# Configuration and User Guide

# Accessing and Using the WLS-VE Distribution Archive

The following sections describe how to access and use the WLS-VE distribution archive contents, and how to prepare a domain for virtualization:

- Obtaining the WLS-VE Distribution Archive
- Unpacking the WLS-VE Distribution Archive
- Copying the WLS-VE ISO Image
- Upgrading and Promoting Domains
- Downloading and Applying Patches
- What’s Next?

## Obtaining the WLS-VE Distribution Archive

For this release, WLS-VE is only available as a distribution archive and does not include a BEA product installer mechanism. You can download the WLS-VE distribution archive from the BEA web site.

## Unpacking the WLS-VE Distribution Archive

After obtaining the WLS-VE distribution archive for WLS 10.0 MP1, follow these steps to unpack the archive.

1. Navigate to the directory containing the distribution archive file: `server1001ve12.tar.gz`.
2. BEA recommends unzipping the archive to the BEA Home directory for your WLS 10.0 MP1 installation. See The BEA Home Directory.
3. Once unzipped, verify the following product directory structure:

   Table 2-1 WLS-VE 10.0 Product Installation Directory Structure
   Directory . . . | Description . . .
   --- | ---
   `server1001ve12` | The WLS-VE Home directory.
   `iso` | The WLS-VE ISO image (`wlsve1001.iso`) contains the LiquidVM and WebLogic Server classes that you use to host your business applications. Each physical machine that hosts an instance of WLS-VE needs access to this ISO image file.
   `tools` directory | Contains the P2V Domain Conversion Utility, the LiquidVM Configuration Wizard, and the WLS-VE startup utilities.
   `tools/lib` directory | Contains the WLS-VE runtime utilities.
   `WLSVE_VERSION` file | Contains the WLS-VE version number.

#### The BEA Home Directory

The BEA Home directory serves as a repository for your files that facilitate any future upgrades or installation of patches. If you already have a BEA Home directory on the local disk of the launcher machine, unzip the distribution archive in the existing directory.

Note: | Optionally, you can also create your BEA Home directory on an NFS file server that is accessible to the WLS-VE installer through an NFS mount. For instructions on using an NFS file server, see the Creating and Sharing Directories section in the WLS-VE v1.0 Installation and Configuration Guide.

If the BEA Home is not on an NFS share, to install update patches on the VM instance, you first need to install them on the local disk of the launcher machine, and then copy them to the local disk of each VM. For more information, see Moving a WLS-VE Domain to a Production Environment and Downloading and Applying Patches.

Note: | The copy process is only necessary for installing update patches.

#### Sharing the BEA Home Directory on the Launcher Machine with Other BEA Products

The BEA Home directory can be considered a central support directory for all the BEA products installed on your system. For example, if you use WLS, WLW, and WLS-VE, you can maintain a single BEA Home directory for all products on the launcher machine. However, each WLS-VE instance has its own BEA Home directory, `/bea`, by default.

## Copying the WLS-VE ISO Image

When you unpack the WLS-VE distribution archive on the launcher machine, the WLS 10.0 MP1 ISO image (`wlsve1001.iso`) is copied to the `/server1001ve12` directory. The ISO image contains the LiquidVM and WebLogic Server classes that run on hypervisor software and host your Java applications. To give the ESX server access to these classes, you need to copy the ISO image to a datastore on each ESX server that will run WLS-VE. (See Figure 2-1.) A recommended best practice is to copy the ISO image to a SAN that can be accessed from each ESX server host.

Notes: | Copying the ISO image to a physical disk that is local to the ESX server may disable some VMware functionality, such as VMotion.

Note: | If you are using an NFS share, datastores will experience degraded performance when booting WLS-VE.

Figure 2-1 Copy the ISO Image to Datastores for Each ESX Server

To copy the WLS-VE ISO image to a datastore on a local disk or SAN, you can use the following secure copy (`scp`) command syntax:
`scp -p` `source-file``` `username``@``esxhost``:/vmfs/volumes/``datastore``/``path``/`

where:

- `-p` preserves modification times, access times, and modes from the original file.
- `source-file` is the relative or absolute path and file name of the WLS-VE ISO image file.
- `username` is the name of a user in your network who has write privileges on the hypervisor host machine.
- `esxhost` is the name of an ESX server host.
- `/vmfs/volumes/` is the directory within the VMware file system under which ESX Server stores datastores.
- `datastore` is the name of a datastore.
- `path` is one or more optional directory levels.

Notes: |

- BEA recommends using `scp` to copy ISO images. The Linux operating system includes an `scp` client. For Windows, you can install (or download for free) third-party utilities that include `scp` clients. Also note that `scp` is just one of many ways to copy the disk, depending on how you have configured your VMware environment. For example, in a Windows environment, the SAN disk could be an additional drive that is accessible to the ESX server; therefore, you can copy the ISO image to that drive using Windows Explorer.
- Copying an ISO using `scp` requires that the ESX server has been configured to allow `user-login` over SSH (which is off by default).

