring page, which together break down the Transaction Committed Total Count statistic to better track any read-only, one-phase commit transactions.

- Transaction No Resources Committed Total Count – The total number of transactions with no enlisted resources that were committed since the server was started.

- Transaction One Resource One Phase Committed Total Count – The total number of transactions with only one enlisted resource that were one-phase committed since the server was started.

- Transaction Read Only One Phase Committed Total Count – The total number of transactions with more than one enlisted resource that were one-phase committed due to read-only optimization since the server was started.

- Transaction Two Phase Committed Total Count – The total number of transactions with more than one enlisted resource that were two-phase committed since the server was started.

- Transaction LLR Committed Total Count – The total number of LLR transactions that were committed since the server was started.
Note: If the only resource enlisted in a JTA transaction is an LLR data source, then such transactions are included under the Transaction One Resource One Phase Committed Total Count category rather than the Transaction LLR Committed Total Count category.

For more information on JTA monitoring statistics, see "Monitoring JTA Statistics" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

4 Managing Transactions

This chapter provides information on administration tasks used to manage transactions. These tasks include monitoring transactions, handling heuristic completions, how to abandon a transaction, resolving in-flight transactions, and transaction recovery.

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Monitoring Transactions

- Handling Heuristic Completions

- Moving a Server

- Abandoning Transactions

- Manually Resolving Current (Inflight) Transactions

- Transaction Recovery After a Server Fails

Monitor transactions on a server using statistics and monitoring facilities. Use the Administration Console to configure these features and to display the resulting output.

Monitoring Transactions

In the Administration Console, monitor transactions for each server in the domain. Transaction statistics are displayed for a specific server, not the entire domain.

For instructions, see the following pages in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help:

- "View transaction statistics" (and "Servers: Monitoring: JTA: Summary")

- "View statistics for named transactions" (and "Servers: Monitoring: JTA: Transactions By Name")

- "View transaction statistics for XA resources" (and "Servers: Monitoring: JTA XA Resources")

- "View transaction statistics for non-XA resources" (and "Servers: Monitoring: JTA: Non-XA Resources")

- "View current transactions" (and "Servers: Monitoring: JTA: Transactions")

- "View transaction recovery statistics" (and "Servers: Monitoring: JTA: Recovery Services")

Handling Heuristic Completions

A heuristic completion (or heuristic decision) occurs when a resource makes a unilateral decision during the completion stage of a distributed transaction to commit or rollback updates. This can leave distributed data in an indeterminate state. Network failures or resource timeouts are possible causes for heuristic completion. In the event of an heuristic completion, one of the following heuristic outcome exceptions may be thrown:

- HeuristicRollback—one resource participating in a transaction decided to autonomously rollback its work, even though it agreed to prepare itself and wait for a commit decision. If the Transaction Manager decided to commit the transaction, the resource's heuristic rollback decision was incorrect, and might lead to an inconsistent outcome since other branches of the transaction were committed.

- HeuristicCommit—one resource participating in a transaction decided to autonomously commit its work, even though it agreed to prepare itself and wait for a commit decision. If the Transaction Manager decided to rollback the transaction, the resource's heuristic commit decision was incorrect, and might lead to an inconsistent outcome since other branches of the transaction were rolled back.

- HeuristicMixed—the Transaction Manager is aware that a transaction resulted in a mixed outcome, where some participating resources committed and some rolled back. The underlying cause was most likely heuristic rollback or heuristic commit decisions made by one or more of the participating resources.

- HeuristicHazard—the Transaction Manager is aware that a transaction might have resulted in a mixed outcome, where some participating resources committed and some rolled back. But system or resource failures make it impossible to know for sure whether a Heuristic Mixed outcome definitely occurred. The underlying cause was most likely heuristic rollback or heuristic commit decisions made by one or more of the participating resources.

When an heuristic completion occurs, a message is written to the server log. Refer to your database vendor documentation for instructions on resolving heuristic completions.

Some resource managers save context information for heuristic completions. This information can be helpful in resolving resource manager data inconsistencies. If the ForgetHeuristics attribute is selected (set to true) on the JTA panel of the WebLogic Server Administration Console, this information is removed after an heuristic completion. When using a resource manager that saves context information, you may want to set the ForgetHeuristics attribute to false.

Moving a Server

A server instance is identified by its URL (IP address or DNS name plus the listening port number). Changing the URL by moving the server to a new machine or changing the Listening Port of a server on the same machine effectively moves the server so the server identity may no longer match the information stored in the transaction logs.

- If the new server has the same URL as the old server, the Transaction Recovery Service searches all transaction log files for incomplete transactions and completes them as described in Transaction Recovery Service Actions After a Crash.

- When the coordinator server is in the same domain as the sub-coordinator and the server URL changes, the coordinator queries the Administration Server for the new URL of the sub-coordinator and the propagation of any new transactions and any transactions that are committing or rolling back use the new URL. Transaction branches for the sub-coordinator with pending commit records stored in the coordinator's transaction log files before the URL change are unrecoverable. If you wish, you can delete the transaction log files of the coordinator. This step prevents the Transaction Recovery Service from attempting to resolve these transactions until the value of the AbandonTimeoutSeconds parameter is exceeded. See Abandoning Transactions and How to Remove Transaction Records for more information.

- When transactions span multiple domains and if a server acting as a remote transaction sub-coordination fails and its URL changes, any ongoing transactions do not complete (commit or are rolled back) because the coordinator is unable to communicate with the remote domain's Admin server. The coordinator is unable to contact the sub-coordinator using the new URL and any ongoing transactions fail. The coordinator attempts the commit or rollback request until the AbandonTimeoutSeconds value is exceeded. See Abandoning Transactions for more information. Any new transactions fail because the coordinator cannot contact the sub-coordinator. The TLogs of the coordinator and sub-coordinators, excluding the moved server domain, must be deleted. See How to Remove Transaction Records.

Oracle recommends configuring server instances using DNS names rather than IP addresses to promote portability.

If you move a server to a new machine, follow the instructions for Recovering Transactions For a Failed Non-Clustered Server.

Abandoning Transactions

You can choose to abandon incomplete transactions after a specified amount of time. In the two-phase commit process for distributed transactions, the transaction manager coordinates all resource managers involved in a transaction. After all resource managers vote to commit or rollback, the transaction manager notifies the resource managers to act—to either commit or rollback changes. During this second phase of the two-phase commit process, the transaction manager continues to try to complete the transaction until all resource managers indicate that the transaction is completed. Using the AbandonTimeoutSeconds attribute, set the maximum time, in seconds, that a transaction manager persists in attempting to complete a transaction during the second phase of the commit protocol. The default value is 86400 seconds, or 24 hours. After the abandon transaction timer expires, no further attempt is made to resolve the transaction with any resources that are unavailable or unable to acknowledge the transaction outcome. If the transaction is in a prepared state before being abandoned, the transaction manager rolls back the transaction to release any locks held on behalf of the abandoned transaction and writes an heuristic error to the server log.

You may want to review the following related information:

- For instructions on how to set the AbandonTimeoutSeconds attribute, see "Configure JTA" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

Tuning Transaction Processing

The first phase of the two-phase commit protocol is called the prepare phase. The required updates are recorded in a transaction log file, and the resource must indicate, through a resource manager, that it is ready to make the changes. Resources either vote to commit the updates or to roll back to the previous state. The second or commit phase is what happens after the resources vote. If all resources vote to commit, all the resources participating in the transaction are updated. If one or more of the resources vote to roll back, then all the resources participating in the transaction are rolled back to their previous state. WebLogic Server provides the following parameters that you can use to tune the amount of time spent processing a transaction.

- The maximum amount of time that can be spent processing from the beginning of a transaction until the end of the first phase of a transaction is controlled by setting the value of the transaction-timeout attribute.

- The maximum amount of time that can be spent processing the second phase of a transaction is controlled by setting the value of the completion-timeout-seconds attribute.

Prior to WebLogic Server 10.3.3, the maximum amount of time spent processing the second phase was approximately twice the default transaction-timeout value with a maximum value of 120 seconds and not tunable. For the vast majority of environments, the time allotted for completion of the second phase is adequate. However, in environments where high system stress or high network latency can occur, it is possible to exceed the maximum amount of time available to complete the commit phase and the transaction manager throws a SystemException. A SystemException is non-deterministic relative to transaction outcome so an application environment must provide special exception handling for this case which often involves manually analyzing the transaction activity and state of the resources involved in the transaction. As application stacks become more complex, it becomes more difficult to resolve transaction outcomes. The completion-timeout-seconds attribute provides the possibility for a successful or deterministic completion in many cases by allowing a longer processing time for the commit phase.

If the completion-timeout-seconds value exceeds the value set for abandon-timeout-seconds, the abandon-timeout-seconds overrides completion-timeout-seconds value. If the transaction is abandoned, a SystemException is thrown. In general, transactions requiring a large values for the transaction-completion-seconds attribute indicate a need for system tuning.

Note:

Please note that if the abandon-timeout-seconds value is set less than 60 seconds, it is voided by the default completion-timeout-seconds setting. Also, within the first 600 seconds (ten minutes) after the transaction service's startup, the abandon-timeout-seconds setting becomes fully void.

For configuration information, see:

- "Configure advanced domain JTA options" in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help

- "CompletionTimeoutSeconds" in MBean Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server

Note:

The completion-timeout-seconds attribute does not apply to imported transactions such as JCA transactions or to recovering transactions.

Manually Resolving Current (Inflight) Transactions

In some cases, a transaction may not complete normally due to system or network failures. In such situations there may be locks held on behalf of the pending transaction that are inhibiting the progress of other transactions. After the Abandon Timeout period has elapsed, the WebLogic Server Transaction Manager removes the transaction from its internal data structures and writes a heuristic error to the server log. You can also manually resolve "stuck" transactions.

To manually resolve a transaction, you view current (inflight) transactions for a server from the Server>Monitoring>JTA tab (see "View current transactions" in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help) and then view details about a specific transaction by clicking the transaction id. You can then force a commit or a rollback, depending on the status of the transaction.

Note:

It is possible for a transaction to have different states at different servers. For instance, a transaction may have been committed at the coordinating server, but a remote participant may not have received the commit instruction.

The following table provides information on transaction status and resolution options.

Table 4-1 Transaction Status Definitions and Manual Resolution Options

Status

Definition

Forced Commit?

Forced Rollback?

Active

The application is processing the transaction. The transaction has not yet reached the two-phase commit processing.

Y

Preparing

Corresponds to the interval between when the transaction manager starts the javax.transaction.Synchronization beforeCompletion() callback processing, through the first phase of the 2PC protocol, and up to the point when all participants have responded, "ready to commit."

Y

Prepared

The interval between when all participants have responded to prepare up to the commit point (commit log record is flushed to disk) or to the initiation of rollback processing.

Y

Y

Committing

The time from when the commit decision is made up to the point when all participants have been informed of the outcome and the javax.transaction.Synchronization afterCompletion() callback processing has completed.

Y

Committed

The transaction has been committed. It is likely that heuristics exists, otherwise the transaction would have been completed and would not have been displayed in the list of current transactions.

Y

Rolling Back

This state occurs from the point when rollback processing is initiated up to the point when all participants have been instructed to rollback and the javax.transaction.Synchronization afterCompletion() callback processing has completed.

Y

Rolled Back

The transaction has been rolled back. It is likely that heuristics exists, otherwise the transaction would have been destroyed and would not have been displayed in the list of current transactions.

Y

Marked Roll Back

The transaction has been marked for rollback, perhaps as a result of a setRollbackOnly operation.

Y

No Transaction

Unknown

Current status cannot be determined.

Y

Y

Manual Commit and Rollback Options

To manually resolve a transaction, you can choose from the following options.Options are restricted as described in Table 4-1, "Transaction Status Definitions and Manual Resolution Options".

- Force Local Commit—Each participating resource that is registered on the server is issued a commit operation for the specified transaction and the transaction will be removed from the local transaction manager's data structures. If the local server is the coordinator for the transaction, the commit record is released. See "Force local commit" in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

- Force Global Commit—A local commit operation is attempted at each participating server for the specified transaction. If this option is invoked on a non-coordinating server, the coordinator will be contacted to process the operation. The coordinating server will issue asynchronous requests to each participant server. See "Force global commit" in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

- Force Local Rollback—Each participating resource that is registered on the local server is issued a rollback operation for the specified transaction. The transaction will then be removed from the local transaction manager's data structures. See "Force local rollback" in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

- Force Global Rollback—A local rollback operation is attempted at each participating server for the specified transaction. If this option is invoked on a non-coordinating server, the coordinator will be contacted to process the operation. The coordinating server will issue asynchronous requests to each participant server. See "Force global rollback" in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

Note:

When you select any of these options, WebLogic Server writes entries to the server log.

The difference between the Local and Global options is that Local options act only upon the current server resources (resources on the server that you select in the navigation tree in the left pane of the WebLogic Server Administration Console), whereas the Global options attempt to perform the operation across all participating servers. If a Global operation is invoked for a transaction that is not coordinated by the local server then an attempt will be made to contact the coordinator of the transaction in order to perform the operation. If the coordinator cannot be reached, the operation will fail with a javax.transaction.SystemException.

In the case where a transaction may have been committed at the coordinating server (committing status), but a remote participant did not receive the commit instruction (prepared status). You can force a local commit on the remote participant to complete the transaction. In this case it is possible to force a rollback on the remote participant since its transaction state will still be prepared, but the transaction will complete heuristically. If you try to force a global rollback, the operation will fail because the state at the coordinator is committing. You cannot roll back a transaction with the committing status.

Transaction Recovery After a Server Fails

The WebLogic Server transaction manager is designed to recover from system crashes with minimal user intervention. The transaction manager makes every effort to resolve transaction branches that are prepared by resource managers with a commit or roll back, even after multiple crashes or crashes during recovery.

To facilitate recovery after a crash, WebLogic Server provides the Transaction Recovery Service, which automatically attempts to recover transactions on system startup. On startup, the Transaction Recovery Service parses all transaction log records for incomplete transactions and completes them as described in Transaction Recovery Service Actions After a Crash.

Because the Transaction Recovery Service is designed to gracefully handle transaction recovery after a crash, Oracle recommends that you attempt to restart a crashed server and allow the Transaction Recovery Service to handle incomplete transactions.

If a server crashes and you do not expect to be able to restart it within a reasonable period of time, you may need to take action. Procedures for recovering transactions after a server failure differ based on your WebLogic Server environment. For a non-clustered server, you can manually move the server (with the default persistent store DAT file) to another system (machine) to recover transactions. See Recovering Transactions For a Failed Non-Clustered Server for more information. For a server in a cluster, you can manually migrate the whole server or the Transaction Recovery Service to another server in the same cluster. Migrating the Transaction Recovery Service involves selecting a server with access to the transaction logs to recover transactions, and then migrating the service using the WebLogic Server Administration Console or the WebLogic command-line interface.

Note:

For non-clustered servers, you can only move the entire server to a new system. For clustered servers, you can migrate the entire server or temporarily migrate the Transaction Recovery Service.

For more information about migrating the Transaction Recovery Service, see Recovering Transactions For a Failed Clustered Server. For more information about clusters, see Administering Clusters for Oracle WebLogic Server.

The following sections provide information on how to recover after a failure:

- Transaction Recovery Service Actions After a Crash

- Recovering Transactions For a Failed Non-Clustered Server

- Recovering Transactions For a Failed Clustered Server

- How to Remove Transaction Records

Transaction Recovery Service Actions After a Crash

When you restart a server after a crash or when you migrate the Transaction Recovery Service to another (backup) server, the Transaction Recovery Service does the following:

- Complete transactions ready for second phase of two-phase commit
For transactions for which a commit decision has been made but the second phase of the two-phase commit process has not completed (transactions recorded in the transaction log), the Transaction Recovery Service completes the commit process.

- Resolve prepared transactions
For transactions that the transaction manager has prepared with a resource manager (transactions in phase one of the two-phase commit process), the Transaction Recovery Service must call XAResource.recover() during crash recovery for each resource manager and eventually resolve (by calling the commit(), rollback(), or forget() method) all transaction IDs returned by recover().

- Report heuristic completions
If a resource manager reports a heuristic exception, the Transaction Recovery Service records the heuristic exception in the server log and calls forget() if the Forget Heuristics configuration attribute is enabled. If the Forget Heuristics configuration attribute is not enabled, refer to your database vendor's documentation for information about resolving heuristic completions. See Handling Heuristic Completions for more information.

The Transaction Recovery Service provides the following benefits:

- Maintains consistency across resources
The Transaction Recovery Service handles transaction recovery in a consistent, predictable manner: For a transaction for which a commit decision has been made but is not yet committed before a crash, and XAResource.recover() returns the transaction ID, the Transaction Recovery Service consistently calls XAResource.commit(); for a transaction for which a commit decision has not been made before a crash, and XAResource.recover() returns its transaction ID, the Transaction Recovery Service consistently calls XAResource.rollback(). With consistent, predictable transaction recovery, a transaction manager crash by itself cannot cause a mixed heuristic completion where some branches are committed and some are rolled back.

