WebLogic Feature Pack: Capturing an Image and Creating Tiers
Intended for use with WebLogic Feature Pack V2.3.
This article walks through preparing the BEA WebLogic 8.1 (service packs 1–6) or 9.2 software (maintenance pack 2) to run in the Cassatt Active Response environment when using the optional Cassatt WebLogic Feature Pack (formerly the Web Automation Manager, or WAM).
This procedure is implemented in two Cassatt Active Response tiers, which both use the same base WebLogic image:
- WebLogic Administration Server tier
- WebLogic Managed Servers tier
Using the same image for both tiers is not required, but it simplifies your implementation. If your site needs dictate, you can use different images for the two tiers. To do so, either capture the image for the first tier, reconfigure the software for the second tier and capture again, or duplicate the image after capture and reconfigure the duplicate for the second tier.
Prerequisites
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Application node hardware requirements:
- This procedure recommends using servers with local disk to provide swap space, which can significantly reduce failures caused by processes that run out of memory.
- Determine how much memory is available on the nodes you intend to use as the WebLogic Administration Server (and any backups): the more WebLogic domains you intend to deploy, the more memory you need. Consider, as a minimum, 512 MB plus at least 50 MB per WebLogic domain you intend to deploy. Use a higher number if your domains require it.
- If you are installing a 64-bit version of the OS, and you have not already done so, follow these steps to set a custom attribute to identify x86_64 servers and ensure they are the only nodes allocated to run the image:
- Identify all of the x86_64 nodes.
- Add a custom attribute to each of those nodes that indicates the nodes can be allocated to run images that require a 64-bit-capable architecture. Refer to the online help topic entitled "Using custom hardware attributes to specify hardware for your software" for information.
- When you capture the Oracle image, assign the same custom attribute to the image as you assigned to the nodes.
- When you create the Oracle tier, the custom attribute is assigned by default. Do not remove the custom attribute.
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Image host requirements: If you are installing a 64-bit version of the OS, select a node with the x86_64 custom attribute. |
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Software requirements:
- Red Hat ELAS 3, 4, or 5,
or
Solaris 8, 9, or 10 (SPARC)
or
Solaris 10 (x86)
- BEA WebLogic 8.1 with any or all of service packs 1–6
or
BEA WebLogic 9.2 with maintenance pack 2
BEA does not support all combinations of operating system with WebLogic version and service pack. Refer to your WebLogic documentation for supported combinations.
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SLA: This procedure uses node-based SLAs to allow the WebLogic Feature Pack to manage node allocations for the tier rather than Cassatt Active Response. |
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Network Requirements: Determine the network to associate with the tier. Make sure it has adequate IP addresses free to accommodate maximum nodes for the tier.
If you are using Solaris, you must select a network in the same VLAN as the Cassatt Active Response network. |
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WebLogic installation manual, available from
http://edocs.bea.com/. |
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Step 1: Reserve a node from the free pool to use as an image host
- From the Cassatt Active Response Controller, select the Free Pool.
- Select a node using the checkbox. Be sure to select a node with the architecture required for your operating system; that is, Sparc for Solaris or IA32 for Linux or Windows.
- Select Node Actions > Reserve for Image Capture.
- Note the node's IP address, which you will use when you install the OS and capture the image.
Step 2: Install and configure the operating system
Follow the Cassatt Active Response instructions to install and configure ELAS 3 (32-bit only), 4 (32-bit or 64-bit), 5 (32-bit or 64-bit), or Solaris 8, 9, or 10.
Step 3: Install and configure your software
WebLogic: pre-installation steps
- Create a directory for each version of WebLogic you will install. This directory becomes your BEA_HOME for each WebLogic version. The following examples use a naming convention whereby the service pack number is appended to the release number:
mkdir weblogic811 weblogic812 weblogic813 weblogic814 weblogic815 weblogic816
or whereby the maintenance pack number is appended to the release number:
mkdir weblogic922
- Determine a storage structure for the WebLogic domains and create those directories. You may want to store the domains in just one directory, for example:
mkdir -p user_projects/domains
Or you may want to store your domains by WebLogic service pack or maintenance pack number.
- Solaris x86 only: download and install JDK 5.0 for Solaris x86 from Sun Developer Network.
WebLogic: installation
Use the following guidance in conjunction with the procedures in Chapter 2, Installing WebLogic Platform Using Graphical-Mode Installation for WebLogic 8.1 or Starting the Installation Program for WebLogic 9.2, of the Installation Guide.
- For WebLogic 8.1, at step 2 in “Starting Graphical-Mode Installation for .bin Installation Files,” download WebLogic server with each of the service packs you wish to install.
