Difference between Node and Profiles in was

Profile : It provides you a run-time environment. We have 4 different types of profiles in WAS 6.1 ND, based on your application/project environment we will select/create the profile.
For Ex:

* you want to create a standalone environment just create Application Server Profile.

* you want to create distributed/clustering environment, we have to create

Application Server and Dmgr profile. Later we have to federate Application server 
to DMGR. (or) Simply create a Cell profile(which is a combination of DMGR and 
federated AppServer).

Node : Whenever you create any profile(Cell/DMGR/AppServer/Custom), we will get a node. The main purpose of the node is to administer the AppServer's created under the node. The main point to be noted here is : In DMGR profile, this node will not be directly highlighted instead a CellManager will replace its place.

NodeAgent : The main advantage of NodeAgent is for Synchronising. This comes into picture when you federate a node to DMGR. There is no command/option in WAS to start/stop Nodeagent. If you start/stop node, automatically nodeagent will be also start/stop.

If the node/nodeagent was down, there will be no impact to running app's. The only impact is you cant start the stopped AppServer's under that node untill the node was started.

Without creating any profile, we wont get NODE into the picture.

Configure data source.

Data Source
data source  supplies the physical connection Between application server and Database

Configuring the WebSphere Application Server data source

Installed applications use data sources as resources to obtain connection to relational databases. To create these connections between an application and a relational database, WebSphere Application Server uses the driver implementation classes that are encapsulated by the JDBC provider, which is an object that represents vendor-specific JDBC driver classes to WebSphere Application Server. For access to a relational databases, applications use the JDBC drivers and data sources that you configure for WebSphere Application Server.

Procedure

1. Start the WebSphere Application Server administrative console.
2. Click Security -> Secure administration, applications and infrastructure.
3. On the Configuration panel, expand Java Authentication and Authorization Service and click J2C authentication data.
4. Click New and enter the Alias, User ID and Password.
5. Click Ok.
6. On the WebSphere Application Server administrative console, expand Resources. Expand JDBC then click JDBC Providers.
7. In the Scope section, choose the Node level from the drop-down list.
8. Click New to create a new JDBC driver.
9. Select, in this order, the Database type, Provider type, Implementation type and Name. The Name automatically fills based on the implementation type you choose.
10. Click Next and configure the database class path. Click Next.
11. On the Summary page, click Finish.
12. Click Save to save your selections. The JDBC providers page then appears.
13. On the WebSphere Application Server administrative console, click Data sources.
14. Click New to create a new data source. Enter the Data source name and the JNDI name, and choose the authentication alias from the drop-down list in Component-managed authentication alias. The JNDI name should match the datasourceName value set in wimconfig.xml. By default, it is jdbc/wimDS.

Note: For Cloudscape 10 Version 1 embedded databases, leave the Component-managed authentication alias field set to NONE.

15. Click Next.
16. Enter the Database name and deselect the checkbox, Use this data source in container managed persistence (CMP). Click Next.
17. On the Summary page, click Finish.
18. The Data sources page displays. Click Save, Then select the check box for the authentication alias previously created. Click Test Connection. The message should indicate that the connection is successful. Ignore any warnings, and then click Next.
19. Save the configurations, and restart WebSphere Application Server.

Another 

Creating a data source in DB2 (WebSphere Application Server 6)

1. Start WebSphere Application Server.
2. Open the WebSphere Administrative Console.
3. Click Security > Global security, then click Authentication > JAAS Configuration > J2C Authentication Data.
4. Click New to display the J2C Authentication Data Entries page.
5. Enter the alias, User ID, and password for authentication. Click Apply and Save.
   The cellname/alias name is now visible in the list of J2C Authentication Data.
6. Navigate to Resources > JDBC Providers. Click New.
7. Provide the following information on the General Properties page under Configuration:
   1. Select the database type.
   2. Select the provider type. For DB2 7.2, select DB2 Legacy CLI-based Type 2 JDBC. For DB2 8.1, select DB2 Universal JDBC Driver Provider.
   3. Click Apply.
8. Provide the following information on the General Properties page:
   1. Enter the name for the JDBC Driver as DB2 JDBC Driver.
   2. Specify the class path.
      For DB2 7.2, specify the class path as Location of the db2java.zip file. To give the exact path for db2java.zip file, perform a file search on the machine on which DB2 is installed.
      For DB2 8.1, specify the class path as the location of the db2jcc.jar, db2jcc_license_cisuz.jar and db2jcc_license_cu.jar files.
   3. Accept the default for the implementation class name.
   4. Click Apply.
9. Click Data Sources.
10. Click New to display the General Properties page. Provide the following information:
    1. Put a logical name for your data source in the Name field.
    2. Put the JNDI Name (jdbc/v5/dashboard) for the data source in the JNDI field.
    3. In the Component-managed Authentication Alias field, select the authentication alias created earlier.
    4. In the databaseName field, specify the DB2 database alias name.
    5. In the portNumber property, specify the port number.
    6. In the serverName property, specify the server name.
    7. Click Custom Properties. Create two new properties called "user" and "password." Set appropriate values for both these properties.
11. Click Apply and Save.
12. Using the WebSphere Administrative console, test the connection to ensure that everything is configured correctly.
    1. In the left pane, click Resources > JDBC Providers.
    2. Click the JDBC provider created earlier.
    3. Scroll to the end of the screen and click Data Sources.
    4. Select the check box in front of the data source created earlier.
    5. Click Test Connection.
       A message should be displayed at the top saying "Test connection for datasource dataSourceName on server serverName at node NodeNamewas successful." Now, you should be able to connect to DB2 using this data source.
13. Restart WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Portal Server.

