Introduction: System administration

Note: If you would prefer to browse PDF versions of this documentation using your Adobe Reader, see the System Administration PDF files available from www.ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/infocenter.html.

A variety of tools are provided for administering the WebSphere Application Server product:

• Console

  The administrative console is a graphical interface that provides many features to guide you through deployment and systems administration tasks. Use it to explore available management options.

  For more information, refer to Introduction: Administrative console.

• Administrative agents

  Servers, nodes and node agents, cells and the deployment manager are fundamental concepts in the administrative universe of the product. It is also important to understand the various processes in the administrative topology and the operating environment in which they apply.

  For more information, refer to Welcome to basic administrative architecture.

• Scripting

  The WebSphere administrative (wsadmin) scripting program is a powerful, non-graphical command interpreter environment enabling you to run administrative operations in a scripting language. You can also submit scripting language programs to run. The wsadmin tool is intended for production environments and unattended operations.

  For more information, refer to Introduction: Administrative scripting (wsadmin).

• Commands

  Command-line tools are simple programs that you run from an operating system command-line prompt to perform specific tasks, as opposed to general purpose administration. Using the tools, you can start and stop application servers, check server status, add or remove nodes, and complete similar tasks.

  For more information, refer to Introduction: Administrative commands.

• Programming

  The product supports a Java programming interface for developing administrative programs. All of the administrative tools supplied with the product are written according to the API, which is based on the industry standard Java Management Extensions (JMX) specification.

  For more information, refer to Introduction: Administrative programs.

• Data

  Product configuration data resides in XML files that are manipulated by the previously-mentioned administrative tools.

  For more information, refer to Introduction: Administrative configuration data.