This tutorial explains how to manage an Oracle Application Server 10g instance by using Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control. The Application Server Control Console, which is a part of the Oracle Enterprise Manager product set, is a Web-based interface for managing the application server and its components. Application Server Control is automatically installed with Oracle Application Server 10g. In this lesson, you are introduced to the features that you use to perform management operations and configuration changes, and monitor your Oracle Application Server 10g instance. The lesson focuses on common tasks involved in managing Oracle HTTP Server and Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE (OC4J).

Note: This OBE might show slightly different components than the ones you see after installing Oracle Application Server 10g Standard Edition One.

Install Oracle Application Server 10g Standard Edition One.

Open your browser and enter the following URL. This brings you to the Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control's Application Server Home page. The Application Server Home page provides an overview of the Oracle Application Server 10g instance: status, performance, and configured components. It also provides common operations such as starting and stopping services, modifying settings, and administering J2EE services and applications.

http://<hostname>.<domain>:1810/


Note: 1810 is the default port that is automatically assigned while installing Application Server. However, if
another instance is already running on 1810, then the next port may be assigned during installation.


Log in as ias_admin/<admin password you specified during install>,
and click OK.

The Application Server Home page appears, which provides a high-level overview of your Application Server, including status, system resource usage, and enabled and configured components.

From the Application Server Home page, check the status of the instance's System Components.

The Oracle Application Server 10g installation provides a default OC4J "home" J2EE container that you can use to deploy your J2EE applications. The default container is powered by a single Java Virtual Machine (JVM). You can add more server resources to your application as necessary in two ways: adding more JVM resources to the container and/or creating additional OC4J containers.

Add a new OC4J to your application server. Click the Create OC4J Instance button.

Name your new OC4J instance, and click the Create button. In this OBE, obe_oc4j is the name of the OC4J instance.

Your OC4J Instance is being created.

After the instance is created, a confirmation message is displayed. Click OK to return to the Application Server Home page.

Observe that obe_oc4j is currently down and its performance metrics unavailable.

To start the component, select the corresponding check box in the Select column, and click the Start button.

You can also control the scope of your application server by enabling or disabling components. Click the Enable/Disable Components button.

This operation allows you to control which components are available for use within the application server instance. It also adds or removes components from the administration interface. Components that have been disabled can be reenabled.

Disable the OC4J instance that you just created. Select obe_oc4j from the Enabled Components list and click the Move link. The obe_oc4j instance will then appear in the Disabled Components list.

Click the OK button.

Click Yes in the warning message window.

Components that are disabled will not appear in the System Components table on the Application Server Home page. In addition, these disabled components will not be started when the application server is started.

Click J2EE Applications.

This page displays a list of the J2EE applications that have been deployed across all OC4J instances of your Oracle Application Server instance. From here, you can drill down to a specific application to obtain details on its performance and configuration.

Click Ports.

The Ports property page provides you with a list of the ports configured for use by the application server. The Port In Use column will be empty if the port is not defined or if the component is not running. You can use the icon in the Configure column to configure the ports; however, not all ports support modification from Application Server Control. Before changing any port value, you should review the port dependency information by clicking "About OracleAS Port Dependencies."

Click Infrastructure. The Infrastructure property page is displayed. You can use this page to review, configure, and change the Identity Management, Grid Control (for central management of the Oracle platform), and OracleAS Farm Repository that may be associated with this J2EE and Web Cache midtier.

The Identity Management section of the infrastructure property page is used to configure the current application server instance to use Identity Management; specifically, to identify or to change Oracle Internet Directory and or Single Sign-On capabilities.

A key requirement in changing the identity management services used by an application server mid tier is to support the test-stage-production life cycle of an application. An intuitive wizard coupled with a best practices document guides the user through the process of moving an application through the various phases.

The OracleAS Farm Repository Management section is used to configure the instance to use an OracleAS Database-based Farm or OracleAS File-based Farm, or use a different farm if it is already using one. By joining the farm, you can take advantage of Oracle Application Server Clusters for efficient management of Oracle HTTP Server and OC4J across multiple application server instances.