Fix Packs

Release:
---------------
This is the term used by web sphere development and support for a major version of web sphere. The first 2 digits of the product version number identify the release
Ex:
web sphere 6.0, 6.1, 7.0

Refresh pack:
-------------------
This is a new term used to identify an update to the product version. that typically contains only defect fixes, but many also include feature additions and changes 
The third digit of the version number indicates a Refresh pack

Refresh pack :- Dissolving defects + Adding features 

Fix packs:
----------------
This is the term used to describe a product update that infect includes only defects.
It only dissolve the defects, but ist didn't add any features.

Ex:-

6.0.1.5
6.0.2.6

Release---6.0
Refresh -6.0.1
Fix---6.0.1.5

Fix (or)Interim Fix:
-------------------------
These two terms indicates a temporary or an emergency product update focused on a specific defect.This type of update is used to be referred as an emergency fix.

Steps to Install a refresh pack (or) a fix pack:-
-------------------------------------------------------------
Note:

Stop all the applications before you install

1. Check version info to verify was version.(Versioninfo.sh)
2.Stop all the web sphere process that uses the installation.

3.Back up your configuration using the backup config command.
4. Extract the zipped archive file to the was root directory and execute update.exe inside your update installer directory.
5. (Restart)dmgr and any node agent for recycle profiles associated with the installation.

Another important Question With Answers

1)  What are logs in IHS (IBM HTTP SERVER)  ?

A)  Access.log  ,  Error.log

2)  What are Configuration files in IPlanet Web Server  ?

A)  Magnus.conf  ,   Obj.conf

3)  Prerequisite of SyncNode Command  ?

A)  The NodeAgent must be in stopped state when this command is executed.

4)  If we got a problem before creating a log's Directory at a time of Installation at that time where you can check Status of Installation?

A)  tmp/log.txt

5)  If NodeAgent stops what will Impact for end Users  ?

A) Their is no Impact for end User

6)  What is the Impact for Federated profile Servers If the DMGR is down  ?

A)  No Impact on Servers and Applications

7)  What is the Configuration file (or) Heart of IHS  ?

A)  httpd.conf file

8)  If Application is giving Very Slow Response then how will improve  ?

A)  ----->  Check Connection Pool Settings.

      ----->  Change Accordingly if required.

     ------>  JVM Memory Settings

    ------>  Change Accordingly if required

   ------>  Check Database if it is giving Slow Response.

   ------>  Check any Connection are waiting or not Closing.

   ----->   Check CPU Utilization  ,  JVM Utilization


9)  If You got Internal Error then what is the solution for it  ?

A)  ----->   Check IHS is running or not.

     ----->    If it is running check the AppServer is running or not.

     ----->   This is basically due to request is reaching to IHS and not able to reach Application.

10)  If you are trying to start WAS and you are getting "Class not found "  exception then how to solve this issue  ?

A)  ------>   Check Web Sphere classpath and set it properly if not set.

      ----->    Check Systemout and Systemerr logs for any specific errors or warning to identify which class is not found when Starting the Server. 

11)  What are AppServer Components   ?

A)  1)  Admin Server

     2)  Web Container

     3)  EJB Container

     4)  J2C Service (JAVA 2 CONNECTOR )

     5)  Messaging Engine

     6)  Security Server.

12)  What is Server  ?

A)  ----> Server provides runtime Environment for your Web Applications or Enterprise Applications. 

     -----> Server receives user request ,  process that request and response will generated to End Users.

13)  Can you know other Connection Pool in WAS other than JDBC Connection Pool  ?

