Update applications

One can update an application deployed on a server. The steps below describe how to update a deployed application using the administrative console.

 

  1. Update the contents of the application and reassemble it, using the Application Assembly Tool. Typical tasks include adding or editing assembly properties, adding or importing modules into an application, and adding enterprise beans, Web components, and files.

  2. Go to the Applications page of the administrative console. Click Applications > Enterprise Applications in the console navigation tree.

  3. (Optional)  

    Back up the application. Place a checkmark in the check box beside the application you want uninstalled and click Export to export the application to an EAR file and preserve the binding information.

  4. With a checkmark beside the application, click Update.

    The binding information of the updated (new) version of the application merges with the binding information from the installed (old) version. Then, the older version uninstalls from the configuration and the new version installs.

  5. Complete the steps in the Preparing for application install page and the pages that follow it. See information on installing applications and on the settings page for application installation for guidance.

    Note that the installation steps have the merged binding information from the new version and the old version. If the new version has bindings for application artifacts such as EJB JNDI names, EJB references or resource references, then those bindings will be part of the merged binding information. If new bindings are not present, then bindings are taken from the installed (old) version. If bindings are not present in the old version and if the default binding generation option is enabled, then the default bindings will be part of the merged binding information.

    One can select whether to ignore bindings in the old version or ones in the new version.

  6. (Optional)  

    Map the installed application or module to servers or clusters. Use the Map modules to appservers page of the Install New Application pages displayed during updating the application. Or, after updating the application, use the Map modules to appservers page accessed from the Enterprise Applications page.

    1. Go to the Map modules to appservers page. Click Applications > Enterprise Applications in the console navigation tree, click the application name, and then click Map modules to application servers.
    2. Specify the appserver where you want to install modules contained in your application and click OK.

  7. Click Save on the admistrative console taskbar to save the changes to your configuration. In the single server (base) product, after you click Save the old version of the application is uninstalled and the new version is installed into the configuration. The application binaries for the old version are deleted from the destination directory and the new binaries are copied to the directory. In the Network Deployment product, the old application files are deleted and new files are copied when the configuration on the deployment manager synchronizes with the configuration on the node where the application is installed.

    If the application is running when you update it, the application stops running before its files are copied to the destination directory of the node and restarts after the copy operation completes. Thus, the application is unavailable on the node during the time the node is synchronizing its configuration with the deployment manager.

  8. Restart the application so the changes take effect. If the application is updated while it is running, WebSphere Application Server stops the application, updates the application logic and restarts the application.

    1. Click Applications > Enterprise Applications in the console navigation tree to go to the Enterprise Applications page.
    2. Check the check box for the updated application.
    3. Click Start.

Note that you can also update applications using the wsadmin tool, which provides updating capabilities identical to those provided by clicking Update on the Enterprise Applications page. Further, in some situations, you can update applications without needing to restart the applications.

Deploying and managing applications
Deploying and managing using scripting