Scaling Up / Scaling Out Fusion Middleware Domains

31 Scaling Up / Scaling Out Fusion Middleware Domains

This chapter explains how you can scale up and scale out a SOA Domain, an Service Bus Domain, a WebLogic Domain, and a WebCenter Domain using Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control (Cloud Control). In particular, this chapter covers the following:

Note:

To scaleup multiple products in one session, you can clone the servers from each products's cluster simultaneously.

Getting Started

A WebLogic Domain consists of a set of managed servers running independently or in a cluster, sharing the distributed resources. A WebLogic Server cluster consists of multiple WebLogic managed servers running simultaneously and working together to provide increased scalability and reliability. The server instances that constitute a cluster can run on the same machine, or be located on different machines. You can increase a cluster's capacity by adding additional server instances to the cluster on an existing machine, or by adding machines to the cluster to host the new server instances. You can use the Domain Scale Up / Scale Out deployment procedure to automate the scaling up or scaling out of a domain. You can:

Scale up a domain by adding or cloning a managed server to a host that already exists in the domain or cluster.
Scale out a domain by adding or cloning a managed server to a host that is not present in the domain or cluster.

Prerequisites

Before running the Scale Up / Scale Out Middleware deployment procedure, you must meet the prerequisites listed in this section.

Note:

For information about how to setup your infrastructure for Middleware Provisioning, see Prerequisites for Provisioning from the Middleware Provisioning Profiles.

Meet the following prerequisites before you start extending the WebLogic Domain:

The WebLogic Domain that is scaled up / scaled out must be an existing domain that has been discovered with Cloud Control.
If you are scaling out a domain, ensure that the destination machine contains sufficient space. If the size of the Middleware Home on the source machine is 3 GB, you need approximately 3 GB in the working directory on the source and destination machines. Additionally, the destination machine should also have 3 GB of space for the Middleware Home. The working directory is cleaned up after deployment procedure has been successfully completed.
The Middleware Home directory you specify on the destination machine must be a new directory or must be empty.
The Management Agent must be installed on the source (where the Administration Server is running) and the destination machines. The Administration Server for the domain must be up and running.
The Administration Server and Managed Server (being cloned) must be up and running before you run the deployment procedure.
The Managed Server and Node Manager ports must be free.
Ensure that the user has the necessary permission to the stage directory inside the work directory. The scale up may fail with an error in case sufficient permissions are not granted to the user. In such an event, assign the necessary 700 permission to the stage directory and retry.
For scaling out a domain, the user must have the following permissions:
- Read permissions on:
  - Administration Server Host Middleware Directory
  - Administration Server Host Domain Directory
- Write permissions on:
  - Administration Server Host Working Directory
  - Working Directory of all the destination Managed Server hosts
  - Middleware Directory of all the destination Managed Server hosts
  - Domain Directory of all the destination Managed Server hosts
For scaling up a domain, the user must have the following permissions:
- Read permissions on:
  - Administration Server Host Working Directory
  - Domain Directory of all the destination Managed Server hosts
The domain being scaled up / out should not be in Edit mode. Ensure that there is a running WebLogic Console for this domain.
If you choose to associate a new manages server with an existing Node Manager or a machine, ensure that the Node Manager is up and running. If not, the deployment procedure will fail.
Ensure that you have discovered an existing OHS target in Enterprise Manager, if you want to front end the Oracle HTTP Server.
Ensure that the target machine which is being scaled up and Enterprise Manager host where the OMS is running are in the same timezone, before you begin the scaleup process.
Ensure that you do not delete the Aggregation Server when you are scaling down a domain. If the Aggregation Server is deleted, then a lot of dependent applications will stop running.

Running the Scale Up / Scale Out Middleware Deployment Procedure

A WebLogic Domain consists of a set of managed servers running independently or in a cluster, sharing the distributed resources. A WebLogic Server cluster consists of multiple WebLogic managed servers running simultaneously and working together to provide increased scalability and reliability. The server instances that constitute a cluster can run on the same machine, or be located on different machines. You can increase a cluster's capacity by adding additional server instances to the cluster on existing machines, or by adding machines to the cluster to host the new server instances.