A)  1)  J2C Connection Pool  (JAVA 2 CONNECTOR POOL )

      2) MQ Connection Pool (Messaging Queue)

      3)  Thread Pool

14)   Different Types of Session TimeOut can be set  ?

A)  1)   Application level
  
      2)  Web Module level

      3)   Server level

15)  How do you verify that you are using Horizontal clusters not a vertical cluster?

A)  ----->  if u have all the servers in same machine(Host) ,than its vertical ,if cluster servers are installed in different machine than its horizontal.

                                         -OR-

  -----> Go to WAS console => select Nodes in left side => in the right side of the console you can see how many nodes make's your CELL, and also the host-name of the boxes in which the node exists.

------> if you see all the nodes from different host-names then its Horizontal clustering if you see same host-name here then its Vertical clustering

16) What kind of security mode you are using or JDBC connection?

A)  J2C AUTHENTICATION.


17)    Can u configure multpile apache webservers?

A)  we can configure in httpd.conf file.

18)  How do you apply a FIX PACK  ?

A)  - Stop all the JVM/Node/DMGR on which you are going to apply fixpack
      - first check and update the update installer
      - Place the .pak files in maintenance folder of updateinstaller directory
      - create the response files
      - run ./update.sh -silent -options”path-to-responsefile”
     - check the versioninfo from the WAS bin directory

19)  If nodeagent is stopped, can you perform the sync  ?

A)  ---->  In adminconsole Answer is No
     ------> if we are doing syncnode by command mode then Nodeagent should be stopped.

20)  one of the cluster member (jvm) is having issues. To troubleshoot the issue, you decided to take it out of the cluster. How do you do that?
A)  Make its runtime weight to 0

21)  In a complex environment, there are 10 machines. Machine A is having 8GB RAM and machine B having 2GB of RAM. The administrator decided to send twice as many request as machineB to machineA. How can he achive it?
A) give machineA twice the weight as machineB

22)  After making some changes on a cluster, it is required to recycle/restart all the cluster JVMs. The lead admin told you to make sure that there should not be any downtime during this recycle. Which option do you use to achieve it?

A)  Ripple start

23)  A large application which has 5web modules has been deployed on to a cluster. After some months, the developer asked you to update on of the 5web modules. How do you do it?

A)  RollOut

24)  can you change the cluster name, once it was created
A)  No

25)  WHEN APPLICATION IS DOWN WHAT U WILL DO?

A)  ---->  First look at the logs for errors. If you find the error, save the logs and start your application. Then start trouble shoot.

   ----->  If no error found, run a trace and look for FFDC etc.

26)  I HAVE 16GB RAM,WHAT IS THE MINIMUM & MAXIMUM HEAPSIZE ?

A)  No relation. Heap settings should be made depends on application

27)  What is the most important step to do, if you change your user repository.

A)  recycle all the JVMs. otherwise the key tokens will not be updated for the new repository

28)   When can you enable global security?

A)  ---->  While Installing

     -----> After Installation also

29)  What is the default user registry, if you enable Global Security at the time of installation

A)  Its federated repositories actually it is a file

30)  can we use different SSL for nodes and plugin ?

A)  Yes.

31)  What is the command to start and stop the httpserver?

A)  ./apachectl -k stop/start

32) What is a keystore?

A)  A keystore is a database that contains private keys with their associated certificates. The keystore will be used for encrypting/signing some thing with your private key

33)  What is root certificate?

A)  ----> Root certificate is either an unsigned public key certificate or a self-signed certificate that identifies the Root Certificate Authority (CA). 

-----> Digital certificates are verified using a chain of trust. The trust anchor for the digital certificate is the Root Certificate Authority (CA).

----->  A root certificate is the top-most certificate of the tree, the private key of which is used to "sign" other certificates. All certificates immediately below the root certificate inherit the trustworthiness of the root certificate.

----> Intermediate certificate is a subordinate certificate issued by the trusted root specifically to issue end-entity server certificates. The result is a certificate chain that begins at the trusted root CA, through the intermediate and ending with the SSL certificate issued to you. Such certificates are called chained root certificates

----> Creating certificates directly from the CA root certificate increases the risk of root certificate compromise, and if the CA root certificate is compromised, the entire trust infrastructure built by the SSL provider will fail. The usage of intermediate certificates for issuing SSL certificates to end entities, therefore, provides an added level of security.

34)  What is the Default Server in WAS for Application Server profile ?

A)  Server1

You might also like:

Cozinant Inter View Question.

)  Tell me about Yourself ?

