WebLogic Scripting Tool Overview

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WebLogic Server Overview
WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST)

May 2011

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©

Agenda

• WLS Configuration Review
• Intro to WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST)
• WLST Offline
• WLST Online
• JMX Client
• Deployment (JSR-88) Client
• Miscellaneous Clients - Node Manager, JNDI, etc.
• Customizing WLST
• Tips and Best Practices

3

Agenda

• WLST Offline
• WLST Online
• JMX Client

4

WLS Configuration Review
• WebLogic Server configuration is segmented by
domain mydomain
Managed Servers
• Each domain represents a logically related group of
WebLogic Server instances that you manage from a
single set of configuration files.
• Each domain has one Administration Server, and can
have multiple managed servers and clusters Admin Server

• Administration Server - Central configuration
controller for the entire domain config.xml

• Managed Server - A running instance that hosts
applications and resources needed by those
applications - The real work horses in a WebLogic
domain

• Cluster - group of Managed Servers running
simultaneously and working together to provide
increased scalability and reliability Admin Console

• Node Manager is a per-machine process used to
start and stop WebLogic Server instances.
• Independent of all domains

5

Two-Phase Configuration Changes

• Changes activated in batches:
• Reliability, consistency:
• Make (related) changes as a group
• Validate before making the change
• Activate or Roll back as a single unit (all changes on all servers)
• General process:
• Get an edit lock
• make changes
• changes are stored in the pending directory
• activate your changes (with implicit validation through the Admin
Console or WLST)
• changes are distributed to servers in the domain
• Two phases: prepare and commit
• Prepared on all servers; any failures will cause total rollback

6

Administration Tools
• Configuration Wizard
• GUI/scriptable tool to create and extend WebLogic domains
• Template based
• Administration Console
• Browser-based tool for configuring and monitoring domains,
deploying applications, and controlling servers
• WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST)
• Script or command line tool to do the same thing as the
Administration Console and Configuration Wizard
• Note that we will cover details on WLST in a separate document
• weblogic.Admin
• Deprecated command line tool for configuring a domain
• Recommend using WLST instead
• weblogic.Deployer
• Command line tool for deploying applications

7

Agenda

• WLST Offline
• WLST Online
• JMX Client

8

WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST)

• Command-line scripting interface for
managing and monitoring WebLogic
Server instances, clusters, and
domains
• Based on 100% pure Java
implementation of Python
• Modes of operation – (script /
interactive) ↔ (online / offline)
• Provides a repeatable process for
propagating configuration changes
across environments
• Quickly allows environments to be
replicated and migrated

Interaction Modes

• Interactive
• enter a command and view the response at a command-line prompt
• In online mode: shell maintains a persistent connection to a WLS
instance

• Script
• text file with a .py file extension
• executed using Jython commands for running scripts
• invoke a sequence of WLST commands without requiring your input

• Embedded
• instantiate the WLST interpreter in your Java code
• execute WLST commands from a Java program

10

Connection Modes

• Offline: analogous to the Configuration Wizard
• Uses the Offline Configuration Framework
• Also used by the Configuration Wizard
• Consistent results when using either tool
• read and write access to the configuration data that is persisted in
the domain’s config directory or in a domain template JAR
• Intended to create a domain or modify a non-running domain
• Used during WLS install to create samples domains

• Online: analogous to the Administration Console
• JMX client
• Interacts with a server’s MBeans
• Intended as a runtime management tool: configuration,
management, deployment, monitoring

11

WLST Offline Can/Can’t Do

Can Do: Can’t Do:
• Create/modify templates • View runtime performance
• Create domains data
• Extend domains • Modify security data
• Access and modify the
configuration for an offline
domain

12

WLST Online Can/Can’t Do

Can Do: Can’t Do:
• Change configuration • Create a domain (must be
• View runtime data offline mode)
• Deploy applications
• Start and stop servers

13

Agenda

• WLST Offline
• WLST Online
• JMX Client

14

WLST Offline
• Uses the Offline Configuration Framework
• Also used by the Configuration Wizard; Consistent results when using
either tool
• Uses domain templates to create a domain
• Several shipped with WLS
• Create your own using Template Builder
• Modify an existing template using WLST Offline
• Intended to create a domain or modify a non-running domain
• Used during WLS install to create samples domains
• Used by WL Platform products for creating domain configurations
(use specific templates for each product)

Note: Do not use WLST offline to manage the configuration of an active
domain. Offline edits are ignored by running servers and can be overwritten by
JMX clients such as WLST online or the WebLogic Server Administration
Console.