- Persists in achieving transaction resolution
If a resource manager crashes, the Transaction Recovery Service must eventually call commit() or rollback() for each prepared transaction until it gets a successful return from commit() or rollback(). The attempts to resolve the transaction can be limited by setting the AbandonTimeoutSeconds configuration attribute. See Abandoning Transactions for more information.

Clustering Failover When Using Apache With the WebLogic Proxy Plug-in

When using Apache with the WebLogic Proxy plug-in as the front-end for a cluster, the plug-in uses several configuration parameters to determine how long to wait for connections to the WebLogic Server host and, after a connection is established, how long the plug-in waits for a response:

- Verify the setting of the Apache idempotent flag. When idempotent is set to ON, and if the servers do not respond within the specified WLIOTimeoutSecs value, the plug-ins fail over. The plug-ins also fail over if idempotent is set to ON and the servers respond with an error such as READ_ERROR_FROM_SERVER. If set to OFF, the plug-ins do not fail over. For more information, see "Parameters for Web Server Plug-Ins" in Using Web Server 1.1 Plug-Ins with Oracle WebLogic Server.

- Verify the setting of WebLogic Proxy Plug-in retry mechanism; for example, whether the maximum number of retries allowed is equal to the ConnectTimeoutSecs value divided by the ConnectRetrySecs value. For more information, see "Failover, Cookies, and HTTP Sessions" in Using Web Server 1.1 Plug-Ins with Oracle WebLogic Server.

Recovering Transactions For a Failed Non-Clustered Server

To recover transactions for a failed server, follow these steps:

1. Move (or make available) the persistent store DAT file (which contains all transaction log records) from the failed server to a new server.

2. Set the path for the default persistent store with the path to the data file. See Setting the Path for the Default Persistent Store.

3. Start the new server. The Transaction Recovery Service searches all transaction log files for incomplete transactions and completes them as described in Transaction Recovery Service Actions After a Crash.

When moving transaction log records after a server failure, make all transaction log records available on the new machine before starting the server there. Otherwise, transactions in the process of being committed at the time of a crash might not be resolved correctly, resulting in application data inconsistencies. Accomplish this by storing persistent store data files on a dual-ported disk available to both machines. As in the case of a planned migration, update the default file store directory attribute with the new path before starting the server if the pathname is different on the new machine.

Note:

The Transaction Recovery Service is designed to gracefully handle transaction recovery after a crash. Oracle recommends that you attempt to restart a crashed server and allow the Transaction Recovery Service to handle incomplete transactions, rather than move the server to a new machine.

Recovering Transactions For a Failed Clustered Server

When a clustered server fails, you have the following options for recovering transactions:

- Server Migration

- Manual Transaction Recovery Service Migration

Server Migration

For clustered servers, WebLogic Server enables you to migrate a failing server to a new machine, including the Transaction Recovery Service. When the server migrates to another machine, it must be able to locate the transaction log records to complete or recover transactions. Transaction log records are stored in the default persistent store for the server. If you plan to migrate clustered servers in the event of a failure, you must set up the default persistent store so that it stores records in a shared storage system that is accessible to any potential machine to which a failed migratable server might be migrated. For highest reliability, use a shared storage solution that is itself highly available—for example, a storage area network (SAN).

For information about server migration, see "Whole Server Migration" in Administering Clusters for Oracle WebLogic Server.

For more information about setting default persistent store options, see:

- Setting the Path for the Default Persistent Store

- Setting the Default Persistent Store Synchronous Write Policy

Manual Transaction Recovery Service Migration

When a clustered server crashes, you can manually migrate the Transaction Recovery Service from the crashed server to another server in the same cluster using the WebLogic Server Administration Console or the command-line interface. For instructions to manually migrate the Transaction Recovery Service using the WebLogic Server Administration Console, see "Manually migrate the Transaction Recovery Service" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

You can also configure WebLogic Server to automatically migrate the Transaction Recovery Service to a healthy candidate server based with the help of WebLogic Server health monitoring of singleton services. See Automatic Transaction Recovery Service Migration.

What Occurs During Transaction Recovery Service Migration

When manual or automatic service migration takes place, the following events occur:

1. The Transaction Recovery Service on the backup server takes ownership of the transaction log from the crashed server.

2. The Transaction Recovery Service searches all transaction log records from the failed server for incomplete transactions and completes them as described in Transaction Recovery Service Actions After a Crash.

3. If the Transaction Recovery Service on the backup server successfully completes all incomplete transactions from the failed server, the server releases ownership of the Transaction Recovery Service for the failed server so the failed server can reclaim it upon restart.

A server can perform transaction recovery for multiple failed servers. While recovering transactions for other servers, the backup server continues to process and recover its own transactions. If the backup server fails during recovery, you can migrate the Transaction Recovery Service to yet another server, which continues the transaction recovery. You can also manually migrate the Transaction Recovery Service back to the original failed server using the WebLogic Server Administration Console or the command-line interface. See Manually Migrating the Transaction Recovery Service to the Original Server for more information.

When a backup server completes transaction recovery for a server, it releases ownership of the Transaction Recovery Service for the failed server. When you restart a failed server, it attempts to reclaim ownership of its Transaction Recovery Service. If a backup server is in the process of recovering transactions when you restart the failed server, the backup server stops recovering transactions, performs some internal cleanup, and releases ownership of the Transaction Recovery service so the failed server can reclaim it and start properly. The failed server then completes its own transaction recovery.

If a backup server still owns the Transaction Recovery Service for a failed server and the backup server is inactive when you attempt to restart the failed server, the failed server does not start because the backup server cannot release ownership of the Transaction Recovery Service. This is also true if the fail back mechanism fails or if the backup server cannot communicate with the Administration Server. You can manually migrate the Transaction Recovery using the WebLogic Server Administration Console or the command-line interface.

Automatic Transaction Recovery Service Migration

You can specify to have the Transaction Recovery Service automatically migrated from an unhealthy server instance to a healthy server instance, with the help of the server health monitoring services. This way the backup server can complete transaction work for the failed server. See "Roadmap for Configuring Automatic Migration of the JTA Transaction Recovery Service" in Administering Clusters for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Managed Server Independence

Prior to WebLogic Server 10.0, when a cluster's primary Managed Server was booted, but was unable to contact the Administration Server (mostly because that Administration Server had not started yet), then the primary Managed Server would automatically go into MSI (managed server independence) mode and continue to boot up using its local configuration information. During a manual migration of the Transaction Recovery Service, this situation posed a potential risk that a backup server was still recovering TLog data on behalf of the primary Managed Server, which could then lead to concurrent access to TLog and potential corruption of the TLog.

To avoid risking potential TLog corruption, there is a strictOwnershipCheck property on the JTAMigratableTargetMBean. This way, when a primary Managed Server attempts to boot up and it finds that it cannot connect to the Administration Server (for the manual JTA migration policy) or the Singleton Master (for the automatic JTA migration policy), then it verifies its independence by checking the value of the strictOwnershipCheck, as follows:

- True – This is the recommended setting. The primary Managed Server throws an exception and fail to boot.

- False – The primary Managed Server skips the Transaction Recovery Service failback, then it can boot successfully. This poses the same TLog corruption risk as in WebLogic Server 9.2 or earlier.

Limitations of Migrating the Transaction Recovery Service

When manually or automatically migrating the Transaction Recovery Service, the following limitations apply:

- You cannot migrate the Transaction Recovery Service to a backup server from a server that is running. You must stop the server before migrating the Transactions Recovery Service.

- The backup server does not accept new transaction work for the failed server. It only processes incomplete transactions.

- The backup server does not process heuristic log files.

- The backup server only processes log records written by WebLogic Server. It does not process log records written by gateway implementations, including WebLogic Tuxedo Connector.

In addition to the limitations described above, the following rules also apply when WebLogic Server 10.0 or later is configured to automatically migrate the Transaction Recovery Service:

- If the cluster also contains servers from earlier releases of WebLogic Server, the primary server and backup servers must be WebLogic Server 10.0 or later. To enforce this when automatic migration is enabled, on the WebLogic Server Administration Console, only WebLogic Server 10.0 or later servers appear in the Candidate Servers Available list.

- Manual service migration is supported between release 9.2 or earlier servers and release 10.0 or later servers if no migration scripts are used.

Preparing to Migrate the Transaction Recovery Service

To migrate the Transaction Recovery Service from a failed server in a cluster to another server (backup server) in the same cluster, the backup server must have access to the transaction log records from the failed server. Therefore, you must store default persistent store data files on persistent storage available to all potential backup servers in the cluster. Consider the following:

- A storage area network (SAN) is recommended.

- If you use an NFS file system, configure the NFS server so that disk writes are not cached.

- Regardless of the storage solution, test failover and migration.
With some storage solutions, particularly some versions of NFS, file locking can be an issue. You may need to configure your storage server to handle file locks effectively or you may need to turn off file locking for the WebLogic file store.

Important:

NFS storage may not fully protect transactional data, as it may be configured to silently buffer synchronous write requests in volatile memory. If a file store Directory is located on an NFS mount, and the file store's Synchronous Write Policy is anything other than Disabled, check your NFS implementation and configuration to make sure that it is configured to support synchronous writes. A Disabled synchronous write policy does not perform synchronous writes, but, as a consequence, is generally not transactionally safe. You may detect undesirable buffering of synchronous write requests by observing high persistent message or transaction throughput that exceeds the physical capabilities of your storage device. On the NFS server, check the synchronous write setting of the exported NFS directory hosting your File Store. A SAN based file store, or a JDBC store, may provide an easier solution for safe centralized storage. See File Locking and NFS in Tuning Performance of Oracle WebLogic Server.

The following persistent store rules apply when manually or automatically migrating the Transaction Recovery Service:

- The default persistent store cannot be shared by JTA and other migratable services. Other migratable services, such as JMS services, must use another custom store if they are targeted to a migratable target.

- If post-deactivation and pre-activation scripts are specified to perform any dismounting and mounting of the default store, then the Node Manager must be configure and running on all candidate machines.

The Administration Server must be available when the primary server starts up, fails over, or fails back. This is required to guarantee that the Transaction Recovery Service gets exclusive ownership to its TLog correctly and without conflict. When the primary server starts up, the Transaction Recovery Service connects to Administration Server to get the latest information about JTA. And should failover/failback occur, the Transaction Recovery Service saves the latest information to Administration Server.

When migrating the Transaction Recovery Service from a server, you must stop the failing or failed server before actually migrating the Transaction Recovery Service. If the original server is still running, you cannot migrate the Transaction Recovery Service from it.

All servers that participate in the migration must have a listen address specified in their configuration. See "Configure listen addresses" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

Constraining Servers to Which the Transaction Recovery Service Can Migrate

You may want to limit the choices of the servers to use as a Transaction Recovery Service backup for a server in a cluster. For example, all servers in your cluster may not have access to the transaction log records for a server. You can limit the list of destination servers available on the "Servers: Configuration: Migration" page in the WebLogic Server Administration Console. See "Configure candidate servers for Transaction Recovery Service migration" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help for instructions.

Note:

You must include the original server in the list of chosen servers so that you can manually migrate the Transaction Recovery Service back to the original server, if need be. The WebLogic Server Administration Console enforces this rule.

Viewing Current Owner of the Transaction Recovery Service

When you migrate the Transaction Recovery Service to another server in the cluster, the backup server takes ownership of the Transaction Recovery Service until it completes all incomplete transactions. After which, it releases ownership of the Transaction Recovery Service and the original server can reclaim it. You can see the current owner on the "Servers: Control: Migration" page in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help. Follow these instructions:

1. In the Domain Structure tree in the WebLogic Server Administration Console, expand Environment and click Servers.

2. Select the original server from which the Transaction Recovery Service was migrated, then select the Control > Migration tab.

3. Click Advanced. Under JTA Migration Options, Hosting Server indicates the current owner of the Transaction Recovery Service.

Manually Migrating the Transaction Recovery Service to the Original Server

After completing transaction recovery for a failed server, a backup server releases ownership of the Transaction Recovery Service so that the original server can reclaim it when the server is restarted. If the backup server stops (crashes) for any reason before it completes transaction recovery, the original server cannot reclaim ownership of the Transaction Recovery Service and does not start.

You can manually migrate the Transaction Recovery Service back to the original server by selecting the original server as the destination server. The backup server must not be running when you migrate the service back to the original server. Follow the instructions below.

Notes:

Please note the following:

- If a backup server fails before completing the transaction recovery actions, the primary server cannot reclaim ownership of the Transaction Recovery Service and recovery is not re-attempted after the rebooting server. Therefore, you must attempt to manually re-migrate the Transaction Recovery Service to another backup server.

- If you restart the original server while the backup server is recovering transactions, the backup server gracefully releases ownership of the Transaction Recovery Service. You do not need to stop the backup server. See Recovering Transactions For a Failed Clustered Server.

For instructions on manually migrating the Transaction Recovery Service using the WebLogic Server Administration Console, see "Manually migrate the Transaction Recovery Service" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

How to Remove Transaction Records

Before deleting TLogs the WebLogic Server instance should be shutdown gracefully to allow the completion of as many transactions as possible.

Note:

You should delete TLogs only in an extreme case. Deleting the TLogs removes transaction records, resulting in heuristic failures. For example, see Moving a Server.

The location of TLogs is dependent whether you are using the default store, a JDBC TLog store, and if LLR is a participating resource in a transaction.

- When one resource involved in the transaction is a LLR, then the TLogs are stored in two locations.

- The transaction records are stored in a database table. See How to Remove the TLog in the LLR Database.

- The server and resource checkpoints are stored in the default store or a JDBC TLog store. See How to Remove the TLog Files from the Default Store and How to Remove the TLog from a JDBC TLog Store.

- If there are no participating LLR in the transactions, the transaction records, server checkpoints, and resource checkpoints are all saved to the TLog file in the default store or a JDBC TLog store. See How to Remove the TLog Files from the Default Store and How to Remove the TLog from a JDBC TLog Store.

How to Remove the TLog in the LLR Database

Default name of the LLR table is WL_LLR_SERVERNAME, where SERVERNAME is the name of the server instance. See JDBC LLR Table Name in "Servers: Configuration: General" in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help. To delete the LLR TLog that is kept in the database, remove all the records from the table by issuing drop table WL_LLR_SERVERNAME.

How to Remove the TLog Files from the Default Store

To remove the TLogs in a the default store, delete all files having the following pattern:

$DOMAIN_HOME/servers/servername/data/store/default/_WLS_SERVERNAMExxxxxx.DAT

where xxxxxx are integers ranging from 0 to 9.

Note:

If the default store contains a configured JMS file store, deleting the TLog also deletes the JMS File Store. In this case, before deleting the TLog files, first export the JMS messages to another location. You can then safely delete the TLog files and import the JMS messages back to the original store. See "Managing JMS Messages" in Administering JMS Resources for Oracle WebLogic Server.

How to Remove the TLog from a JDBC TLog Store

The name of the JDBC TLog store is the PrefixName prepended to the name of the server hosting the JDBC TLog store and ends in "_". For example, a valid JDBC TLog store name using the default Prefix Name is TLOG_MyServer_ where TLOG_ is the Prefix Name and MyServer is the name of the server hosting the JDBC TLog store. You database administrator can remove the existing TLog information from your JDBC TLog store.

5 Transaction Service

This chapter describes the information used to write transactional applications to be used with WebLogic Server. Topics include the capabilities and limitations of the transaction service and how to use it with EJBs, RMI applications, and the Object Transaction Service (OTS).

This chapter includes the following sections:

- About the Transaction Service

- Capabilities and Limitations

- Transaction Scope

- Transaction Service in EJB Applications

- Transaction Service in RMI Applications

- Transaction Service Interoperating with OTS

About the Transaction Service

WebLogic Server provides a Transaction Service that supports transactions in EJB and RMI applications. In the WebLogic Server EJB container, the Transaction Service provides an implementation of the transaction services described in the Enterprise JavaBeans Specification 3.0 at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javaee/ejb/index.html.

For EJB and RMI applications, WebLogic Server also provides the javax.transaction and javax.transaction.xa packages, which implement the Java Transaction API (JTA) for Java applications. For more information about JTA, see the Java Transaction API (JTA) Specification 1.1, published at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javaee/jta/index.html. For more information about the UserTransaction object that applications use to demarcate transaction boundaries, see weblogic.transaction.UserTransaction in the Java API Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Capabilities and Limitations

This section includes the following sections:

- Lightweight Clients with Delegated Commit

- Client-initiated Transactions

- Transaction Integrity

- Transaction Termination

- Flat Transactions

- Relationship of the Transaction Service to Transaction Processing

- Multithreaded Transaction Client Support

- General Constraints

These sections describe the capabilities and limitations of the Transaction Service that supports EJB and RMI applications:

Lightweight Clients with Delegated Commit

A lightweight client runs on a single-user, unmanaged desktop system that has irregular availability. Owners may turn their desktop systems off when they are not in use. These single-user, unmanaged desktop systems should not be required to perform network functions such as transaction coordination. In particular, unmanaged systems should not be responsible for ensuring atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability (ACID) properties across failures for transactions involving server resources. WebLogic Server remote clients are lightweight clients.

