System Administration Tools

At the end of this chapter you will be able to:

• Overview of the Administration Console
  • Uses of the Admin Console
  • Elements of the Admin Console
  • Dynamic and Non-Dynamic Changes
• Overview of the WLST (Command Line Interface)
  • Modes of Operation
  • Steps for using WLST

An Administration Server must be running when you use the system administration tools to manage a domain. The following tools are discussed in this chapter:

• System Administration Console
• Command-Line Interface(WLST)

  Overview of the Administration Console The Administration Console is a Web browser-based, graphical user interface that you use to manage a WebLogic Server domain. A WebLogic Server domain is a logically related group of WebLogic Server resources that you manage as a unit. A domain includes one or more WebLogic Servers and may also include WebLogic Server clusters. Clusters are groups of WebLogic. Servers’ instances that work together to provide scalability and high-availability for applications.   Use the Administration Console to:

• Configure, start, and stop WebLogic Server instances
• Configure WebLogic Server clusters
• Configure WebLogic Server services, such as DB connectivity (JDBC) and messaging (JMS).
• Configure security parameters, including managing users, groups, and roles
• Configure and deploy your applications
• Monitor server and application performance
• View server and domain log files
• View application deployment descriptors
• Edit selected run-time application deployment descriptor elements

  To start the Administration Console:

1. Start an Administration Server.
2. Open one of the supported Web browsers to the following URL:

http://hostname:port/console    https://hostname:secureport/console hostname := name or IP address of the administration server port := port number the administration server is listening on secureport := SSL port number the administration server is listening on Example URLs: http://localhost:7001/console http://adminDNSName:7001/console https://127.0.0.1:7002/console When the login page appears, enter the user name and the password you used to start the Administration Server. Elements of the Administration Console The Administration Console user interface includes the following panels.   1) Change Center This is the starting point for using the Administration Console to make changes in WebLogic Server.   2) Domain Structure  This panel contains a tree structure you can use to navigate to pages in the Administration Console. Select any of the nodes in the Domain Structure tree to view that page. Click a + (plus) icon in the Domain Structure to expand a node and a - (minus) icon to collapse the node. 3) How do I... This panel includes links to online help tasks that are relevant to the current Console page. 4) Tool Bar The tool bar at the top of the Console includes the following elements: Welcome message: Indicates user name which you have logged into the Console. Connected to:  The IP address and port you used to connect to the Console. Home:  A link to the top page of the Console. Log Out:  Click to log out of the Console. Preferences:  A link to a page where you can change some Console behavior. Help: A link to the Administration Console Online Help. AskBea:  A Link to Support Team.   5) Breadcrumb Navigation A series of links that show the path you have taken through the Administration Console’s pages. You can click on any of the links to return to a previously-visited page. Ex: Home > Summary of Servers > examplesServer   6) System Status The System Status panel reports on the number of information, error, and warning messages that have been logged. You can view these messages in the server log files, which you can access from the Administration Console at Diagnostics > Log Files.   7) Advanced Options in Console

• The Weblogic Server Administration Console hides options which are not frequently used.

• To display the Advanced Options section, click the “Advanced” link.
• If you do not want to see the Advanced Options on the console display, click the “Advanced” link one more time.

  Dynamic and Non-Dynamic Changes   Some changes you make in the Administration Console take place immediately when you activate them. Other changes require you to restart the server or module affected by the change. These latter changes are called non-dynamic changes. Non-dynamic changes are indicated in the Administration Console with this warning icon.   Using the Change Center   The Change Center provides a way to lock a domain configuration so you can make changes to the configuration while preventing other accounts from making changes during your edit session.   The domain configuration locking feature is always enabled in production domains. It can be enabled or disabled in development domains. It is disabled by default when you create a new development domain.   To change a production domain’s configuration, you must:

1. Locate the Change Center in the upper left of the Administration Console screen.
2. Click the Lock & Edit button to lock the configuration edit hierarchy for the domain.
3. Make the changes you desire on the relevant page of the Console. Click Save on each page where you make a change.
4. When you have finished making all the desired changes, click Activate Changes in the Change Center.

    Undoing Changes  You can revert any pending (saved, but not yet activated) changes by clicking Undo All Changes in the Change Center. You can revert any individual change by going to the appropriate page in the Administration Console and restoring the attribute to its previous value.     Releasing the Configuration Lock  You release the configuration lock as follows:

• Before you make changes, click Release Configuration in the Change Center to release the lock explicitly.
• After you save changes, click Activate Changes or Undo All Changes in the Change Center to release the lock implicitly.

