Configure assisted life-cycle WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers
After you manually create a middleware server representation of a WAS Community Edition server in the administrative console, you must update a few configuration settings so that they are defined specifically for the WAS Community Edition installation. If the middleware discovery function is enabled, we do not need to perform these steps.
Before you perform this task, consider the other options for configuring the WAS Community Edition servers:
- If we do not have an existing WebSphere Application Server Community Edition configuration, consider using complete life-cycle servers. By configuring complete life-cycle servers, we can deploy managed applications and create expression-based dynamic clusters that are made of WAS Community Edition servers. For more information, read about creating complete life-cycle WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers and dynamic clusters.
- If we enable middleware discovery, representations of the existing WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers and applications are automatically created. These representations are assisted life-cycle servers and unmanaged applications. You do not need to perform any of the additional steps in this task if middleware discovery is enabled. To enable middleware discovery for WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers, click System administration > Middleware descriptors > wasceRuntime. If the Discovery interval value is set to -1, discovery is disabled. Change this value to indicate the interval at which we want middleware discovery to run.
If middleware discovery is disabled, perform the manual steps in this task to create a representation of the WAS Community Edition in the Intelligent Management cell. As a prerequisite, federate the node running the WAS Community Edition server and create a representation of the server in the administrative console.
Perform this task only if we have an existing WebSphere Application Server Community Edition environment and we do not want to enable middleware discovery to automatically create a representation of the environment.
- Update the WebSphere variables so that they match the settings on the node running the WAS Community Edition server. In the administrative console, click Environment > WebSphere variables.
Edit the WASCE_HOME variable, which specifies the home directory of the WAS Community Edition installation. Default values are set at the cell scope level:
- C:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServerCommunityEdition
/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServerCommunityEdition
If the home directory is different on different nodes in our configuration, select the node scope and create the WASCE_HOME variable for the specific node.
- Update server operations for the WAS Community Edition server to include the user name and password.
- In the administrative console, click Servers > Server types > WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers > wasce_server > Server operations.
- Edit the start and stop server operations to include the user name and password required to run these commands.
Results
We created a representation of the WAS Community Edition server in the administrative console. To view all of the WAS Community Edition servers, click Servers > Server types > WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers.The list of servers that displays on this administrative console page includes all of your complete life-cycle, assisted life-cycle, and discovered WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers. If we have WebSphere Application Server Community Edition dynamic clusters defined, the cluster members are also listed on this administrative console page.
What to do next
- To use this configuration when we are configuring the other WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers, create a server template of the current WebSphere Application Server Community Edition server.
- To view the log files for the WAS Community Edition server in the administrative console, use the external log viewing service. This service is enabled by default. The following directories are configured by default:
- ${WASCE_HOME}/var/logs
- ${WASCE_HOME}/catalina/logs
- ${AGENT.HOME}/logs/${WAS_SERVER_NAME}
- To edit configuration files for the WAS Community Edition server, use the external configuration service. The ${WASCE_HOME}/var/config/config.xml file is included by default.
- After creating representations of all the WAS Community Edition servers, we can add the representations to a dynamic cluster. To cluster these servers, each server must be running the same applications and be running the same version of WAS Community Edition.
Related concepts
WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers
Related tasks
Add assisted lifecycle middleware servers Configure middleware server operations Create complete life-cycle WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers and dynamic clusters Add, managing, and removing nodes Add middleware servers to configurations Create middleware server templates Configure the external log viewing service Create dynamic clusters Create, editing, and deleting WebSphere variables
addNode command Intelligent Management: middleware server creation administrative tasks Intelligent Management: middleware server management administrative tasks