Exploring and managing resources with Admin Center

You can use the Explore tool to view and manage resources in the Liberty topology.

Open LibertyIn version 21.0.0.4 and later, see the Open Liberty website for Admin Center documentation.

About this task

The Explore tool offers the following options to work with application, server, cluster, host, and runtime resources. Admin Center on a collective controller has all the options. Admin Center on a stand-alone server offers options to view information about the stand-alone server and its applications, to stop, start or restart resources, and to search for resources.

Procedure

  • View a summary of all resources on the Explore tool Dashboard.

    The Dashboard is shown for Admin Center on a collective controller and not for Admin Center on a stand-alone server.

    From the Toolbox, select Explore Explore icon. The Explore page, or "Dashboard," shows the number of applications, servers, clusters, hosts, and runtimes that Admin Center is managing. The Dashboard also shows the number of resources that are running, stopped, or in an unknown state. If an alert condition is met, the alert is shown on the Dashboard with a link to the appropriate resource page. The resource name, total, and status also have links to the appropriate resource pages.

    Explore tool Dashboard
  • View a summary of all applications, servers, clusters, hosts, or runtimes.

    For Admin Center on a stand-alone server, you can view a summary of its applications. Select Applications on the vertical navigation bar.

    For Admin Center on a collective, from the Dashboard, select a link on the Applications, Servers, Clusters, Hosts, or Runtimes panel. For example, to see a summary of all servers, select the View All link on the Servers panel. The state of all servers is shown. Whether a server is a collective controller or stand-alone server is also shown.

    Explore tool Servers view

    If an alert condition is met, an exclamation mark Alert Alert icon is shown on the resource card. Select Alert Alert icon for details on the alert condition.

    To filter the view, select an icon that shows the number of resources in a specific state. For example, select the 1 Alert icon to display the one server with an alert condition.

    For more timely updates to server and application status, add the websocket-1.1 or websocket-1.0 feature to the server configuration for your servers that use the adminCenter-1.0 feature.

  • View details about a resource.

    For a collective, from the Explore page, select a link on the Applications, Servers, Clusters, Hosts, or Runtimes panel and then a specific resource. For example, to see details about a server, select a link on the Servers panel and then one of the servers.

    For Liberty servers, the details show the applications that are installed on the server and their state. For Node.js servers, applications are not shown because there can be only one application on that server and it cannot be interacted with. The details can also show that a Liberty or Node.js server is a member of a cluster or that a Liberty server is in a Docker container.

    Explore tool server view

    If an alert condition is met, the alert is described with a link to the appropriate resource page.

    If the apiDiscovery-1.0 feature is in the configuration file for a server, the API definition API definition icon icon with the View server API definition link is shown in details about the server. When the server is stopped, the View server API definition link is unavailable. For information about the apiDiscovery-1.0 feature, see Discovering REST API documentation on a Liberty server.

    For resources on Liberty servers, select a resource to see more details. For example, select Applications and then an application to display details about the application on one of the servers. From the application details page, you also can access the Monitor view for each application.

    Explore tool application detail view showing an application installed on a cluster member
  • View details about all servers on a Liberty or Node.js runtime.
    From the Dashboard:
    • Select a link on the Hosts panel, a host, Runtime icon Runtimes on the vertical navigation bar, and then a runtime.
    • Select a link on the Servers panel, a server, and then Runtime icon Liberty Runtime on the horizontal navigation bar.

    The Runtime view displays details about the runtime, such as the number and states of servers on the runtime. The runtime details are useful for distinguishing among servers with the same name on the same host. For Liberty runtimes, the view also displays whether the runtime is in a Docker container.

    Explore tool Liberty Runtime view
  • Start, stop, or restart a resource.
    Attention: To start, stop or restart resources in Adm ion Center, the user must be in the administrator role.

    To start, stop, or restart one resource, select the Resource Actions Actions icon for a resource for the resource, select the available action from the popup dialog, and then confirm the selection.

    Select the popup action on one resource in the Explore tool

    Alternatively, select Actions Actions icon > one_or_more_resources > action_button. You can start, stop, or restart multiple resources with this option. For example, to start two stopped servers:

    1. When viewing Servers, select Actions Actions icon.
    2. Select two servers in a stopped, partially started, or unknown state.
    3. Select the Start button.
    4. Confirm the selection.
    Select the Start button to start highlighted servers in the Explore tool Servers view
    Restriction: If a resource has an enabled scaling policy Auto scaling icon, you cannot use the Explore tool to start, stop, or restart the resource. The start, stop, or restart button is unavailable. This button is also unavailable if you select multiple resources, and one or more of the resources has an enabled scaling policy. Use Liberty APIs to start, stop, or restart a resource that has an enabled scaling policy, if needed. You likely do not need to start and stop auto-scaled resources manually because the scaling controller manages the lifecycle of the resources.
    To start a server or cluster with the Start --clean option:
    • Select Resource Actions Actions icon for a resource, Expand ... on the Start action, and the Start --clean option. Then, confirm the selection.
    • Select Actions Actions icon, a server or cluster, More, and the Start --clean option. Then, confirm the selection.

    For Windows platformsTo remotely start and stop servers on Windows operating systems, complete the steps for Windows computers in Setting up RXA for Liberty collective operations.

  • Search for resources.

    Select Search Explore tool Search icon to open the search field, specify the search criteria, and then select Search Explore tool Search icon to search for resources. To add search criteria, select Add Search Criteria Explore tool Add icon to add search criteria and then specify additional values. To clear the entire search field, select Clear Search Field Explore tool Clear icon to clear search criteria.

    The search results list details about resources that fit the search criteria. To see more details about a resource, select the resource name.

    To change a resource status or, for hosts, to deploy a server package, select Resource Actions Actions icon for a resource and then select an available action from the popup dialog. To perform an action for multiple applications, servers, clusters, or hosts, select Actions multiselect Action icon for multiple selection > multiple_resource_action_check_marks > action_button.

    Search for resources in the Explore tool

    You can filter the search results by entering a string in the search field. For example, enter er to show resources that contain the "er" string.

    To show or hide columns, select Grid Actions Grid Actions icon and the columns to display.

What to do next

For a collective, select Dashboard Dashboard icon to return to the Explore tool Dashboard. Select a previously viewed resource page on an Explore tool navigation bar to return to that page.

To directly launch the Explore tool in the future, you can use the URL that is shown in the browser when viewing the Explore tool. For example, to directly view information about a particular resource in the future, you can use the URL that is shown in the browser when viewing information about the resource in the Explore tool. Each resource in the Explore tool has a unique URL that you can bookmark and use to directly launch the same resource page.

To return to the Toolbox, select Toolbox Toolbox icon.