What is new in this release

Operating Systems: AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, Windows, z/OS

What is new in this release

WebSphere^® Virtual Enterprise Version 6.1 adds support for management of middleware servers, custom health conditions and actions, enhanced reporting and charting, a new centralized installation manager, and new administrative scripting interfaces.

What is new or changed in WebSphere Virtual Enterprise V6.1.0.3

Server management

Support forVMware ESX You can configure WebSphere Virtual Enterprise to communicate with VMware ESX Version 3.5 and later by using Web services. See Configure VMware Infrastructure 3 platforms and WebSphere Virtual Enterprise for more information.
Variable to set maximum heap size for assisted life cycle servers You can use the SERVER_MAX_HEAP_SIZE variable to set the maximum heap size on an assisted life cycle server. See Middleware server variables for more information.
Application placement for cells that share the same nodes To support application placement on a set of nodes that are members of two different cells, you can configure the cells to communicate with each other. See Configure application placement for cells that share the same nodes for more information.
Application placement controller accounts for the deployment manager As a best practice, the deployment manager runs on a separate node from the rest of the nodes in the environment. With a virtualized environment, the deployment manager node might be running on the same physical computer as other server nodes. The application placement controller has been updated to make decisions with the knowledge that the deployment manager might be running on the same physical computer as other nodes in the environment.

Autonomic request flow manager

Memory overload protection You can configure memory overload (MOP) protection to limit the rate at which the on demand router (ODR) forwards traffic to prevent an OutOfMemoryException from occurring in an application server. See Memory overload protection for more information.

HTTP routing policy rules

Multi-cluster routing policy rules See Routing and service policies for HTTP multi-cluster routing policy rules information.

What is new or changed in WebSphere Virtual Enterprise V6.1.0.1

Server management

Extended support for WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers Complete lifecycle management is supported for WebSphere Application Server Community Edition V2 (all releases) servers. With complete lifecycle management, the environment can create new WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers. You can also create dynamic clusters of WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers with expression-based membership.
WebSphere Application Server Community Edition V1 and V2 servers can also be represented in the administrative console as assisted lifecycle servers. See Configure assisted life cycle WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers for more information.
Add representations of external WebSphere Application Server V5.1 and V6 (all releases) application servers You can create representations of external WebSphere application servers to your WebSphere Virtual Enterprise cell. As a result, these servers have assisted lifecycle management support. See Configure external WebSphere application servers for more information.

Autonomic request flow manager

Optional dialog-oriented admission control for CPU overload protection
Use the dialog-oriented admission control for CPU overload protection when it is important to make deliberate refusals of some offered load. See Configure the autonomic request flow manager.
Optional dialog-orientation for the queuing for CPU overload protection.
The queuing for CPU overload protection is normally dialog-oriented for HTTP. As well, the dialog orientation for the queuing for HTTP can be disabled. See Autonomic request flow manager custom properties.
SIP support.
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is supported.

Health management

Create custom health conditions in the administrative console Use a custom condition when the predefined health conditions do not fit your needs. You define custom conditions as a subexpression that is tested against metrics in your environment. You can create custom health conditions when you create a health policy. See Creating health policies for more information.
Predefined health conditions are expanded for WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers The excessive memory usage policy was expanded to support WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers. For more information about support for the predefined health conditions, see Health management.
Define custom health conditions for Web application level statistics You can define a health condition on the application level by editing the subexpression that you can generate in the administrative console. See Creating health policies for more information.

Runtime operations

Move charts into a new window You can move charts to a new window to continue viewing the chart while performing other tasks in the administrative console. You can also move the chart back to the original chart group. See Creating and managing reports for more information.
New deployment target, application, service policy, and dashboard operational summary views See Runtime operations overview for more information.
Improve the performance of operational alerts You can use custom properties to tune how and when operational alerts load in the administrative console. See Operational alerts custom properties for more information.
New administrative tasks to manage user preferences for runtime operations You can use the Jython scripting language to clone, set, and get preferences with the wsadmin tool. See Runtime operations user preferences administrative tasks for more information.