2) What is JDBC ? How you can configure JDBC ?

3) What is SSL    ?  How you can configure SSL ?

4) What is Cell  ?  How many cells we can use ? Can we use multiple cells ?

5) What is Node ? 

6) What is Node Agent ?

7) Hierarchy of NETWORK DEPLOYMENT ?

8) How we can copy Multiple files in UNIX ?

9) In LINUX I dont know my port number ? How we can achieve and get that port no ? Display all port no's ?

10) Which UNIX version you are using ?

11) How to check UNIX version ?

12) How to see the Heap Memory in the System ? Whether it is full or not ?

13) How to create a file ?

14) How to move the file ?

15) Difference between WEBSERVER AND WEB CONTAINER ? 

16) What is AppServer ?

17) What is WebServer ?

18) What is Clustering ? How many types are there ? Which will effective in Real time  ?

19) How can we achieve FAILOVER ?

Point To Be Remember

XML Configuration Files

Property files

Log Files

WebSphere stores its configuration to set of XML files. When we use the Admin console to configure WebSphere, certain XML files are updated internally.

CELL-scope

• admin-authz.xml

Contains the roles set for administration of the Admin console.

<profile_root>/appsrv01/config/cells/<cell_name>/

• profileRegistry.xml

Contains a list of profiles and profile configuration data

• resources.xml

Defines operating cell scope environmental resources, including JDBC, JMS, JavaMail, URL end point configuration, and so on.

• security.xml

Contains security data , including all user ID and password information.

• virtualhosts.xml

Contains virtual host and Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)-type configurations.

• variables.xml

Contains cell level WebSphere variables

• wimconfig.xml

Contains the federated repository configurations for global security

<profile_root>/config/cells/<cell_name>/wim/config/

NODE-scope

• namestore.xml

Provides persistent JNDI namespace binding data

• resources.xml

Defines node scope environmental resources, including JDBC, JMS, JavaMail, URL end point configuration, and so on

• serverindex.xml

Specifies all the ports used by servers on this node

• variables.xml

Contains node level WebSphere variables

SERVER-scope

• resources.xml

Contains the configuration of resources, such as, JDBC, JMS, JavaMail, and URL end points at server scope

• server.xml

Contains application server configuration data

• variables.xml

Contains server level variables

properties files

If the global security is enabled WebSphere Application Server cell, you need to manually enter the username and password every time you run the wsadmin tool. By editing the sas.client.props and the soap.client.props files, you can specify the username and password you have configured for global security so you are not prompted to enter the username and password every time you run administrative scripts.

soap.client.props file

com.ibm.SOAP.securityEnabled=<true>

com.ibm.SOAP.loginUserid=<username>

com.ibm.SOAP.loginPassword=<password>

Optionally, set the following property:

com.ibm.SOAP.loginSource=none

sas.client.props file

com.ibm.CORBA.loginUserid=

com.ibm.CORBA.loginPassword=

Also, set the following property:

com.ibm.CORBA.loginSource=properties

Log Files

JVM logs

native_stderr.log,native_stdout.log

stdout and stderr streams are redirected to log files at application server startup, which contain text written to the stdout and stderr streams by native modules, that is, Linux Modules, and so on. In normal error-free operations, these logs files are typically empty.

startServer.log

It is created in your logs directory when the server starts up. This log is very useful to determine JVM parameters used in the start-up process, the server’s process id, and also the date and time in which the server was started. If there are errors experienced during the start-up (for example, security configuration errors where the application server cannot start), then log information will exist for problem determination.

stopServer.log

when server was stopped via a command line, the log will be written to this. If the server has trouble stopping, then Java stack traces will be written to the log which can be used in determining why a given application server failed to stop.

SystemErr.log

contains Java exceptions and stack traces. An empty SystemErr.log file does not necessarily indicate a successfully running application server JVM. You may need to consult the other logs in this directory.

SystemOut.log

This log file contains messages as generated by the JVM during runtime. Some messages are informational, some are warnings or status updates. Applications can be configured to write to the log and so it is very common for the SystemOut.log to be your first port of call in application debugging.

<server_name>.pid

contains the process id of the server. In Linux, this is the actual process id assigned to the JVM process.

FFDC logs

FFDC directory contains detailed logs of exceptions found during the runtime of the WebSphere Application Server. Can be found at WAS_ROOT/profiles/logs/ffdc

SyncNode command

The syncNode command forces a configuration synchronization to occur between the node and the deployment manager for the cell in which the node is configured.