The Transaction Service allows lightweight clients to do a delegated commit, which means that the Transaction Service allows lightweight clients to begin and terminate transactions while the responsibility for transaction coordination is delegated to a transaction manager running on a server machine. Client applications do not require a local transaction server. The remote implementation of UserTransaction that EJB or RMI clients use delegates the actual responsibility of transaction coordination to the transaction manager on the server.

Client-initiated Transactions

A client, such as an applet, can obtain a reference to the UserTransaction and TransactionManager objects using JNDI. A client can begin a transaction using either object reference. To get the Transaction object for the current thread, the client program must invoke the ((TransactionManager)tm).getTransaction() method.

Transaction Integrity

Checked transaction behavior provides transaction integrity by guaranteeing that a commit does not succeed unless all transactional objects involved in the transaction have completed the processing of their transactional requests. The Transaction Service provides checked transaction behavior that is equivalent to that provided by the request/response inter-process communication models defined by The Open Group.

Transaction Termination

WebLogic Server allows transactions to be terminated only by the client that created the transaction.

Note:

The client may be a server object that requests the services of another object.

Flat Transactions

WebLogic Server implements the flat transaction model. Nested transactions are not supported.

Relationship of the Transaction Service to Transaction Processing

The Transaction Service relates to various transaction processing servers, interfaces, protocols, and standards in the following ways:

- Support for The Open Group XA interface.The Open Group Resource Managers are resource managers that can be involved in a distributed transaction by allowing their two-phase commit protocol to be controlled using The Open Group XA interface. WebLogic Server supports interaction with The Open Group Resource Managers.

- Support for the OSI TP protocol. Open Systems Interconnect Transaction Processing (OSI TP) is the transactional protocol defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). WebLogic Server does not support interactions with OSI TP transactions.

- Support for the LU 6.2 protocol. Systems Network Architecture (SNA) LU 6.2 is a transactional protocol defined by IBM. WebLogic Server does not support interactions with LU 6.2 transactions.

- Support for the ODMG standard. ODMG-93 is a standard defined by the Object Database Management Group (ODMG) that describes a portable interface to access Object Database Management Systems. WebLogic Server does not support interactions with ODMG transactions.

Multithreaded Transaction Client Support

WebLogic Server supports multithreaded transactional clients. Clients can make transaction requests concurrently in multiple threads.

Transaction Id

The Transaction Service assigns a transaction identifier (XID) to each transaction. This ID can isolate information about a specific transaction in a log file. You can retrieve the transaction identifier using the getXID method in the weblogic.transaction.Transaction interface. For detailed information on methods for getting the transaction identifier, see weblogic.transaction.Transaction in the Java API Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Transaction Name and Properties

WebLogic JTA provides extensions to javax.transaction.Transaction that support transaction naming and user-defined properties. These extensions are included in the weblogic.transaction.Transaction interface.

The transaction name indicates a type of transaction (for example, funds transfer or ticket purchase) and should not be confused with the transaction ID, which identifies a unique transaction on a server. The transaction name makes it easier to identify a transaction type in the context of an exception or a log file.

User-defined properties are key/value pairs, where the key is a string identifying the property and the value is the current value assigned to the property. Transaction property values must be objects that implement the Serializable interface. You manage properties in your application using the set and get methods defined in the weblogic.transaction.Transaction interface. Once set, properties stay with a transaction during its entire lifetime and are passed between machines as the transaction travels through the system. Properties are saved in the transaction log, and are restored during crash recovery processing. If a transaction property is set more than once, the latest value is retained.

For detailed information on methods for setting and getting the transaction name and transaction properties, see weblogic.transaction.Transaction in the Java API Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Transaction Status

The Java Transaction API provides transaction status codes using the javax.transaction.Status class. Use the getStatusAsString method in weblogic.transaction.Transaction to return the status of the transaction as a string. The string contains the major state as specified in javax.transaction.Status with an additional minor state (such as logging or pre-preparing).

Transaction Statistics

Transaction statistics are provided for all transactions handled by the transaction manager on a server. These statistics include the number of total transactions, transactions with a specific outcome (such as committed, rolled back, or heuristic completion), rolled back transactions by reason, and the total time that transactions were active. For detailed information on transaction statistics, see Monitoring Transactions.

General Constraints

The following constraints apply to the Transaction Service:

- In WebLogic Server, a client or a server object cannot invoke methods on an object that is infected with (or participating in) another transaction. The method invocation issued by the client or the server instance returns an exception.

- In WebLogic Server, clients using third-party implementations of the Java Transaction API (for Java applications) are not supported.

- The transaction log buffer is limited to 250 KB. If your application includes very large transactions that require transaction log writes that exceed this value, WebLogic Server instance throws an exception. In that case, you must reconfigure your application to work around the buffer size.

Transaction Scope

The scope of a transaction refers to the environment in which the transaction is performed. WebLogic Server supports transactions on standalone servers, between non-clustered servers, between clustered servers within a domain, and between domains. To enable inter-domain transaction support, see Configuring Secure Inter-Domain and Intra-Domain Transaction Communication.

Transaction Service in EJB Applications

The WebLogic Server EJB container provides a Transaction Service that supports the two types of transactions in WebLogic Server EJB applications:

- Container-managed transactions. In container-managed transactions, the WebLogic Server EJB container manages the transaction demarcation. Transaction attributes in the EJB deployment descriptor determine how the WebLogic Server EJB container handles transactions with each method invocation.

- Bean-managed transactions. In bean-managed transactions, the EJB manages the transaction demarcation. The EJB makes explicit method invocations on the UserTransaction object to begin, commit, and roll back transactions. For more information about UserTransaction methods, see weblogic.transaction.UserTransaction in the Java API Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.

For an introduction to transaction management in EJB applications, see Transactions in WebLogic Server EJB Applications and Transactions Sample EJB Code.

Transaction Service in RMI Applications

WebLogic Server provides a Transaction Service that supports transactions in WebLogic Server RMI applications. In RMI applications, the client or server application makes explicit method invocations on the UserTransaction object to begin, commit, and roll back transactions.

For more information about UserTransaction methods, see the online javadoc. For an introduction to transaction management in RMI applications, see Transactions in WebLogic Server RMI Applications and Transactions Sample RMI Code.

Transaction Service Interoperating with OTS

WebLogic Server provides a Transaction Service that supports interoperation with the Object Transaction Service (OTS). See the Java Transaction Service (JTS) Specification at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javaee/jts-spec095-1508547.pdf. For this release, WebLogic Server interoperates with OTS in the following scenarios:

- Server-Server 2PC

- Client Demarcated Transactions

Server-Server 2PC

In this situation, a server-to-server 2PC transaction is completed using interposition. The originating server creates an Xid and propagates the transaction to the target server. The target server registers itself as a resource with the originating server. The originating server drives the completion of the transaction. Logging Last Resource (LLR) transaction optimization, as described in Chapter 9, "Logging Last Resource Transaction Optimization," is not supported.

Client Demarcated Transactions

The client starts a transaction on the server using the OTS client APIs. The client then retrieves the Xid from this transaction and then propagates this per-request until the transaction is committed. Although the client initiates the transaction, all the commit processing occurs on the server.

6 Transaction Recovery Spanning Multiple Sites or Data Centers

This chapter describes best practices for XA transaction recovery of WebLogic domains across physical sites as part of a Disaster Recovery (DR) solution.

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Understanding XA Transaction Recovery in Disaster Recovery

- Requirements for XA Transaction Disaster Recovery

- Example Active-Active Domain Configuration for XA Transaction Recovery

- Additional Information on Maximum Availability Architecture

Understanding XA Transaction Recovery in Disaster Recovery

Maximizing availability and providing protection from unforeseen disasters and natural calamities are key requirements of a disaster recovery solution for an enterprise deployment. Active-passive solutions involve setting up and pairing a standby site at a geographically different location with an active (production) site. The standby site is normally in a passive mode; it is started when the production site is not available. One aspect of a disaster recovery solution is to ensure that all XA transactions of affected WebLogic domains can be recovered if a production site is no longer available. The following sections provide the requirements and guidelines to recover XA transactions from failed production domains. See "Overview of Disaster Recovery" in Oracle® Fusion Middleware Disaster Recovery Guide for more information on disaster recovery solutions for enterprise deployments.

Requirements for XA Transaction Disaster Recovery

The following section provides the conditions and configuration requirements necessary to enable the successful recovery of XA transactions following the failure of a production site in an active-passive disaster recovery solution:

- All active-passive domain pairs are configured with symmetric topology, they are identical and have the same domain configurations.

- The timing of the failover is manually controlled. Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control is one option that provides the ability to manage disaster recover of WebLogic Server domains across multiple data centers.

- The ability to maintain the workload at less than full capacity on the active and passive site during runtime in order to achieve a consistent capacity during runtime and recovery.

- The listen address of all managed servers and the node manager must use DNS names. IP addresses or direct hostnames should not be used anywhere in a domain configuration.

- Before initiating the Transaction Recovery service by starting servers in the passive domain, update the DNS server to point the DNS names to the machine(s) in passive data center.
For example: Active domain Domain1 has two managed servers running on two machines Mc1 and Mc2. In domain configuration, use the corresponding DNS names dns-1 and dns-2. When the active domain fails and we want to activate corresponding passive domain, update the DNS server and change configuration to point dns-1 and dns-2 to Mc3 and Mc4 respectively. Then start passive Domain2.

- Do not use DNS names that include an underscore, they are not valid in WebLogic Server domains. DNS names with a dash are valid.

- You have several options to store the Tlog: a default store, JDBC TLog, and a determiner resource when transactions span only one WLS server. A default store must be in a common area (usually NFS or SAN). A JDBC TLog uses a database as a common storage location to all WLS servers and is typically replicated using DataGuard/Active DataGuard to ensure high availability. When possible, eliminate TLogs when XA transactions span a single transaction manager by using determiner resources, see XA Transactions without TLogs.

- All persistent stores are JDBC stores.

- Transaction service migration within a cluster is only supported if the entire cluster, including the corresponding domains and servers, is failed over to a recovery site. Specifically, the administrator must insure the node manager and entire cluster, corresponding domains, and any impacted servers have been shutdown on failed site before starting them all on the recovery site.

- Transactions that span WebLogic domains can only be recovered in a site failover if all domains involved in the transaction are failed over.

- The domain information is kept in a shared location(s) to ensure domain configurations are in sync. Applications are kept in a shared location(s) to ensure they are in sync.

Note:

Pack/Unpack could be another approach to keep configurations in sync.

See "Setting Up and Managing Disaster Recovery Sites" in Oracle® Fusion Middleware Disaster Recovery Guide for detailed information on conditions and requirements for setting up active and passive recovery sites for enterprise deployments.

Example Active-Active Domain Configuration for XA Transaction Recovery

The following section provides an example of an active-active disaster recovery solution for WebLogic Server domains. Active-active domain solutions require two or more active domain configurations and are used to improve scalability and availability. In this example, an active domain is located at each data center and is paired with a symmetrically configured passive standby domain at another data center. Each data center is geographically distributed to protect your environment from disasters such as floods or regional network outages. See "Overview of Disaster Recovery" in the Oracle® Fusion Middleware Disaster Recovery Guide.

As shown in Figure 6-1, the example has the following configuration:

- Site1 Domain1 - Active

- Site1 Domain2 - Passive

- Site2 Domain2 - Active

- Site2 Domain1 - Passive

- All servers point to the same DB instance

- Databases are replicated using Oracle Active DataGuard

Figure 6-1 Example Active-Active Disaster Recovery (AADR) Domain Configuration

Additional Information on Maximum Availability Architecture

Oracle provides a number of resources which provide additional information on how to configure environments that maximum availability, see:

- http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/availability/fusion-middleware-maa-155387.html

- Oracle® Fusion Middleware Disaster Recovery Guide

- Oracle® Fusion Middleware High Availability Guide

7 Configuring Secure Inter-Domain and Intra-Domain Transaction Communication

The following sections provide information on how to configure secure communication between servers during a transaction:

- What is Secure Inter-Domain and Intra-Domain Transaction Communication?

- Requirements for Transaction Communication

- Configuring Secure Channel Communication

What is Secure Inter-Domain and Intra-Domain Transaction Communication?

For a transaction manager to manage distributed transactions, the transaction manager must be able to communicate with all participating servers and resources to prepare and then commit or rollback the transactions. How a communication channel is configured depends on whether the transaction route is:

- Intra-domain—The transaction communication is between servers participating in transactions within the same domain. You must correctly configure compatible communication channels between servers participating in transactions within the same domain using Security Interoperability Mode. See Security Interoperability Mode.
Set participating servers to either default, performance or compatibility.

- Inter-domain—The transaction communication is between servers participating in transactions that are not in the same domain. You must correctly configure compatible communication channels using either Cross Domain Security or Security Interoperability Mode for all participating domains in global transactions.

Communication channels must be secure to prevent a malicious third-party from using man-in-the-middle attacks to affect transaction outcomes and potentially gaining administrative control over one or more domains.

Requirements for Transaction Communication

Please note the following requirements when configuring communication channels for your transaction environment:

- The domains and all participating resources must have unique names. That is, you cannot have a JDBC data source, a server, or a domain with the same name as an object in another domain or the domain itself.

- Keep all the domains used by your process symmetric with respect to Cross Domain Security configuration and Security Interoperability Mode. Because both settings are set at the domain level, it is possible for a domain to be in a mixed mode, meaning the domain has both Cross Domain Security and Security Interoperability Mode set.

- Configure one-way SSL to provide additional communication security to protect the transaction from a man-in-the-middle attack.

- Only one data source with both of the following attribute conditions participate in a global transaction, regardless of the domain in which the data source is configured:

- Logging Last Resource or Emulate Two-Phase Commit is selected.

- The data source uses a non-XA driver to create database connections.

Note:

if more than one LLR or JTS resource participate in a global transaction, naming conflicts will cause the global transaction to fail.

How to Determine the Communication to Use for Inter-Domain Transactions

Use the following table to determine when to use Cross Domain Security or Security Interoperability Mode:

Table 7-1 Selecting a Channel Configuration

Channel Configuration

Advantage

Disadvantage

Cross Domain Security

- Specific users are configured to establish communication between a domain pair.

- With SSL, prevents man-in-the-middle attacks.

- More complex configuration.

- Any change to the transaction flow, such as changing participants, participant roles (coordinator versus resource or subcoordinator), adding or removing a domain, or changing the transaction route, requires a configuration change.

Security Interoperability Mode

- Very easy to configure.

- No need to understand the transaction flow when configuring Security Interoperability Mode.

- When in default mode, using the Admin channel prevents man-in-the-middle attacks.

- All domains that have servers that participate in the global transaction have the same domain trust. This is not as secure as in Cross Domain Security where the trust is established only between a domain pair.

- When set to compatibility, inter-domain trust grants administrator privileges across domains. That is, with trust established between domains, an Administrator in Domain A has administrator privileges in Domain B.

- When set to performance, you are not required to set domain trust between the domains.

- In some configurations, there is a narrow possibility of man-in-the-middle attacks.

Configuring Secure Channel Communication

The following sections provide information on how to configure secure communication channels between servers:

- Security Interoperability Mode

- Cross Domain Security

- Configuring a Combination of Cross Domain Security and Security Interoperability Mode

Security Interoperability Mode

Security Interoperability Mode enables you to configure compatible communication channels between servers in global transactions with participants in the same domain (intra-domain) or in different domains (inter-domain). Trust is established between all the domains that participate in a transaction by setting the security credential of all domains to the same value so that principals in a Subject from one WebLogic Server instance are accepted as principals in another instance. Some settings of Security Interoperability Mode rely on domain trust and are less secure.

Use the following steps to configure Security Interoperability Mode:

1. Configuring Security Interoperability Mode

2. Establish Domain Trust

Configuring Security Interoperability Mode

Every participating server must set the Security Interoperability Mode parameter to the same value:

Valid values are:

- default—The transaction coordinator makes calls using the kernel identity over an Admin channel if it is enabled. If the Admin channel is not configured, the Security Interoperability Mode behavior is the same as using performance.

- performance—The transaction coordinator always makes calls using anonymous. This implies a security risk when communicating with servers that are in a remote domain because a malicious third party could then try to affect the outcome of transactions using a man-in-the-middle attack.

- compatibility—The transaction coordinator makes calls as the kernel identity over a non-secure channel. This mode is required when interacting with WebLogic Servers servers that do not support Security Interoperability Mode. This is a high security risk because a successful man-in-the-middle attack would allow the attacker to gain administrative control over both domains. This setting should only be used when strong network security is in place.