What is new or changed in WebSphere Virtual Enterprise Version 6.1

Following is a list of new features for WebSphere Virtual Enterprise Version 6.1:

Server management

Support for assisted lifecycle middleware servers With middleware servers, you can manage all of the servers in your environment, including servers that are not created with WebSphere Virtual Enterprise, through the WebSphere Virtual Enterprise administrative domain. You can create representations of servers that were created outside of the WebSphere Virtual Enterprise administrative domain in the administrative console. The middleware agent provides the information that WebSphere Virtual Enterprise needs to manage these servers. See Adding middleware servers to configurations for more information.
Support for externally installed middleware applications Create representations of unmanaged Web applications so that the on demand router (ODR) can route requests to applications that are installed outside of the WebSphere Virtual Enterprise environment to servers that are also configured externally. See Deploying unmanaged Web applications for more information.
Manage PHP servers, dynamic clusters, and applications By creating PHP servers or dynamic clusters, you can deploy PHP applications, and these applications become managed by WebSphere Virtual Enterprise. See Creating PHP servers and PHP dynamic clusters and Deploying PHP applications for more information.
Dynamic clusters are no longer dependent on node groups Instead of creating a static node group to define the nodes on which dynamic cluster instances run, you can create a dynamic cluster with a membership policy that specifies node properties to evaluate against all of the nodes in the cell. See Creating dynamic clusters for more information.
Dynamic cluster isolation Use dynamic cluster isolation to isolate applications from other applications that are deployed in the cell. See Dynamic cluster isolation for more information.
Server maintenance mode In addition to setting maintenance mode on a node, you can now set maintenance mode on individual servers. Use maintenance mode to perform diagnostic tasks, maintenance, or tuning on a node or server without fear of disrupting incoming traffic to that node or server in a production environment. See Setting maintenance mode for more information.

Health management

Custom health conditions Use a custom condition when the predefined health conditions do not fit your needs. You define custom conditions as a subexpression that is tested against metrics in your environment. Create a custom health condition by using the createHealthPolicy AdminTask command to create your health policy. See Health policy administrative tasks for more information.
Health actions The following health actions are new for V6.1:

Put server into maintenance mode
Put server into maintenance mode and break HTTP and SIP request affinity to the server
Take server out of maintenance mode

Custom health actions If the provided health actions do not meet your needs, you can create a custom health action. With a custom action, you define an executable file to run when the health condition breaches. You must define custom actions before you create the health policy that contains the custom actions. See Creating health policy custom actions for more information.

Runtime operations

Runtime topology and runtime maps have been replaced with new reporting and operational summary features

You can view, at a glance, the runtime information for the on demand routers, nodes, core groups, and core components in your environment. Core components include a variety of autonomic controllers and managers.
Create reports and charts to monitor statistics such as availability, response time, traffic, and throughput.
Save chart groups so that you can access the same data set the next time you log in.
See Runtime operations overview for more information.
Configure the timestamp format in the visualization data service You can configure the timestamp format that is saved in the log data by the visualization data service.
See Configure the visualization data service for more information.

Centralized installation manager

Simplify the tasks of deploying product components to your WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V6.1 cell or other server environments You can shorten the number of steps that are required to create and manage your environments.

Add installation packages to one or more target workstations. Monitor your submitted requests by viewing the progress, completion status, and log files of each.
Apply various types of maintenance to WebSphere XD environment, your WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment environment, or other server environments.
Create additional installation targets to enhance your environment.
See Use the centralized installation manager to manage your environment for more information.

New administrator scripting interfaces

Use the following administrator scripting interfaces to manage WebSphere XD outside of the administrative console:

Centralized installation manager administrative tasks
Dynamic cluster administrative tasks
Default work class administrative tasks
Health policy administrative tasks
Middleware application administrative tasks
Middleware server creation administrative tasks
Middleware server template administrative tasks
PHP server administrative tasks
Maintenance mode administrative tasks

Information center available on developerWorks^® wiki

An unofficial version of the information center is available on developerWorks on the WebSphere Extended Deployment wiki. After you log in to this wiki with your developerWorks ID, you can leave comments for the development team.

