Use properties files to manage system configuration
Use wsadmin.sh and properties files to administer your administrative architecture and runtime settings.
We can use properties files to manage the environment and configuration objects. We can extract configuration objects in simple properties file format, modify the extracted properties file, and apply the modified properties file to update the system configuration.
In addition to updating system properties, we can do the following:
- Extract properties required to run an administrative command.
- Run an administrative command using an extracted properties file.
- Extract or modify properties for any WCCM object type.
- Extract or modify all properties of an object type.
- Delete or remove a property and modify a property using a single properties file.
- Delete a configuration object in the same properties file used to create or modify properties.
A properties file extracted from a configuration contains the following information about the configuration:
- Required properties for creating a new object of any type.
- Default values for a property.
- Range of values for a property.
Properties files are portable. We can extract a properties file from one cell, modify some environment-specific variables in the extracted properties file, and then apply the modified properties file to another cell.
To use non-English, localized special characters in properties files, save the properties files using UTF-8 encoding. Using any other encoding might cause errors when the product resolves the non-English resources during properties file validation or cause incorrect value changes in the configuration files after applying the properties files.
- Manage environment configurations with properties files.
- Extract properties files.
- Validate properties files.
- Apply properties files.
- Run administrative commands using properties files.
- Extract or modify properties for a WCCM object type.
- Apply portable properties files across multiple environments.
- Manage specific configuration objects with properties files.
What to do next
Save the changes to the configuration.
Subtopics
- Manage environment configurations with properties files
Use this topic to modify the environment using properties files. We can use wsadmin.sh to generate, validate and apply properties files in the application server, profile, node, or other resource configurations.
- Extracting properties files
Use this topic to extract properties files from the configuration. We can use wsadmin.sh to extract properties files for cell, server, server subtype, and node configurations.
- Validating properties files
Use this topic to validate configuration properties before applying properties files to the configuration.
- Apply properties files
Use this topic and wsadmin.sh to apply modified configuration properties to the environment using properties files.
- Run administrative commands using properties files
Use wsadmin.sh to run an existing administrative command using properties file based configuration. The command must not contain a parameter that uses a complex data type. Supported parameter types are basic types such as String, Long, Integer, Float, Double, Boolean, Character, Short, Byte, URL, and ObjectName, and complex types such as Array of basic types, Properties, DownLoadFile, and UpLoadFile.
- Properties file syntax
To use the properties file based configuration tool, properties files must use supported syntax.
- PropertiesBasedConfiguration (AdminTask)
We can use scripting to customize part of the system configuration using properties files. The WebSphere configuration repository stores many different types of configurations. We can use properties files to customize some of these configurations. We can customize some configurations created by the WebSphere Common Configuration Model (WCCM) or configurations that are deployed as Java EE applications.
- Manage specific configuration objects using properties files
Use wsadmin.sh to change configuration properties and manage configuration objects of the environment using properties files.
Related tasks
Extracting or modifying WCCM object properties Apply portable properties files across multiple environments Create server, cluster, application, or authorization group objects using properties files and wsadmin scripting Delete server, cluster, application, or authorization group objects using properties files Create and delete configuration objects using properties files and wsadmin scripting Use wsadmin scripting Get started with wsadmin scripting