To configure Security Interoperability Mode for participating servers, see ”Configure security interoperability mode” in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

Note:

Using the Admin channel for intra-domain transaction communication does not provide additional security. Oracle recommends that you set Security Interoperability Mode to performance for intra-domain communication.

Establish Domain Trust

For some settings of Security Interoperability Mode , you need to configure domain trust.

Establish domain trust by setting a security credential for all domains to the same value in all participating domains. See ”Enable trust between domains” in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

When establishing domain trust, all domains use the same credentials. If one domain in your environment can no longer be trusted, you are required to reconfigure domain trust in all of the remaining domains.

Note:

When Security Interoperability Mode is set to performance, you are not required to set domain trust between the domains.

Cross Domain Security

Cross Domain Security uses a credential mapper to enable you to configure compatible communication channels between remote servers in global transactions. For every domain pair that participates in a transaction, a credential mapper is configured. Every domain pair has a different set of credentials which belong to the CrossDomainConnector security role.

Although it requires a more complex configuration, Cross Domain Security enables you to tailor trust between individual domains. As described in Cross Domain Security Between WebLogic Server Domains”, subsystems such as JMS, JTA, MDB, and WAN replication implement cross-domain security. (The EJB container does not implement the solution for cross-domain security.)

See:

- ”Enabling Cross Domain Security Between WebLogic Server Domains” in Administering Security for Oracle WebLogic Server

- ”Configure a Credential Mapping for Cross-Domain Security” in Administering Security for Oracle WebLogic Server

- Adding Domains to the Exclude List Based on Transaction Participation

Important Considerations When Configuring Cross Domain Security

When configuring Cross Domain Security, consider the following guidelines:

Note:

When you enable Cross Domain Security for inter-domain communication, and you also have WebLogic servers participating in the transaction that are in the same domain (intra-domain communication), Oracle recommends you set Security Interoperability Mode to performance for transaction communication.

- Domain trust is not required for Cross Domain Security.

- For every domain pair that participates in a transaction, a credential mapper must be correctly configured having a set of credentials which belong to the CrossDomainConnector security role. If the credential mapping is not correct, transactions across the participating domains fail. See ”Configure a Credential Mapping for Cross-Domain Security” in Administering Security for Oracle WebLogic Server.

- To interoperate with WebLogic domains that either do not support Cross Domain Security or have Cross Domain Security disabled, you must add these domains to the Excluded Domain Names list of every participating WebLogic Server domain that has Cross Domain Security enabled. If the configuration of the Excluded Domain Names list and the CrossDomainSecurityEnabled flag is not consistent in all participating domains, branches of the transaction fail.

- If Cross Domain Security Enabled flag is disabled or the domain is in the Excluded Domain Names list, then Security Interoperability Mode is used to establish communication channels for participating domains.

- If Cross Domain Security Enabled flag is enabled and the transaction has participating servers that are remote and local, Cross Domain security will be used for RMI communication with the remote servers but Security Interoperability Mode will be used for RMI communication with server participants that are in the local domain.

- When enabling or disabling the Cross Domain Security Enabled flag, there may be a period of time where transactions or other remote calls can fail. For transactions, if the commit request fails, the commit is retried after the configuration change is complete. If a transaction RMI call fails during any other request, then the transaction times out and the transaction is rolled back. The rollback is retried until AbandonTimeoutSeconds.

Cross Domain Security is Not Transitive

Servers participating in a transaction set cross-domain credential mapping with each other. Unlike domain-trust, the cross domain security configuration is not transitive; that is, because A trusts B and B trusts C, it is not therefore also true that A trusts C.

Consider the follow scenario:

- DomainA has Server1 (coordinator)

- DomainB has Server2 (sub-coordinator)

- DomainC has Server3 and Server4 (Server3 is a sub-coordinator)

- DomainD has Server5 (does not participate in the transaction)

To set the cross-domain credential mapping in this scenario, do the following:

1. Set cross-domain security in DomainA for DomainB

2. Set cross-domain security in DomainB for DomainA

3. Set cross-domain security in DomainA for DomainC

4. Set cross-domain security in DomainC for DomainA

5. Set cross-domain security in DomainB for DomainC

6. Set cross-domain security in DomainC for DomainB

Because DomainD does not participate in the transaction, using cross-domain credential mapping is not required. However, see Adding Domains to the Exclude List Based on Transaction Participation for further clarification.

To present this information in another way, consider Table 7-2. A table cell containing Yes indicates that you must configure cross domain security for this domain combination.

Table 7-2 Setting Cross Domain Security with Three Participating Domains

--

DomainA

DomainB

DomainC

DomainD

DomainA

NA

Yes

Yes

No

DomainB

Yes

NA

Yes

No

DomainC

Yes

Yes

NA

No

DomainD

No

No

No

NA

If you were then to add DomainD and leave a DomainE out of the cross-domain security configuration, the cross-domain credential map would be as shown in Table 7-3. A table cell containing Yes indicates that you must configure cross domain security for this domain combination.

Table 7-3 Setting Cross Domain Security with Five Participating Domains

DomainA

DomainB

DomainC

DomainD

DomainE

DomainA

NA

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

DomainB

Yes

NA

Yes

Yes

No

DomainC

Yes

Yes

NA

Yes

No

DomainD

Yes

Yes

Yes

NA

No

DomainE

No

No

No

No

NA

Adding Domains to the Exclude List Based on Transaction Participation

The exclude list provides a mechanism for a server in a domain with Cross Domain Security configured to participate in a transaction with a server in another domain that does not support or have Cross Domain Security enabled.

If any server in a domain in which cross domain security is not configured participates in a transaction with any server in a domain in which cross domain security is configured, add that domain to the exclude list of the domain that has cross domain security configured. Security Interoperability Mode is used to establish communication channels for participating domains as described in Important Considerations When Configuring Cross Domain Security.

You do not need to add the domain to the exclude list of all domains that have cross domain security configured; the domain must explicitly participate in a transaction with the domain in question for this requirement to take effect.

Note:

You may find it more convenient to add the names of all domains for which cross-domain security is not enabled to the list of excluded domains. If you exclude only those domains that do not participate in transactions, the exclusions may be sufficient only in the case of transactions. As described in ”Excluding Domains From Cross-Domain Security”, in Administering Security for Oracle WebLogic Server the more common use case is to exclude all domains for which cross-domain security is not enabled.

Consider the following scenario:

- Transaction #1:

- DomainA has Server1 (coordinator)

- DomainB has Server2 (sub-coordinator)

- DomainC has Server3 and Server4 (Server3 is a sub-coordinator)

- DomainD has Server5 (does not participate in the transaction, cross-domain security not configured)

- Transaction #2:

- DomainB has Server6 (coordinator)

- DomainD has Server5 (sub-coordinator, cross-domain security not configured)

In this case DomainD has to be in the exclusion list of DomainB because of Transaction #2.

You do not need to include it in the exclusion list of DomainA or DomainC because DomainD does not participate in any transactions with servers in these two domains.

Configuring a Combination of Cross Domain Security and Security Interoperability Mode

For transactions that have server participants in both remote and local domains, you should configure both Cross Domain Security and Security Interoperability Mode.

Note:

For inter-domain communication, Cross Domain Security always has precedence over Security Interoperability Mode when both are configured. If Security Interoperability Mode is set such that the admin channel is used for transaction communication, Cross Domain Security is used for inter-domain communication.

Consider the following example:

1. Assume that you have two domains, Domain A and Domain B, with servers as follows:

- Domain A: ServerA1, ServerA2, ServerA3

- Domain B: ServerB1, ServerB2, ServerB3

2. Assume further that the global transaction has participants ServerA1, ServerA2, ServerB1, ServerB3.

3. Set the security for Domain A as follows:

- Cross Domain Security: enabled.

- Security Interoperability Mode: performance.

- No Global Trust

4. Set the security for Domain B as follows:

- Cross Domain Security: enabled.

- Security Interoperability Mode: performance.

- No Global Trust

Table 7-4 shows how the resulting transactions are performed.

Table 7-4 Transactions with Remote and Local Servers

ServerB1

ServerB3

ServerA1

ServerA2

ServerA1

Cross Domain Security

Cross Domain Security

NA

Security Interoperability Mode

ServerA2

Cross Domain Security

Cross Domain Security

Security Interoperability Mode

NA

ServerB1

NA

Security Interoperability Mode

Cross Domain Security

Cross Domain Security

ServerB3

Security Interoperability Mode

NA

Cross Domain Security

Cross Domain Security

8 Java Transaction API and Oracle WebLogic Extensions

This chapter provides a brief overview of the Java Transaction API (JTA) and extensions to the API provided by Oracle.

This chapter includes the following sections:

- JTA API Overview

- Oracle WebLogic Extensions to JTA

JTA API Overview

WebLogic Server supports the javax.transaction package and the javax.transaction.xa package, which implement the Java Transaction API (JTA) for Java applications. For more information about JTA, see the Java Transaction API (JTA) Specification published at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javaee/jta/index.html. For a detailed description of the javax.transaction and javax.transaction.xa interfaces, see the JTA Javadoc.

JTA includes the following components:

- An interface for demarcating and controlling transactions from an application, javax.transaction.UserTransaction. You use this interface as part of a Java client program or within an EJB as part of a bean-managed transaction.

- An interface for allowing a transaction manager to demarcate and control transactions for an application, javax.transaction.TransactionManager. This interface is used by an EJB container as part of a container-managed transaction and uses the javax.transaction.Transaction interface to perform operations on a specific transaction.

- Interfaces that allow the transaction manager to provide status and synchronization information to an applications server, javax.transaction.Status and javax.transaction.Synchronization. These interfaces are accessed only by the transaction manager and cannot be used as part of an applications program.

- Interfaces for allowing a transaction manager to work with resource managers for XA-compliant resources (javax.transaction.xa.XAResource) and to retrieve transaction identifiers (javax.transaction.xa.Xid). These interfaces are accessed only by the transaction manager and cannot be used as part of an applications program.

Oracle WebLogic Extensions to JTA

Extensions to the Java Transactions API are provided where the JTA specification does not cover implementation details and where additional capabilities are required.

Oracle WebLogic provides the following capabilities based on interpretations of the JTA specification:

- Client-initiated transactions—the JTA transaction manager interface (javax.transaction.TransactionManager) is made available to clients and bean providers through JNDI. This allows clients and EJBs using bean-managed transactions to suspend and resume transactions.

Note:

A suspended transaction must be resumed in the same server process in which it was suspended.

- Scope of transactions—transactions can operate within and between clusters and domains.

- Enhanced javax.transaction.TransactionSynchronizationRegistry support—WebLogic Server provides the ability to lookup the TransactionSynchronizationRegistry object in JNDI using the standard name of java:comp/TransactionSynchronizationRegistry. Oracle extends support by providing two additional global JNDI names: javax/transaction/TransactionSynchronizationRegistry and weblogic/transaction/TransactionSynchronizationRegistry. For more information, see javax.transaction.TransactionSynchronizationRegistry at http://docs.oracle.com/javaee/6/api/index.html?javax/transaction/TransactionSynchronizationRegistry.html.

Oracle WebLogic Server provides the following classes and interfaces as extensions to JTA:

- weblogic.transaction.RollbackException (extends javax.transaction.RollbackException)
This class preserves the original reason for a rollback for use in more comprehensive exception information.

- weblogic.transaction.TransactionManager (extends javax.transaction.TransactionManager)
The WebLogic JTA transaction manager object supports this interface, which allows XA resources to register and unregister themselves with the transaction manager on startup. It also allows a transaction to be resumed after suspension.

This interface includes the following methods:

- registerStaticResource, registerDynamicResource, and unregisterResource

- registerResource— (new in WebLogic Server 8.1) This method includes support for properties that determine how the resource is controlled by the transaction manager.

- getTransaction

- forceResume and forceSuspend

- begin

- weblogic.transaction.Transaction (extends javax.transaction.Transaction)
The WebLogic JTA transaction object supports this interface, which allows users to get and set transaction properties.

This interface includes the following methods:

- setName and getName

- addProperties, setProperty, getProperty, and getProperties

- setRollbackReason and getRollbackReason

- getHeuristicErrorMessage

- getXID and getXid

- getStatusAsString

- getMillisSinceBegin

- getTimeToLiveMillis

- isTimedOut

- weblogic.transaction.TransactionHelper
This class enables you to obtain the current transaction manager and transaction. It replaces TxHelper.

This interface includes the following static methods:

- getTransaction

- getUserTransaction

- getTransactionManager

- weblogic.transaction.TxHelper (Deprecated, use TransactionHelper instead)
This class enables you to obtain the current transaction manager and transaction.

This interface includes the following static methods:

- getTransaction, getUserTransaction, getTransactionManager

- status2String

- weblogic.transaction.XAResource (extends javax.transaction.xa.XAResource)
This class provides delistment capabilities for XA resources.

This interface includes the following method:

- getDelistFlag

- weblogic.transaction.nonxa.NonXAResource
This interface enables resources that do not support the javax.transaction.xa.XAResource interface to easily integrate with the WebLogic Server transaction manager. The transaction manager supports a variation of the Last Agent two-phase commit optimization that allows a non-XA resource to participate in a distributed transaction. The protocol issues a one-phase commit to the non-XA resource and uses the result of the operation to base the commit decision for the transaction.

For a detailed description of the WebLogic extensions to the javax.transaction and javax.transaction.xa interfaces, see the weblogic.transaction package summary in the Java API Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.

9 Logging Last Resource Transaction Optimization

This chapter describes how WebLogic Server supports Logging Last Resource (LLR) transaction optimization through JDBC data sources. LLR is a performance enhancement option that enables one non-XA resource to participate in a global transaction with the same ACID guarantee as XA.

LLR is a refinement of the "Last Agent Optimization." It differs from Last Agent Optimization in that it is transactionally safe. The LLR resource uses a local transaction for its transaction work. The WebLogic Server transaction manager prepares all other resources in the transaction and then determines the commit decision for the global transaction based on the outcome of the LLR resource's local transaction.

In a global two-phase commit (2PC) transaction with an LLR participant, the WebLogic Server transaction manager follows these basic steps:

- Calls prepare on all other (XA-compliant) transaction participants.

- Inserts a commit record to a table on the LLR participant (rather than to the file-based transaction log).

- Commits the LLR participant's local transaction (which includes both the transaction commit record insert and the application's SQL work).

- Calls commit on all other transaction participants.

- After the transaction completes successfully, lazily deletes the database transaction log entry as part of a future transaction.

This chapter includes the following sections:

- About the LLR Optimization Transaction Optimization

- Logging Last Resource Processing Details

- LLR Database Table Details

- Failure and Recovery Processing for LLR

- Optimizing Performance with LLR

For more information about the advantages of LLR, see "Understanding the Logging Last Resource Transaction Option" in Administering JDBC Data Sources for Oracle WebLogic Server.

About the LLR Optimization Transaction Optimization

In many cases a global transaction becomes a two-phase commit (2PC) transaction because it involves a database operation (using JDBC) and another non-database operation, such as a message queueing operation (using JMS). In cases such as this where there is one database participant in a 2PC transaction, the Logging Last Resource (LLR) Optimization transaction option can significantly improve transaction performance by eliminating some XA overhead for database processing and by avoiding the use of JDBC XA drivers, which typically are less efficient than non-XA drivers. The LLR transaction option does not incur the same data risks as borne by the Emulate Two-Phase Commit JDBC data source option and the NonXAResource resource adapter (Connector) option.

Logging Last Resource Processing Details

At server boot or data source deployment, LLR data sources load or create a table on the database from which the data source pools database connections. The table is created in the schema determined by the user specified to create database connections. If the database table cannot be created or loaded, then server boot fails.

Within a global transaction, the first connection obtained from an LLR data source reserves an internal JDBC connection that is dedicated to the transaction. The internal JDBC connection is reserved on the specific server that is also the transactions' coordinator. All subsequent transaction operations on any connections obtained from a same-named data source on any server are routed to this same single internal JDBC connection.

When an LLR transaction is committed, the WebLogic Server transaction manager handles the processing transparently. From an application perspective, the transaction semantics remain the same, but from an internal perspective, the transaction is handled differently than standard XA transactions. When the application commits the global transaction, the WebLogic Server transaction manager atomically commits the local transaction on the LLR connection before committing transaction work on any other transaction participants. For a two-phase commit transaction, the transaction manager also writes a 2PC record on the database as part of the same local transaction. After the local transaction completes successfully, the transaction manager calls commit on all other global transaction participants. After all other transaction participants complete the commit phase, the related LLR 2PC transaction record is freed for deletion. The transaction manager lazily deletes the transaction record after a short interval or with another local transaction.

If the application rolls back the global transaction or the transaction times out, the transaction manager rolls back the work in the local transaction and does not store a 2PC record in the database.

