Before you deploy Oracle Fusion Middleware applications, such as Java EE applications or SOA Composite applications, you should understand the deployment process, such as designing and developing applications and deploying those applications to Managed Servers.
This chapter describes the following topics:
A deployer is responsible for deploying applications, such as Java EE applications, ADF applications, SOA Composite applications, or WebCenter Portal applications, to WebLogic Server instances or clusters.
A user who is functioning as a deployer should be granted the Oracle WebLogic Server deployer security role. The deployer security role allows deployment operations, as well as viewing the server configuration and changing startup and shutdown classes. To grant this role to a user, use the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console. See "Managing Security Roles" in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Help for more information.
This section describes the general procedures involved in moving from application design and development to deployment in a production environment. It contains the following topics:
In many cases, developers use Oracle JDeveloper to create their applications. Oracle JDeveloper is an integrated development environment (IDE) for building service-oriented applications using the latest industry standards for Java, XML, Web services, portlets, and SQL. JDeveloper supports the complete software development life cycle, with integrated features for modeling, coding, debugging, testing, profiling, tuning, and deploying applications.
In this environment, you use the integrated Oracle WebLogic Server, which is packaged with Oracle JDeveloper for testing your applications.
For information about developing your applications, see:
After you have designed and tested your application with the integrated Oracle WebLogic Server, you can deploy the application to a Managed Server instance. For example, you may have installed Oracle WebLogic Server and configured a domain, including a Managed Server, in your production environment and you want to deploy the application to that Managed Server.
The following books provide specific information about deploying the different types of applications:
For Java EE applications, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Deploying Applications to Oracle WebLogic Server
For Oracle ADF, see the Administrator's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework
For Oracle WebCenter Portal, see the Administering Oracle WebCenter Portal
For Oracle SOA Suite, see the Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite
This section provides an outline of the major steps involved when you migrate your application from the integrated Oracle WebLogic Server to an environment separate from the development environment. Those general steps are:
Package the application. For Java EE, ADF, and WebCenter Portal applications, you package the application in an EAR file. For Oracle SOA Suite, you package the application into a JAR or ZIP file.
For information about packaging the application, see:
For Java EE applications: "Preparing Applications and Modules for Deployment" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Deploying Applications to Oracle WebLogic Server
For Oracle ADF: "What You May Need to Know About EAR Files and Packaging" in the Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework
For Oracle WebCenter Portal: "Packaging a WebCenter Portal Application" in the Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper
For Oracle SOA Suite: "Understanding the Packaging Impact" in the Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite
Set up your environment. This includes:
Installing and configuring a domain and a Managed Server that is configured with the correct domain template. For example, if you are deploying an Oracle SOA Suite application, the Managed Server must use the Oracle SOA Suite domain template. The appropriate domain template is applied when you create the domain using the Configuration Wizard. Alternatively, you can extend a domain to use another domain template, as described in Section 20.2.
For more information about installing and configuring for specific components, see:
For Oracle ADF: "How to Install the ADF Runtime to the WebLogic Installation" in the Administrator's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework
For Oracle WebCenter Portal: "Installing Oracle WebCenter Portal" and "Configuring Oracle WebCenter Portal" in the Installation Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal
For Oracle SOA Suite: "Installing Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite" and "Configuring Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite" in the Installation Guide for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite
Creating any necessary schemas in an existing database. See the Repository Creation Utility User's Guide.
Registering the MDS Repository with the Oracle WebLogic Server domain, if your application uses the MDS Repository. For example, Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle WebCenter Portal applications require MDS. Some ADF applications involve customizations using MDS. See Section 15.3.2.1.1 for information about registering the MDS Repository.
If your application uses a database, set up the JDBC data sources.
For more information about setting up the JDBC data sources, see:
For pure Java EE applications: Oracle Fusion Middleware Configuring and Managing JDBC Data Sources for Oracle WebLogic Server
For Oracle ADF: "How to Create a JDBC Data Source for Oracle WebLogic Server" in the Administrator's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework
For Oracle WebCenter Portal: "Choosing the Data Source" in the Administering Oracle WebCenter Portal
For Oracle SOA Suite: "Creating Data Sources and Queues" in the Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite
For Oracle SOA Suite, create connection factories and connection pooling. For more information, see "Creating Connection Factories and Connection Pooling" in the Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite.
