Q. Why the name change from Web Automation Manager (WAM) to WebLgoic Feature Pack?

This name change better identifies the niche functionality provided by the WebLogic Feature Pack and anticipates future industry-, application-, and geographic-specific feature packs that work hand-in-hand with Cassatt Active Response.

Q. I thought Cassatt Active Response already handled node allocation to tiers. What’s different with the WebLogic Feature Pack?

In Cassatt Active Response, you set the operational target for a tier based on how many application nodes you want to use to run each tier’s application. That means you have to figure out what level of service you need based on what kind of application nodes you have available. For J2EE applications, WebLogic Feature Pack handles that heavy lifting.

With the WebLogic Feature Pack you determine the service level based on how the service works, using measurable factors like thread counts and CPU utilization. In the WebLogic Feature Pack, those measurements are called service monitored values. You can use service monitored values by themselves or in calculations. With service monitored values plus collection periods and thresholds, you can pinpoint precise service levels for the WebLogic Feature Pack to maintain—no matter what kind of hardware you have.

The WebLogic Feature Pack uses your service level to figure out how many application nodes are required. So, when you want to change server allocation to tiers, you change WebLogic Feature Pack policies rather than using native Cassatt Active Response capabilities.

Bonus point: when a tier has more nodes than it needs, WebLogic Feature Pack deallocates only nodes that are not currently running services.

Q. My application server software comes with a console that deploys services. Why shouldn’t I just use that?

The WebLogic Feature Pack automates web service deployments based on policies you specify. When you want to change deployment levels, you change WebLogic Feature Pack policies rather than using the native capabilities of your web service deployment container. The WebLogic Feature Pack keeps web services running at the levels you specify—without your intervention.

Q. Can I run different services on the same node?

Yes. In short: the WebLogic Feature Pack matches available node resources to service requirements, and deploys as many services on each node as the node can support. Here's how it works:

1. When you create a service, you specify node resource requirements, such as available memory and available CPU capacity. In WebLogic Feature Pack, these requirements are called "deployment constraints." Deployment constraints disallow deployments on nodes with inadequate resources for the service.
2. When a new service deployment is required, the WebLogic Feature Pack first checks for unused capacity on a node that's already running services. If a node has sufficient resources to meet the deployment constraints for the new service, the WebLogic Feature Pack deploys a second service—or even a third or a fourth—to maximize server utilization.

Note that the WebLogic Feature Pack does not deploy multiple instances of the same service on the same node.

The WebLogic Feature Pack supports WebLogic 8.1 and WebLogic 9.2.

In addition to all the other WebLogic Feature Pack benefits, you can combine multiple versions of WebLogic in one image, which:

• lets you deploy domains with different WebLogic requirements on the same application node
• saves on WebLogic license costs, which are generally calculated by server, no matter the number of versions running on the server.