15

WLST Offline – Two Models:
Templates and Scripts Recommended for:
• Out of the box
config for a layered
• Templates (put everything in the template)
product
• Use Template Builder to capture current domain
configuration and artifacts into a rich template
• Use that template to create new domains, migrate Reason: domain is
from dev to production self-contained
• Bundles required files
• Used by WebLogic Platform products
Recommended for:
• Scripts (put little in the template and most in • Customer
scripts) configuration
• Use more basic templates for domain creation migration
• Use WLST scripts along with some predefined or • QA automation
custom domain templates to create the target domain
• Modify/customize domain configuration through Reason: easily make
scripts, and effectively track configuration changes and track changes
through source control to a domain config

16

Starting WLST

• Setup the environment:
• setWLSEnv.sh/cmd – sets path and classpath
• Adds WebLogic Server classes to the CLASSPATH and
WL_HOMEserverbin to the PATH

• Invoke WLST:
• java weblogic.WLST
or
• java weblogic.WLST c:myscriptsmyscript.py

• Starts in Offline mode

17

Creating a Domain (WLST Offline)

• Syntax
• createDomain(domainTemplate, domainDir, user, password)

• Example
• wls:/offline>
createDomain('c:/bea/wlserver_103/common/templates/doma
ins/wls.jar','c:/mydomain', 'weblogic', 'weblogic')

18

Changing a Domain in WLST Offline

Step Syntax

1. Open a domain for editing readDomain(domainDirName)

1. Extend the domain addTemplate(templateFileName)
(optional)
1. Make changes (optional) Various commands

1. Save updateDomain()

1. Close the domain for closeDomain()
editing

19

Browsing and Editing in WLST Offline
• Browsing:
• cd(), ls()

• Editing:
• Add an application to a domain:
• addTemplate(templateFileName)
• Create and delete management objects:
• create(name, childMBeanType)
• delete(name, childMBeanType)
• Get and set attribute values:
• get(attrName)
• set(attrName, value)
• Set domain creation or update options:
• setOption(optionName, value)
• Load SQL files into a database:
• loadDB(dbVersion, connectionPoolName)

20

WLST Offline – accessing a domain

• Offline – reading a domain: wl_server
• readDomain('c:/bea/user_projects/do
mains/medrec')
JDBCSystemResource
• Domain configuration data is a collection
of XML documents that expresses a
hierarchy of management objects examples-demoXA
• WLST represents this hierarchy as a file
system Name
• The root is the management object that
represents the WebLogic Server domain Target
(domain directory)
• Each managed-object type is a sub
directory of the root
• Each instance of the type is a subdirectory
under the type directory
• Each management attribute and operation
is a file within a directory

21

Syntax
• Command names and arguments are case sensitive.
• Enclose arguments in single or double quotes. For example,
'newServer' or "newServer".
• If you specify a backslash character () in a string, either precede
the backslash with another backslash or precede the entire string
with a lower-case r character.
• For example when specifying a file pathname that contains a
backslash:
• readTemplate('c:userdomainsmytemplatesmytemplate.jar') or
readTemplate(r'c:userdomainsmytemplatesmytemplate.jar')
• When using WLST offline, the following characters are not valid in
names of management objects: period (.), forward slash (/), or
backward slash ().
• If you need to cd to a management object whose name includes a
forward slash (/), surround the object name in parentheses. For
example:
• cd('JMSQueue/(jms/REGISTRATION_MDB_QUEUE)')

22

Demo

• Create a basic WLS domain
• Read the domain
• Add a Managed Server

23

Agenda

• WLST Offline
• WLST Online
• JMX Client
• Miscellaneous Clients - Node Manager, JNDI, Diagnostics

24

WLST Online

• Analogous to the Administration Console, but without
the GUI
• JMX client; maintains a persistent connection
• Interacts with a server’s/domain’s MBeans
• Intended as a runtime management tool:
configuration, management, deployment, monitoring

25

WLST Online – connecting to a domain

• Setup the environment:
• setWLSEnv.sh (in WL_HOMEserverbin)
• Adds WebLogic Server classes to the CLASSPATH and
WL_HOMEserverbin to the PATH

• Invoke WLST:
• java weblogic.WLST

• Starts in Offline mode
• Connect to a domain:
• wls:/offline> connect('weblogic','weblogic','localhost:7001')

