Distributing WebLogic Server

Instead of requiring your customers to purchase, install, and maintain both your application and a J2EE application server, you can bundle BEA's core technologies with your application and distribute both items as a single product. The plug-and-play environment of WebLogic Server makes it an ideal choice for integration with your product.

To distribute WebLogic Server, obtain and install a special license called an ISV license. (You do not need an ISV license to develop your application or to configure WebLogic Server.) Installing an ISV license for a WebLogic Server modifies the server and inextricably links files. Your distribution must include these modified WebLogic Server files.

To set up WebLogic Server files that you can distribute, complete the following tasks:

 

Upgrade an ISV License for Distributing a Newer Version of WebLogic Server

If you distributed an older version of WebLogic Server, upgrade your ISV license before distributing a newer version of WebLogic Server.

You do not need to upgrade your ISV license when you upgrade to a newer WebLogic Server service pack. For example, if you distributed WebLogic Server 8.1 sp1 and you want your subsequent distributions to include WebLogic Server 8.1 sp2, you do not need to upgrade your ISV license.

In addition, if your customers upgrade their installation with a WebLogic Server service pack release that they purchase from BEA, the license file that you distributed to them will be updated to enable the new service pack release. You do not need to distribute a new license file to customers who install new service packs of WebLogic Server on their own.

To upgrade your existing ISV license:

  1. Send an email to licensing@bea.com. In the email, request a new ISV license and attach the isv.jar file that contains your old license. If you are upgrading from WebLogic Server 5.1, attach your old license file.
  2. Install the WebLogic Server 8.1 Partner Development Kit.
  3. After you receive your new isv.jar file from BEA, install the new ISV license as described in Install the ISV License.
  4. Update your installer to include the new WebLogic Server files.

 

Enroll in the BEA Star Partner Program

BEA Systems, Inc. manages its relationships with Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Application Software Providers (ASPs) through the Star Partner Program. If you have not already enrolled in the BEA Star Partner Program:

  1. Verify that your target platforms are certified for use with WebLogic Server by referring to the BEA WebLogic Server Platform Support page, http://e-docs.bea.com/wls/certifications/certifications/index.html.
  2. Visit the BEA Star Partner Program Web site to learn about the program and to enroll. You can use the following URL to access the site: http://www.bea.com/partners.

 

Install the Partner Development Kit

After you enroll in the program, BEA ships a CD collection of all major BEA products. When the Partner Development Kit arrives, install the software from the CDs. For information on installing WebLogic Server, refer to the Installation Guide on the BEA documentation Web site, http://edocs.bea.com.

Caution: If you already have BEA products installed on the computer that you want to host your distributable WebLogic Server, back up your current BEA_HOME\license.bea file before installing the Partner Development Kit. For more information about the BEA home directory and the license.bea file, refer to BEA Home Directory in the Installing BEA WebLogic Server guide.

Instead of waiting for the CDs, you can download BEA software from the BEA Systems Download Center, http://commerce.beasys.com. If you have an active WebSUPPORT account, you can use your WebSUPPORT login password for software downloads.

 

Install the ISV License

After verifying your eligibility for the Star Partner Program, BEA sends an email that includes your customized ISV license in an attached file named isv.jar. This section describes how to install the ISV license file for WebLogic Server version 8.1 only. If you are installing an ISV license for other versions of WebLogic Server, please consult the relevant installation instructions for your software version.

There are three main steps to installing an ISV license:

 

Step 1: Preparing to Install an ISV License

Before you install an ISV license file, do the following:

  1. If you have not already done so, install WebLogic Server version 8.1 as described in the previous section, Install the Partner Development Kit.

    Note the location of the BEA home directory that the BEA installer uses. It contains a license.bea file, which will be updated in subsequent steps of this process. For more information about the BEA home directory and the license.bea file, refer to BEA Home Directory in the Installing BEA WebLogic Server guide.

  2. Copy the isv.jar file from your email to the BEA home directory that the installer used.
  3. Open a command shell and change directories to BEA_HOME, where BEA_HOME is the name of your BEA home directory.
  4. Run one of the following scripts to set environment variables:

    • WL_HOME\server\bin\setWLSEnv.cmd (Windows systems)
    • WL_HOME/server/bin/setWLSEnv.sh (UNIX systems)

    where WL_HOME is the directory in which you installed WebLogic Server. By default, this directory is directly below the BEA home directory.