For WebLogic 9.2, at "Starting Graphical-Mode Installation" in “Using Installers with Filenames Ending in .bin,” download WebLogic server with each of the maintenance packs you wish to install.
- Go to the directory where you downloaded the WebLogic installation programs.
- Allow connectivity to the image host GUI, for example:
xhost +
- Before launching the installation program, make sure the $DISPLAY environment variable is set correctly. You can run xclock to verify that the $DISPLAY setting works.
- Solaris only: set the environment: PATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/openwin/bin:/usr/dt/bin:/opt/sfw/bin; export PATH; LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/sfw/lib:/usr/local/lib:/usr/lib; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
- Launch the WebLogic installation by entering the following commands:
chmod a+x /filename.bin
./filename.bin (Linux or Solaris)
or
java -jar filename.jar -mode=console (Solaris x86)
- Follow the prompts to do a complete installation on the image host. At the Choose Install Type screen, choose “complete” to install the entire WebLogic Platform Suite, or choose “custom” to deselect the WebLogic components you do not need.
Note the following:
BEA_HOME is the base directory where the version is to be installed, for instance:
your_path/bea922
WL_HOME is the absolute path where WebLogic is to be installed (within the version directory), for instance:
your_path/bea922/weblogic92
- If you are new to WebLogic, you can use QuickStart to become familiar with the program. Otherwise, exit the QuickStart console if it launches automatically after the installation is complete.
- Repeat the complete installation for WebLogic 8.1 with each additional service pack, or WebLogic 9.2 with each additional maintenance pack.
- Implement licenses per your agreement with BEA.
Maintenance packs update the existing WebLogic installation. They do not create a new bea directory.
Do not set application-level monitoring on your WebLogic image when using the WebLogic Feature Pack.
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Step 4: Capture the image
In this step, you will capture the base image from the image host using the cccapture command—an interactive script. Although you can change the values later, it is most efficient to supply valid values now.
Follow these steps:
- Log into the active control node as root.
- Enter the following command to start the capture of the base image from the image host:
/opt/cassatt/bin/cccapture
- Answer each prompt.
The next table lists suggested values for this procedure; unless you have site-specific reasons, you can accept the default values for other cccapture prompts.
For names, descriptions, and other discretionary fields, use values that are meaningful to you. In the image name, do not use spaces or characters (for example, /) special to Unix-based file systems such as Linux and Solaris.
Specifying the applications and versions contained in this image is not required for this procedure, but you may wish to do so for tracking purposes.
For file system selection: selecting unneeded file systems wastes space but is otherwise harmless.
At this prompt... |
Enter... |
Notes |
| Enter the image type (linux,vmhost,windows,solaris): |
linux
or
solaris
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Do your applications need write access to any directories in the image other than /etc, /dev, /var, /tmp, and /root? [n] |
y |
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Enter the absolute directory pathname:
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domain_location |
Where domain_location is the absolute path the the directory where you intend to install your WebLogic domains. |
Are there any additional directories that applications
will need to write to? [n]
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y |
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Enter the absolute directory pathname: |
$WL_HOME/common |
Where $WL_HOME is the absolute path to the WebLogic installation.
Add $WL_HOME/common for each WebLogic service pack or maintenance pack in the image. |
If a tier using this image must always run on a specific set of nodes,
custom attributes can be specified for the tier. These same attributes
must then be specified on each node that will be reserved for the tier.
The Cassatt system will then match on these attributes to ensure that
those nodes are always allocated for a tier with this image.