The Scale Up / Scale Out Middleware wizard allows you to increase a cluster's capacity by adding additional server instances to the cluster on an existing machine, or by adding machines to the cluster to host the new server instances.

Note:

Java Object Cache is always configured on a scaled out or scaled up middleware managed server whether it was available before scale up or not.

To scale up or scale out a domain, follow these steps:

Ensure that the prerequisites are met. See Prerequisites.
Specify the source domain. See WebLogic Domain Scaling Up: Scale up/Scale out Fusion Middleware Domain Page.
Specify when the scale up or scale out operation should be performed. Weblogic Domain Scaling Up / Scaling Out : Schedule Page.

Note:

For scaling out a WebCenter Domain, you must perform the following steps manually:

Oracle HTTP Server must be installed, discovered, monitored in Cloud Control. Additionally, you must ensure that for the scale out instance the configuration file should be manually configured.

If the Spaces Server is scaled out, then you must run the following commands to attach the WebService Policy:

attachWebServicePolicy(application='WC_Spaces2/webcenter',
moduleName='webcenter', moduleType='web',
serviceName='SpacesWebService',
subjectName='SpacesWebServiceSoapHttpPort',
policyURI='oracle/wss11_saml_token_with_message_protection_service_policy')

If the Discussion Server is scaled out, then you must run the following commands to attach the WebService Policy:

attachWebServicePolicy(application='WC_Collaboration2/owc_discussions',
moduleName='owc_discussions', moduleType='web',
serviceName='OWCDiscussionsServiceAuthenticated',
subjectName='OWCDiscussionsServiceAuthenticated',
policyURI='oracle/wss10_saml_token_service_policy')

WebLogic Domain Scaling Up: Scale up/Scale out Fusion Middleware Domain Page

You can automate the scaling up or scaling out of a domain or cluster using the Domain Scale Up / Out Deployment Procedure. You can add capacity to an existing WebLogic Domain and /or cluster by:

Adding attributes of a new managed server to an existing cluster.
Adding and copying attributes of a new managed server to an existing cluster.
Cloning a managed server. If the source server is clustered, when you clone an existing Managed Server, another Managed Server will be created in the same cluster.

A wizard guides you through the process.

From the Targets menu, select Middleware.
A list of Middleware targets is displayed. Find the WebLogic Domain that you want to use as the source for the scaling up or out operation. Right click on that WebLogic Domain to access the context sensitive menu. From the menu, select Provisioning and then select Scale Up / Scale Out WebLogic Domain.

Alternatively, you can click WebLogic Domain link. On the domain home page, from the WebLogic Domain menu, select Provisioning, and click Scale Up/Scale Out WebLogic Domain.

The Scale up/Scale out Fusion Middleware Domain page is displayed.

You can also launch this as a procedure from Middleware Provisioning page. To do so, from Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Middleware provisioning. On the Middleware Provisioning page, from the deployment procedures table, select Scale up/Scale out Middleware, and click Launch. In this case you will need to provide the source information by selecting the WebLogic domain that needs to be extended.
In the Weblogic Domain section, enter the Working Directory field details specifying the directory on the Administration Server machine where the domain scale up related files are temporarily stored. A minimum of one GB of directory space is required to store the temporary files. If this directory is not present, it will be created. When the scale up operation has been completed, the directory and its contents will be deleted.

Host Credentials: In this section, you must provide all the credentials for all the hosts on which the Managed Servers are running. To do so, click the add icon for each host, and in the Add New Credentials dialog box, enter a valid username and password. If you want the job to use these credentials for each target when the job runs, select the Set As Preferred Credentials check box.

Deploy JVMD agent: Deploys the JVMD agent on the servers or clusters of a Weblogic Domain. Java Virtual Machine Diagnostics (JVMD) enables administrators to diagnose performance problems in Java applications. After the JVMD Agent is deployed on the targeted JVM (the one running a production WebLogic Server), it collects real-time data and transmits it to the JVM Diagnostics Engine.