To enable the LLR transaction optimization, you create a JDBC data source with the Logging Last Resource transaction protocol, then use database connections from the data source in your applications. WebLogic Server automatically creates the required table on the database.

See "Create LLR-enabled JDBC data sources" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help. Also see "Understanding the Logging Last Resource Transaction Option" in Administering JDBC Data Sources for Oracle WebLogic Server.

For a list of data source configuration and usage requirements and limitations, see the following topics in Administering JDBC Data Sources for Oracle WebLogic Server:

- "Programming Considerations and Limitations for LLR Data Sources"

- "Administrative Considerations and Limitations for LLR Data Sources"

LLR Database Table Details

Each WebLogic server instance maintains a database "LLR" table on the database to which a JDBC LLR data source pools database connections. These tables are used for storing transaction log records, and are automatically created. If multiple LLR data sources are deployed on the same WebLogic server instance and connect to the same database instance and database schema, they also share the same LLR table.

LLR table names are automatically generated unless administrators choose to configure them. The default table name is WL_LLR_SERVERNAME. For some DBMS systems, the maximum length for a table name is 18 characters. You should consider maximum table name length when configuring your environment.

Note the following restrictions regarding LLR database tables:

- The server does not boot if an LLR table is unreachable during boot. LLR transaction records must be available to correctly resolve in-doubt transactions during recovery, which runs automatically at server startup.

- Multiple servers must not share the same LLR table. On server startup, WebLogic Server checks to ensure that the domain and server name of the JDBC data source match the domain and server name stored in the table when the table is created. If WebLogic Server detects that multiple servers are sharing the same LLR table, WebLogic Server instance shuts down one or more of the servers.

To change the table name used to store transaction log records for the resource, follow these steps:

1. In the Change Center in the upper-left corner of the WebLogic Server Administration Console window, click Lock & Edit to start a configuration editing session.

2. On the Servers: Configuration: General page, click to Advanced to show the advanced configuration options. See

3. In JDBC LLR Table Name, enter the name of the table to use to store transaction records for the resource, then click Save. See "Servers: Configuration: General" in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each server on which the LLR-enabled data source is deployed.

5. Click Activate Changes in the Change Center.

Note:

You must restart all servers for the change to take effect.

LLR Table Transaction Log Records

For each committed 2PC LLR transaction, the transaction manager automatically inserts a transaction record into an LLR database table. Once LLR transactions complete, the transaction manager lazily deletes their transaction records. If an LLR table transaction log record delete fails, the server logs a warning message and retry the delete again later.

If you move a database that contains LLR transaction records, ensure that you move the LLR table contents to the new database so that transactions can be completed properly.

Note:

Do not manually delete the LLR transaction records or the LLR table in a production system. Doing so can lead to silent heuristic transaction failures which are not logged.

Failure and Recovery Processing for LLR

In general, the WebLogic transaction manager processes transaction failures in the following way:

- For two-phase commit errors that occur before the local transaction commit is attempted, the transaction manager immediately throws a transaction rolled back exception.

- For two-phase commit errors that occur during the local transaction commit, the behavior depends on whether the transaction record is written to the database:

- If the record is written, the transaction manager commits the transaction.

- If the record is not written, the transaction manager rolls back the transaction.

- If it is unknown whether the record is written, the transaction manager throws an ambiguous commit failure exception and attempts to complete the transaction every 5 seconds until the transaction abandon timeout. If the transaction is still incomplete, the transaction manager logs an abandoned transaction message.

Coordinating Server Crash

If a transaction's coordinating server crashes before an LLR resource stores its transaction log record or before an LLR resource commits, the transaction rolls back. If the server crashes after the LLR resource is committed, the transactions eventually fully commit. During server boot, the transaction coordinator uses the LLR resource to read the transaction log record from the database and then use the recovered information to commit any unfinished work on any participating non-LLR XA resources.

JDBC Connection Failure

If the JDBC connection in an LLR resource fails during a 2PC transaction record insert, the transaction manager rolls back the transaction.

If the JDBC connection in an LLR resource fails during the commit of the local transaction, the result depends on whether the transaction is a one-phase commit (1PC, where the LLR resource is the only participant) or 2PC:

- For a 1PC transaction, the transaction are fully committed, fully rolled back, or block waiting for the resolution of the local transaction. The outcome of the transaction is fully ACID because it is eventually fully committed or fully rolled back.

- For a 2PC transaction, the outcome is as described in Failure and Recovery Processing for LLR.

LLR Transaction Recover During Server Startup

During server startup, the transaction manager for each WebLogic server must recover incomplete transactions coordinated by the server, including LLR transactions. To do so, each server attempts to read the transaction records from the LLR database tables for each LLR data source. If the server cannot access the LLR database tables or if the recovery fails, the server instance does not start and the transaction manager marks the server with a bad health state: HealthState.HEALTH_FAILED.

If a timeout occurs during recovery, it may be due to unresolved local transactions that have locked rows within the LLR log tables. Such local transactions must be resolved so that the transaction manager can determine the state of the global transaction whose record is stored in the locked row. Local database transactions can only be diagnosed and resolved using each database's specific tools (the commands differ from database to database).

Failover Considerations for LLR

Consider the following notes and limitations regarding failover with LLR:

- A transaction log (TLog) is still required for LLR transactions:

- TLog still stores transaction manager "checkpoint" records

- TLog must still be reachable or copied on failover

- LLR supports server migration and transaction recovery service migration. To use the transaction recovery service migration, ensure that each LLR resource be targeted to either the cluster or the set of candidate servers in the cluster. See Recovering Transactions For a Failed Clustered Server.

Optimizing Performance with LLR

This section includes the following information:

- Optimizing Transaction Coordinator Location

- Varied Performance for Read-Only Operations Through an LLR Data Source

- Dedicating LLR Tables by Data Source

Optimizing Transaction Coordinator Location

Within a global transaction with an LLR participant, WebLogic Server automatically routes all connection operations to the transaction's coordinating server. This routing can be expensive. You may see better performance if you optimize your applications to run directly on the coordinating server if possible, and optimize your applications to use connection instances that are directly hosted on the coordinator.

For client applications that begin a transaction, the coordinator of transaction is the first WebLogic server the client calls under the transaction (any RMI, EJB, JDBC, or JMS call). In the JMS case, this is the server that hosts the client's JMS connection, which is not necessarily the same as the server that hosts the JMS destination.

For server side applications, the coordinator of the transaction is the local server if a local resource is invoked first (including JMS destinations and JDBC connections) unless a remote server is called first (any remotely hosted JDBC connection, EJB, RMI call, or JMS connection). This includes remote servers in other clusters or domains.

Varied Performance for Read-Only Operations Through an LLR Data Source

The LLR optimization provides a significant increase in performance for insert, update, and delete operations. However, for read operations with LLR, performance is somewhat slower than read operations with XA. For best performance, you may want to configure a non-LLR JDBC data source for read-only operations.

Dedicating LLR Tables by Data Source

To improve performance in environments using Oracle RAC, you can specify a LLR table for each data source instead of for each server to better utilize the local node caches in Oracle RAC clusters.

Use the following system property to set the specification of a LLR table by data source when starting a WebLogic Server instance:

-Dweblogic.llr.table.datasourcename=tablename

where: datasourcename is the name of a data source and tablename is the name of the LLR table that maps to datasourcename.

For example, using the system property:

-Dweblogic.llr.table.LLRDS1=myllrtable1

When the server starts:

- a INFO message is written to stdout
LLR data source LLRDS1 using LLR table myllrtable1

- All LLR entries for the server that use data source LLRDS1 are stored in the LLR table named mylltable1.

Define one table for each data source on each server on which the data source is targeted. The same table cannot be shared by different WLS instances. If LLRDS1 is targeted to two WebLogic Server instances S1 and S2, then create two tables: S1_LLRDS1 and S2_LLRDS1, and specify the proper system properties for each server.

For example:

For instance S1, use -Dweblogic.llr.table.LLRDS1=S1_LLRDS1

For instance S2, use -Dweblogic.llr.table.LLRDS1=S2_LLRDS1

Note:

In the next WebLogic Server release, the node-id will automatically be captured in an extended LLR table allowing data to be partitioned to the respective WebLogic Server node without needing to manually allocate a table per data source.

Limitations

JTA service migration does not support LLR tables that are dedicated by data source.

10 Transactions in EJB Applications

This chapter describes how to integrate transactions in Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) applications that run under Oracle WebLogic Server.

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Before You Begin

- General Guidelines

- Transaction Attributes

- Participating in a Transaction

- Transaction Semantics

- Session Synchronization

- Synchronization During Transactions

- Setting Transaction Timeouts

- Handling Exceptions in EJB Transactions

Before You Begin

Before you begin, you should read Chapter 2, "Introducing Transactions," particularly the following topics:

- Transactions in WebLogic Server EJB Applications

- Transactions Sample EJB Code

This document describes the Oracle WebLogic Server implementation of transactions in Enterprise JavaBeans. The information in this document supplements the Enterprise JavaBeans Specification 2.1.

Note:

Before proceeding with the rest of this chapter, you should be familiar with the contents of the EJB Specification 2.1 document, particularly the concepts and material presented in Chapter 16, "Support for Transactions."

For information about implementing Enterprise JavaBeans in WebLogic Server applications, see Developing Enterprise JavaBeans, Version 2.1, for Oracle WebLogic Server.

General Guidelines

The following general guidelines apply when implementing transactions in EJB applications for WebLogic Server:

- The EJB specification allows for flat transactions only. Transactions cannot be nested.

- The EJB specification allows for distributed transactions that span multiple resources (such as databases) and supports the two-phase commit protocol for both EJB CMP 2.1 and EJB CMP 1.1.

- Use standard programming techniques to optimize transaction processing. For example, properly demarcate transaction boundaries and complete transactions quickly.

- Use a database connection from a local TxDataSource—on the WebLogic Server instance on which the EJB is running. Do not use a connection from a TxDataSource on a remote WebLogic Server instance.

- Be sure to tune the EJB cache to ensure maximum performance in transactional EJB applications. For more information, see Developing Enterprise JavaBeans, Version 2.1, for Oracle WebLogic Server.

For general guidelines about the WebLogic Server Transaction Service, see Capabilities and Limitations.

Transaction Attributes

This section includes the following sections:

- About Transaction Attributes for EJBs

- Transaction Attributes for Container-Managed Transactions

- Transaction Attributes for Bean-Managed Transactions

About Transaction Attributes for EJBs

Transaction attributes determine how transactions are managed in EJB applications. For each EJB, the transaction attribute specifies whether transactions are demarcated by the WebLogic Server EJB container (container-managed transactions) or by the EJB itself (bean-managed transactions). The setting of the transaction-type element in the deployment descriptor determines whether an EJB is container-managed or bean-managed. See Chapter 16, "Support for Transactions," and Chapter 21, "Deployment Descriptor," in the EJB Specification 2.1, for more information about the transaction-type element.

In general, the use of container-managed transactions is preferred over bean-managed transactions because application coding is simpler. For example, in container-managed transactions, transactions do not need to be started explicitly.

WebLogic Server fully supports method-level transaction attributes as defined in Section 16.4 in the EJB Specification 2.1.

Transaction Attributes for Container-Managed Transactions

For container-managed transactions, the transaction attribute is specified in the container-transaction element in the deployment descriptor. Container-managed transactions include all entity beans and any stateful or stateless session beans with a transaction-type set to Container. For more information about these elements, see Developing Enterprise JavaBeans, Version 2.1, for Oracle WebLogic Server.

The Application Assembler can specify the following transaction attributes for EJBs and their business methods:

- NotSupported

- Supports

- Required

- RequiresNew

- Mandatory

- Never

For a detailed explanation about how the WebLogic Server EJB container responds to the trans-attribute setting, see section 17.6.2 in the EJB Specification 2.1 at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javaee/ejb/index.html.

The WebLogic Server EJB container automatically sets the transaction timeout if a timeout value is not defined in the deployment descriptor. The container uses the value of the Timeout Seconds configuration parameter. The default timeout value is 30 seconds.

For EJBs with container-managed transactions, the EJBs have no access to the javax.transaction.UserTransaction interface, and the entering and exiting transaction contexts must match. In addition, EJBs with container-managed transactions have limited support for the setRollbackOnly and getRollbackOnly methods of the javax.ejb.EJBContext interface, where invocations are restricted by rules specified in Sections 16.4.4.2 and 16.4.4.3 of the EJB Specification 2.1.

Transaction Attributes for Bean-Managed Transactions

For bean-managed transactions, the bean specifies transaction demarcations using methods in the javax.transaction.UserTransaction interface. Bean-managed transactions include any stateful or stateless session beans with a transaction-type set to Bean. Entity beans cannot use bean-managed transactions.

For stateless session beans, the entering and exiting transaction contexts must match. For stateful session beans, the entering and exiting transaction contexts may or may not match. If they do not match, the WebLogic Server EJB container maintains associations between the bean and the non-terminated transaction.

Session beans with bean-managed transactions cannot use the setRollbackOnly and getRollbackOnly methods of the javax.ejb.EJBContext interface.

Participating in a Transaction

When the EJB Specification 2.1 uses the phrase "participating in a transaction," Oracle interprets this to mean that the bean meets either of the following conditions:

- The bean is invoked in a transactional context (container-managed transaction).

- The bean begins a transaction using the UserTransaction API in a bean method invoked by the client (bean-managed transaction), and it does not suspend or terminate that transaction upon completion of the corresponding bean method invoked by the client.

Transaction Semantics

This topic contains the following sections:

- Transaction Semantics for Container-Managed Transactions

- Transaction Semantics for Bean-Managed Transactions

The EJB Specification 2.1 describes semantics that govern transaction processing behavior based on the EJB type (entity bean, stateless session bean, or stateful session bean) and the transaction type (container-managed or bean-managed). These semantics describe the transaction context at the time a method is invoked and define whether the EJB can access methods in the javax.transaction.UserTransaction interface. EJB applications must be designed with these semantics in mind.

Transaction Semantics for Container-Managed Transactions

For container-managed transactions, transaction semantics vary for each bean type.

Transaction Semantics for Stateful Session Beans

Table 10-1 describes the transaction semantics for stateful session beans in container-managed transactions.

Table 10-1 Transaction Semantics for Stateful Session Beans in Container-Managed Transactions

Method

Transaction Context at the Time the Method Was Invoked

Can Access UserTransaction Methods?

Constructor

Unspecified

No

setSessionContext()

Unspecified

No

ejbCreate()

Unspecified

No

ejbRemove()

Unspecified

No

ejbActivate()

Unspecified

No

ejbPassivate()

Unspecified

No

Business method

Yes or No based on transaction attribute

No

afterBegin()

Yes

No

beforeCompletion()

Yes

No

afterCompletion()

No

No

Transaction Semantics for Stateless Session Beans

Table 10-2 describes the transaction semantics for stateless session beans in container-managed transactions.

Table 10-2 Transaction Semantics for Stateless Session Beans in Container-Managed Transactions

Method

Transaction Context at the Time the Method Was Invoked

Can Access UserTransaction Methods?

Constructor

Unspecified

No

setSessionContext()

Unspecified

No

ejbCreate()

Unspecified

No

ejbRemove()

Unspecified

No

Business method

Yes or No based on transaction attribute

No

Transaction Semantics for Entity Beans

Table 10-3 describes the transaction semantics for entity beans in container-managed transactions.

Table 10-3 Transaction Semantics for Entity Beans in Container-Managed Transactions

Method

Transaction Context at the Time the Method Was Invoked

Can Access UserTransaction Methods?

Constructor

Unspecified

No

setEntityContext()

Unspecified

No

unsetEntityContext()

Unspecified

No

ejbCreate()

Determined by transaction attribute of matching create

No

ejbPostCreate()

Determined by transaction attribute of matching create

No

ejbRemove()

Determined by transaction attribute of matching remove

No

ejbFind()

Determined by transaction attribute of matching find

No

ejbActivate()

Unspecified

No

ejbPassivate()

Unspecified

No

ejbLoad()

Determined by transaction attribute of business method that invoked ejbLoad()

No

ejbStore()

Determined by transaction attribute of business method that invoked ejbStore()

No

Business method

Yes or No based on transaction attribute

No

Transaction Semantics for Bean-Managed Transactions

For bean-managed transactions, the transaction semantics differ between stateful and stateless session beans. For entity beans, transactions are never bean-managed.

Transaction Semantics for Stateful Session Beans

Table 10-4 describes the transaction semantics for stateful session beans in bean-managed transactions.

Table 10-4 Transaction Semantics for Stateful Session Beans in Bean-Managed Transactions

Method

Transaction Context at the Time the Method Was Invoked

Can Access UserTransaction Methods?

