OSB / SOA Suite 12c Domain Types

OSB / SOA Suite 12c Domain Types

screen-shot-2016-11-30-at-16-22-10Let me explain you some news about the domain types in 12c, since some of my colleagues were fiddling around with this. Due to the new quickstart installer for SOA Suite and OSB 12c there are more domain types available now for SOA Suite and OSB12c that you need to understand. The following options describe those types with added comments of when the make sense.

 

 

Options:

  1. The integrated domain that gets generated by JDeveloper if you run a project. Sometimes it is called default domain. This domain is bound to JDeveloper. Whenever you quit JDev, the domain shuts down. The downside is that this domain always supports OSB and SOA Suite, so a bit of waste of resources if you are only after OSB . This is the easiest solution for your first steps because no manual domain creation is required and JDev does it all for you.
  2. A standalone domain. This is the new and interesting option, because a standalone domain uses the Java DB and does not require you to run the RCU utility. Still a standalone domain is running independent from JDeveloper 12c, so you could you use this type of domain for development with OSB web console.You create the domain by setting the QS_TEMPLATES environment variable and running qs_config.sh, then create an application server connection with JDev, use the standalone server option in the application server connection wizzard, and point it to the standalone domain.
    You will be able to use “Deploy” from JDeveloper, but unfortunately not “Run as”.
    There are more benefits to a standalone domain not mentioned in the official documentation: Whereas the integrated domain includes everything needed for SOA suite you can restrict a standalone domain to Service Bus only and therefore reduce the number of internal deployments from 304 to 278 which will save you startup time.
  3. A compact domain can be used with quickstart. Also compact domains are targeted for development. This domain will be compatible with add-ons such at MFT, OES, etc. Note that you have to specify a special parameter CONFIG_JVM_ARGS=-Dcom.oracle.cie.config.showProfile for this option to be visible in the configuration wizzard.
    Since you can use it with an compatible Oracle DB, the necessary schemas have to be created with the RCU utility. Note: A compact domain is a developer domain consisting of a single admin server and no managed servers.
    The opposite of a compact domain is called extended domain where resources are deployed on a cluster of managed servers. Use extended domain for environments such as test, integration, load test, prod. These environments are distributed and clustered typically due to HA requirements.

Conclusion

It is important to understand the various domain types and to choose the correct domain type for your requirements. You can strip down a standalone domain to be OSB only, then make sure to select Integrated Servers if you want to deploy directly from JDev to it.

OTN Tour Latin America 2016: Chile

Oracle Technology Network Tour Latam 2016:
Santiago de Chile

The conference in Chile was exceptional for a couple of reasons. For the first time ever I met German, the tech reviewer of my WebLogic 12c book. A great guy (not sure if he wants to read his name here – just get the book, he is in the acknowledgement!) who did a brilliant job in editing the 12c book. We had lunch together with his friends from Oracle ACS and the best I can say it felt like friends you know for years and not somebody you met 30 minutes ago. It was a pleasure meeting you guys!

2016-08-09 14.05.53

Conference

The conference itself was the University San Sebastian in Bellavista area. Quite a few presentations were running in several rooms in parallel.

Also Santiago is great. From every traffic jam you can see the mountains! It is really a pity I couldn’t go to any more remote places like Atacama desert or Torre de Paine. Anyway both are now top on my to-travel list. My friends know what this means. Stay tuned.

Again I did a Docker live demo. The audience seemed to like it, what do you think? Also the room was big enough for big ideas. Big thank you to CLOUG and Felipe Manriquez.

2016-08-09 14.07.53

The non Conference Part

I did not really have a lot of time for sightseeing but I managed to nip out and have a seafood lunch at the Mercado Central before heading to airport. Actually a memorable drive, since the Uber driver was driving alongside the runway but was not able to find the airport 🙂

2016-08-09 14.00.48

 

Zero Downtime, REST, Domain Partitions / Multi Tenancy, Elasticity and WLDF. WebLogic 12.2.1 (12c)

I just finished a two week long hands-on consulting session for some pretty experienced application managers and architects.

In 5 days we explored WebLogic 12.2.1 extensively:

  • Zero Downtime
  • REST
  • Domain Partitions / Multi Tenancy
  • Resource Group Management
  • Java Mission Control
  • WLST
  • Elasticity
  • JMS Clustering
  • WLDF

 

p1

Here is some feedback from the group. You can tell we had fun, although we worked very hard.

Screen Shot 2016-07-04 at 10.43.06

 

This is how a happy group looks like.

group2

 

People seemed to be happy, here is what they liked.

Screen Shot 2016-07-04 at 10.44.13

For more details download the flyer from the Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1 (12c) course site.

Scaling Failure with Elastic Cluster in Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1 (12c)?

The Issue

When you manually scale an elastic cluster let’s say from 2 to 3 there is no issue. Then try scaling the cluster from 3 to 4 and WebLogic admin console will report “FAILED”.

 

How it really Works

Actually it is not broken, it just doesn’t do what you expect it to do because of the cool down period for cluster scaling that has a default value of 900 seconds. This setting is useful to prevent oscillating cluster sizes (possibly due to conflicting rules).

elastic_cluster_fail

You can set this value yourself under Cluster / Configuration /

cooloff

 

What should Oracle Do?

Oracle should change the state from FAILED, to COOLDOWN_PERIOD or so.

Deploy with Deployment Plan (WebLogic 12.2.1)

You cannot deploy an application to WebLogic 12.2.1 and specify an arbitrary location for the deployment plan when using the admin console, but you can update a deployed application and specify the location of a deployment plan.

However, you can deploy an open directory with a app directory (containing, well, your app) and plan subdirectory (containing your deployment plan).

mdbplan