    For example, in a bash shell on UNIX, enter the following command:

    [me@workstation]$ . WL_HOME/server/bin/setWLSEnv.sh

  5. Add isv.jar to the computer's CLASSPATH by entering one of the following commands:

    • set CLASSPATH=.\isv.jar;%CLASSPATH% (Windows systems)
    • export CLASSPATH=./isv.jar:$CLASSPATH (UNIX systems)

You are now ready to extract the ISV license data and link it to WebLogic Server files.

 

Step 2: Extracting the License Data and Linking WebLogic Server Files

To extract the ISV license data and link it to WebLogic Server files, enter one of the following commands from BEA_HOME:

  • java -Xmx128m -Dbea.home=BEA_HOME
    -Dbea.jar=WL_HOME\server\lib\weblogic.jar install (Windows systems)
  • java -Xmx128m -Dbea.home=BEA_HOME
    -Dbea.jar=WL_HOME/server/lib/weblogic.jar install (UNIX systems)

where BEA_HOME is an absolute pathname for your BEA home directory, and
WL_HOME is an absolute pathname for the directory in which you installed WebLogic Server.

Caution: Do not interrupt this process once it has started.

The command generates a file named BEA_HOME\license_isv.bea, which contains the ISV license data. It also links files within the WL_HOME directory to the specific ISV license. Only the files in the WL_HOME directory that you specified will be able to use the ISV license data that you extracted to license_isv.bea.

Note: With some platforms and JDKs, you might encounter an "Out of Memory Error." To address this error, increase the value for the -Xmx argument (which sets the maximum heap size in megabytes) and run the command again. For example, -Xmx150m increases the default heap size to 150 megabytes.

To complete the process for installing an ISV license, update the Weblogic Server license with the data in license_isv.bea.

 

Step 3: Updating the WebLogic Server License

To update the license.bea file with the newly generated license_isv.bea file, run one of the following commands from BEA_HOME:

  • UpdateLicense license_isv.bea (Windows systems)
  • sh UpdateLicense.sh license_isv.bea (UNIX systems)

The UpdateLicense command merges the license_isv.bea file with the license.bea file. After you run UpdateLicense, you do not need to keep the license_isv.bea file.

 

Next Steps: Configuring and Installing Your Application and WebLogic Server

After you install your ISV license:

  1. Start the ISV-licensed WebLogic Server.

    See "Starting and Stopping Servers in the Administration Console Online Help.

  2. Configure the server components and develop and deploy your application.

    See:

  3. (Optional) Create customized management components.

    See the "Extending the Administration Console guide and the "Programming WebLogic Management Services with JMX guide.

  4. Create scripts for starting WebLogic Server and your application.

    See Creating Startup Scripts.

  5. Use the Template Builder to save your application, server configuration, and startup scripts as a configuration template.

    See "Creating Configuration Templates Using the Template Builder in the Creating WebLogic Configurations Using the Configuration Wizard guide.

  6. Configure the WebLogic Server installation program and the Configuration Wizard to run in silent mode.

    Silent-mode is a way of setting installation and domain configurations only once and then using those configurations to duplicate the installation on many machines. The installation program installs the BEA license file, the WebLogic Server software (including the Configuration Wizard), and your configuration template. The Configuration Wizard creates domains based on your configuration templates.

    While running in silent mode, the installer and the Configuration Wizard read installation options from configuration files that you create. The programs do not display configuration options during the installation process. Silent-mode installation works on both Windows and UNIX systems.

    In previous releases of WebLogic Server, you could optionally run the Configuration Wizard as part of the silent installation process. In WebLogic Server 8.1, the Configuration Wizard cannot automatically be run with the WebLogic Server installation program. It must be run separately. However, you can run both the installation program and the Configuration Wizard in silent mode from the same script.

    For more information, see "Installing WebLogic Server Using Silent-Mode Installation in the Installation Guide and "Starting in Silent Mode in Creating WebLogic Configurations Using the Configuration Wizard.

    Make sure that you configure the installer to include the BEA license file (BEA_HOME\license.bea) and the WL_HOME\lib\weblogic.jar file that you specified in Step 3: Updating the WebLogic Server License. If you do not install both of the files that you specified, your embedded WebLogic Server will not start.

    You can use this same license.bea-weblogic.jar pair for all of your licensed installations.

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