12.5.4 Step 4: Sharing utility JARs using shared libraries

In this situation, the VersionCheckerV2.jar file is used by a single application. What if you wanted to share it among multiple applications? Of course, you could package it within each EAR file. But changes to this utility JAR file require redeploying all applications again. To avoid this, you can externalize global utility JARs using a shared library.

Shared libraries can be defined at the cell, node, appserver, and cluster levels. Once you have defined a shared library, associate it to the class loader of an appserver, an application, or an individual Web module. Depending on the target the shared library is assigned to, WebSphere will use the appropriate class loader to load the shared library.

You can define as many shared libraries as you want. You can also associate multiple shared libraries with an application, Web module, or appserver.