Support forVMware ESX	You can configure WebSphere Virtual Enterprise to communicate with VMware ESX Version 3.5 and later by using Web services. See Configure VMware Infrastructure 3 platforms and WebSphere Virtual Enterprise for more information.
Variable to set maximum heap size for assisted life cycle servers	You can use the SERVER_MAX_HEAP_SIZE variable to set the maximum heap size on an assisted life cycle server. See Middleware server variables for more information.
Application placement for cells that share the same nodes	To support application placement on a set of nodes that are members of two different cells, you can configure the cells to communicate with each other. See Configure application placement for cells that share the same nodes for more information.
Application placement controller accounts for the deployment manager	As a best practice, the deployment manager runs on a separate node from the rest of the nodes in the environment. With a virtualized environment, the deployment manager node might be running on the same physical computer as other server nodes. The application placement controller has been updated to make decisions with the knowledge that the deployment manager might be running on the same physical computer as other nodes in the environment.

Optional dialog-oriented admission control for CPU overload protection	Use the dialog-oriented admission control for CPU overload protection when it is important to make deliberate refusals of some offered load. See Configure the autonomic request flow manager.
Optional dialog-orientation for the queuing for CPU overload protection.	The queuing for CPU overload protection is normally dialog-oriented for HTTP. As well, the dialog orientation for the queuing for HTTP can be disabled. See Autonomic request flow manager custom properties.
SIP support.	Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is supported.

Create custom health conditions in the administrative console	Use a custom condition when the predefined health conditions do not fit your needs. You define custom conditions as a subexpression that is tested against metrics in your environment. You can create custom health conditions when you create a health policy. See Creating health policies for more information.
Predefined health conditions are expanded for WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers	The excessive memory usage policy was expanded to support WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers. For more information about support for the predefined health conditions, see Health management.
Define custom health conditions for Web application level statistics	You can define a health condition on the application level by editing the subexpression that you can generate in the administrative console. See Creating health policies for more information.

Move charts into a new window	You can move charts to a new window to continue viewing the chart while performing other tasks in the administrative console. You can also move the chart back to the original chart group. See Creating and managing reports for more information.
New deployment target, application, service policy, and dashboard operational summary views	See Runtime operations overview for more information.
Improve the performance of operational alerts	You can use custom properties to tune how and when operational alerts load in the administrative console. See Operational alerts custom properties for more information.
New administrative tasks to manage user preferences for runtime operations	You can use the Jython scripting language to clone, set, and get preferences with the wsadmin tool. See Runtime operations user preferences administrative tasks for more information.

Support for assisted lifecycle middleware servers	With middleware servers, you can manage all of the servers in your environment, including servers that are not created with WebSphere Virtual Enterprise, through the WebSphere Virtual Enterprise administrative domain. You can create representations of servers that were created outside of the WebSphere Virtual Enterprise administrative domain in the administrative console. The middleware agent provides the information that WebSphere Virtual Enterprise needs to manage these servers. See Adding middleware servers to configurations for more information.
Support for externally installed middleware applications	Create representations of unmanaged Web applications so that the on demand router (ODR) can route requests to applications that are installed outside of the WebSphere Virtual Enterprise environment to servers that are also configured externally. See Deploying unmanaged Web applications for more information.
Manage PHP servers, dynamic clusters, and applications	By creating PHP servers or dynamic clusters, you can deploy PHP applications, and these applications become managed by WebSphere Virtual Enterprise. See Creating PHP servers and PHP dynamic clusters and Deploying PHP applications for more information.
Dynamic clusters are no longer dependent on node groups	Instead of creating a static node group to define the nodes on which dynamic cluster instances run, you can create a dynamic cluster with a membership policy that specifies node properties to evaluate against all of the nodes in the cell. See Creating dynamic clusters for more information.
Dynamic cluster isolation	Use dynamic cluster isolation to isolate applications from other applications that are deployed in the cell. See Dynamic cluster isolation for more information.
Server maintenance mode	In addition to setting maintenance mode on a node, you can now set maintenance mode on individual servers. Use maintenance mode to perform diagnostic tasks, maintenance, or tuning on a node or server without fear of disrupting incoming traffic to that node or server in a production environment. See Setting maintenance mode for more information.