The Java Cloud Service offers all the power of WebLogic but runs as a managed service in the Oracle Cloud. Does this mean your job as a WebLogic Administrator will disappear? No, far from it - you'll be able to put your skills to far more valuable use! Instead of worrying about how much hardware you need, tracking down patches, or just keeping the systems running, with JCS, your focus will be different: liaising with your development teams to deploy new versions of applications safely into production, shaking out and fixing performance issues, scheduling patching and planning for future growth while maintaining consistent service levels - all tasks of high value to your users. This is an administrator's view of JCS and how it can work for you.

1. Java Cloud Service for
WebLogic Administrators
Oracle OpenWorld, San Francisco
October 2015
What should I do now?!

2. Simon Haslam
Consultant, Veriton
Working with Oracle software since 1995
(and AWS since 2010)
Middleware & SOA
WebLogic, SOA, BPM and
Java Cloud Service Specialist
Veriton
UK-based consultancy,
focussed on Oracle infrastructure

3. How about you?
WebLogic
FMW
Admin?
DBA
?
Team
Manager
?
Architect
?
Dev
?

4. Presentation objectives & themes
Describe
Java Cloud
Service
New
Opportunities
for the WebLogic
Administrator

5.  Java Cloud Service overview
 Provisioning JCS Instances
 WebLogic Administration in JCS

6. Java Cloud Service – what is it?
 WebLogic Servers running in Oracle Cloud
◦ Plus supporting software: Oracle Traffic Director, Coherence,
Database
 New “pay as you go” licensing model
 Automated software provisioning, plus…

7. Domain
JAVA CLOUD SERVICE
Data Center(s)
Servers & Storage
VMs
WebLogic Instances
Oracle
updates &
backs up
Applications
JAVA CLOUD SERVICE
VIRTUAL IMAGE
Data Center(s)
Servers & Storage
VMs
WebLogic Instances
Domain
Applications
Oracle provisions
Data Center(s)
Servers & Storage
VMs
WebLogic Instances
Domain
Applications
JAVA CLOUD SERVICE
SAAS EXTENSION
Out of scope
for this presentation

8. JCS SaaS Extension
WebLogic
on-premises
Full JCS is
between the two
LEGO: http://www.slideshare.net/Insidebsi/lego-building-brand-ambassadors

9.  Java Cloud Service overview
 Provisioning JCS Instances
 WebLogic Administration in JCS

10. Choices for Full JCS or JCS-VI
 Billing Frequency
 WebLogic (Edition & Version)
 WebLogic Cluster size & ‘Shape’ of MS cluster node(s)
 (optional) Coherence
 (optional) Oracle Traffic Director
 (full JCS only) Storage Container

12. REST APIs
http://docs.oracle.com/cloud/latest/jcs_gs/JSRMR/index.html

13. DEMO

14. What does a small JCS cluster look like?
 E.g. 5 VMs:
◦ 1 Traffic Director
◦ 2 WebLogic
◦ 2 Coherence (optional; 3 is more “Coherence-friendly”)
 One domain including:
◦ WebLogic & Coherence clusters
◦ Node Managers
◦ FMW Infrastructure, including schema in DB
◦ Demo SSL certificates
◦ An OTD virtual host to the WLS Cluster
 A default backup schedule

15. Admin
Server
Managed
Server 1
Traffic
Server
Admin
Server
Managed
Server 2 Coherence
Server 1
Coherence
Server 2
Firewall (NAT/PAT)
Routing
5.02.5
2.5
2.5 5.0
7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5
7.5
Memory for
example OC3 config
GB

16.  Java Cloud Service overview
 Provisioning JCS Instances
 WebLogic Administration in JCS

17. Tailor the Environment
 Set up SSL certificates
 Changes to Server Start parameters, setUserOverrides.sh
(setDomainEnv.sh)
 Manage storage
 Adding further clusters/nodes etc
◦ See “Keeping Your Service Instances Manageable by Oracle Java
Cloud Service”
http://docs.oracle.com/cloud/latest/jcs_gs/JSCUG/GUID-68749D52-DAC9-44E7-90AD-
6C891300156E.htm#JSCUG3281

18. Directory structure
 ORACLE HOME: /u01/app/oracle/middleware
 JDK HOME: /u01/jdk
 DOMAIN HOME: /u01/data/domains/<domain-name>
 Others:
◦ /u01/data/backup – backup location
◦ /u01/app/oracle/tools – Oracle ‘cloud tooling’

19. Backup / restore
 Backup types
◦ Binaries plus domain configuration
◦ Domain only (aka ‘incremental’)
◦ Database can be included too (creates an RMAN tag in DBCS instance)
 Schedule
◦ Weekly full & daily incremental by default
 Location and Retention Policy
◦ Held locally for a week, then moved to Storage Service
◦ Retained for 30 days by default
 Backups are encrypted (using a key known only to OPC)
Full JCS only

