Middleware nodes and servers
The term middleware server refers to a server on any middleware platform. Middleware servers include the following types:
- WebSphere Application Server
- Liberty profile servers
- Apache Tomcat servers
- JBoss servers
- BEA WebLogic servers
- PHP servers
- etc...
Support
Intelligent Management offers enhanced support for environments outside of the product domain. Application servers that run on other middleware platforms are represented more thoroughly in the product administrative domain because the node agent is installed on these machines. The application placement controller can manage dynamic clusters that are made up of these server types. Some health management is also supported for the other middleware platform servers.
Middleware server types
- Complete lifecycle management servers (deprecated)
Deprecated feature: Assisted and Complete Lifecycle servers have been deprecated in WAS v9.0. Migrate WebSphere Liberty servers to a Liberty Collective configuration. There is no recommended migration action for other server
types.depfeat
Complete lifecycle management servers include servers that the product can both create and manage to support application server virtualization. The following managed middleware server types are supported:
- WAS related servers that are part of an Intelligent Management cell: application servers, on demand routers (ODR), and proxy servers.
- PHP servers
- WAS Community Edition 2.0 (all releases)
All servers that are administered by complete lifecycle support must be managed from the administrative console. For example, do not manage complete lifecycle WAS Community Edition servers from the WAS Community Edition console.
Create complete lifecycle WAS Community Edition servers from previously unused installations of WAS Community Edition v2.x or Version 3.x.
- Assisted lifecycle management servers (deprecated)
Deprecated feature: Assisted and Complete Lifecycle servers have been deprecated in WAS v9.0. Migrate WebSphere Liberty servers to a Liberty Collective configuration.depfeat
Assisted lifecycle management servers include servers that Intelligent Management can manage, but are created outside of the Intelligent Management administrative domain, usually specific to the system with which the server is associated. Install the node agent on these hosts and associate them with the Intelligent Management administrative domain. On configured hosts, Intelligent Management can then start and stop the servers, route traffic to the servers, prioritize requests to the servers, and so on. Intelligent Management supplies templates for the following assisted lifecycle middleware server types:
- Apache HTTP Server Version 1.3, v2.0, and v2.2
- Liberty profile server v8.5.x
- Apache Tomcat Version 4.1.x, v5.0.x, v5.5.x, and v6.0
- Apache Geronimo Version 1.0 and Version 1.1
- JBoss Version 4.0.x and v6.0
- BEA WebLogic Server v8.x, v9.x, Version 10.x
- WAS Community Edition
- WAS, v5.1 and later, that run outside of the Intelligent Management cell.
- Custom HTTP servers
For any other server types, we can develop our own templates.
Administer assisted lifecycle servers from their respective administrative consoles or using wsadmin.sh. For example, assisted lifecycle WAS Community Edition servers are administered from the WAS Community Edition console.
- Discovered servers
Deprecated feature: Assisted and Complete Lifecycle servers have been deprecated in WAS v9.0. Migrate WebSphere Liberty servers to a Liberty Collective configuration. There is no recommended migration action for other server
types.depfeat
Discovered servers are servers that are found by middleware discovery. Middleware discovery can find existing installations of WAS Community Edition and create representations of these servers in the administrative console. These servers are represented as assisted lifecycle servers. We can group these servers together into a dynamic cluster, but the dynamic clusters must have manual membership. We cannot create expression-based dynamic clusters of discovered servers. Middleware discovery can also find the applications deployed to these servers and represent them in the administrative console as unmanaged applications.
Like assisted lifecycle servers, administer discovered servers from their respective administrative consoles. For example, administer WAS Community Edition servers from the WAS Community Edition console. Make any representational revisions in the administrative console.
Definition
The Intelligent Management support is specific for each of the following server categories: complete, discovered, and assisted lifecycle servers.
- For complete lifecycle management middleware servers, define the servers in the administrative console. Management of these servers is the same as in previous releases.
- For assisted lifecycle middleware servers, use the following approach to register the servers with the Intelligent Management configuration:
Install the node agent on the server and manually define the server in the administrative console. Use server templates to define the middleware servers. Server templates include the following information:
- Default ports for routing traffic to the server
- Commands for starting and stopping the server
- Default list of core configuration files that make up the external server for the external configuration editing service
- Default list of directories where log files exist for the external log viewing service
Intelligent Management includes a set of default server templates for the different middleware server types.
- For discovered servers, after installing the node agent, middleware discovery locates existing installations of WAS Community Edition and their installed applications, and creates a representation of these servers and applications in the Intelligent Management cell. These servers and applications are represented as assisted lifecycle servers and unmanaged applications.
Management
We can manage certain aspects of assisted lifecycle and discovered middleware servers with the administrative console.
- With Server operations, we can run a Java or non-Java executable file on the middleware server from the administrative console.
- With the Log viewer, we can view the log files for our middleware servers from the administrative console.
- With External configuration, we can configure the administrative console so that we can view and edit configuration documents for our middleware servers.
Other Intelligent Management management functions, such as dynamic clusters, health policies, service policies, runtime tasks, and reporting, offer varied support for assisted lifecycle and discovered middleware servers.
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