The Grid Control Management section of the Infrastructure property page is used to configure or change the Management Service to which the Application Server is affiliated.

You configure Grid Control Management to add the Application Server instance and its components to Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control. This allows the instance to be centrally managed along with other instances in your enterprise.

You change Grid Control Management to modify the Management Service with which the Application Server instance and its components are already associated. This allows the instance to be centrally managed within an entirely separate Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control management solution.

Open the Ports property page.

Change the port for the Oracle HTTP Server (non-SSL) component. Observe that Oracle HTTP Server is currently running on port 7778.

You should check the dependencies before you change a port, because changing a port can have a negative impact on other Application Server components that might rely on the port setting that you are changing. For example, Web Cache uses the listening port for Oracle HTTP Server. If you change the Oracle HTTP Server listening port, you must make the necessary changes to the Web Cache configuration; otherwise, users may not be able to access your Web site.

Before you change the port, verify that Oracle HTTP Server is running on port 7778. Open a browser and enter the following URL:
http://<hostname>.<domain>:7778

Switch back to the Application Server Control window. Click the icon in the Configure column for
Oracle HTTP Server.
Note: You cannot configure the ports for components that do not have an icon in the Configure column.

The Server Properties page is displayed. Scroll down to check the Listening Addresses and Ports section.

The default non-ssl listening port value is 7778. In this step, you will change it to 7779. Enter the new port number in the Listening Port column. There may be more than one listening port listed. Modify the one whose value is the old non-SSL listening port value. Scroll down, and click Apply.

You will see the warning message. Click No so that you can restart Oracle HTTP Server later.

Reload the Application Server Control Console. Open a command prompt and enter the following command:
emctl reload

Switch back to the browser window. Examine the links listed directly under the Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control banner in the upper left corner. These links, also known as "breadcrumbs" provide you with a trail of your navigation path and an easy way of returning to the previous page. Click the Application Server instance in the breadcrumbs to go back to the home page.

You have already learned that Web Cache has a dependency on the Oracle HTTP Server port. Therefore, edit Web Cache configuration to make necessary changes. Click Web Cache under System Components to navigate to the Web Cache Home page.

Click the Administration link to navigate to the Administration property page.

Click the Origin Servers link under Properties.

Select the host that has HTTP in the Protocol column, and click Edit.

Enter the new port number in the Port field, and click OK.

Navigate back to the Application Server instance home page, and click Restart All to restart the instance.

Click Yes for confirmation.

Note: Although you have just learned how to use Application Server Control to change the Oracle HTTP Server Listen port, you can also use the command line to perform the same configuration change. That is, to ensure that the port dependencies are modified correctly, you can use a single Java command to change the Oracle HTTP Server Listen port. To perform the same steps performed above, you would use the following command:

portconfig -oracle_home $ORACLE_HOME -oldPort 7778 -newPort 7779 -webCache -restart

This Java command automatically modifies the necessary configuration files within the Oracle home and optionally restarts the required components within the Oracle home. For more information on portconfig usage please refer to "Application Server Administration Guide"

Verify the port change. Open a browser, and enter http://<hostname>.<domain>:7778.

In the URL, change the port to 7779.

In the Application Server Home page, click the HTTP_Server link to examine Oracle HTTP Server Home page.

Click the Status Metrics link under the Performance section.

The system usage metrics appear.

Click HTTP_Server in the breadcrumbs to go back to the Oracle HTTP Server Home page.

Click the Module Metrics link in the Performance section.

This provides a breakdown of HTTP activity and performance for each HTTP module.

Click HTTP_Server in the breadcrumbs to go back to the Oracle HTTP Server home page.

Click the All Metrics link under the Performance section. The All Metrics page provides you with a list of performance metrics that Application Server Control monitors for the Oracle HTTP Server.

Click Expand All to expand all the metrics that are being monitored for the Oracle HTTP Server.
Note: Any Application Server component that Application Server Control manages will also offer an All Metrics page with similar capabilities.

Scroll down and select Request Processing Time (seconds) metric under OHS Server Metrics.

Observe that the values for Real Time Statistics are 0. None of the applications are being accessed and hence the values are 0.

