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.

Review: WebLogic 12c Distinctive Recipes Workshops in AUS (Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth)

Reviews and Attendee’s Opinions

My WebLogic 12c training courses in AUS were a great success so I’d like to share the reviews with you. My special thanks go to AUSOUG president John Bushell for making this possible and Burke Scheld for organizing the events.

 

workshop perth

 

what Did you like about the workshop?

 

I got some really nice feedback after the presentation, here is all the answers.
Tricks and Tips 🙂
4/22/2013 3:31
Info about the non-core tools and tricks, very handy to get to hear about little odd things like that.
4/22/2013 3:24
Useful hints and tips, and a good overview of WebLogic 12c
4/22/2013 3:18
Useful open source software and administration tips
4/20/2013 2:13
It covered some left of field topics and points – some of the things I was hoping for.
4/19/2013 1:46 PMView
Good tips on tuning. Good opensource tool suggestions.
4/19/2013 11:44
Grand
4/18/2013 5:35
Tips and tricks on weblogic server management.
4/18/2013 4:10
Live demos, interesting content
4/18/2013 3:04
Opportunity to see things that are new to me in a class room environment
4/18/2013 2:55
Good independently sourced information about Weblogic features and capabilities. The idea of using virtual images helps to set a test environment quickly. The expertise of the presenter makes him capable of providing information that is beyond what you can find on the official Oracle docs.
4/18/2013 2:47
Good presentation, good explanations, aimed at the right level for me.
4/18/2013 2:16
We can discuss the good, as well as criticise the bad, features of Oracle software.
4/18/2013 2:02
Frank provided information about some useful tools that I wasn’t aware of. The overview of the new features in 12 was good. The configuration tips were handy. The cost of the workshop was very reasonable for the information gained from it.
4/18/2013 1:54
To get an overview of technologies and to discuss those.
4/18/2013 1:51
Well presented with references to resources for continuing help
4/18/2013 1:49
Nice pens from the presenter. And the idea of giving away a free book.
4/11/2013 2:59
Interesting insite into some open source tools that enhance the administration features of WebLogic
4/11/2013 2:43
Frank obviously knows his stuff, and backs up recommendations with excellent real world examples.
4/10/2013 1:26
Very well presented. Topics were relevant and current

Comments about presenter:

Good presenter, and well prepared. Always interesting
4/22/2013 3:18
Experienced and keen to answer questions and offer advice
4/20/2013 2:13
Good relaxed presentation with time to digest the material – thankyou well done
4/19/2013 1:46 PMView
Frank was a great presenter and his style was very professional. English was very good and understandable.
4/19/2013 11:44
Knowlegable, responsive, good communicator
4/19/2013 1:21
Frank had good experience and knowledge of weblogic server.
4/18/2013 4:10
Frank Munz was knowledgeable, concise and to the point
4/18/2013 3:04
Friendly, knowledgeable
4/18/2013 2:55
Well prepared, you can tell that he has a long experience with the platform
4/18/2013 2:47
Very good, knowledgeable, easily understood
4/18/2013 2:16
Frank is an excellent presenter and very knowledgeable about almost every aspects of Weblogic software.
4/18/2013 2:02
I liked Frank’s relaxed presentation style and the depth of his knowledge of the product.
4/18/2013 1:54
Excellent guy who knows what he’s talking about, broad range of experience and good examples.
4/18/2013 1:51
excellent presentation style
4/18/2013 1:49
I like how he is not biased towards a brand of technology but instead rationalises upon technology choice depending on immediate/long term goals.
4/11/2013 2:59
Great presentation – really informative and easy to follow.
4/22/2013 3:24
Good presenter, though he gets a little carried away reiterating key points 🙂
4/11/2013 2:43
Frank is organised and knowledgeable and presents with a comfortable, easy to listen to style.
4/10/2013 1:26
Very nicely presented
4/10/2013 12:34

 

More?

Learn about my internal WebLogic 12c training offerings.

Amazon / Oracle Cloud Workshops: Mission Completed

I am just back from a successful, long and intensive trip to Australia. If you are waiting for a reply to an email there is a good chance you will get it soon now.

