Sunday, September 30, 2012

Policy Attachments and Local Optimization in Composite-to-Composite Invocations in Oracle SOA Suite

Policy Attachments and Local Optimization in Composite-to-Composite Invocations in Oracle SOA Suite:

OWSM supports an Oracle SOA Suite local optimization feature for composite-to-composite invocations in which the reference of one composite specifies a web service binding to a second composite. Local optimization enables you to bypass the HTTP stack and SOAP/normalized message conversions during runtime. Local optimization is not used if the composites are in different containers. If a policy is attached to the web service binding, the policy may not be invoked if local optimization is used.

By default, an OWSM security policy includes a local-optimization property that identifies if the policy supports local optimization. You can view the setting for a policy in Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control.

To view the local optimization setting for policies:

  • Login to EM console.
  • In the navigator, expand the WebLogic Domain folder.
  • Right-click on the Domain, and select Web Services > Policies.


Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Overriding or Forcing Local Optimization in Oracle SOA Suite

Overriding or Forcing Local Optimization in Oracle SOA Suite:


Two configuration properties are provided for either overriding or forcing local optimization.

By default, Oracle SOA Suite prefers local optimization. However, you can override this behavior with the oracle.webservices.local.optimization binding property in the composite.xml file. When this property is set to false, local optimization is not performed and cross-composite calls are performed through SOAP and HTTP. 
You can override the oracle.webservices.local.optimization property and force optimization to be performed by setting the oracle.soa.local.optimization.force property to true. Use this property in the following scenarios:
  • The server configuration is sufficiently complicated (for example, there are fire wall or proxy settings in an intranet), which may cause the co-location checks to not deliver the correct result.
  • You clearly understand the semantics of local optimization, the system setup qualifies for local optimization, and local optimization is absolutely preferred.
If oracle.webservices.local.optimization is set to false and oracle.soa.local.optimization.force is set to false, local optimization is not performed.
 
The oracle.soa.local.optimization.force property has a default value of false. When this property is set to true, Oracle SOA Suite skips the condition checks.

Another important note about this property is that Oracle SOA Suite always honors the setting of this property (if policy checks allow the optimization). However, if local invocation fails due to non application faults or exceptions (that is, runtime errors mostly related to the direct Java invocation), the value of this setting is ignored for subsequent invocations on the configured endpoint and for all the valid endpoint addresses configured on the endpoint.

To enable the oracle.soa.local.optimization.force property:

Add oracle.soa.local.optimization.force as a binding component level property in the reference section of the composite being invoked. For example, if composite comp_comp2 invokes comp_comp1, then define this property in the reference section of the composite.xml file of comp_comp2.




Configuring Local Optimization in Oracle SOA Suite

Configuring Local Optimization in Oracle SOA Suite:


Local optimization is the process of one SOA composite application invoking another SOA composite application through direct Java invocations in an environment in which both composites are on the same SOA server (JVM).

Direct Java invocations are generally more efficient than SOAP over HTTP calls. Therefore, whenever the conditions are met for direct Java invocations, Oracle SOA Suite optimizes the service calls for the co-located composites.

In 10.1.x releases, we manually configured SOAP optimization with the optSoapShortcut property. For release 11g, SOAP optimization is automatically configured.

Condition Checks for Using Local Optimization:

Oracle SOA Suite performs the following condition checks to determine if local optimization is possible.
  • It must be a composite-to-composite invocation. This is the most fundamental criteria that makes the direct Java calls possible when both the client and target services are implemented based on the same SOA Infrastructure (that is, the same SOA server).
  • The composite implementing the reference (target) service must be active. This condition requires the target composite to be up and running, which in turn ensures that the reference service is available.
  • The client and target composites must be co-located on the same server. This is an obvious requirement for direct Java invocations. It is also a critical step in which Oracle SOA Suite compares the server (on which the client composite is deployed) host configuration with the host and port values specified in the reference (target) service endpoint URI. If the host and port values match, it can be concluded that the client and target composites are located on the same server.
  • However, the comparison is not necessarily straightforward given that working with both standalone and clustered server setups and potential load balancer configurations is necessary. Therefore, here are the step-by-step condition checks that determine the correct server configuration on all platforms:
    •  Checks the Server URL configuration property value on the SOA Infrastructure Common Properties in em console. 


Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Weblogic Monitoring Dashboard to monitor the resources

Weblogic Monitoring Dashboard to monitor the resources


Monitoring dashboard is the new feature of latest weblogic server to view diagnostic data without doing additional setup.

This is the extension of the WLDF framework. The Monitoring Dashboard provides views and tools for graphically presenting diagnostic data about servers and applications running on them. The underlying functionality for generating, retrieving, and persisting diagnostic data is provided by the WebLogic Diagnostics Framework. The Monitoring Dashboard provides additional tools for presenting that data in charts and graphs.

The Monitoring dashboard can be launched from the home page of the Web logic administration console or pointing to the direct URL.


Direct URL to access the Monitoring Dashboard - http://<Server Host>:<Server Port>/console/dashboard


Monday, September 24, 2012

Weblogic Server Deployment Staging Configuration

Weblogic Server Deployment Staging Configuration:


We can deploy, redeploy, undeploy, and distribute applications using Weblogic server Administration Console, ANT script or through WLST script.

We can deploy an application as a single archive EAR file or as an exploded archive directory.
Before deploying the application the following server level configuration should be done based on our requirement.

Staging Mode:

The mode that specifies whether an application's files are copied from a source on the Administration Server to the Managed Server's staging area during application preparation.

Nostage mode: 

The Administration Server does not copy the deployment unit files to the target servers. The deployment units are deployed directly from the source. This mode is useful when deploying very large deployments to multiple targets. This is the default staging mode for the Administration Server.

Stage mode: 

The Administration Server copies the deployment unit files to the staging directories of target servers and they are deployed using the local copy. This mode is useful when deploying small size applications. This is the default staging mode for Managed Servers.

External mode:

In this mode you manually copy the deployment units  to the staging directories and then deploy.

Staging Directory Name:

The directory path on the Managed Server where all staged (prepared) applications are placed.

Upload Directory Name:

The directory path on the Administration Server where all uploaded applications are placed.

Configure Deployment Staging:

  • Log in to Weblogic server Admin console and click on Servers
  • Click on particular Server then Click on Deployment
  • Configure the deployment staging accordingly.


Changing Default JPA Provider in WebLogic Server

Changing Default JPA Provider in WebLogic Server :


WebLogic Server has been providing both Kodo and TopLink as JPA providers since WLS 10.3.1.
Unless an explicit <provider>...</provider> is specified in the persistence.xml file of a deployed application, WLS will use Kodo by default.

With the release of WLS 10.3.3, we have now provided a way to change the default JPA provider at the domain level, allowing you to switch between Kodo or TopLink as the default persistent provider that weblogic server will use.

The default JPA provider setting is exposed via a new MBean: JPAMBean on the DomainMBean, and persists the configuration into the config.xml file.

Steps to Change the Default provider:

  • Login to weblogic server console
  • Click on the Domain and click on JPA
  • Change the Default JPA Provider to TopLink and click on Save



Oracle TopLink is the default persistence provider in WebLogic Server 12c and later but you can change to Kodo if required.