This topic describes the family of WebSphere Application Server products.
The WebSphere software platform for e-business starts with a foundation that is formed from Web application serving and integration. IBM WebSphere Application Server software provides the core software to deploy, integrate, and manage your e-business applications.
WebSphere Application Server software supports custom-built applications that are either based on integrated WebSphere software platform products or on other third-party products. Such applications can range from dynamic Web presentations to sophisticated transaction processing systems.
IBM WebSphere Application Server - Express, WebSphere Application Server, and WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment are incrementally related. As you scale up your e-business demand, you can also scale up your e-business capability by moving from one product to the next.
IBM WebSphere Application Server for z/OS is a full-function version of the Network Deployment product. WebSphere Application Server for z/OS can support e-business on any scale.
The Express product is the entry point for a single distributed environment machine. The base Application Server product differs from the Express product in licensing and tooling support. The Network Deployment product and the WebSphere Application Server for z/OS product include all of the Application Server functionality of the other two products and also offer multiple-machine hosting and centralized management through a deployment manager process.
The management interface for all WebSphere Application Server product offerings includes a scripting interface and the administrative console, which is a Web application.
The scripting interface and the administrative console of the deployment manager are enhanced for managing all of the Application Servers in a distributed network cell. From the single point of control of the deployment manager, you can define servers, Web server processes, and clusters. You can start and stop servers and cluster members and deploy applications anywhere in the cell.
This product offering addresses the basic programming and run-time needs of desktop developers and single-server production scenarios. The run-time
environment addresses standards-based programming for Web and component-based programming, as well as Web services.
The administration model for this offering is a single-server environment without clustering, and without centralized administration of multiple server instances.
The Express product package includes the Rational Web Developer tool, which is a fully integrated development environment (IDE). Rational Web Developer is an enhanced version of the WebSphere Studio Site Developer in Version 5. The Express package also includes the Application Server Toolkit.
Installing the Express product offering on the same machine as the Rational Web Developer is not necessary. The IDE contains a replica of the Version 6 Application Server as a test environment.
This product offering addresses the basic programming and run-time needs of desktop developers and single-server production scenarios. The run-time
environment addresses standards-based programming for Web and component-based programming, as well as Web services.
The administration model is a single-server environment without clustering, and without centralized administration of multiple server instances.
The development environment offering is the Application Server Toolkit and a trial version of the Rational Application Developer product. The Rational Application Developer is an enhanced version of the WebSphere Studio Application Developer in Version 5.
The deployment manager provides centralized administration of managed Application Server nodes and custom nodes as a single cell. The deployment manager provides basic clustering and caching support, including failover support and workload balancing. Use the Edge components in the Network Deployment package to further extend the environment with sophisticated caching, load balancing, and enhanced security functions.
The Application Server in the Network Deployment product can run in a deployment manager cell as a managed node or on its own as a stand-alone Application Server.
A custom node is an empty node until you add it to the deployment manager cell for customization. Use the administrative console of the deployment manager to create servers and clusters on the custom managed node. Consider the custom node as a production-ready shell, ready for customization to contain your production-level servers and applications.
See Step 1: Prepare for the installation for more information.
Version 6 separates the core product binary data from the data that you create as you define and customize your Application Server run-time environment. You can have multiple sets of customized run-time environments. Each environment is known as a profile in Version 6.
Application Server environments that are created during product installation
| Product | Default environments | Application Server instances created during installation |
|---|---|---|
| WebSphere Application Server - Express | One stand-alone Application Server profile named default. | server1 |
| WebSphere Application Server | One stand-alone Application Server profile named default. | server1 |
| Network Deployment |
A default run-time environment is created on the OS/400 platform.
Two profiles are created:
After the installation has completed, you can use the addNode script or the deployment manager administrative console to add the default profile to the cell managed by the dmgr profile. |
|
Install the Network Deployment product on each machine in a multiple-machine, distributed environment to give each server process access to a local copy of the core product files.
Many programming model extensions that were formerly part of the Enterprise (V5.0.x) product or the WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation (V5.1.x) product are now integrated into Version 6. Among the applications are:
Each product package contains several CDs. Use the links below to view the CDs included for the product you are interested in: