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

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

24.1 Working with applications

If an application is running when it is updated, WebSphere Application Server stops the

application or the affected components automatically, updates the application, and then

restarts the application or components.

When updating an application, only the portion of the application code that is changed needs

to be presented to the system. The application management logic calculates the minimum

actions that the system needs to execute to update the application. Under certain

circumstances, the update can occur without stopping any portion of the running application.

WebSphere Application Serveralso has support for managing applications in a cluster for

continuous availability. The Rollout Update action updates sequentially an application that is

installed on multiple cluster members across a cluster. After you update an application’s files

or configuration, use the Rollout Update option to install the application’s updated files or

configuration on all cluster members of a cluster on which the application is installed.

The Rollout Update option completes the following actions for each cluster member in

sequence:

1. Saves the updated application configuration.

2. Stops all cluster members on a given node.

3. Updates the application on the node by synchronizing the configuration.

4. Restarts the stopped cluster members on that node.

This action updates an application on multiple cluster members while providing continuous

availability of the application.

With WebSphere Application Server V8.5, you can also use application editions to manage

updates to your application, making it easier to rollout or rollback updates. The section 24.4,

“Application edition management and rollout” on page 889 details this feature.

WebSphere Application Server V8.5 introduces a feature for validating an application edition

before rolling it out. Setting and application edition to a validation state allows the application

to be tested in a more realistic environment without impacting the users. We show how to

accomplish this in 24.4, “Application edition management and rollout” on page 889.

WebSphere Application Server V8.5 supports an additional OSGi application type that has a

modular and dynamic design. WebSphere Application Server V8.5 features additional

functionality that is designed to manage the OSGi application lifecycle. We explain this

feature in more detail in 26.1.2, “OSGi bundle lifecycle” on page 926.

24.2 Replacing an entire application EAR file

If you are not using application editions to manage application updates, follow these

instructions to replace a full EAR file with a newer version:

1. Click Applications  Application Types  WebSphere enterprise applications.

Select the application to update and then click Update.

Chapter 24. Updating Java EE applications 881

2. In the Preparing for the application update window (Figure 24-1), select the Replace the

entire application option (this is the default option).

Figure 24-1 Application update options

3. Select either the Local file system or Remote file system option. Click Browse to select

the updated EAR file. Click Next.

4. Proceed through the application installation windows, and make any necessary changes.

The options for an application installation are described in 23.7, “Deploying the

application” on page 855. On the Summary window, click Finish.

5. To preview the files that are changed after the update installation, click the Review link.

Figure 24-2 on page 882 shows a changed files list.