WebLogic Administrator Credentials: In this section, you must set the credentials to access WebLogic administration server. To do so, click the Add for each of the WebLogic Domains, and in the Add new administrator credentials dialog box, enter a valid administrator name and password. If you want the job to use these credentials for each target when the job runs, then select the Set As Preferred Credentials check box.

Note:

The Working Directory must not be created under the Middleware Home or the WebLogic Domain Home directory.
In the Hosts section, click Add to select the host you want to add managed servers to.
In the Machines section, you can Add the destination hosts and then create new machines if required.

Note:

To perform administrative operations such as start and stop from the Enterprise Manager Cloud Control, the Node Manager must be configured and running on the machine.
In the Servers section, you can add a new managed server to a WebLogic Domain.

To add a new managed server to a WebLogic Domain, click Add. Enter configuration details for a new Managed Server like a unique name for the new Managed Server, listen address, and the SSL port.

Note:

The Add button is only available for Clusterless domains. If the domain has clusters, then cloning is the preferred option.

If the domain has the administration port enabled, Administration Port column will appear in the servers table so that the user can enter the administration port for the new server. If the domain does not have the administration port enabled, this column will not be visible in the servers table. When a new server is added/cloned, automatically a new port is set. You must ensure that this new port is free, if not the deployment procedure will fail.
If you select Custom Identity and Custom Trust, you must provide valid inputs for all the KeyStore fields.
Cloning an Existing Managed Server: To do so, select the host you want to add the new server to and click Clone. This option adds a new managed server to the domain, and copies a pre-determined set of the attributes from the existing server.

Deleting a Managed Server: To do so, select the managed server and click Delete Server.
In the Custom Scripts and Variables section, you can add any custom properties that you want to pass to your scripts.
Click Next.

Note:

If you are scaling a domain with products like SOA or OSB, then a JMS Servers section is displayed if the source domain has it configured.

Weblogic Domain Scaling Up / Scaling Out : Schedule Page

On the Schedule page, specify a Deployment Instance name. If you want to run the procedure immediately, retain the default selection, that is, Immediately.

If you want to run the procedure later, select Later and provide time zone, start date, and start time details.

You can set the notification preferences according to deployment procedure status.

If you want to run only prerequisites, select Pause the procedure to allow me to analyze results after performing prerequisite checks. This pauses the procedure execution after all prerequisite checks are performed.

Click Next.

Middleware Provisioning and Scale Up / Scale Out Best Practices

This section lists some of the best practices to be followed while using the Middleware Provisioning deployment procedure.

Configuration of the source domain should not be changed: While executing these deployment procedures, ensure that no administrative activities (such as configuration changes on the source domain and software patching) are actively performed on the source domain. If you change the configuration, the managed server may not respond to requests and the Administration Server will have an Unknown status.
Provisioning on the same machine: If you are using the Deployment Procedure to provision or scale up to the same machine as the source, the working directory on the source and target machines is populated by default. If these values are changed, you must ensure that the working directory on the source and the destination machines are different. For example, if the working directory is /tmp/source for the source machine, it could be /tmp/dest on the destination directory. You must also ensure that the listen port number and SSL port numbers (if enabled) for the Administration Server and Managed Server are different on the source and destination servers.
JDBC Configuration: While configuring the JDBC data sources, the database user and schema owner must enter appropriate passwords.
Custom Java Applications and their Deployment Plan: These deployment procedures support custom java applications in staged mode. Externally staged applications need to be manually deployed. For instructions on manual deployment, see the WebLogic Administration Guide.
Multi NIC Machines: If the destination machine is a multi NIC system, enter a listen address that is accessible to both the Administration Server and Managed Server.
Port Conflicts: While adding a new server on a host, you must enter ports that are unique to that server and are not used by any other existing managed server or process on that host.