Operating Systems: AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, Windows, z/OS
Middleware nodes and servers
The term middleware server refers to a server on any middleware platform. Middleware servers include the following types: WebSphere® Application Server or WebSphere Virtual Enterprise, Apache Tomcat servers, JBoss servers, BEA WebLogic servers, PHP servers, and so on.
V6.0.x support
With WebSphere Extended Deployment Version 6.0.x, application servers of other middleware platform types were supported by using the mixed server environment offering. To support these middleware platform types, the remote agent was installed on the nodes, and generic server clusters were created, adding the application servers as generic endpoints. Because this configuration gave Extended Deployment limited knowledge of the middleware application servers, only traffic shaping and prioritization of requests to the generic endpoints were supported.
V6.1
WebSphere Virtual Enterprise Version 6.1 introduces enhanced support for environments outside of WebSphere XD domain. Application servers that run on other middleware platforms are represented more thoroughly in WebSphere XD administrative domain because the middleware agent is installed on these machines. The application placement controller is capable of managing dynamic clusters that are made up of these server types. Some health management is also supported for the other middleware platform servers.
Middleware agent
The middleware agent is a light weight agent that you can install on the nodes that you want WebSphere Virtual Enterprise to manage. The middleware agent can run on any node. Nodes that run the middleware agent do not need WebSphere Application Server or WebSphere Virtual Enterprise installations on the node. The middleware agent replaces the remote agent. Important: Middleware agents are not supported on z/OS systems. You cannot federate middleware agents from distributed platforms into a z/OS deployment manager.
Middleware server types
- Complete life cycle management serversComplete life cycle management servers include servers that WebSphere Virtual Enterprise can both create and manage. A managed node contains an application server process that runs within the deployment manager cell. The following managed middleware server types are supported:
All servers that are administered by complete life cycle support must be administered from the WebSphere Virtual Enterprise administrative console. For example, do not administer complete life cycle WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers from the WebSphere Application Server Community Edition console.
- WebSphere Application Server related servers, including application servers, on demand routers (ODR), proxy servers, and so on
- PHP servers
- WebSphere Application Server Community Edition 2.0 (all releases)
Create complete life cycle WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers from previously unused installations of WebSphere Application Server Community Edition Version 2.0 or V2.0.0.1.
- Assisted life cycle management serversAssisted life cycle management servers include servers that WebSphere Virtual Enterprise can manage, but are created outside of the WebSphere Virtual Enterprise administrative domain, usually specific to the system with which the server is associated. Install the middleware agent on these hosts and associate them with the WebSphere Virtual Enterprise administrative domain. On configured hosts, WebSphere Virtual Enterprise can then start and stop the servers, route traffic to the servers, prioritize requests to the servers, and so on. WebSphere Virtual Enterprise supplies templates for the following assisted life cycle middleware server types:
- Apache HTTP Server V1.3, V2.0, and V2.2
- Apache Tomcat V4.1.x, V5.0.x, V5.5.x, and V6.0
- Apache Geronimo V1.0 and V1.1
- JBoss V4.0.x
- BEA WebLogic Server V8.x and V9.x
- WebSphere Application Server Community Edition
- External WebSphere application servers, V5.1 and later.
- Custom HTTP servers
For any other server types, you can develop your own templates.
Administer assisted life cycle servers from their respective administrative consoles. For example, assisted life cycle WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers are administered from the WebSphere Application Server Community Edition console. Any representational revisions must be entered into theWebSphere Virtual Enterprise administrative console.
- Discovered servers
Discovered servers are servers that are found by middleware discovery. Middleware discovery can find existing installations of WebSphere Application Server Community Edition and create representations of these servers in the WebSphere Virtual Enterprise administrative console. These servers are represented as assisted life cycle servers. You can group these servers together into a dynamic cluster, but the dynamic clusters must have manual membership. You cannot create expression-based dynamic clusters of discovered servers. Middleware discovery can also find the applications that are deployed to these servers and represent them in the WebSphere Virtual Enterprise administrative console as unmanaged applications.
Like assisted life cycle servers, administer discovered servers from their respective administrative consoles. For example, administer WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers from the WebSphere Application Server Community Edition console. Make any representational revisions in theWebSphere Virtual Enterprise administrative console.
Definition
The support that WebSphere Virtual Enterprise offers differs between complete, discovered, and assisted life cycle servers.
- For complete life cycle management middleware servers, define the servers in the administrative console. Management of these servers is the same as in previous releases.
- For assisted lifecycle middleware servers, use the following approach to register the servers with the WebSphere Virtual Enterprise configuration: Manually define the server in the administrative console. Use server templates to define the middleware servers. Server templates include the following information:
WebSphere Virtual Enterprise is delivered with a set of default server templates for the different middleware server types.
- Default ports for routing traffic to the server
- Commands for starting and stopping the server
- Default list of core configuration files that make up the external server for the external configuration editing service
- Default list of directories where log files exist for the external log viewing service
- For discovered servers, middleware discovery locates existing installations of WebSphere Application Server Community Edition and their installed applications, and creates a representation of these servers and applications in the WebSphere Virtual Enterprise cell. These servers and applications are represented as assisted life cycle servers and unmanaged applications.
Management
You can manage certain aspects of assisted life cycle and discovered middleware servers with the administrative console.
- With server operations, you can run a Java or non-Java executable file on your middleware server from the administrative console.
- With the log viewer, you can view the log files for your middleware servers from the administrative console.
- With external configuration, you can configure the administrative console so that you can view and edit configuration documents for your middleware servers.
Other WebSphere Virtual Enterprise management features, such as dynamic clusters, health policies, service policies, runtime tasks, reporting, and so on, offer varied support for assisted life cycle and discovered middleware servers.
Related concepts
Middleware agent
Related tasks
Preparing the hosting environment for dynamic operations
Federating middleware nodes
Creating PHP servers and PHP dynamic clusters
Adding middleware servers to configurations
Creating middleware server templates
Configure the external log viewing service
Configure middleware server operations