I delivered an  Amazon and Oracle public cloud workshop series on behalf of AUSOUG, based on my cloud computing book: 6 cities, 6 workshops of 4 h each, almost 200 attendees, hands-on, live development in the cloud (WebLogic with 61 GB heap deployed live on 3 continents, cloud storage, auto scaling, transformation of a classical Java EE app in the cloud), 16 flights (including a 1 week trip to the outback, flying 2,5 h north of Perth and driving 2200 km for shooting the cover image for my upcoming WebLogic 12c: Advanced Recipes book).

Check out the flattering reviews for the event.

 

 

thanks to everybody who attended!

 

WebLogic Feature Timeline: What is new in WLS 12, 11, 10, 9?

To whom it may concern, here is a quick overview of the new features as they were included in WebLogic Server versions 9 to 12c. Destilled for my first WebLogic 12c workshop running a fortnight ago and including some links to the WebLogic documentation and some other useful resources.

happy weekend then … !

Download WebLogic Feature Timeline (PDF): What is new in WebLogic 12c? WebLogic 11? WebLogic 10? WebLogic 9?

 

Update (05-March-2012):I just uploaded a newer version after adding valuable input from Steve and Jan. (Due to other changes, those of you linking to the PDF directly need to update their link this time).

WebLogic 12c: Node Manager Best Practices

During the last couple of years (and the last couple of WebLogic versions) I collected a number of best practices  regarding WebLogic nodemanager. All of them hold true for WebLogic 12c as well. This posting is not a step-by-step beginners guide and it will not save you from attending some training or studying the Oracle documentation regarding node manager yourself. Anyway, here are some suggestions, check if the apply for your environments:

Node Manager Best Practices

 

  • At first, take a decision to start servers with or without NM. Note, that  is not absolutely necessary. You can always start your servers with the scripts generated by the config wizzard. I personally know rather big companies building lovely cars who took the decsicion not to use node manager.
  • Would I use nodemanger myself? For an “average” project: yes! Only after configuring node manager you can use the WebLogic admin console to start and stop managed servers and node manager will restart you failed servers as well. However, if you consider restarting you servers automatically because of out-of-memory problems, better read this article about “surviving generations”  to understand how to track down memory leaks and fix them. Anyway, you still want to use node manager.
  • Make sure you understand that nodemanger will use default values to start your servers unless you specify them yourself in the admin console under server startup parameters.
  • Make sure you always start your servers with same startup parameters! This is really important. You end up in deep trouble if you don’t. Believe me.
    Imagine somebody is starting a managed server using the admin console and the provided values there. Next day somebody else starts a server using the provided scripts (which – at least in real life – will never be identical to the startup values configured in the admin console). Now depending on the way the server was started it will behave differently and show erratic behaviour or not.
  • Document and communicate the usage of node manager. Write it down in the operations manual. If you ever hire me as a consultant for some performance tuning it helps to know if you are actually using node manager or not.
  • Don’t forget to enroll new machines for NM usingnmEnroll()
  • A good way to overcome the potential problem with  startup parameters configured in admin console is to use:
    [file: nodemanger.properties]startScriptEnabled=true
    stopScriptEnabled=true
    

    Then node manager will use the generated start script and you do not need to configure startup values in the admin server console.

  • If you are not using SSL for your domain the default option for node manager to use encrypted communication does not make that much sense for you. Disable it. On the admin server site switcht to “plain text” for node manager communication and in the node manager.properties located in WL_HOME/common/nodemanager set
    secureListener=false
    
  • If you decide to use SSL for the node manager communication, get correct certificates! The demo certificate will not work in a distributed system. Make sure the hostnames in the certificates are correct. If they are not correct, you may want to consider disabling host name verification on the admin server (which is the client for the node manager).
  • Remember that node manager is not part of the domain. Still you can check the node manager status and and see the logs directly from the WebLogic admin console.

Some homework for Oracle 😉 Here is my personal wishlist for WebLogic Server 13f:

  1. Enable plain text communication for node manager as default. Why should it be SSL?
  2. Set start/stopScriptEnabled as default. This will cause less confusion.

Any settings you would like to share? Something to argue? Let me know.