Be sure to record the pathname that you specify. When you use the LiquidVM Configuration Wizard to configure virtual machines, you will need to provide this location. Note that the syntax in ESX Server for specifying this path is:
`[``datastore``] /``path``/``file`

For example, you can use the following `scp` command to copy the WLS-VE ISO image from the current directory to the default `storage1` datastore (VMware creates the `storage1` datastore when you install ESX Server):

`scp -p wlsve1001.iso myusername@myESXHost:/vmfs/volumes/storage1/`

With the above example, the pathname that you specify in the LiquidVM Configuration Wizard is:
`[storage1] /wlsve1001.iso`

## Upgrading and Promoting Domains

Generally, upgrading and promoting virtualized domains requires the same steps used for upgrading and promoting non-virtualized domains. The main steps in this process are:

1. Plan the upgrade—In this step, you need to inventory the application environment, verify supported configuration information, review the compatibility information, and create an upgrade plan.
2. Prepare to upgrade—In this step, you undeploy any deployed applications, shut down all servers in the application environment, back up the application environment, install any required BEA products, prepare the remote Managed Server domain directories, and set up the environment.
3. Upgrade your application environment.
4. Complete post-upgrade procedures.

For detailed instructions on these steps, see Upgrading WebLogic Application Environments.

Due to its virtualized nature, when you upgrade to WLS-VE, depending on your required upgrade scenario, you will need to modify the standard upgrade procedure to address important virtualization issues. The changes you need to make are described in the following sections.

### Upgrading from a Non-virtualized WLS 10.0 to WLS-VE 10.0

When you upgrade an application from a non-virtualized implementation of WLS 10.0 to WLS-VE 10, you need to make some modifications to the application code to ensure successful operation. See Preparing an Existing WebLogic Domain for Virtualization.

### Upgrading from an Earlier Version of WLS to WLS-VE 10.0

You cannot migrate an application directly to WLS-VE 10.0 MP1 v1.2 from an earlier version of WLS-VE (for example, version 9.2 v1.1). Instead, you need to follow the upgrade procedures outlined in Upgrading WebLogic Application Environments to upgrade your domain to a WLS 10.0 MP1 domain. Once you have done so, prepare the domain for virtualization as described in Preparing an Existing WebLogic Domain for Virtualization.

## Downloading and Applying Patches

WLS patches can be installed on each WLS-VE instance separately without shutting down the entire domain or cluster. How WLS-VE is patched depends on where the issue occurs and how the WLS-VE instance is configured in your environment, as follows:

- If there is a LiquidVM issue, either in the OS-layer or in the JVM layer, then a new CD-ISO-image must be acquired from BEA Product Support and uploaded to the ESX Server. Also, the WLS-VE instance has to be configured to use the new ISO.
- If there is a WLS issue, then you can use the normal WLS patch mechanism. Follow the instructions provided in the following sections that are appropriate to your WLS-VE configuration.

For information about upgrading your software with maintenance patches and service packs, if available, see Installing Maintenance Updates and Service Packs.

### Running Smart Update on an Ordinary OS and Copy the Patches

If you created your BEA Home on the local disk of the launcher machine, follow these steps:

1. Run Smart Update on the OS using a BEA Home directory on that machine, as explained in Starting Smart Update. This procedure will create a patch_weblogic`NNN` directory under the BEA Home, where `NNN` specifies the WLS release (for example, 1001 for 10.0 MP1).
2. Follow steps 1 and 2 in the Moving a WLS-VE Domain to a Production Environment section, which explains how to use SSH to copy files to your WLS-VE instances.
3. Using SSH, copy the entire patch_weblogic`NNN` directory into the instance’s `/bea` directory (where `/bea` is the BEA Home directory on your WLS-VE instance).

### Running Smart Update on a BEA Home on an NFS Share

If your server has configured a BEA Home on an NFS share, you can run the Smart Update tool from an ordinary OS that also has access to the same NFS share with the BEA Home on it. Smart Update will apply the patches and put them in the BEA Home on the NFS share. The next time you restart your WLS-VE instance the patches will get automatically loaded.

For more information on using NFS shares, refer to the Creating and Sharing Directories section in the WLS-VE v1.0 Installation and Configuration Guide.

### WLS Service Packs

If you want to apply a WLS service pack, a new CD-ISO-image must be acquired from BEA Product Support and uploaded to the ESX Server. You must also reconfigure your WLS-VE instance to use the service pack ISO instead of the previous CD-ISO.

## What’s Next?

After you have unpackaged the software and copied the ISO to the hypervisor host, you need to configure your environment, and create WLS-VE instances.

- Configure the LiquidVM connection parameters, as described in Configuring LiquidVM Connection Parameters.
- Prepare the WLS-VE domain on the launcher machine, use the P2V utility to stage the WLS-VE instances on the ESX server, and run the necessary P2V-generated start scripts, as described in Creating Virtual WebLogic Domains.
- Start and administer the WLS-VE environment (for example, security, logging, and troubleshooting), as described in:

- Starting and Stopping WLS-VE
- Securing Your Production Environment
- Configuring Logging
- Tuning the WLS-VE LiquidVM Kernel
- Diagnostics and Troubleshooting

For specific information about this WLS-VE release, see the WLS-VE Release Notes.