Constructor

Unspecified

No

setSessionContext()

Unspecified

No

ejbCreate()

Unspecified

Yes

ejbRemove()

Unspecified

Yes

ejbActivate()

Unspecified

Yes

ejbPassivate()

Unspecified

Yes

Business method

Typically, no unless a previous method execution on the bean had completed while in a transaction context

Yes

afterBegin()

Not applicable

Not applicable

beforeCompletion()

Not applicable

Not applicable

afterCompletion()

Not applicable

Not applicable

Transaction Semantics for Stateless Session Beans

Table 10-5 describes the transaction semantics for stateless session beans in bean-managed transactions.

Table 10-5 Transaction Semantics for Stateless Session Beans in Bean-Managed Transactions

Method

Transaction Context at the Time the Method Was Invoked

Can Access UserTransaction Methods?

Constructor

Unspecified

No

setSessionContext()

Unspecified

No

ejbCreate()

Unspecified

Yes

ejbRemove()

Unspecified

Yes

Business method

No

Yes

Session Synchronization

A stateful session bean using container-managed transactions can implement the javax.ejb.SessionSynchronization interface to provide transaction synchronization notifications. In addition, all methods on the stateful session bean must support one of the following transaction attributes: REQUIRES_NEW, MANDATORY or REQUIRED. For more information about the javax.ejb.SessionSynchronization interface, see Section 6.5.3 in the EJB Specification 2.1.

Synchronization During Transactions

If a bean implements SessionSynchronization, the WebLogic Server EJB container typically makes the following callbacks to the bean during transaction commit time:

- afterBegin()

- beforeCompletion()

- afterCompletion()

The EJB container can call other beans or involve additional XA resources in the beforeCompletion method. The number of calls is limited by the beforeCompletionIterationLimit attribute. This attribute specifies how many cycles of callbacks are processed before the transaction is rolled back. A synchronization cycle can occur when a registered object receives a beforeCompletion callback and then enlists additional resources or causes a previously synchronized object to be reregistered. The iteration limit ensures that synchronization cycles do not run indefinitely.

Setting Transaction Timeouts

Bean providers can specify the timeout period for transactions in EJB applications. If the duration of a transaction exceeds the specified timeout setting, then the Transaction Service rolls back the transaction automatically.

Note:

You must set the timeout before you begin() the transaction. Setting a timeout does not affect transaction transactions that have begun.

Timeouts are specified according to the transaction type:

- Container-managed transactions. The Bean Provider configures the trans-timeout-seconds attribute in the weblogic-ejb-jar.xml deployment descriptor.

- Bean-managed transactions. An application calls the UserTransaction.setTransactionTimeout method.

Handling Exceptions in EJB Transactions

WebLogic Server EJB applications must catch and handle specific exceptions thrown during transactions. For detailed information about handling exceptions, see Chapter 17, "Exception Handling," in the EJB Specification 2.1.

For more information about how exceptions are thrown by business methods in EJB transactions, see the following tables in Section 17.3: Table 12 (for container-managed transactions) and Table 13 (for bean-managed transactions).

For a client's view of exceptions, see Section 17.4, particularly Section 12.4.1 (application exceptions), Section 17.4.2 (java.rmi.RemoteException), Section 17.4.2.1 (javax.transaction.TransactionRolledBackException), and Section 17.4.2.2 (javax.transaction.TransactionRequiredException).

11 Transactions in RMI Applications

This chapter describes the guidelines and provides additional references for using transactions in RMI applications that run under Oracle WebLogic Server.

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Before You Begin

- General Guidelines

Before You Begin

Before you begin, read Chapter 2, "Introducing Transactions," particularly the following topics:

- Transactions in WebLogic Server RMI Applications

- Transactions Sample RMI Code

For more information about RMI applications, see Developing Stand-alone Clients for Oracle WebLogic Server.

General Guidelines

The following general guidelines apply when implementing transactions in RMI applications for WebLogic Server:

- WebLogic Server allows for flat transactions only. Transactions cannot be nested.

- Use standard programming techniques to optimize transaction processing. For example, properly demarcate transaction boundaries and complete transactions quickly.

- For RMI applications, callback objects are not recommended for use in transactions because they are not subject to WebLogic Server administration.
By default, all method invocations on the remote objects are transactional. If a callback object is required, you must compile these classes using the WebLogic RMI compiler using the -nontransactional flag. See "Using the WebLogic RMI Compiler" and "WebLogic RMI Compiler Options" in Developing RMI Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server.

- In RMI applications, an RMI client can initiate a transaction, but all transaction processing must occur on server objects or remote objects hosted by WebLogic Server. Remote objects hosted on a client JVM cannot participate in the transaction processing.
As a work-around, you can suspend the transaction before making a call to a remote object on a client JVM, and then resume the transaction after the remote operation returns.

For general guidelines about the WebLogic Server Transaction Service, see Capabilities and Limitations.

12 Using JDBC XA Drivers with WebLogic Server

This section provides an overview of XA JDBC drivers with WebLogic Server in distributed transactions. These drivers provide connectivity between WebLogic Server connection pools and the DBMS. Drivers used in distributed transactions are designated by the driver name followed by /XA; for example, Oracle Thin/XA Driver.

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Using Oracle Thin/XA Driver

- Using Other XA Drivers

Using Oracle Thin/XA Driver

WebLogic Server ships with the Oracle Thin Driver preconfigured and ready to use. If you want to update the driver or use a different version, see "Using API Extensions in JDBC Drivers" in Developing JDBC Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server.

- Set the Environment for the Oracle Thin/XA Driver

- Oracle Thin/XA Driver Configuration Properties

Set the Environment for the Oracle Thin/XA Driver

The following sections explain how to set the environment for the Oracle Thin/XA Driver.

Configure WebLogic Server

For information on how to configure WebLogic Server for use with the Oracle Thin/XA Driver, see "Using API Extensions in JDBC Drivers" in Developing JDBC Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Enable XA on the Database Server

To prepare the database for XA, perform these steps:

1. Log on to sqlplus as system user, for example, sqlplus sys/CHANGE_ON_INSTALL@<DATABASE ALIAS NAME>

2. Execute the following command: @xaview.sql
The xaview.sql script resides in the $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin directory

3. All database users for which XA data sources are defined need to be granted the following permissions individually or through one or more roles:

- grant select on v$xatrans$ to <user/role>;

- grant select on pending_trans$ to <user/role>;

- grant select on dba_2pc_pending to <user/role>;

- grant select on dba_pending_transactions to <user/role>;

- grant execute on dbms_xa to <user/role>;

Where <user/role> is either a data base user or a role.

If the above steps are not performed on the database server, normal XA database queries and updates may work fine. However, when the WebLogic Server Transaction Manager performs recovery on a re-boot after a crash, recover for the Oracle resource fails with XAER_RMERR. Crash recovery is a standard operation for an XA resource.

Oracle Thin/XA Driver Configuration Properties

For information on how to configure data source properties, see "Configuring JDBC Data Sources" in Administering JDBC Data Sources for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Using Other XA Drivers

To use other XA-compliant JDBC drivers, you must include the path to the driver class libraries in your CLASSPATH and follow the configuration instructions provided by the vendor.

Using WebLogic-branded Data Direct Drivers

For information on how to configure WebLogic Server for use with WebLogic-branded Data Direct drivers, see "Using WebLogic-branded DataDirect Drivers" in Developing JDBC Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server

Additional Considerations

Your data base vendor may provide instructions to perform steps to prepare your environment for XA. These steps may include how to:

- Enable your data base server for XA. This may include granting additional user permissions.

- Compensate for vendor-specific transactional behavior, such as threading, timeout, and rollback behavior.

- Use vendor-specific connection properties.

Consult your data base vendor documentation for specific details.

13 Coordinating XAResources with the WebLogic Server Transaction Manager

This chapter describes how external, third-party systems can participate in distributed transactions coordinated by the WebLogic Server transaction manager by registering a javax.transaction.xa.XAResource implementation with the WebLogic Server transaction manager. The WebLogic Server transaction manager then drives the XAResource as part of its Two-Phase Commit (2PC) protocol. This is referred to as "exporting transactions."

By exporting transactions, you can integrate third-party transaction managers with the WebLogic Server transaction manager if the third-party transaction manager implements the XAResource interface. With an exported transaction, the third-party transaction manager would act as a subordinate transaction manager to the WebLogic Server transaction manager.

WebLogic Server can also participate in distributed transactions coordinated by third-party systems (sometimes referred to as foreign transaction managers). The WebLogic Server processing occurs as part of the work of the external transaction. The third-party transaction manager then drives the WebLogic Server transaction manager as part of its commit processing. This is referred to as "importing transactions."

Details about coordinating third-party systems within a transaction (exporting transactions) are described in this section. Details about participating in transactions coordinated by third-party systems (importing transactions) are described in Chapter 14, "Participating in Transactions Managed by a Third-Party Transaction Manager." Note that WebLogic Server IIOP, WebLogic Tuxedo Connector (WTC) gateway, and Oracle Java Adapter for Mainframe (JAM) gateway internally use the same mechanism described in these chapters to import and export transactions in WebLogic Server.

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Overview of Coordinating Distributed Transactions with Foreign XAResources

- Registering an XAResource to Participate in Transactions

- Enlisting and Delisting an XAResource in a Transaction

- Commit processing

- Recovery

- Resource Health Monitoring

- Java EE Connector Architecture Resource Adapter

- Implementation Tips

- Changes in the Resource Registration Name

- FAQs

- Additional Documentation about JTA

Overview of Coordinating Distributed Transactions with Foreign XAResources

In order to participate in distributed transactions coordinated by the WebLogic Server transaction manager, third-party systems must implement the javax.transaction.xa.XAResource interface and then register its XAResource object with the WebLogic Server transaction manager. For details about implementing the javax.transaction.xa.XAResource interface, refer to the Java Platform Enterprise Edition, v 5.0 API Specifications at:

http://docs.oracle.com/javaee/6/api/javax/transaction/xa/XAResource.html

During transaction processing, you must enlist the XAResource object of the third-party system with each applicable transaction object.

Figure 13-1 shows the process for third-party systems to participate in transactions coordinated by the WebLogic Server transaction manager.

Figure 13-1 Distributed Transactions with Third-Party Participants

Depending on the enlistment mode that you use when you enlist an XAResource object with a transaction, WebLogic Server may automatically delist the XAResource object at the appropriate time. For more information about enlistment and delistment, see Enlisting and Delisting an XAResource in a Transaction. For more information about registering XAResource objects with the WebLogic Server transaction manager, see Registering an XAResource to Participate in Transactions.

Registering an XAResource to Participate in Transactions

In order to participate in distributed transactions coordinated by the WebLogic Server transaction manager, third-party systems must implement the javax.transaction.xa.XAResource interface and then register its XAResource object with the WebLogic Server transaction manager. Registration is required to:

- Specify the transaction branch qualifier for the XAResource. The branch qualifier identifies the transaction branch of the resource manager instance and is used for all distributed transactions that the resource manager (RM) instance participates in. Each transaction branch represents a unit of work in the distributed transaction and is isolated from other branches. Each transaction branch receives exactly one set of prepare-commit calls during Two-Phase Commit (2PC) processing. The WebLogic Server transaction manager uses the resource name as the transaction branch qualifier.
A resource manager instance is defined by the XAResource.isSameRM method. XAResource instances that belong to the same resource manager instance should return true for isSameRM. Note that you should avoid registering the same resource manager instance under different resource names (for example, different resource branches) to avoid confusion of transaction branches.

- Specify the enlistment mode. For a resource manager instance to participate in a specific distributed transaction, it enlists an XAResource instance with the JTA javax.transaction.Transaction object. The WebLogic Server transaction manager provides three enlistment modes: static, dynamic, and object-oriented. Enlistment modes are discussed in greater detail in Enlisting and Delisting an XAResource in a Transaction.

- Bootstrap the XAResource if the WebLogic Server transaction manager must perform crash recovery. (The JTA Specification does not define a standard API to do so; see the Java Transaction API at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javaee/jta/index.html).
The Java Transaction API suggests that the transaction manager is responsible for assigning the branch qualifiers. However, for recovery to work properly, the same transaction branch qualifier must be supplied both at normal processing and upon crash recovery. As the transaction branch qualifier is specified during registration, registration with the WebLogic Server transaction manager is required to support crash recovery and normal transaction processing.

During recovery, the WebLogic Server transaction manager performs the following tasks:

- It reads its transaction log records and for those XA resources that participated in the distributed transactions that were logged, it continues the second phase of the 2PC protocol to commit the XA resources with the specified branch qualifier.

- It resolves any other in-doubt transactions of the XA resources by calling XAResource.recover. It then commits or rolls back the returned transactions (Xids) that belonged to it. (Note that the returned Xids would have the specified branch qualifier.)

Note:

Registration is a per-process action (compared with enlistment and delistment which is per-transaction).

Failure to register the XAResource implementation with the WebLogic Server transaction manager may result in unexpected transaction branching behavior. If registration is not performed before the XA resource is enlisted with a WebLogic Server distributed transaction, the WebLogic Server transaction manager uses the class name of the XAResource instance as the resource name (and thus the branch qualifier), which may cause undesirable resource name and transaction branch conflicts.

Each resource manager instance should register itself only once with the WebLogic Server transaction manager. Each resource manager instance, as identified by the resource name during registration, adds significant overhead to the system during recovery and commit processing and health monitoring, increases memory used by associated internal data structures, reduces efficiency in searching through internal maps, and so forth. Therefore, for scalability and performance reasons, you should not indiscriminately register XAResource instances under different transaction branches.

Note that the JTA XAResource adopts an explicit transaction model, where the Xid is always explicitly passed in the XAResource methods and a single resource manager instance handles all of the transactions. This is in contrast to the CORBA OTS Resource, which adopts an implicit transaction model, where there is a different OTS Resource instance for each transaction that it participates in. You should use the JTA model when designing an XAResource.

Each foreign resource manager instance should register an XAResource instance with the WebLogic Server transaction manager upon server startup. In WebLogic Server, you can use startup classes to register foreign transaction managers.

Follow these steps to register the resource manager with the WebLogic Server transaction manager:

1. Obtain the WebLogic Server transaction manager using JNDI or the TxHelper interface:

import javax.transaction.xa.XAResource;
import weblogic.transaction.TransactionManager;
import weblogic.transaction.TxHelper;
InitialContext initCtx = ... ; // initialized to the initial context
TransactionManager tm = TxHelper.getTransactionManager();

or

TransactionManager tm = (TransactionManager)initCtx.lookup("weblogic.transaction.TransactionManager");

or

TransactionManager tm = (TransactionManager)initCtx.lookup("javax.transaction.TransactionManager");

2. Register the XA resource instance with the WebLogic Server transaction manager:

String name = ... ; // name of the RM instance
XAResource res = ... ; // an XAResource instance of the RM instance
tm.registerResource(name, res); // register a resource with the standard enlistment mode

or

tm.registerDynamicResource(name, res); // register a resource with the dynamic enlistment mode

or

tm.registerStaticResource(name, res); // register a resource with the static enlistment mode

Refer to Enlisting and Delisting an XAResource in a Transaction for a detailed discussion of the different enlistment modes. Note that when you register the XAResource, you specify the enlistment mode that is subsequently used, but you are not actually enlisting the resource during the registration process. Actual enlistment should be done with the transaction (not at server startup) using a different API, which is also discussed in detail in Enlisting and Delisting an XAResource in a Transaction.

Each XAResource instance that you register is used for recovery and commit processing of multiple transactions in parallel. Ensure that the XAResource instance supports resource sharing as defined in JTA Specification Version 1.0.1B Section 3.4.6.

Note:

Duplicate registration of the same XAResource is ignored.

You should unregister the XAResource from the WebLogic Server transaction manager when the resource no longer accept new requests. Use the following method to unregister the XAResource:

tm.unregisterResource(name, res);

Enlisting and Delisting an XAResource in a Transaction

For an XAResource to participate in a distributed transaction, the XAResource instance must be enlisted with the Transaction object. Depending on the enlistment mode, you may need to perform different actions. The WebLogic Server transaction manager supports the following enlistment modes:

- Standard Enlistment

- Dynamic Enlistment

- Static Enlistment

Even though you enlist the XAResource with the Transaction object, the enlistment mode is determined when you register the XAResource with the WebLogic Server transaction manger, not when you enlist the resource in the Transaction. See Registering an XAResource to Participate in Transactions.

XAResource.start and end calls can be expensive. The WebLogic Server transaction manager provides the following optimizations to minimize the number of these calls:

- Delayed delistment:
Whether or not your XAResource implementation performs any explicit delistment or not, the WebLogic Server transaction manager always delays delisting of any XAResource instances that are enlisted in the current transaction until immediately before the following events, at which time the XAResource is delisted:

- Returning the call to the caller, whether it is returned normally or with an exception

- Making a call to another server

- Ignored duplicate enlistment:
The WebLogic Server transaction manager ignores any explicit enlistment of an XAResource that is enlisted. This may happen if the XAResource is explicitly delisted (which is delayed or ignored by the WebLogic Server transaction manager as mentioned above) and is subsequently re-enlisted within the duration of the same call.

