Operating Systems: AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, Windows

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Validating an edition

You can install and test an edition under realistic conditions in parallel with WebSphere XDion application edition.

 

Before you begin

• Avoid trouble: Edition validation does not work properly for applications that are deployed on a dynamic cluster that has been converted from a static cluster.gotcha

• You must define unique routing rules for edition 2.0. Routing rules enable editions to run concurrently and hypertext transfer protocol requests for the validation edition to correctly route to the validation target without interfering with edition 1.0. For this scenario, use the my_application application. Install both application editions, 1.0 and 2.0, on the dynamic_cluster_1 dynamic cluster. See Creating routing policies for application editions for more information about creating routing rules for application editions.

• To set the operational mode of the cloned validation cluster to the a different mode from WebSphere XDion cluster, create the VALIDATION_OPERATIONALMODE custom property in the administrative console. Otherwise, the validation cluster is set to the same operational mode as WebSphere XDion cluster after it is created. Set the value to automatic, manual, or supervised. If you specify any other value or you do not specify a value, then the validation dynamic cluster is set to manual mode.

• Restriction: Only two cluster members can be used or created in validation mode. You can map routing and service policies to the validation mode application, but no more than two cluster members are started to maintain the work. You can overwrite this setting after the validation cluster is created by changing the minimum and maximum number of dynamic cluster instances.

• If you are a user with either a monitor or an operator role, then you can only view the application edition manager information. If you have the role of configurator or administrator, then you have all the configuration privileges for the application edition manager.

• To validate a new edition, add the validation cluster to the SIB bus.

 

About this task

Consider the following scenario: Edition 1.0 of an application is installed, active, and running on a dynamic cluster. Edition 2.0 is the candidate validation edition and is installed on the same deployment target in the inactive state. Validating edition 2.0 clones the edition 2.0 deployment target. For example, the validation might create a new dynamic cluster, such as the DC-Validation dynamic cluster, and map edition 2.0 to this new cluster. The cloned cluster uses the existing cluster members as the server template for the creation of the cloned servers.

After the validation clone target is created, edition 2.0 is activated, and the routing rules are defined, you can start, stop, and reconfigure the edition.

 

Procedure

1. Click Applications > Edition control center to verify that the application has two installed editions, with only one active edition.

2. Optional: If you want to create a validation cluster that has a different operational mode than WebSphere XDion cluster, you can define the VALIDATION_OPERATIONALMODE custom property on WebSphere XDion cluster. Add the validation cluster to the service integration bus (SIB). If you do not define this custom property, your validation cluster has the same operational mode as WebSphere XDion cluster.

3. Update the EJB reference bindings to specify the new cluster name. Before rolling out the application from the validation cluster, the bindings must be changed back.

4. Click the my_application application.

5. Select edition 2.0 and click Validate. The validation status page shows each step of validating the dynamic_cluster_1 dynamic cluster and deploying edition 2.0 to the cloned cluster. The application edition control center shows that one of the editions is in validation mode, and the manage editions page shows that the edition 2.0 target is now the dynamic_cluster_1-Validation dynamic cluster. The dynamic cluster page shows that the dynamic_cluster_1-Validation dynamic cluster is created, and the servers page shows the cloned servers. Tip: If you want to save the validation cluster after you perform the rollout, you can create the saveClonedCluster custom property on the validation cluster. Otherwise, the validation target is deleted after the edition rollout or after the validation is canceled. The saveClonedCluster custom property applies only to dynamic clusters. For more information, see Application edition manager custom properties.

6. Verify that the validation occurred correctly. Click Applications > Enterprise applications or Applications > All applications. Edit the my_application-edition2.0 application.

   • For PHP and WebSphere^® Application Server Community Edition applications:

     Verify that the context root, deployment targets, and so on are pointing to the cloned cluster.

   • For enterprise (Java™ 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE)) applications:

     Select Manage modules. Verify that edition 2.0 is mapped to the validation cluster. From the Map Enterprise JavaBeans™ (EJB) references to beans detail view, verify that the Java Naming and Directory Interface name is adjusted for the new cloned target name.

     For an application edition with fully qualified bindings based on the original deployment target name to operate correctly on a validation deployment target, change its binding names to reflect the fully qualified binding names based on the validation deployment target name. For example, an application with a resource reference bound to /clusters/clusterb1/jdbc/CustomerData must have the binding changed to /clusters/cluster1-validation/jdbc/CustomerData as the application is prepared to run on the deployment target clone.

7. Test the new edition. Start the validation cluster, and with your routing rules in place, try sending a request load to the edition 2.0 edition to test the edition. The edition 1.0 edition remains in production.

 

What to do next

If you successfully complete the edition 2.0 edition testing, you can replace the edition 1.0 edition with the edition 2.0 edition. If you encounter errors in your testing, you can cancel the validation mode.

• To replace edition 1.0 with edition 2.0:

  1. Stop the validation target, for example, dynamic_cluster_1-Validation.

  2. Delete the routing rules that are specific to edition 2.0 to route all requests for the application to a single edition. Save your changes and synchronize the nodes.

  3. Perform rollout to the new edition. Click Applications > Edition control center > application_name . Select edition 2.0 and click Rollout. During the rollout, edition 2.0 is retargeted to its original deployment target, for example, dynamic_cluster_1. The edition state transitions from validation to active.

• If edition 2.0 has errors, you can cancel validation mode and move edition 2.0 back to its original inactive state. As a result, the duplicate dynamic cluster that was created for validation is removed. See Canceling an application validation for more information.

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Previous topic
Activating concurrent editions

 

Related concepts

Application edition manager concepts
Troubleshooting application edition manager

 

Related tasks

Installing an edition
Rollout an edition
Rollback an edition
Creating dynamic clusters
Canceling an application validation

 

Related reference

Routing and service policies
Administrative roles and privileges
Application edition manager custom properties