Do you want to specify any custom attributes for tiers using this image? [n] |
y or n |
If you are installed a 64-bit version of the OS, specify the x86_64 server architecture custom attribute |
| Enter an attribute value for nodes to use: |
x86_64attribute |
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Enter the hardware architecture for this image
(ia32): [ia32] |
ia32 |
Select "ia32" even when your image requires a 64-bit-capable server. A custom attribute is required to ensure allocation of 64-bit-capable servers. |
Do you want to specify the hardware requirements for a tier using this image? [n]
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y |
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Enter minimum amount of RAM (MBytes) per node for this image: [no minimum]
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512 |
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Does this image require a local disk? [n] |
y |
Recommended. |
Enter the minimum size in Gbytes for the required local disk: [0] |
disk size |
Cassatt Active Response uses this value in determining which nodes to allocate to tiers running this image. Use the smallest size you believe will provide adequate space for swap and temp (no smaller than 6 GB). Nodes with smaller disks will not be allocated to run this image. |
Does this image require local swap space? [n]:
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y |
Recommended. |
Enter the required amount of swap space (in Gbytes) [8]: |
2 |
The space remaining on the local disk after swap partitions are created is assigned to local temp space. |
Enter the amount of time in seconds that the system should wait for the services provided by this image to start (after this time has passed,
the system will attempt to reboot or replace the node): [600] |
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If you are using Solaris and this image will be installed on local disk, set the timeout to 1800. A longer timeout is required to copy the image. |
Should this image be installed on the local disk (allowing the node to boot locally)? [n] y |
y or n |
See the Cassatt Active Response document, Alternatives to NFS: Image on Local Disk for details. |
OS Monitoring Options
Specify the operating system monitoring that will be used
for this image (at least one monitoring option must be configured):
Monitor via SNMP? [n] |
y |
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SNMP Retry Count: [3] |
5 |
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Monitor via ping? [n] |
y |
If using Solaris, do not configure monitoring to use ping only: Sun's OpenBoot responds to ping before the OS is booted, which may cause problems when ping is the only monitor. |
Ping Retry Count: [3] |
5 |
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If you are ready to configure your WebLogic domain for WebLogic Feature Pack management, you may wish to retain the image host for that purpose. If so, skip the next step and continue with tier creation.
- In the Cassatt Active Response Controller, release the image host back to the free pool by selecting the node using the checkbox, then select Node Actions > Release from Image Capture.
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Step 5: Create the tiers
Return to the Cassatt Active Response Controller to define the WebLogic tiers. Cassatt Active Response prepopulates tier values with the parameters you set during the image capture. If necessary, you can change them during tier creation.
Create the WebLogic Administration Server tier
- On the left navigation pane, click Domain or Tiers to display the Tier List.
- On the Tier List page, click the New Tier button (on the right).
- On the Properties page, set the properties for the WebLogic Administration Server tier.
The next table lists the suggested values; unless you have site-specific reasons, you can accept the defaults in other fields.
At this prompt... |
Enter... |
Notes |
Allow harvest |
Off |
Turn harvesting off for WebLogic Feature Pack-controlled tiers. |
- On the SLA page, select the node-based SLA type and set as follows:
At this prompt... |
Enter... |
Notes |
Operational Target |
1 |
The Administrative Server tier works properly only when it contains exactly one node. |
Minimum Nodes |
1 |
Maximum Nodes |
1 |
- On the Requirements page, set the hardware requirements for the tier.
Unless you have site-specific reasons, you can accept the defaults in fields not listed.
At this prompt... |
Enter... |
Notes |
Minimum RAM (MB) |
RAM |
Important: Set minimum RAM equal to maximum RAM. Use the actual RAM available on the node you intend for use as the Administration Server. |
Maximum RAM (MB) |
- On the networks page, select a primary network. If you are using Solaris, you must select a network in the same VLAN as the Cassatt Active Response network.
- On the IPs and Hostnames page, assign IP addresses or host names, or accept the default settings.
- You can close the Creating Tier Progress page and continue with the next section.
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Create the WebLogic Managed Servers tier
- On the left navigation pane, click Domain or Tiers to display the Tier List.
- On the Tier List page, click the New Tier button.
- On the Properties page, set the properties for the WebLogic Managed Servers tier. The next table lists the suggested values; unless you have site-specific reasons, you can accept the defaults in other fields.
At this prompt... |
Enter... |
Notes |
Allow harvest |
Off |
Turn harvesting off for WebLogic Feature Pack-controlled tiers. |
- On the SLA page, select node-based SLA, set target nodes = minimum nodes initially. As WebLogic Feature Pack deploys services, Cassatt Active Response increases the operational target as needed.
- On the Requirements page, set the hardware requirements for the tier.
Unless you have site-specific reasons, you can accept the defaults. Make sure to select the admin tier as a dependency.
- On the networks page, select a primary network.
- On the IPs and Hostnames page, assign IP addresses or host names, or accept the default settings.
- You can close the Creating Tier Progress page and continue with the next section.
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Step 6: Allocate nodes and activate the tiers
Follow these steps to allocate nodes and activate the tiers.
- From the Tiers table on the Domain page, select the checkboxes for the two WebLogic tiers.
- From the Tier Actions dropdown menu, choose Allocate Nodes. Click Allocate Nodes on the confirmation page.
Cassatt Active Response allocates nodes and displays the Tiers table.
- Again, select the checkboxes for the two WebLogic tiers.
- From the Tier Actions dropdown menu, choose Activate. Click Activate on the confirmation page.
Cassatt Active Response starts the Cassatt Active Response services, the operating system, and the applications on each node in the two tiers.
This completes the procedure to create and deploy a WebLogic image for use with WebLogic Feature Pack.
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