By default, the WebLogic Server transaction manager delists the XAResource by calling XAResource.end with the TMSUSPEND flag. Some database management systems may keep cursors open if XAResource.end is called with TMSUSPEND, so you may prefer to delist an XAResource by calling XAResource.end with TMSUCCESS wherever possible. To do so, you can implement the weblogic.transaction.XAResource interface (instead of the javax.transaction.xa.XAResource), which includes the getDelistFlag method. For more information, see weblogic.transaction.XAResource in the Java API Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Standard Enlistment

With standard enlistment mode, enlist the XAResource instance only once with the Transaction object. Also, it is possible to enlist multiple XAResource instances of the same branch with the same transaction. The WebLogic Server transaction manager ensures that XAResource.end is called on all XAResource instances when appropriate (as discussed below). The WebLogic Server transaction manager ensures that each branch receives only one set of prepare-commit calls during transaction commit time. However, attempting to enlist a particular XAResource instance when it is already enlisted is ignored.

Standard enlistment simplifies enlistment, but it may also cause unnecessary enlistment and delistment of an XAResource if the resource is not accessed at all within the duration of a particular method call.

To enlist an XAResource with the Transaction object, follow these steps:

1. Obtain the current Transaction object using the TransactionHelper interface:

import weblogic.transaction.Transaction; // extends javax.transaction.Transaction
import weblogic.transaction.TransactionHelper;
Transaction tx = TransactionHelper.getTransaction();

2. Enlist the XAResource instance with the Transaction object:

tx.enlistResource(res);

After the XAResource is enlisted with the Transaction, the WebLogic Server transaction manager manages any subsequent delistment (as described in Enlisting and Delisting an XAResource in a Transaction) and re-enlistment. For standard enlistment mode, the WebLogic Server transaction manager re-enlists the XAResource in the same Transaction upon the following occasions:

- Before a request is executed

- After a reply is received from another server. (The WebLogic Server transaction manager delists the XAResource before sending the request to another server.)

Dynamic Enlistment

With the dynamic enlistment mode, you must enlist the XAResource instance with the Transaction object before every access of the resource. With this enlistment mode, only one XAResource instance from each transaction branch is allowed to be enlisted for each transaction at a time. The WebLogic Server transaction manager ignores attempts to enlist additional XAResource instances (of the same transaction branch) after the first instance is enlisted, but before it is delisted.

With dynamic enlistment, enlistments and delistments of XAResource instances are minimized.

The steps for enlisting the XAResource are the same as described in Standard Enlistment.

Static Enlistment

With static enlistment mode, you do not need to enlist the XAResource instance with any Transaction object. The WebLogic Server transaction manager implicitly enlists the XAResource for all transactions with the following events:

- Before a request is executed

- After a reply is received from another server

Note:

Consider the following before using the static enlistment mode:

- Static enlistment mode eliminates the requirement to enlist XAResources. However, unnecessary enlistment and delistment may result, if the resource is not used in a particular transaction.

- A faulty XAResource may adversely affect all transactions even if the resource is not used in the transaction.

- A single XAResource instance is used to associate different transactions with different threads at the same time. That is, XAResource.start and XAResource.end can be called on the same XAResource instance in an interleaved manner for different Xids in different threads. You must ensure that the XAResource supports such an association pattern, which is not required by the JTA specification.

Due to the performance overhead, poor fault isolation, and demanding transaction association requirement, static enlistment should only be used with discretion and after careful consideration.

Commit processing

During commit processing, the WebLogic Server transaction manager either uses the XAResource instances currently enlisted with the transaction, or the XAResource instances that are registered with the transaction manager to perform the two-phase commit. The WebLogic Server transaction manager ensures that each transaction branch receives only one set of prepare-commit calls. You must ensure that any XAResource instance can be used for commit processing for multiple transactions simultaneously from different threads, as defined in JTA Specification Version 1.0.1B Section 3.4.6.

Recovery

When a WebLogic Server server is restarted, the WebLogic Server transaction manager reads its own transaction logs (with log records of transactions that are successfully prepared, but may not have completed the second commit phase of 2PC processing). The WebLogic Server transaction manager then continues to retry commit of the XAResources for these transactions. As discussed in Registering an XAResource to Participate in Transactions, one purpose of the WebLogic Server transaction manager resource registration API is for bootstrapping XAResource instances for recovery. You must ensure that an XAResource instance is registered with the WebLogic Server transaction manager upon server restart. The WebLogic Server transaction manager retries the commit call every minute, until a valid XAResource instance is registered with the WebLogic Server transaction manager.

When a transaction manager that is acting as a transaction coordinator crashes, it is possible that the coordinator may not have logged some in-doubt transactions in the coordinator's transaction log. Thus, upon server restart, the coordinator must call XAResource.recover on the resource managers, and roll back the in-doubt transactions that were not logged. As with commit retries, the WebLogic Server transaction manager retries XAResource.recover every 5 minutes, until a valid XAResource instance is registered with the WebLogic Server transaction manager.

The WebLogic Server transaction manager checkpoints a new XAResource in its transaction log records when the XAResource is first enlisted with the WebLogic Server transaction manager. Upon server restart, the WebLogic Server transaction manager then calls XAResource.recover on all the resources previously checkpointed (removed from the transaction log records after the transaction completed). A resource is only removed from a checkpoint record if it has not been accessed for the last PurgeResourceFromCheckpointIntervalSeconds interval (default is 24 hours). Therefore, to reduce the resource recovery overhead, you should ensure that only a small number of resource manager instances are registered with the WebLogic Server transaction manager.

When implementing XAResource.recover, you should use the flags as described in the X/Open XA specification as follows:

- When the WebLogic Server transaction manager calls XAResource.recover with TMSTARTRSCAN, the resource returns the first batch of in-doubt Xids.
The WebLogic Server transaction manager then calls XAResource.recover with TMNOFLAGS repeatedly, until the resource returns either null or a zero-length array to signal that there are no more Xids to recover. If the resource has returned all the Xids in the previous XAResource.recover(TMSTARTRSCAN) call, then it can either return null or a zero-length array here, or it may also throw XAER_PROTO, to indicate that it has finished and forgotten the previous recovery scan. A common XAResource.recover implementation problem is ignoring the flags or always returning the same set of Xids on XAResource.recover(TMNOFLAGS). This causes the WebLogic Server transaction manager recovery to loop infinitely, and subsequently fail.

- The WebLogic Server transaction manager XAResource.recover with TMENDRSCAN flag to end the recovery scan. The resource may return additional Xids.

Resource Health Monitoring

To prevent losing server threads to faulty XAResources, WebLogic Server JTA has an internal resource health monitoring mechanism. A resource is considered active if either there are no pending requests or the result from any of the XAResource pending requests is not XAER_RMFAIL. If an XAResource is not active within two minutes, the WebLogic Server transaction manager declares it dead. Any further requests to the XAResource are shunned, and an XAER_RMFAIL XAException is thrown.

The two minute interval can be configured using the maxXACallMillis JTAMBean attribute. It is not exposed through the WebLogic Server Administration Console. You can configure maxXACallMillis in the config.xml file. For example:

<Domain>
....
<JTA
MaxXACallMillis="240000"
/>
....
</Domain>

To receive notification from the WebLogic Server transaction manager and to inform the WebLogic Server transaction manager whether it is indeed dead when the resource is about to be declared dead, you can implement weblogic.transaction.XAResource (which extends javax.transaction.xa.XAResource) and register it with the transaction manager. The transaction manager calls the detectUnavailable method of the XAResource when it is about to declare it unavailable. If the XAResource returns true, then it is not declared unavailable. If the XAResource is indeed unavailable, it can use this opportunity to perform cleanup and re-registration with the transaction manager. For more information, see weblogic.transaction.XAResource in the Java API Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Java EE Connector Architecture Resource Adapter

Besides registering with the WebLogic Server transaction manager directly, you can also implement the Java EE Connector Architecture resource adapter interfaces. When you deploy the resource adapter, the WebLogic Server Java EE container registers the resource manager's XAResource with the WebLogic Server transaction manager automatically.

For more information, see Developing Resource Adapters for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Implementation Tips

The following sections provide tips for exporting and importing transactions with the WebLogic Server transaction manager:

- Sharing the WebLogic Server Transaction Log

- Transaction global properties

- TxHelper.createXid

Sharing the WebLogic Server Transaction Log

The WebLogic Server transaction manager exposes the transaction log to be shared with system applications such as gateways. This provides a way for system applications to take advantage of the box-carring (batching) transaction log optimization of the WebLogic Server transaction manager for fast logging. Note that it is important to release the transaction log records in a timely fashion. (The WebLogic Server transaction manager only removes a transaction log file if all the records in it are released). Failure to do so may result in a large number of transaction log files, and could lead to re-commit of a large number of already committed transactions, or in an extreme case, circular collision and overwriting of transaction log files.

The WebLogic Server transaction manager exposes a transaction logger interface: weblogic.transaction.TransactionLogger. It is only available on the server, and it can be obtained with the following steps:

1. Get the server transaction manager:

import weblogic.transaction.ServerTransactionManager;
import weblogic.transaction.TxHelper;
ServerTransactionManager stm = (ServerTransactionManager)TxHelper.getTransactionManager();

2. Get the TransactionLogger:

TransactionLogger tlog = stm.getTransactionLogger();

The XAResource's log records must implement the weblogic.transaction.TransactionLoggable interface in order to be written to the transaction log. For more information about the weblogic.transaction.TransactionLogger interface and usage of the TransactionLogger interface, see weblogic.transaction.TransactionLogger in the Java API Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Transaction global properties

A WebLogic Server JTA transaction object is associated with both local and global properties. Global properties are propagated with the transaction propagation context among servers, and are also saved as part of the log record in the transaction log. You can access the transaction global properties as follows:

1. Obtain the transaction object:

import weblogic.transaction.Transaction;
import weblogic.transaction.TransactionHelper;
Transaction tx = TransactionHelper.getTransaction();  // Get the transaction associated with the thread

or

Transaction tx = TxHelper.getTransaction(xid); // Get the transaction with the given Xid

2. Get or set the properties on the transaction object:

tx.setProperty("foo", "fooValue");
tx.getProperty("bar");

For more information, see weblogic.transaction.TxHelper in the Java API Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.

TxHelper.createXid

You can use the TxHelper.createXid(int formatId, byte[] gtrid, byte[] bqual) method to create Xids, for example, to return to the WebLogic Server transaction manager on recovery.

For more information, see weblogic.transaction.TxHelper in the Java API Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Changes in the Resource Registration Name

This release changes the behavior of the resource registration name for XA data source configurations. In previous releases, the JTA registration name was simply the name of the data source. Now, the registration name is a combination of data source name and domain.

All resources registered with JTA now have a corresponding runtime MBean that exposes XA usage statistics for the resource. This altered (qualified) the JMX ObjectName of the MBean, and may impact existing applications that perform a JMX lookup of such a runtime MBean by name. In previous releases, a data source configuration with a name of mydatasource in domain mydomain would have a JTA resource runtime MBean registered under the object name:

com.bea:ServerRuntime=myserver,Name=mydatasource,Type=TransactionResourceRuntime,JTARuntime=JTARuntime

For this release, the new qualified object name is:

com.bea:ServerRuntime=myserver,Name=mydatasource_mydomain,Type=TransactionResourceRuntime,JTARuntime=JTARuntime

The transaction branch qualifier is also derived from the JTA resource registration name. Any pending transaction branches for XA data sources at the time of upgrade may not be recoverable after upgrade. Oracle recommends that no pending transactions are left pending in database resources prior to upgrade. Otherwise, any pending database transactions may need to be resolved manually by a database administrator. See

This release provides a new system property to disable the qualifying of the registration name:

-Dweblogic.jdbc.qualifyRMName=false

FAQs

- Why does the XAResource's Xid have a branch qualifier, but not the transaction manager's transaction?
WebLogic Server JTA transaction objects do not have branch qualifiers (for example, TxHelper.getTransaction().getXid().getBranchQualifier() would be null). Since the branch qualifiers are specific to individual resource managers, the WebLogic Server transaction manager only sets the branch qualifiers in the Xids that are passed into XAResource methods.

- What is the TxHelper.getTransaction() method used for?
The WebLogic Server JTA provides the TxHelper.getTransaction() API to return the transaction associated with the current thread. However, note that WebLogic Server JTA suspends the transaction context before calling the XAResource methods, so you should only rely on the Xid input parameter to identify the transaction, but not the transaction associated with the current thread.

Additional Documentation about JTA

Refer to the JTA specification 1.0.1B Section 4.1 for a connection-based Resource Usage scenario, which illustrates the JTA interaction between the transaction manager and resource manager. The JTA specification is available at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javaee/jta/index.html.

14 Participating in Transactions Managed by a Third-Party Transaction Manager

This chapter describes how WebLogic Server participates in distributed transactions coordinated by third-party systems (referred to as foreign transaction managers). The WebLogic Server processing occurs as part of the work of the external transaction. The foreign transaction manager then drives the WebLogic Server transaction manager as part of its commit processing. This is referred to as "importing" transactions into WebLogic Server.

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Overview of Participating in Foreign-Managed Transactions

- Importing Transactions with the Client Interposed Transaction Manager

- Importing Transactions with the Server Interposed Transaction Manager

- Transaction Processing for Imported Transactions

- Commit Processing for Imported Transactions

- Recovery for Imported Transactions

- Transactions that Span Transaction Manager Systems

Overview of Participating in Foreign-Managed Transactions

The WebLogic Server transaction manager exposes a javax.transaction.xa.XAResource implementation using the weblogic.transaction.InterposedTransactionManager interface. A foreign transaction manager can access the InterposedTransactionManager interface to coordinate the WebLogic Server transaction manager XAResource during its commit processing.

When importing a transaction from a foreign transaction manager into the WebLogic Server transaction manager, you must register the WebLogic Server interposed transaction manager (ITM) as a subordinate with the foreign transaction manager. The WebLogic Server transaction manager then acts as the coordinator for the imported transaction within WebLogic Server.

WebLogic Server supports two configuration schemes for importing transactions:

- Using a client-side gateway (implemented externally to WebLogic Server) that uses the client interposed transaction manager

- Using a server-side gateway implemented on a WebLogic Server instance that uses the server interposed transaction manager

Although there are some differences in limitations and in implementation details, the basic behavior is the same for importing transactions in both configurations:

1. Lookup the WebLogic Server transaction manager and register it as an XAResource as necessary in the third-party system.

2. Enlist and delist applicable transaction participants during transaction processing.

3. Send the prepare message to the WebLogic Server transaction manager, which then acts as a subordinate transaction manager and coordinates the prepare phase for transaction participants within WebLogic Server.

4. Send the commit or roll back message to the WebLogic Server transaction manager, which then acts as a subordinate transaction manager and coordinates the second phase of the two-phase commit process for transaction participants within WebLogic Server.

5. Unregister, as necessary.

Importing Transactions with the Client Interposed Transaction Manager

You can use the client interposed transaction manager in WebLogic Server to drive the two-phase commit process for transactions that are coordinated by a third-party transaction manager and include transaction participants within WebLogic Server, such as JMS resources and JDBC resources. The client interposed transaction manager is an implementation of the javax.transaction.xa.XAResource interface. You access the client interposed transaction manager directly from the third-party application, typically from a gateway in the third-party application. The transaction manager in the third-party system then sends the prepare and commit messages to the gateway, which propagates the message to the WebLogic Server transaction manger. The WebLogic Server transaction manager then acts as a subordinate transaction manager and coordinates the transaction participants within WebLogic Server. Figure 14-1 shows the interaction between the two transaction managers and the client-side gateway.

Figure 14-1 Importing Transactions into WebLogic Server Using a Client-Side Gateway

Figure 14-2 shows the flow of interactions between a foreign transaction manager, WebLogic Server client-side JTA objects, and the WebLogic Server transaction manager.

Figure 14-2 State Diagram Illustrating Steps to Import a Transaction Using the Client Interposed Transaction Manager

To access the interposed transaction manager in WebLogic Server using a client-side gateway, you must perform the following steps:

- Get the Client Interposed Transaction Manager

- Get the XAResource from the Interposed Transaction Manager

Get the Client Interposed Transaction Manager

In a client-side gateway, the you can get the WebLogic server interposed transaction manager's XAResource with the getClientInterposedTransactionManager method. For example:

import javax.naming.Context;
import weblogic.transaction.InterposedTransactionManager;
import weblogic.transaction.TxHelper;
Context initialCtx;
String serverName;
InterposedTransactionManager itm = TxHelper.getClientInterposedTransactionManager(initialCtx, serverName);

The server name parameter is the name of the server that acts as the interposed transaction manager for the foreign transaction. When the foreign transaction manager performs crash recovery, it must contact the same WebLogic Server server to obtain the list of in-doubt transactions that were previously imported into WebLogic Server.

