Create complete life-cycle WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers and dynamic clusters

We can create WebSphere Application Server Community Edition complete life-cycle management servers and expression-based dynamic clusters. We can deploy managed applications to those servers and dynamic clusters.

• Determine the version of WAS Community Edition to run:

  • For complete life-cycle management, use WebSphere Application Server Community Edition Version 2 or later.

  • Additional steps are required to enable JMX security in WebSphere Application Server Community Edition Version 2.1. For more information, read about configuring JMX security for WebSphere Application Server Community Edition Version 2.1 servers.

  • If we are using WebSphere Application Server Community Edition Version 1 (all releases), we can only use assisted life-cycle management. For information about configuring assisted life-cycle servers, read about configuring assisted lifecycle WebSphere Application Server Community Edition.

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• Install the WAS Community Edition runtime environment to the nodes on which to run servers. We can either use the installation wizard included in WebSphere Application Server Community Edition, or we can configure the centralized installation manager to install the runtime environment.

• Federate the nodes into the cell.

1. Configure the middleware descriptors so that we can run discovery to find the WAS Community Edition runtime environment. If we use the centralized installation manager to install WebSphere Application Server Community Edition, we can skip this step. In the console, click System administration > Middleware descriptors > wasceRuntime. The discovery service uses middleware descriptors to define where to look for the runtime environment. Verify that the middleware descriptors contain the correct installation locations for the environment. The default values:

   • C:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServerCommunityEdition

   • /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServerCommunityEdition

2. Run discovery to find the WAS Community Edition runtimes on the nodes to host servers. If we use the centralized installation manager to install WebSphere Application Server Community Edition, we can skip this step. Discovery runs automatically when the node agent starts. Discovery also runs at a predefined time interval that we can specify in the middleware descriptor. However, we can also invoke discovery with the following steps:

   1. In the console, click System administration > Middleware nodes.

   2. Select the nodes to run through discovery, and select the Run discovery operational action.

   3. Click Run.

   4. Verify that the discovery service found the runtime environment. In the console, click System administration > Middleware nodes > node > Node installation properties. If any runtime environments exist, then properties that begin with WASCE strings are displayed.
   Only the default installation location is listed in the wasceRuntime middleware descriptor. We can modify the middleware descriptor so that the discovery looks for the correct installation location.

3. Create WebSphere Application Server Community Edition deployment targets. The deployment target is where you deploy the WAS Community Edition application. We can create individual WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers or dynamic clusters.

   • Create a WAS Community Edition server.

     1. In the console, click Servers > New server. Choose Create a new server instance, and select the WAS Community Edition server type. We can also click Servers > Server types > WebSphere Application Server Community Edition server > New.

     2. Select the node on which we want the WAS Community Edition server to run. This node must have the WAS Community Edition runtime.

     3. Choose the WAS Community Edition server template.

     4. Confirm and save the WAS Community Edition server.

   • Create a WAS Community Edition dynamic cluster.

     1. In the console, click Servers > Clusters > Dynamic clusters > New.

     2. Choose the WAS Community Edition server dynamic cluster type, and name the dynamic cluster.

     3. To create a dynamic cluster with complete life-cycle management, choose Automatically define cluster members with rules. Define a membership policy to identify which nodes host the WAS Community Edition servers in the dynamic cluster. These nodes must have the WAS Community Edition runtime environment installed. The default membership policy follows:
        node_property$IS_WASCE_DISCOVERED = 'TRUE'

        This membership policy looks for WebSphere Application Server Community Edition Version 2.0 and later runtimes.

        To specify a specific version, you might use the following membership policy:

        node_property$WASCE_2.0.0 IS NOT NULL

        This policy defines membership as all nodes that run WebSphere Application Server Community Edition Version 2.0.0. The group of nodes defined must have the exact same version of WAS Community Edition installed. For example, we cannot combine Version 1 and 2 servers in the same dynamic cluster.

     4. Select the server template for the WAS Community Edition runtime environment that you are using.

     5. Specify other dynamic cluster properties.

     6. Save the WAS Community Edition dynamic cluster.

Results

The new server displays in the list on the Servers > Server types > WebSphere Application Server Community Edition server console page. If we see an error status icon (

), the creation process did not complete. This error can occur because of problems in the WAS Community Edition server runtime environment. Delete the server and try creating the server again.

The list of servers that displays on this console page includes all of the 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 console page.

What to do next

• Deploy applications to the WAS Community Edition servers and dynamic clusters. For more information, read about deploying WebSphere Application Server Community Edition applications.

• Stop discovery from examining the installation location that you used to create the managed servers.

  • If we used discovery to find the WAS Community Edition runtime environment, we can disable discovery globally or we can remove the specific installation location from the middleware descriptor.

  • If we installed the WAS Community Edition runtime environment with the centralized installation manager, discovery was not needed to register the configuration. Do not include centralized installation manager paths in the discovery paths in the middleware descriptor. If we used the default centralized installation manager installation location, you must globally disable discovery or change the default discovery location to a different path.

  For more information, read about configuring middleware descriptors.

Do not use the WAS Community Edition console to edit the complete lifecycle servers, except for functions that are not available with Intelligent Management . Using the WAS Community Edition console can cause unexpected results. For example, if you edit the server port numbers in the WAS Community Edition console, the port value configured for Intelligent Management is overridden with the new value.

Subtopics

• (dist)(zos) WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers
  We can centrally manage WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers and applications along with the other servers and applications from the Intelligent Management environment.

• (dist)(zos) Configure JMX security for WebSphere Application Server Community Edition Version 2.1 servers
  If we use the JMX security feature in WebSphere Application Server Community Edition Version 2.1, additional steps are required to enable the Intelligent Management security feature.

Related concepts

WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers

Middleware nodes and servers

Related tasks

Create dynamic clusters

Add middleware servers to configurations

Add, managing, and removing nodes

Deploy WebSphere Application Server Community Edition applications

Create middleware server templates

Configure middleware descriptors

Configure assisted life-cycle WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers

Configure JMX security for WebSphere Application Server Community Edition Version 2.1 servers

addNode command

Intelligent Management: middleware server creation administrative tasks

Intelligent Management: middleware server management administrative tasks