26

Traversing MBean Trees

• Simpler than JMX – no need to know Domain MBean (root)
the JMX object name |- - - MBean type (ServerMBean)
• MBeans are hierarchical, similar to a |- - - MBean instance
file system, with the DomainMBean at (ManagedServer1)
the top of the tree |- - - MBean attributes
• Multiple MBean trees (described later) & operations
(AutoRestart)
• Use commands similar to Unix
|- - - MBean instance
commands to traverse the tree: (MedRecServer)
• cd(), ls()
|- - - MBean attributes
• Syntax is the same as with WLST & operations
Offline (StartupMode)

27

Available MBean Trees
• domainConfig
• configuration hierarchy of the entire domain; represents the configuration MBeans in
RuntimeMBeanServer
• read only
• serverConfig
• configuration hierarchy (configuration MBeans) of the server your are connected to
• read only
• domainRuntime
• hierarchy of runtime MBeans for the entire domain
• read only
• serverRuntime
• hierarchy of runtime MBeans for the server you are connected to
• read only
• edit
• writable domain configuration with pending changes; represents the configuration MBeans
in the EditMBeanServer
• jndi
• read-only JNDI tree for the server you are connected to
• custom
• list of custom MBeans
• can be hierarchical/grouped if MBeans use namespaces appropriately

28

Switching Between Trees

• Use the appropriate command to move to a different
tree
• domainConfig()
• serverConfig()
• domainRuntime()
• serverRuntime()
• edit()
• jndi()
• custom()
• When returning to a tree, you return to the place
where you left, except custom and jndi (goes to the
root)

29

Changing Configuration in WLST Online
Step Syntax
1. Change to the edit tree wls:/wl_server/domainConfig> edit()

1. Get an edit lock wls:/wl_server/edit> startEdit()

1. Make changes wls:/wl_server/edit !> svr =
cmo.createServer("managedServer")
wls:/wl_server/edit !>
svr.setListenPort(8001)
wls:/wl_server/edit !>
svr.setListenAddress("my-address")
1. Save (and implicitly validate) wls:/wl_server/edit !> save()
your changes
1. Activate/distribute, release wls:/wl_server/edit !> activate()
lock

30

Current Management Object

• CMO variable – current management object
• Java object that serves as a proxy for direct access to the
WLS MBean
• Makes it easy to directly interact with the MBean – get and
set attributes, other commands
• Always set to the current WLST path
• Only available for WLS MBeans, not custom MBeans

• Example:
• wls:/mydomain/edit>
cmo.setAdministrationPort(9092)
• (This example changes the Administration Port in the Domain
MBean)

31

Deploying an Application

• In Online mode, use the deploy command to deploy
applications
• Syntax: deploy(appName, path, [targets], [stageMode],
[planPath], [options])
• deploy("mainWebApp","C:/samples/server/examples/build/ma
inWebApp“,”server-1”)
• Note: You do not need to be in an edit session to deploy
applications.
• Reminder: in Offline mode, add an application using
an extension template

32

Common Online Deployment Commands

• deploy Deploy an application to a WebLogic Server instance.
• distributeApplication Copy the deployment bundle to the
specified targets.
• redeploy Redeploy a previously deployed application
• startApplication Start an application, making it available to users.
• stopApplication Stop an application, making it unavailable to
users.
• undeploy Undeploy an application from the specified servers.
• updateApplication Updates an application configuration using a
new deployment plan.

• Returns a WLSTProgressObject to track the progress of the
command
• You query the progress object to get the status; (pull, not push)

33

Interacting with the Node Manager

• You can use WLST to do the following with Node Manager:
• Start a Node Manager.
• Connect to a Node Manager, then use the Node Manager to start
and stop servers on the machine on which Node Manager is running.

• Preferred method:
• Use the Node Manager to start the Administration Server
• Connect to the Admin Server
• Start Managed Servers using the standard WLST lifecycle
commands
• Enables you to start all servers in the domain with one connection,
regardless of which machines host the Managed Servers

34

Common WLST Node Manager Commands

• startNodeManager – starts Node Manager on the
current machine.
• nm - Determines whether WLST is connected to
Node Manager
• nmConnect - Connects WLST to Node Manager to
establish a session. (Specify domain and credentials)
• nmDisconnect - Disconnects WLST from a Node
Manager session.
• nmStart - Starts a server in the current domain using
Node Manager.
• nmKill - Kills the specified server instance that was
started with Node Manager.