For more information, see weblogic.transaction.TxHelper in the Java API Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Get the XAResource from the Interposed Transaction Manager

After you get the interposed transaction manager, you must get the XAResource object associated with the interposed transaction manager:

import javax.transaction.xa.XAResource;
XAResource xar = itm.getXAResource();

Cluster-wide Recovery

You can configure cluster-wide transaction recovery of distributed transactions across all the interposed transaction managers of a cluster by selecting the Enable Cluster-Wide Recovery attribute on the "Cluster: Configuration: JTA" page in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

When enabled, each interposed transaction manager in a WebLogic cluster is aware of the transaction distribution across the entire cluster. This allows the interposed transaction manager on each cluster member to determine if it should handle a given XA call or forward it to the appropriate interposed transaction manager on another cluster member. In addition:

- An XAResource.recover call on a single ITM within a WebLogic cluster returns a list of in-doubt transactions of all interposed transaction manager 's within the cluster.

- If a cluster member fails, the interposed transaction manager is migrated to another cluster member within the same cluster.

- If a WebLogic distributed destination is present on a cluster, messages could be load balanced to other cluster members other than the member hosting the interposed transaction manager. If this occurs, the interposed transaction manager transparently handles any XA calls and forwards them to the correct cluster member instance. In the situation that the cluster member that hosts the destination fails. The interposed transaction manager transparently handles the potential failover of that destination member.

Limitations of the Client Interposed Transaction Manager

Note the following limitations when importing transactions using a client-side gateway:

- You cannot use the TxHelper.getServerInterposedTransactionManager() method in client-side gateways.

Importing Transactions with the Server Interposed Transaction Manager

You can use the server interposed transaction manager in WebLogic Server to drive the two-phase commit process for transactions that are coordinated by a third-party transaction manager and include transaction participants within WebLogic Server, such as JMS resources and JDBC resources. The server interposed transaction manager is an implementation of the javax.transaction.xa.XAResource interface. You access the server interposed transaction manager by creating a server-side gateway on WebLogic Server and then accessing the gateway from a third-party system. The transaction manager in the third-party system then sends the prepare and commit messages to the server-side gateway, which propagates the message to the WebLogic Server transaction manager. The WebLogic Server transaction manager then acts as a subordinate transaction manager and coordinates the transaction participants within WebLogic Server. Figure 14-3 shows the interaction between the two transaction managers and the server-side gateway.

Figure 14-3 Importing Transactions into WebLogic Server Using a Server-Side Gateway

To access the interposed transaction manager in WebLogic Server using a server-side gateway, you must perform the following steps:

- Get the Server Interposed Transaction Manager

- Get the XAResource from the Interposed Transaction Manager

Get the Server Interposed Transaction Manager

In a server-side gateway, you can get the interposed transaction manager's XAResource as follows:

import javax.naming.Context;
import weblogic.transaction.InterposedTransactionManager;
import weblogic.transaction.TxHelper;
InterposedTransactionManager itm = TxHelper.getServerInterposedTransactionManager();

For more information, see weblogic.transaction.TxHelper in the Java API Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.

After you get the interposed transaction manager, you must get the XAResource. See Get the XAResource from the Interposed Transaction Manager.

Limitations of the Server Interposed Transaction Manager

Note the following limitations when importing transactions using a server-side gateway:

- Do not use the TxHelper.getClientInterposedTransactionManager() method in a server-side gateway on a WebLogic Server server. Doing so causes performance issues.

- You can only use one WebLogic Server server interposed transaction manager at a time. Do not use multiple server interposed transaction managers (on the same thread) to import transactions at the same time. (See Transaction Processing for Imported Transactions for more information about this limitation and how transactions are processed with the WebLogic Server interposed transaction manager.)

Transaction Processing for Imported Transactions

To import a foreign transaction into WebLogic Server, the foreign transaction manager or gateway can do the following:

xar.start(foreignXid, TMNOFLAGS);

This operation associates the current thread with the imported transaction. All subsequent calls made to other servers propagate the imported WebLogic Server transaction, until the transaction is disassociated from the thread.

Note:

The flag is ignored by the WebLogic Server transaction manager. If the foreign Xid has been imported previously on the same WebLogic Server server, WebLogic Server associates the current thread with the previously imported WebLogic Server transaction.

To disassociate the imported transaction from the current thread, the foreign transaction manager or gateway should do the following:

xar.end(foreignXid, TMSUCCESS);

Note that the WebLogic Server transaction manager ignores the flag.

Transaction Processing Limitations for Imported Transactions

Note the following processing limitations and behavior for imported transactions:

- After a WebLogic Server transaction is started, the gateway cannot call start again on the same thread. With a client-side gateway, you can only call xar.start on one client interposed transaction manager at a time. Attempting to call xar.start on another client interposed transaction manager (before xar.end was called on the first one) throws an XAException with XAER_RMERR. With a server-side gateway, attempting to call xar.start on a client or server interposed transaction manager also throws a XAException with XAER_RMERR if there is an active transaction associated with the current thread.

- The WebLogic Server interposed transaction manager's XAResource exhibits loosely-coupled transaction branching behavior on different WebLogic Server servers. That is, if the same foreign Xid is imported on different WebLogic Server servers, they are imported to different WebLogic Server transactions.

- The WebLogic Server transaction manager does not flatten the transaction tree, for example, the imported transaction of a previously exported WebLogic Server transaction are in a separate branch from the original WebLogic Server transaction.

- A foreign transaction manager should ensure that all foreign Xids that are imported into WebLogic Server are unique and are not reused within the sum of the transaction abandon timeout period and the transaction timeout period. Failure to do so may result in log records that are never released in the WebLogic Server transaction manager. This could lead to inefficient crash recovery.

Commit Processing for Imported Transactions

The foreign transaction manager should drive the interposed transaction manager in the 2PC protocol as it does the other XAResources. Note that the beforeCompletion callbacks registered with the WebLogic Server JTA (for example, the EJB container) are called when the foreign transaction manager prepares the interposed transaction manager's XAResource. The afterCompletion callbacks are called during XAResource.commit or XAResource.rollback.

The WebLogic Server interposed transaction manager honors the XAResource contract as described in the Java Transaction API at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javaee/jta/index.html.

- Once prepared by a foreign transaction manager, the WebLogic Server interposed transaction manager waits persistently for a commit or rollback outcome from the foreign transaction manager until the transaction abandon timeout expires.

- The WebLogic Server interposed transaction manager remembers heuristic outcomes persistently until being told to forget about the transaction by the foreign transaction manager or until transaction abandon timeout.

The WebLogic Server transaction manager logs a prepare record for the imported transaction after all the WebLogic Server participants are successfully prepared. If there are multiple WebLogic Server participants for the imported transaction, the transaction manager logs a prepare record even if the XAResource.commit is a one-phase commit.

Recovery for Imported Transactions

During the crash recovery of the foreign transaction manager, the foreign transaction manager must get the XAResource of the WebLogic Server interposed transaction manager again, and call recover on it. The WebLogic Server interposed transaction manager then returns the list of prepared or heuristically completed transactions. The foreign transaction manager should then resolve those in-doubt transactions: either commit or rollback the prepared transactions, and call forget on the heuristically completed transactions.

Transactions that Span Transaction Manager Systems

You can configure tight coupling of transaction branches that span different transaction manager systems by selecting the Enable Tightly Coupled Transactions attribute on the "Cluster: Configuration: JTA" page in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

When enabled, WebLogic Server uses the transaction identifier of a transaction imported by the interposed transaction manager for XA calls rather than an internally mapping an Xid. This tighter coupling of transaction managers typically improves performance and applies to inter-domain WebLogic transactions and transactions imported from Tuxedo .

Note:

If a transaction between WebLogic and Tuxedo resources uses a GridLink Data Source with GridLink Affinity enabled, the XA Affinity context is automatically used for the transaction.

15 Troubleshooting Transactions

This chapter describes troubleshooting tools and tasks for use in determining why transactions fail and deciding what actions to take to correct the problem.

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Overview

- Troubleshooting Tools

Overview

WebLogic Server includes the ability to monitor currently running transactions and ensure that adequate information is captured in the case of heuristic completion. It also provides the ability to monitor performance of database queries, transactional requests, and bean methods.

Troubleshooting Tools

WebLogic Server provides the following aids to transaction troubleshooting:

- Exceptions

- Transaction Identifier

- Transaction Name and Properties

- Transaction Status

- Transaction Statistics

- Transaction Monitoring

- Debugging JTA Resources

Exceptions

WebLogic JTA supports all standard JTA exceptions. For more information about standard JTA exceptions, see the API Javadoc for the following packages:

- javax.transaction

- javax.transaction.xa

In addition to the standard JTA exceptions, WebLogic Server provides the class weblogic.transaction.RollbackException. This class extends javax.transaction.RollbackException and preserves the original reason for a rollback. Before rolling a transaction back, or before setting it to rollbackonly, an application can supply a reason for the rollback. All rollbacks triggered inside the transaction service set the reason (for example, timeouts, XA errors, unchecked exceptions in beforeCompletion, or inability to contact the transaction manager). Once set, the reason cannot be overwritten.

Transaction Identifier

The Transaction Service assigns a transaction identifier (Xid) to each transaction. This ID can isolate information about a specific transaction in a log file. You can retrieve the transaction identifier using the getXID method in the weblogic.transaction.Transaction interface. For detailed information on methods for getting the transaction identifier, see weblogic.transaction.Transaction in the Java API Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Transaction Name and Properties

WebLogic JTA provides extensions to javax.transaction.Transaction that support transaction naming and user-defined properties. These extensions are included in the weblogic.transaction.Transaction interface.

The transaction name indicates a type of transaction (for example, funds transfer or ticket purchase) and should not be confused with the transaction ID, which identifies a unique transaction on a server. The transaction name makes it easier to identify a transaction type in the context of an exception or a log file.

User-defined properties are key/value pairs, where the key is a string identifying the property and the value is the current value assigned to the property. Transaction property values must be objects that implement the Serializable interface. You manage properties in your application using the set and get methods defined in the weblogic.transaction.Transaction interface. Once set, properties stay with a transaction during its entire lifetime and are passed between machines as the transaction travels through the system. Properties are saved in the transaction log, and are restored during crash recovery processing. If a transaction property is set more than once, the latest value is retained.

For detailed information on methods for setting and getting the transaction name and transaction properties, see weblogic.transaction.Transaction in the Java API Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Transaction Status

The Java Transaction API provides transaction status codes using the javax.transaction.Status class. Use the getStatusAsString method in weblogic.transaction.Transaction to return the status of the transaction as a string. The string contains the major state as specified in javax.transaction.Status with an additional minor state (such as logging or pre-preparing).

Transaction Statistics

Transaction statistics are provided for all transactions handled by the transaction manager on a server. These statistics include the number of total transactions, transactions with a specific outcome (such as committed, rolled back, or heuristic completion), rolled back transactions by reason, and the total time that transactions were active. For detailed information about transaction statistics, see "Monitor JTA" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.

Transaction Monitoring

The Administration Console enables you to monitor transactions. Monitoring tasks are performed at the server level. Transaction statistics are displayed for a specific server.

Debugging JTA Resources

Once you have narrowed the problem down to a specific application, you can activate WebLogic Server's debugging features to track down the specific problem within the application.

Enabling Debugging

You can enable debugging by setting the appropriate ServerDebug configuration attribute to "true." Optionally, you can also set the server StdoutSeverity to "Debug".

You can modify the configuration attribute in any of the following ways.

Enable Debugging Using the Command Line

Set the appropriate properties on the command line. For example,

-Dweblogic.debug.DebugJDBCJTA=true
-Dweblogic.log.StdoutSeverity="Debug"

This method is static and can only be used at server startup.

Enable Debugging Using the WebLogic Server Administration Console

Use the WebLogic Server Administration Console to set the debugging values:

1. If you have not done so, in the Change Center of the WebLogic Server Administration Console, click Lock & Edit (see "Use the Change Center" in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help).

2. In the left pane of the WebLogic Server Administration Console, expand Environment and select Servers.

3. On the Summary of Servers page, click the server on which you want to enable or disable debugging to open the settings page for that server.

4. Click Debug.

5. Expand default.

6. Select the check box for the debug scopes or attributes you want to modify.

7. Select Enable to enable (or Disable to disable) the debug scopes or attributes you have checked.

8. To activate these changes, in the Change Center of the WebLogic Server Administration Console, click Activate Changes.

9. Not all changes take effect immediately—some require a restart (see "Use the Change Center" in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help).
This method is dynamic and can enable debugging while the server is running.

Enable Debugging Using the WebLogic Scripting Tool

Use the WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST) to set the debugging values. For example, the following command runs a program for setting debugging values called debug.py:

java weblogic.WLST debug.py

The debug.py program contains the following code:

user='user1'
password='password'
url='t3://localhost:7001'
connect(user, password, url)
edit()
cd('Servers/myserver/ServerDebug/myserver')
startEdit()
set('DebugJDBCJTA','true')
save()
activate()

Note that you can also use WLST from Java. The following example shows a Java file used to set debugging values:

import weblogic.management.scripting.utils.WLSTInterpreter;
import java.io.*;
import weblogic.jndi.Environment;
import javax.naming.Context;
import javax.naming.InitialContext;
import javax.naming.NamingException;

public class test {
public static void main(String args[]) {
try {
WLSTInterpreter interpreter = null;
String user="user1";
String pass="pw12ab";
String url ="t3://localhost:7001";
Environment env = new Environment();
env.setProviderUrl(url);
env.setSecurityPrincipal(user);
env.setSecurityCredentials(pass);
Context ctx = env.getInitialContext();

interpreter = new WLSTInterpreter();
interpreter.exec
("connect('"+user+"','"+pass+"','"+url+"')");
interpreter.exec("edit()");
interpreter.exec("startEdit()");
interpreter.exec
("cd('Servers/myserver/ServerDebug/myserver')");
interpreter.exec("set('DebugJDBCJTA','true')");
interpreter.exec("save()");
interpreter.exec("activate()");

} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("Exception "+e);
}
}
}

Using the WLST is a dynamic method and can enable debugging while the server is running.

Changes to the config.xml File

Changes in debugging characteristics, through the WebLogic Server Administration Console, or WLST, or command line are persisted in the config.xml file. See Example 15-1:

Example 15-1 Example Debugging Stanza for JTA

.
.
.
<server>
<name>myserver</name>
<server-debug>
<debug-scope>
<name>weblogic.transaction</name>
<enabled>true</enabled>
</debug-scope>
<debug-jdbcjta>true</debug-jdbcjta>
</server-debug>
</server>
.
.
.

This sample config.xml fragment shows a transaction debug scope (set of debug attributes) and a single JTA attribute.

JTA Debugging Scopes

It is possible to see the tree view of the DebugScope definitions using java weblogic.diagnostics.debug.DebugScopeViewer.

You can enable the following registered debugging scopes for JTA:

- DebugJDBCJTA (scope weblogic.jdbc.transaction) - not currently used.

- DebugJTAXA (scope weblogic.transaction.xa) - traces for XA resources.

- DebugJTANonXA (scope weblogic.transaction.nonxa) - traces for non-XA resources.

- DebugJTAXAStackTrace (scope weblogic.transaction.stacktrace) - detailed tracing that prints stack traces at various critical locations.

- DebugJTARMI (scope weblogic.transaction.rmi) - not currently used.

- DebugJTA2PC (scope weblogic.transaction.twopc) - traces all 2-phase commit operations.

- DebugJTA2PCStackTrace (scope weblogic.transaction.twopcstacktrace) - detailed two-phase commit tracing that prints stack traces.

- DebugJTATLOG (scope weblogic.transaction.tlog) - traces transaction logging information.

- DebugJTAJDBC (scope weblogic.transaction.jdbc, weblogic.jdbc.transaction) - traces information about reading/writing JTA records.

- DebugJTARecovery (scope weblogic.transaction.recovery) - traces recovery information.

- DebugJTAGateway (scope weblogic.transaction.gateway) - traces information about imported transactions.

- DebugJTAGatewayStackTrace (scope weblogic.transaction.gatewaystacktrace) - stack traces related to imported transactions.

- DebugJTANaming (scope weblogic.transaction.naming) - traces transaction naming information.

- DebugJTANamingStackTrace (scope weblogic.transaction.namingstacktrace) - traces transaction naming information.

- DebugJTAResourceHealth (scope weblogic.transaction.resourcehealth) - traces information about XA transaction resource health.

- DebugJTAMigration (scope weblogic.transaction.migration) - traces information about Transaction Log migration.

- DebugJTALifecycle (scope weblogic.transaction.lifecycle) - traces information about the transaction server lifecycle (initialization, suspension, resuming, and shutdown).

- DebugJTALLR (scope weblogic.transaction.llr) - traces all Logging Last Resource operations.

- DebugJTAHealth (scope weblogic.transaction.health) - traces information about transaction subsystem health.

- DebugJTATransactionName (scope weblogic.transaction.name) - traces transaction names.

- DebugJTAResourceName (scope weblogic.transaction.resourcename) - traces transaction resource names.

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