The Lifecycle Management Tools provide the means to install, configure, and manage an Oracle Fusion Middleware environment.
Parent topic: Understanding the Lifecycle Management Tools
The Oracle Fusion Middleware Lifecycle Management Tools provide a comprehensive set of tools that can automate the deployment and management of specific Oracle Fusion Middleware topologies.
The main components of the Lifecycle Management tools are described in the following table.
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
|
Fusion Middleware Environment Specification |
The environment specification is a standardized, strongly-typed data structure that describes a Fusion Middleware environment. |
|
Fusion Middleware Composer |
Composer is a client application that provides a graphical user interface for describing a Fusion Middleware topology. A topology can be created from scratch by adding each element to the topology one-by-one. |
|
Fusion Middleware Action Framework |
The Action Framework is a standard mechanism to invoke lifecycle operations across products. Actions can be performed on targets, which are defined by the environment specification. The Lifecycle Management Tools provide a set of standard actions, such as the following:
You can also create custom actions. |
| Fusion Middleware Provisioning APIs |
The Provisioning APIs include:
For more information, see Using the Standard Actions JavaDoc |
With the Oracle Fusion Middleware Lifecycle Management Tools, you can define and deploy a new Fusion Middleware topology. Once you have defined the topology, by creating a topology, you can update the topology.
You can use the Oracle Fusion Middleware Lifecycle Management Tools to define and deploy a new Oracle Fusion Middleware environment. This is an alternative to manually installing and deploying the software with the Fusion Middleware installer and Configuration Wizard.
To define and deploy a new Fusion Middleware environment, you need to:
Create a topology file that describes the topology you want to create.
For more information, see How Do I Create a Topology File?
Use Java or an equivalent scripting language to invoke a set of standard actions that use the data in the topology file to deploy your new environment.
For example, when you are creating a new environment, you will likely use the create-domain standard action, which is part of the Lifecycle Management Tools Action Framework.
For more information, see How Do I Invoke the Standard Actions?.
Besides creating a new environment, you can also update an existing environment. For example, you can extend an existing Oracle Fusion Middleware domain to include additional components.
To extend or update an existing Fusion Middleware domain, you need to:
Create or locate a topology file that describes the topology you want to create.
For more information, see How Do I Create a Topology File?.
Use Java or an equivalent scripting language to invoke a set of standard actions that use the data in the topology file to update or extend an existing Oracle Fusion Middleware domain.
For more information, see How Do I Invoke the Standard Actions?.
Before you begin using the Lifecycle Management Tools, you should understand some basic concepts and basic tasks you will be performing with the tools.
Before you begin using the Lifecycle Management Tools, you should learn about some important terms and concepts that are specific to the LCM Tools.
As you learn about and use the Lifecycle Management Tools, you should be aware of the following terms and concepts.
| Term or Concept | Definition |
|---|---|
|
Topology |
A description of the major components of a Fusion Middleware environment, including the hosts, Oracle homes, domains, Node Manager instances, data sources, and other external resources (including load balancers), as well as the binding information to map these components on to actual hosts (for example, physical or virtual machines). The topology definition is saved in a topology file, which can be a JSON or XML file, which can be created, edited, or modified with Fusion Middleware Composer. |
|
Domain Profile |
A description of the Managed Servers, clusters, and targeting information that make up a domain. |
|
Credentials |
The user name and password (or other credentials) for a particular component of the environment. Credentials are often required in order to perform life cycle tasks. For example, you need the domain administrator username and password to update a domain, and you need a database user name and password to install required schemas. |
|
Tuning parameter |
An optional setting for a component of the environment. For example, a tuning parameter might be a timeout on a data source. |
The first step in deploying a new Fusion Middleware environment is to create a topology file (XML or JSON) that defines the elements of the topology. You can then use the standard actions to deploy or manage the topology.
There are two methods for creating a topology file, as shown in the following table.
| Method | Description | More Information |
|---|---|---|
|
Start with a sample file |
A sample topology file that represents a typical single-host Oracle SOA Suite domain is available for download from the Oracle Help Center. You can download this sample (or another sample like it) and edit specific values to match the environment you want to create. The Lifecycle Management Tools tutorial describes how to use this method of creating a new topology file. |
Tutorial: Installing and Configuring Oracle SOA Suite Using the LCM Tools |
|
Use Composer and its built-in tools to “draw” the topology from scratch. |
If you don’t want to use a sample file, you can create a new topology file by opening Composer and creating each element of the topology, one-by-one. Oracle recommends that you first familiarize yourself with the Composer user interface by going through the tutorial or by reviewing the online help for the various Composer features. |
Tutorial: Installing and Configuring Oracle SOA Suite Using the LCM Tools Overview of FMW Composer in FMW Composer Online Help |
After you have identified a topology file, which defines the characteristics of the environment, you can then invoke one or more standard actions to create or modify the environment.
To invoke a standard action, you must use Java or a similar scripting language.
If you are familiar with Java programming, you can use the Oracle Fusion Middleware Java API Reference for the Lifecycle Management Action Framework to learn more about how to reference the standard actions in your Java code.
Note that the examples in this guide use Apache Groovy, which is a simple open source scripting language, that uses concepts similar to Java. See http://www.groovy-lang.org/index.html. To learn more about how to use Groovy to invoke standard actions, see the Tutorial: Installing and Configuring Oracle SOA Suite Using the LCM Tools.