Stopping the Administration Server does not release the configuration lock. When the Administration Server starts again, the configuration lock is in the same state it was in when the Administration Server was shut down, and any pending changes are preserved.   Enabling the Administration Console By default, the Administration Console is enabled. If you disable it, you can re-enable it using the WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST). Start the Administration Server, then invoke WLST and use the following commands: connect("username","password") edit() startEdit() cmo.setConsoleEnabled(true) save() activate() The following attribute(s) have been changed on MBeans which require server re-start. MBean Changed : com.bea:Name=mydomain,Type=Domain Attributes changed : ConsoleEnabled Activation completed disconnect() exit()   The Command Line Interface (WLST) The WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST) is a command-line scripting environment that you can use to create, manage, and monitor WebLogic Server domains. It is based on the Java scripting interpreter, Jython. In addition to supporting standard Jython features such as local variables, conditional variables, and flow control statements, WLST provides a set of scripting functions (commands) that are specific to WebLogic Server.

• Command-line tools are useful:
  • For automating administration using scripts
  • As an alternative to the Administration Console
• WLST provides a command-line interface that:
  • Configures WLS instances and domains
  • Manages and persists WLS configuration changes

• WLST includes the capabilities of:
  • Admin (deprecated in 9.X)
  • Deployer
  • wlconfig Ant tasks
  • Configuration wizard (silent mode, deprecated in 9.X)

  Using WLST Online or Offline You can use WLST as the command-line equivalent to the WebLogic Server Administration Console (WLST online) or as the command-line equivalent to the Configuration Wizard (WLST offline).   Using WLST Online You can use WLST to connect to a running Administration Server and manage the configuration of an active domain, view performance data about resources in the domain, or manage security data (such as adding or removing users). You can also use WLST to connect to Managed Servers, but you cannot modify configuration data from Managed Servers.   Using WLST Offline Without connecting to a running WebLogic Server instance, you can use WLST to create domain templates, create a new domain based on existing templates, or extend an existing, inactive domain. You cannot use WLST offline to view performance data about resources in a domain or modify security data (such as adding or removing users).   Modes of Operation

• Interactive
  • When you enter a command in the WLST console and view the response immediately
• Script
  • When you create a text file, with .py extension, that contains a series of WLST commands
• Embedded
  • When you instantiate an instance of the WLST interpreter in your Java code and use it to run WLST commands

  Main Steps for using WLST

• 1) Setting environment
• 2) Invoking WLST
• 3) Requirement for entering WLST commands
• 4) Running Scripts
• 5) Importing WLST as a Jython Module
• 6) Exiting WLST

  1) Setting Up Your Environment

• Add WebLogic Server classes to the CLASSPATH environment variable and WL_HOME\server\bin to the PATH environment variable

• You can use a WL_HOME\server\bin\setWLSEnv script to set both variables.
• On Windows, a shortcut on the Start menu sets the environment variables and invokes WLST (Tools→WebLogic Scripting Tool).

  2) Invoking WLST

• Connecting to WLS through SSL listen port
  • java -
    • security.SSL.ignoreHostnameVerification=true -
    • security.TrustKeyStore=DemoTrust weblogic.WLST

• Not connecting to WLS through the SSL listen port

– java weblogic.WLST – A welcome message and WLST prompt appears: wls:/(offline)> – To Connect online:connect('username','password','t3s://localhost:7012') – To shut down a server: shutdown('myserver','Server','false',1000) – To exit WLST: exit()   3) Requirement for Entering WLST commands

• Case sensitive names and arguments of commands
• Arguments enclosed in single or double quotes
• Precede the quoted string by r while specifying backslash (\) in a string
  • Example: readTemplate(r'c:\mytemplate.jar')
• Invalid characters in object names while using WLST offline:
  • Period (.)
  • Forward slash (/)
  • Backward slash (\)
• Cannot access security information through WLST while updating a domain
• Display help
  • Example: wls:/mydomain/serverConfig> help(‘disconnect’)

  4) Running Scripts:

• WLST incorporates two Jython functions that support running scripts:
  • java weblogic.WLST filePath.py, which invokes WLST and executes a script file in a single command,
  • execfile(“filePath.py”) which executes a script file after you invoke WLST.

  5) Import WLST as a Jython Module Invoke WLST:  c:\>java weblogic.WLST wls:/offline> Use the writeIniFile command to convert WLST definitions and method declarations to a .py file: wls:/offline> writeIniFile("wl.py") Open a new command shell and invoke Jython directly by entering the following command: c:\>java org.python.util.jython Import the WLST module into your Jython module using the Jython import command: >>>import wl Now you can use WLST methods in the module. For example, to connect WLST to a server instance: wl.connect(’username’,’password’)   6) Exiting WLST Exit WLST: wls:/mydomain/serverConfig> exit() Exiting WebLogic Scripting Tool ...   WLST Example   Some WLST Commands   Summary: In this Chapter we discussed:

• Overview of the Administration Console
  • Uses of the Admin Console
  • Elements of the Admin Console
  • Dynamic and Non-Dynamic Changes
• Overview of the WLST (Command Line Interface)
  • Modes of Operation
  • Steps for using WLST

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