Book Give-Away

[Tom Koenning]

Good luck with the book

[Aaron Mulder]

Hey, thanks, good luck with reading it. Hope it helps.

[angelo celeste]

Hi Aaron.
I am wondering to what depth does your book go in regards to upgrading from a previous version of WebLogic to WebLogic 7.0?
Also, the detail in which clustering is explained?
Thanks for your time.
Angelo.

[Aaron Mulder]

I don't really address upgrading. BEA has some summary pages on the topic (which people have posted URLs to in other threads here). In general, I've found that upgrading from 5.1 or 6.x isn't very painful except in two areas: security realms for the server, and web services. I do cover how to create the equivalent of the old RDBMS Realm in WebLogic 7 security, as well as how to develop web services using the WebLogic 7 tools (Ant script tags, etc.). The deployment descriptors for WL5.1 and 6.x should be accepted by 7, so if your apps are J2EE compliant the application code and configuration shouldn't really need to change.

[Aaron Mulder]

Ahh, I forgot to address the part of your question on clustering. Clustering is covered in detail in the book, starting with setting up a domain and optionally a separate admin server, grouping servers into clusters, managing clusters, starting and stopping cluster members with the node manager, deploying services to clusters, what services are clusterable and how, how the network is used in a cluster, etc.
In the end, I can't claim it's totally comprehensive -- you could probaly write a book just on clustering best practices and techniques -- but I'd be disappointed if you couldn't figure out how to configure, deploy apps to, and manage a cluster based on the material in the book. I give some general guidelines on when to have, say, a cluster of 6 servers with web and EJB tier vs 3 servers with web and 3 with EJB, etc., but that's where you'd really need some analysis of your app and its performance characteristics before you'd want to finalize the cluster configuration.

[Chris Mathews]

Originally posted by Aaron Mulder:
Clustering is covered in detail in the book, starting with setting up a domain and optionally a separate admin server, grouping servers into clusters, managing clusters, starting and stopping cluster members with the node manager, deploying services to clusters, what services are clusterable and how, how the network is used in a cluster, etc.

This is great. Especially since the WebLogic documentation on Node Managers is terrible.
[ February 26, 2003: Message edited by: Chris Mathews ]

[Jack Blassingame]

I am currently one of those out-sourced individuals and am trying to learn J2EE to enhance my skills. What are the advantages/dis-advantages of WebLogic Server over IBM Websphere and JBOSS? I am confused about which platform I should be learning

[Aaron Mulder]

Start looking at theserverside.com,
where they regularly have updates on new version of app servers, comparisons, etc. There was recently one comparing WebSphere 5 to the alternatives.
As far as your skills go, I'd say learn whatever the market is demanding. Sadly, for most businesses, commercial app servers are the name of the game, so I suspect you're unlikely to get a job which requires JBoss experience. That said, using JBoss is a great way to put together your own apps and learn the basic J2EE concepts, and then you can try porting one to a commercial product to get a feel for the differences. Then again, since JBoss currently charges for their main docs and the commercial players don't, maybe this isn't entirely true.
Anyway, personally, I'm not a big fan of WebSphere <=4.x. I hear 5 is better, but it's probably goign to take time to get adopted. Oracle 9iAS (in OC4J form not EE form) is quick and easy to install and run, but doesn't have particularly good validation and error messages for EJBs (at least by default). WebLogic has some faults (pretty bad install and startup time and often iffy redeployment), but is generally pretty good about at least giving you good hints if not clear error messages. That's probably important while you're learning.
Anyway, you'd probably be well served to pick up a good book on EJB and a good book on your preferred app server, if your budget can support it (Bookpool, perhaps?). I suppose I could recommend a good WebLogic book, if you twist my arm... Then put together some app you find interesting for personal use -- a database to hold your CD collection or recipes or whatever.
[ February 27, 2003: Message edited by: Aaron Mulder ]

[angelo celeste]

Originally posted by Aaron Mulder:
Ahh, I forgot to address the part of your question on clustering. Clustering is covered in detail in the book, starting with setting up a domain and optionally a separate admin server, grouping servers into clusters, managing clusters, starting and stopping cluster members with the node manager, deploying services to clusters, what services are clusterable and how, how the network is used in a cluster, etc.

Thanks for your reply.
Time to head to the book store
-Angelo

[Vinod Venugopal]

I agree with Aaron, see if a firm uses messaging tools like IBM mq series most likely they would get licences for IBM WAS & so use it, WAS 5.0 is definitely better than previous versions notably a faster Axis web services engine but u need a lotta memory for using it. Performance wise I guess BEA tops. Any comments?