Middleware nodes and servers

The term middleware server refers to a server on any middleware platform. Middleware servers include the following types: WebSphere® Application Server or WebSphere Virtual Enterprise, Apache Tomcat servers, JBoss servers, BEA WebLogic servers, PHP servers, and so on.

Version 6.0.x support

With WebSphere Extended Deployment Version 6.0.x, application servers of other middleware platform types were supported by using the mixed server environment offering. To support these middleware platform types, the remote agent was installed on the nodes, and generic server clusters were created, adding the application servers as generic endpoints. Because this configuration gave the product limited knowledge of the middleware application servers, only traffic shaping and prioritization of requests to the generic endpoints were supported.

Version 6.1

WebSphere Virtual Enterprise Version 6.1 introduces enhanced support for environments outside of the product domain. Application servers that run on other middleware platforms are represented more thoroughly in the product administrative domain because the middleware agent is installed on these machines. The application placement controller is capable of managing dynamic clusters that are made up of these server types. Some health management is also supported for the other middleware platform servers.

Middleware agent

The middleware agent is a light weight agent that you can install on the nodes that you want WebSphere Virtual Enterprise to manage. The middleware agent can run on any node. Nodes that run the middleware agent do not need WebSphere Application Server or WebSphere Virtual Enterprise installations on the node. The middleware agent replaces the remote agent.
[For z/OS operating system] Important: Middleware agents are not supported on z/OS systems. You cannot federate middleware agents from distributed platforms into a z/OS deployment manager.

Middleware server types

Definition

The support that WebSphere Virtual Enterprise offers differs between complete, discovered, and assisted life-cycle servers.

Management

You can manage certain aspects of assisted life-cycle and discovered middleware servers with the administrative console.

  • With server operations, you can run a Java or non-Java executable file on your middleware server from the administrative console.
  • With the log viewer, you can view the log files for your middleware servers from the administrative console.
  • With external configuration, you can configure the administrative console so that you can view and edit configuration documents for your middleware servers.

Other WebSphere Virtual Enterprise management features, such as dynamic clusters, health policies, service policies, runtime tasks, reporting, and so on, offer varied support for assisted life-cycle and discovered middleware servers.


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