The node agent server runs a configuration synchronization service that keeps the node configuration synchronized with the master cell configuration. If the node agent is unable to run because of a problem in the node configuration, you can use the syncNode command to perform a synchronization when the node agent is not running in order to force the node configuration back in sync with the cell configuration. If the node agent is running and you want to run the syncNode command, you must first stop the node agent.

The syncNode.log file is located in the profile_root/logs directory.

For more information about where to run this command, see the Using command tools topic.

Syntax

The command syntax is as follows:

syncNode <deploymgr host> <deploymgr port> [options]

• The <deploymgr host> argument is required.
• The <deploymgr port> is the Java Management Extensions (JMX) port number that corresponds to the connector type on the -conntype parameter.

Parameters

The following options are available for the syncNode command:

-stopservers

Tells the syncNode command to stop all servers on the node, including the node agent, before performing configuration synchronization with the cell.

-restart

Tells the syncNode command to launch the node agent process after configuration synchronization completes. If the node agent is running and you want to run the syncNode command, you must first stop the node agent.

-nowait

Tells the syncNode command not to wait for successful initialization of the launched node agent process.

-quiet

Suppresses the progress information that the syncNode command prints in normal mode.

-logfile <fileName>

Specifies the location of the log file to which trace information is written. By default, the log file is named syncNode.log and is created in the logs directory of the profile for the node that you are synchronizing.

-profileName  

Defines the profile of the Application Server process in a multi-profile installation. The -profileName option is not required for running in a single profile environment. The default for this option is the default profile.

-replacelog

Replaces the log file instead of appending to the current log.

-trace

Generates trace information into a file for debugging purposes.

-timeout <seconds>

Specifies the waiting time before node agent initialization times out and returns an error.

-username <name>

Specifies the user name for authentication if security is enabled. Acts the same as the -user option.

-user <name>

Specifies the user name for authentication if security is enabled. Acts the same as the -username option.

-password <password>

Specifies the password for authentication if security is enabled.

-conntype <type>

Specifies the Java Management Extensions (JMX) connector type to use for connecting to the deployment manager. Valid types are SOAP or Remote Method Invocation (RMI). The default type is SOAP.

-help

Prints a usage statement.

-?

Prints a usage statement.

Usage scenario

The following examples demonstrate correct syntax:

 

syncNode testhost 8879

syncNode deploymgr 8879 -trace (produces the syncNode.log file)

syncNode host25 4444 -stopservers -restart

(assumes that the deployment manager JMX port is 4444)

syncNode.sh testhost 8879

syncNode.sh deploymgr 8879 -trace (produces the syncNode.log file)

Case:

Note: Before running syncNode command

1. Ensure that the Deployment Manager is running on the specified host and port

2. The syncNode command may only be run when the node agent is stopped

Case 1: when dmgr, app server, nodeagent in stop status —->

<appsrv-home>/bin> syncNode.bat  <dmgr-host> <dmgr_soap_port> -username xxx  -password xxxxx

O/P:

ADMU0116I: Tool information is being logged in file C:\Program
Files\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv60\logs\syncNode.log
ADMU0128I: Starting tool with the AppSrv60 profile
ADMU0113E: Program exiting with error:
com.ibm.websphere.management.exception.ConnectorException:
ADMC0016E: The system cannot create a SOAP connector to connect to
host localhost at port 8879., resulting from:
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
ADMU4123E: Ensure that the Deployment Manager is running on the specified host and port.
ADMU1211I: To obtain a full trace of the failure, use the -trace option.
ADMU0211I: Error details may be seen in the file: C:\Program
Files\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer/profiles/AppSrv60\logs\syncNode.log

————————————————

Case 2: dmgr , nodeagent start state —>

syncNode.bat dmgr-host 8879

O/P:

ADMU0116I: Tool information is being logged in file C:\Program
Files\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv60\logs\syncNode.log
ADMU0128I: Starting tool with the AppSrv60 profile
ADMU0401I: Begin syncNode operation for node anode60 with Deployment Manager
localhost: 8879
ADMU0403E: The syncNode command may only be run when the node agent is stopped.
Either stop the node agent or use the normal synchronization
facility in the node agent.

—————————————————

Case 3: To do sync—> dmgr,server1 is start and nodeagent in stop—> running syncNode

O/P:

ADMU0116I: Tool information is being logged in file C:\Program
Files\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv60\logs\syncNode.log
ADMU0128I: Starting tool with the AppSrv60 profile
ADMU0401I: Begin syncNode operation for node anode60 with Deployment Manager
localhost: 8879
ADMU0016I: Synchronizing configuration between node and cell.
ADMU0402I: The configuration for node anode60 has been synchronized with
Deployment Manager localhost: 8879