Access any application that is deployed to your Application Server and then check the graphics. Open another browser window and access the default application, IsWebCacheWorking, with the following URL:
http://<hostname>.<domain>:7779/IsWebCacheWorking.

Switch back to the browser window that is displaying the Request Processing Time page and click the refresh icon . Observe that the values for Real Time Statistics have changed.

Change the refresh interval to every 30 seconds by selecting Real Time: 30 Second Refresh from the View Data drop-down menu.

Observe the page while it refreshes. Notice that Application Server Control charts the value for the metric over time such that trends can be observed quickly and easily.

Click HTTP_Server in the breadcrumbs to go back to the Oracle HTTP Server home page.

Click the Administration link to navigate to the Administration properties page.

Click the Server Properties link. This leads you to the Server Properties page for the Oracle HTTP Server.

Scroll down to the Logging section of the page and change the error logging level from Warning to Error. To apply this change to the configuration file, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click the Apply button.

Application Server Control will inform you that Oracle HTTP Server must be restarted for the changes to take effect. You can either defer the change until the next time the server is restarted or restart the server now, depending on your server's current usage. If your situation allows, select "Yes" and restart Oracle HTTP Server. After it is restarted, click "OK" on the confirmation page.

Navigate back to the Oracle HTTP Server Home page by selecting the HTTP_Server link in the breadcrumbs.

Select the Advanced Server Properties link on the Administration property page.

This provides a list of Oracle HTTP Server configuration files and links to pages from which you can view or edit files directly. It is always best to use the properties page to modify configuration settings if possible. If you find, however, that you must edit the files directly, it is highly recommended that you use the Application Server Control's Advanced Server Properties interface rather than editing the file using a command line or OS utility. Editing the file through the Application Server Control's interface will automatically update and synchronize the configuration changes with the Distributed Configuration Management (DCM).

Select the Logs link at the top of the page.

You will see the search results. You were already in the context of Oracle HTTP Server and, therefore, the log search shows only the log files associated with Oracle HTTP Server.

Scroll up and observe that you are in the View Logs page. Because you are already in the context of Oracle HTTP Server, the component is displayed under Selected Components. You can use this page to search for log files of other components displayed under Available Components.

Scroll down to go back to the list of log files. If the search returns a long list of log files, you can sort the table by clicking the column heads. You can also filter the results by clicking the Advanced Search button. Click a log file to display the detailed information.

You will see a maximum of the last 2,000 lines of the selected log file.

You also have a link to see the log file as plain text.

You can choose to have the page automatically refreshed.

You have seen the log files associated with Oracle HTTP Server. Now you can see how Oracle HTTP Server fits into the topology of this Application Server environment. Click the Topology link at the top right corner of the page.

Topology Viewer offers a graphical real-time view of application server processes that are managed by OPMN. On the left of the page is the navigator. This navigator highlights the area of the topology that is currently displayed. You can use the navigator to manipulate what within your topology appears on the right of the page.

Click in the top-left area of the navigator window to refresh the focus of the topology.

You will see the corresponding topology area on the right. Observe that the OC4J component is displayed in the topology.

Click the Hide Navigator link to hide the navigator so that the entire page can be used for viewing the topology.

You can perform various administration tasks from the Topology Viewer. Click the arrow icon for OC4J component.

Note that you can start, stop, or restart your OC4J instance.

Click the down arrow in the topology window to scroll down the topology.

You will see the process used by the OC4J instance. In this example, the OC4J instance is using process 3178. You can also see some real-time performance metrics such as CPU Time and Memory Usage.

You can go to the OC4J Home page by clicking the icon displayed for the process.

You will see the OC4J Home page.

Click Back to go back to the Topology page.

Observe the various options on the top-right corner of the topology.

View Data: You can specify how often the data in the topology should be refreshed by choosing the appropriate option from the View Data drop-down menu. You can choose from Manual refresh or various automatic refresh options.

Search: You can search for various components within the topology. If you enter a component's name in the Search field and click Go, then that component will be highlighted in the Navigator and in the topology for quick and easy access.

Zoom: To see more components in the topology, you can select from various Zoom options.