WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Administration and Configuration Guide for the Full Profile

12 WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Administration and Configuration Guide for the Full Profile

To create a stand-alone application server, you must create a WebSphere Application Server

profile on a single (physical) machine or logical partition (LPAR) with one application server

only. The profile defines the application server, node, and cell.

You can manage the application server using the administrative console, wsadmin, and

command-line utilities. All of the configuration data for the application server, including the

installed applications, is stored in a configuration repository created when the profile is

created.

Figure 1-1 shows the system management components of a stand-alone application server

environment.

Figure 1-1 Stand-alone application server system management environment

1.6 System management in a distributed server environment

A single stand-alone server does not provide load balancing, scaling, or high-availability

capability; however, a distributed server environment can help you meet these challenges by

creating clusters of application servers. Clustered servers provide work load balancing,

session data replication, and failover.

At a high level, building a distributed server environment involves these steps:

1. You start by creating a deployment manager profile. The deployment manager is

responsible for administering the entire cell. A deployment manager administers one cell

only.

2. After the deployment manager is created, the next step is to create a custom profile, which

creates a second cell (defaultCell), a node, and a node agent. At this point, you do not

have a functioning application server environment, just the beginnings of one. Figure 1-2

on page 13 shows this temporary stage of the environment.

Stand-alone Application Server

Administrative

Console

wsadmin

Web Container

Admin

Application

Admin Service

Admin

MBeans

Web Services

Engine

Configuration

Repository

HTTP or

HTTPS

SOAP/HTTP

Embedded HTTP Server

Local (None) Connection

IIOP

C:\> wsadmin

Chapter 1. System management: Technical overview 13

3. The next step is to federate the node (NodeA in Figure 1-2) to the deployment manager’s

cell by using the addNode command. After being federated, NodeA is no longer part of the

defaultCell, but rather is part of the deployment manager’s cell (dmgrCell).

Figure 1-2 A deployment manager and unfederated custom profile

4. After the federation is complete, all administration of NodeA is delegated to the

deployment manager, and new application servers can be created on the node using the

administrative tools for the deployment manager. This environment is illustrated in

Figure 1-3 on page 14. Additional nodes can be added and servers created to create a

distributed server environment.

dmgrCell

dmgrNode

defaultCell

NodeA

Node Agent

Admin

Services

NodeA config

defaultCell config

Master

Repository

Cell config

EAR

Deployment Manager

Admin

Services

Web Container

dmgrNode config

C:\> wsadmin

Admin

Application

14 WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Administration and Configuration Guide for the Full Profile

Figure 1-3 The distributed server environment

1.6.1 Centralized changes to configuration and application data

The deployment manager maintains a master repository of all the configuration files for nodes

and servers in the cell. When configuration changes are made with the deployment manager,

the changes are first stored in the master repository. After that, automatic or manual

synchronization pushes the changes down to the affected nodes. Information about

synchronization appears in 1.6.4, “File synchronization in distributed server environments” on

page 20.

The configuration and application data repository is a collection of files that contain all of the

information that is necessary to configure and execute servers and their applications.

Configuration files are stored in XML format, while application data is stored as EAR files and

deployment descriptors.

Configuration repository directory structure

Each node containing a deployment manager, application server, administrative agent, or job

manager has its own profile directory under the install_root/profiles directory.

The repository files are arranged in a set of cascading directories within each profile directory

structure, with each directory containing a number of files relating to different components of

the cell, as shown in Figure 1-4 on page 15.

dmgrCell

dmgrNode

C:\> wsadmin

NodeB

NodeA

Deployment Manager

Web Container

Admin

Application

Master

EAR

Cell config

Node A Config

server1 config

server2 config

NodeB config

server3 config

Server4 config

dmgrNode config

Node Agent

Admin

Services

server3

server4

Repository

EAR

cellConfig

Server3 config

NodeB config

Server4 config

Node Agent

Admin

Services

server1

Repository

EAR

Cell config

Server1 config

Node A config

Server2 Config

server2

Admin

Services