Adding assisted lifecycle middleware servers

By configuring assisted lifecycle middleware servers, you can manage representations of externally created middleware servers that were created outside of the administrative domain.

Before you begin

Read about adding middleware servers to configurations for information about installing the node agent on nodes, and federating those nodes into the configuration.

About this task

With assisted lifecycle middleware servers, you can create a representation of the server. The node agent provides the information that Intelligent Management needs to manage these servers. You can configure the following assisted lifecycle middleware server types:

Apache Tomcat
JBoss Application Server
Custom HTTP servers
BEA WebLogic Server
WebSphere® Application Server Community Edition
Apache HTTP Server
External WebSphere application server (application servers that run outside the Intelligent Management cell)
Liberty profile server

Note: Intelligent Management support for using the following server types is stabilized:

Apache Tomcat
BEA WebLogic
JBoss
External WebSphere application server (application servers that run outside the Intelligent Management cell)

Avoid trouble: On the administrative console, when you select Servers > All servers > middleware_server, and then click Stop for a middleware server that displays a status of Started, you can intermittently receive an error. The following message is an example of the error:

Error xdblade31b04/WASMaintModeDC1_xdblade31b04 has not been started.

The server cannot be stopped from this page when this situation occurs.

As a work-around, complete one of the following actions to stop the started middleware server:

Click Servers > Server Types > type_of_middleware_server > middleware_server. Then click Stop for a middleware server that displays a status of Started.
Stop and then start the servers from the command line.

After you install the node agent on WebSphere Application Server Community Edition nodes and federate the nodes, middleware discovery can automatically create representations of these servers in the administrative console. You do not need to perform the manual steps to create the representation of the server in the administrative console. You can continue to manage these servers in the WebSphere Application Server Community Edition console. Make any representative changes in the administrative console.

Procedure

Create a representation of the middleware server.
- If you use wsadmin scripting commands:
  - For Apache Tomcat servers, use createTomCatServer.
  - For BEA WebLogic servers, use createWebLogicServer.
  - For JBoss servers, use createJBossServer.
  - For external WebSphere application server (application servers that run outside the Intelligent Management cell), use createForeignServer.
  - For Liberty profile servers, use createLibertyServer.
- If you use the administrative console.
  1. Add an existing server.
    In the administrative console, click Servers > Add a server and select Add an existing server.
  2. Select the node on which the middleware server that you are configuring runs.
    The node must be running a node agent. Create a name for the server that is unique among all servers in the cell.
  3. Specify the server template that you want to use for the middleware server.
  4. Click Finish.
  5. Click Save to save your changes to the master configuration.
Perform additional configuration steps for the middleware server, including adjusting the values for the WebSphere variables for each server type and configuring server operations to stop and start your servers:
- For Apache Tomcat servers, read about configuring Apache Tomcat servers.
- For BEA WebLogic servers, read about configuring BEA WebLogic servers.
- For JBoss servers, read about configuring JBoss servers.
- For WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers, read about configuring assisted life-cycle WebSphere Application Server Community Edition servers.
- For custom HTTP servers, read about configuring custom HTTP servers.
- For external WebSphere application server (application servers that run outside the Intelligent Management cell), you can manage previous versions of WebSphere application servers, from Version 5.1 and later. For more information, read about configuring external WebSphere application servers.
- For Liberty profile servers, read about configuring Liberty servers.
The WebSphere variables define settings for the middleware server such as the installation location and vary depending on the middleware server type. By editing the server start and stop operations, you can specify the username and password that is required to start and stop the servers in the middleware server.
Start the middleware server.
- For Apache Tomcat servers, BEA WebLogic servers, JBoss servers, Liberty profile servers, and external WebSphere application servers, use the startMiddlewareServer command.
- In the administrative console, click Servers > All servers. Select the server that you want to start and click Start.
The start server operation that is defined for the server runs.
Note: If the node agent and the server are stopped at the same time, the last known status of the server is reported. Because the last known status is reported as started, the on-demand router (ODR) tries to route to the server.

What to do next

You can create a middleware server template that is based on your configured server. After you create a middleware server template, you can create additional servers using the template, which creates servers with the same settings as your original server.

To easily manage groups of existing servers to host an application, configure dynamic clusters. By configuring a dynamic cluster, the product can adjust the number of running servers to meet the application service policy. For assisted lifecycle middleware servers, you group together the representations that you created. These servers must have the same applications installed.

The logs and trace views in the administrative console are not supported for assisted lifecycle middleware servers. For Apache Tomcat servers, BEA WebLogic servers, JBoss servers, Liberty profile servers, and external WebSphere application servers (application servers that run outside the Intelligent Management cell), you can view logs for these middleware servers on the machines that host them. For other assisted lifecycle middleware servers, configure the external log viewing service to view the log files in the administrative console.