20. Patching
 WebLogic PSUs plus JDKs
 JCS backs up beforehand and can rollback later
 (all?) Patches are rolling (if you have load balancer)
 Each Managed Server is:
1. backed up
2. removed from Traffic Director origin server pool
3. shut down
4. JDK or Oracle Home replaced with a patched image
5. restarted
6. added back to Traffic Director pool
Full JCS only

21. JCS Management
 Provisioning/managing non-trivial JCS platforms will mostly be using
REST APIs
◦ Everything in OPC console can be done via REST APIs
◦ REST tools (browser plug-ins like Postman or RESTClient, curl etc) and JSON
format are quick/easy to learn
 All your existing tools/techniques still work with JCS
◦ Connecting to Node Manager
◦ Java Mission Control & other JVM diagnostics tools
◦ Enterprise Manager 12c (Hybrid Cloud Agent etc)

22. QuickTips
 Naming conventions
 Key management
 The Oracle product filesystems are overwritten
(swapped) during patching – don’t put any of your
own files in there!
◦ e.g. EM agent
 Set up disk free space alerts

23. OTNVirtualTechnology Summit
 For more detailed provisioning & discussion please see my
OTN VTS session from September
 Available for FREE replay now

24. Presentation objectives & themes
Describe
Java Cloud
Service
New
Opportunities
for the WebLogic
Administrator

25. How do you provision today?
Manually
?
Automated
s/w only?
Automated
s/w +
initial
domain?
Fully
automated
?

26. Recognize this?
Better than nothing,
but this is like typing in
code every time you
want to run a program!

27. … use one of these instead!

28. How do you deploy today?
Manually
?
Scripts ?
Continuous
Integration
for test?
Fully
automated
CI / SD?

29. Deployment
There are LOTS of tools to help (including previous tools)
– pick something!

30. Survey: Middleware Admins & DBAs

31. Results*
* This was not a scientific survey –
20 responses to my twitter requests

32. Results*
* This was not a scientific survey –
20 responses to my twitter requests
CI / CD
Tuning
ToolsPredictive
Alerting
EM, snaps
Assisted
Help?
Rolling
patching Done
by PaaS
Post-cloud influences
& time savers
Can your custom apps
be replaced by SaaS ?

33. Oracle PaaS Admin.Tasks for your Org.
 Platform Design
◦ Sizing / costing
◦ Naming conventions (as important as ever)
◦ Capacity planning
 Operations
◦ Application Deployment
◦ Performance Assurance and Tuning
◦ Monitoring and management
PaaS is intended to be used by administrators, not power users
Someone still has to be responsible for mission-critical systems

34. Consumption
 Someone needs to monitor consumption
 As for all cloud services…
◦ It’s (too?!) easy to spin up new environments
◦ Do they all need to be running?
 Consider monthly vs hourly
◦ Hourly is +25% but if instance only used
8h/day then 42% of monthly cost
 Consider JCS vs JCS-VI
Image credit: http://cropmetrics.com/2013/11/gas-gauge-analogy-cropmetrics-water-management/

35. What does this mean for your role as
Middleware Administrator?
 Middleware administrators don’t spend that much time on
installing software / creating domains
 Highest value work is rolling out new applications/features &
fixing performance of existing ones
If we looked further down the stack expect a different picture
e.g. sys admins, virtualization admins, storage admins

36. What does the Business want?
• Backup
• High availability & DR
• Environments
• Upgrades & patching
• Monitoring
• Have what they want
• New func. as soon as $
• Justifiable cost
• Compliance
• “on” like Facebook
IT Business

37. What does the Business want?
• Backup
• High availability & DR
• Environments
• Upgrades & patching
• Monitoring
• In-house IT
• Have what they want
• New func. as soon as $
• Justifiable cost
• Compliance
• “on” like Facebook
Our job is to
enable this!
Focus on
Adding Value
Business

38. Presentation objectives & themes
Describe
Java Cloud
Service
New
Opportunities
for the WebLogic
Administrator

39. Summary
 Full JCS is here & viable for many types of workload
 JCS/JCS-VI gives you power/flexibility of WebLogic
including most of the control you are used to
 You will be doing far less menial, low-value work
– make yourself more valuable!
 …but someone still has to be responsible for your Oracle
platforms… you! 

40. Further Information
https://blogs.oracle.com/emeapartnerweblogic/entry/virtual_technology_summit
_september_16th

41. Further Information
JCS blog posts:
http://simonhaslam.co.uk

42. Questions & Answers
For help with your Oracle Cloud project
http://veriton.com
@simon_haslam