35

Managing Server Lifecycle with WLST

• You can also manage server lifecycle through WLST without
directly using Node Manager.
• The following WLST lifecycle commands are available:
• startServer - Start the Administration Server. (Online or Offline)
• start - Start a Managed Server instance or a cluster using Node
Manager.
• suspend - Suspend a running server.
• resume - Resume a server instance that is suspended or in ADMIN
state.
• shutdown - Gracefully shut down a running server instance or
cluster.
• migrate - Migrate services to a target server within a cluster.

36

Demo: WLST Online

• Start Node Manager
• Start the Administration Server in the new domain
• Create a Managed Server

37

Agenda

• WLST Offline
• WLST Online
• JMX Client

38

Customizing WLST

• Add custom commands by:
• Creating the commands in a .py file
• Add the file to the WLST home directory
• WLST home directory – WL_HOME/common/wlst (by default)

• Add custom commands to another namespace:
• Create the commands in a .py file
• Add file to the WLST_home/lib directory
• Execute commands using <module>.<command>

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17904_01/web.1111/e13715/toc.htm

39

Support for Custom MBeans

• You can register custom MBeans and then access them using
WLST in the “custom” MBean tree
• WLST treats all non-WebLogic Server MBeans as custom
MBeans:
• Instead of arranging custom MBeans in a hierarchy, WLST
organizes and lists custom MBeans by JMX object name.
• All MBeans with the same JMX domain name are listed in the
same WLST directory. For example, if you register all of your
custom MBeans with JMX object names that start with
mycompany:, then WLST arranges all of your MBeans in a
directory named mycompany.
• Custom MBeans cannot use the cmo variable because a stub is not
available.
• Custom MBeans are editable, but not subject to the WebLogic
Server change management process.
• You can use MBean get, set, invoke, and create and delete
commands on them without first entering the startEdit command.

40

Agenda

• WLST Offline
• WLST Online
• JMX Client

41

Reduce WLST Startup Time

• Cache directory for scanned files:
• java -Dpython.cachedir="c:demowlst_cache"
weblogic.WLST

• New startup option in WLS 10.3:
-skipWLSModuleScanning
• Default behavior: on startup, WLST scans weblogic.jar and all
of the classes referenced in its manifest classpath
• With this option, files in the modules directory are not
scanned
• If needed, you can manually add files to the classpath

42

Some Standard Best Practices

• Parameterize your script and use the preamble for
assigning variables
• easily assigned and changed

• Before creating something, check to see that it exists
try:
cd(‘/servers/’ + serverID)
print ‘The server ‘ + serverID + ‘ already exists’
exit()
except WLSTException:
pass

43

Redirecting Error and Debug Output to a File

• To redirect WLST information, error, and debug
messages from standard out to a file, enter:
redirect(outputFile,[toStdOut])
• This command also redirects the output of the
dumpStack() and dumpVariables() commands.
• For example, to redirect WLST output to the
logs/wlst.log file under the directory from which you
started WLST, enter the following command:

wls:/mydomain/serverConfig> redirect('./logs/wlst.log')

44

Run a WLST Script within a Domain Template

• The configuration framework can execute WLST
offline scripts embedded in domain/extension
templates (e.g., final.py).
• Very useful in satisfying some complex auto-
configuration requirements (e.g., proper targeting of
various resources)

45

Running WLST from Ant

• WebLogic Server provides a custom Ant task, wlst, that
invokes a WLST script from an Ant build file.
• You can create a WLST script (.py) file and then use
this task to invoke the script file, or you can create a
WLST script in a nested element within this task.

46

More Resources

• WLST Guide:
• http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17904_01/web.1111/e13715/toc.htm

• On the web:
• http://wlstbyexamples.blogspot.com/
• http://biemond.blogspot.com/2010/08/wlst-scripting-with-oracle-enterprise.html

• Template Builder:
• http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17904_01/web.1111/e14139/toc.htm

• Samples (installed with WLS 10.3):
• wlserver_103commontemplatesscriptswlst
• wlserver_103commonwlstlib
• samplesserverexamplessrcexampleswlstonline
• samplesserverexamplessrcexamplesdiagnosticswldfprofilessrc
• samplesserverexamplessrcexamplesjdbcmultidatasource

47

WebLogic Scripting Tool Overview

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