Liberty resources

Supported Liberty resources include project, runtime, Liberty server, application binary, and SDK.

Liberty resources can be packaged into one or more compressed (.zip) files. Use the job manager in the WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment product to deploy the resources to remote hosts. The grouping of the resources within a compressed file affects the scope and sharing of the resources.

Descriptions of Liberty resource types follow:

project

An optional container for resources. We can group related resources under the same project for ease of management and to avoid name conflicts with resources from other projects.

runtime

The Liberty runtime, which includes the bin, clients, dev, lafiles, lib, and templates directories.

A customized instance of the runtime can include the etc directory with optional environment configuration files server.env and jvm.options.

liberty_server

A directory containing a server configuration file, server.xml, and the optional environment configuration files bootstrap.properties, server.env, and jvm.options. This directory is also the default location for the server working directory and log directory.

A server can be embedded in a runtime or isolated (separated) from the runtime. Configure isolated servers to use a specific instance of the runtime. We can administer isolated servers only using the job manager. (Command-line administration is not possible.)

application_binary

An archive or a directory containing an application. The application binary is optionally deployed to a Liberty server. An application can be embedded in a server, embedded in a runtime, or isolated (separated) from the runtime.

sdk

The Java software development kit that supports the Liberty servers and related tools. The SDK resource contains the directory path JRE_name/jre/bin/java or JRE_name/bin/java, where JRE_name is the name of the Java runtime environment.

Example Liberty resources

Each of the following example Liberty resources includes a resource name, a resource ID, and a location on disk. The runtime, Liberty server, application binary, and SDK resources are included in a project resource named project1; however, project membership is optional for all resource types. Each resource is assumed to be installed in base directory /liberty.

• project
  • Resource name: project1
  • Resource ID: project/project1
  • Location on disk: /liberty/project1

• runtime
  • Resource name: wlp
  • Resource ID: project/project1/runtime/wlp
  • Location on disk: /liberty/project1/wlp

• liberty_server
  • Embedded in runtime
    • Resource name: server1
    • Resource ID: project/project1/runtime/wlp/liberty_server/server1
    • Location on disk: /liberty/project1/wlp/usr/servers/server1

  • Isolated from runtime
    • Resource name: server2
    • Resource ID: project/project1/liberty_server/server2
    • Location on disk: /liberty/project1/servers/server2

• application_binary
  • Embedded in server apps directory
    • Resource name: apps_app1.war
    • Resource ID: project/project1/runtime/wlp/liberty_server/server1/application_binary/apps_app1.war
    • Location on disk: /liberty/project1/wlp/usr/servers/server1/apps/app1.war

  • Embedded in server dropins directory
    • Resource name: dropins_app2.war
    • Resource ID: project/project1/runtime/wlp/liberty_server/server1/application_binary/dropins_app2.war
    • Location on disk: /liberty/project1/wlp/usr/servers/server1/dropins/app2.war

  • Embedded in runtime shared apps directory
    • Resource name: app3.war
    • Resource ID: project/project1/runtime/wlp/application_binary/app3.war
    • Location on disk: /liberty/project1/wlp/usr/shared/apps/app3.war

  • Isolated from runtime
    • Resource name: app4.war
    • Resource ID: project/project1/application_binary/app4.war
    • Location on disk: /liberty/project1/apps/app4.war

• sdk
  • Resource name: jre
  • Resource ID: project/project1/sdk/jre
  • Location on disk: /liberty/project1/jre

Resource sharing and packaging

We can deploy self-contained Liberty installations that include the runtime, one or more embedded servers, and one or more embedded applications. To simplify initial deployment and ongoing administration of large multiple-server environments, we can also deploy Liberty installations where the runtime, application binary, and SDK resources are shared by multiple servers that reside on one host, or even many hosts.

Packaging Liberty resources illustrates several different deployment schemes and provides detailed information about configuring and packaging the resources for deployment to target hosts.

Related:

Job manager resources

Job manager targets

Packaging Liberty resources