Create a connection to the target Managed Server.
From Oracle JDeveloper, you can deploy your applications to Managed Server instances that reside outside JDeveloper. To do this, you must first create a connection to the server instance to which you want to deploy your application.
For more information, see:
For Oracle ADF: "How to Create a Connection to the Target Application Server" in the Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework
For Oracle WebCenter Portal: "Creating a WebLogic Managed Server Connection" in the Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper
For Oracle SOA Suite: "Creating an Application Server Connection" in the Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite
For Oracle SOA Suite, create a SOA-MDS connection, if the SOA composite application shares metadata with other composites. See "Creating a SOA-MDS Connection" in the Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite.
Create a configuration plan or deployment plan, which contains information about environment-specific values, such as JDBC connection strings or host names of various servers. For more information, see:
For pure Java EE applications: "Creating a New Deployment Plan to Configure an Application" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Deploying Applications to Oracle WebLogic Server
For Oracle SOA Suite: "Introduction to Configuration Plans" in the Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite
Migrate application security, such as credentials, identities, and policies. For more information, see:
For pure Java EE applications: "Migrating Security Data" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Securing Oracle WebLogic Server
For Oracle ADF: "Preparing the Secure Application for Deployment" in the Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework
For Oracle WebCenter Portal: "Managing WebCenter Portal Application Security" in the Administering Oracle WebCenter Portal
For Oracle SOA Suite: "Enabling Security" in the Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite
Create a deployment profile. A deployment profile packages or archives a custom ADF, WebCenter Portal, or SOA application and associated files so that the application can be deployed to an Oracle WebLogic Server Managed Server instance. Deployment profiles are created at the project and application level.
For more information, see:
For Oracle ADF: "How to Create Deployment Profiles" in the Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework
For Oracle WebCenter Portal: "Creating Deployment Profiles" in the Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper
For Oracle SOA Suite: "Optionally Creating a Project Deployment Profile" in the Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite
Migrate Oracle JDeveloper extensions for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle WebCenter Portal. Table 10-1 shows the extensions and where they are documented:
Table 10-1 Oracle JDeveloper Extensions
Component | Extension | See |
---|---|---|
Oracle WebCenter Portal |
WebCenter Portal extensions |
"Creating and Provisioning a WebLogic Managed Server Instance" in the Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper |
Oracle SOA Suite |
SOA extensions |
"Installing Additional Oracle Fusion Middleware Design Time Components" in the Installation Guide for Oracle JDeveloper |
Deploy the application to a Managed Server.
For more information, see:
For pure Java EE applications: "Exporting an Application for Deployment to New Environments" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Deploying Applications to Oracle WebLogic Server
For Oracle ADF: "Deploying the Application" in the Fusion Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework
For Oracle WebCenter Portal: "Deploying the Application to a WebLogic Managed Server" in the Administering Oracle WebCenter Portal
For Oracle SOA Suite: "Deploying SOA Composite Applications" in the Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite
You can automate the migration of an application by using WLST or ant scripts. This makes it easier to deploy your application to multiple environments or Managed Servers and to deploy updated versions of the application.
For more information about using scripts to migrate an application to other environments, see:
For pure Java EE applications: "Using the WebLogic Scripting Tool" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Oracle WebLogic Scripting Tool
For Oracle ADF: "Deploying Using Scripts and Ant" in the Administrator's Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework
For Oracle WebCenter Portal: "Creating and Provisioning a WebLogic Managed Server Instance" in the Developing Portals with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle JDeveloper
For Oracle SOA Suite: The following sections in the Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite:
The following describes some of the typical problems that you may encounter when you deploy an application to a Managed Server:
Connection information. Ensure that you have correctly configured the connection to the target Managed Server. See Steps 4, 5, and 6 in Section 10.2.2.
Oracle JDeveloper extensions. Ensure that you have migrated any Oracle JDeveloper extensions. See Table 10-1.
Data sources. Ensure that you have correctly configured JDBC data sources. See Step 3 in Section 10.2.2.
Security configuration. Ensure that you have migrated application security, such as credentials, identities, and policies. See Step 8 in Section 10.2.2.
In addition, see the "Troubleshooting Common Deployment Errors" in the Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite for information about troubleshooting SOA applications.