oracle weblogic suite: a middleware foundation for...

Oracle WebLogic Suite:

A Middleware Foundation for Application Grid

An Oracle Business White Paper

December 2008

Oracle WebLogic Suite: A Middleware Foundation for Application Grid

Oracle WebLogic Suite:

A Middleware Foundation for Application Grid

INTRODUCTION

Organizations are adopting application servers and other types of middleware

technology for a variety of reasons. Some companies depend on middleware

infrastructure to build more flexible and agile businesses. Others rely on this

foundational technology to deploy IT capacity more efficiently. Still others see the

need to expand or contract their information systems in a cost effective way. All of

these organizations have come to a common realization: as information systems

become more critical to business operations, middleware becomes progressively

more important.

Middleware is enterprise software connecting custom or packaged enterprise

applications to databases and storage software. It’s the essential production

runtime environment for enterprise applications and services. Middleware

facilitates many common functions such that software developers can write just

the key differentiating business logic for their applications and not have to write

repetitive connection, security and integration elements. Within the context of

today’s service oriented architecture (SOA) model, middleware consists of a set of

enabling services that allow multiple processes running on one or more machines

to interact—within a grid, throughout a data center, or across a network.

Middleware technology has evolved in tandem with the computer industry’s move

to distributed software and complex, component based applications. Today

middleware is a broad category of software that includes application servers,

transaction monitors, collaboration software and management tools for controlling

mid-tier resources.

Oracle WebLogic Suite packages many essential middleware capabilities to help

organizations achieve application grid concepts. It combines mature products from

the Oracle Fusion Middleware family to help companies achieve scalable

application server workloads, extreme transactions, guaranteed SLA compliance,

and dynamic management of the application software and infrastructure software,

all on low cost commodity hardware. The technical components of the suite are as

follows

• Oracle WebLogic Server Enterprise Edition

• Oracle Application Server Enterprise Edition

• Oracle Coherence Enterprise Edition


• Oracle WebLogic Operations Control

• Oracle WebLogic Real Time (JRockit Real Time)

Together, these products create an infrastructure layer beneath the application

layer that pools and dynamically provisions the resources on which business

applications run. They support the definition, deployment, and management of

multi-node applications by decoupling middleware software from the underlying

hardware infrastructure. Modern application servers need key supporting elements

in the area of management, runtime predictability, and linear scale. Oracle

WebLogic Suite packages the essential capabilities to help businesses realize the

benefits of application grid.

NEW LEVELS OF EFFICIENCY, FLEXIBILITY, AND PERFORMANCE

Grid computing implies the virtualization of IT resources—such as compute

power, storage and network capacity—into a cohesive pool of shared services that

can be provisioned, distributed and re-distributed as needed. Because multiple

virtual machines can reside in one physical box, these environments enable huge

economies of scale. There are obvious power savings and the physical location of

each server becomes irrelevant. It doesn’t matter where computing assets are

physically located. Everything is self-contained in the definition of a virtual

machine and can be moved around at will.

Application grid brings the same type of efficiency, scalability and quality of service

to the application layer that database clusters brings to the database layer. It

enables system administrators to pool and allocate the runtime infrastructure that

supports enterprise applications, such as Java application servers and transaction

processing systems. The goal is to enable application server instances to work

together to make better use of physical resources. In contrast to the traditional

monolithic architecture, this new approach enables multiple application servers to

pool and share the underlying compute resources, dynamically reallocating these

resources across the applications being served as needs evolve. Application grid

enables application servers to work together to provide a shared, dynamically

allocated pool of resources for a given set of applications.

Many IT departments are already pooling and sharing resources at the hardware

layer, with help from virtualization software like Oracle VM. Application grids

apply many of these same concepts to middleware. Oracle WebLogic Suite

automates and simplifies the process. It brings together several foundational

middleware elements in a cohesive fashion: application servers and Java EE logic,

transaction processing monitors supporting C/C++ and COBOL, and grid

management tools.

At the heart of the suite are two choices for application servers: Oracle WebLogic

Server and Oracle Application Server.

An application server platform is infrastructure software for building Web and

composite applications and, increasingly, applications based on SOA design

principles. It integrates an application server (which manages user requests), data

“ . . . Oracle WebLogic Server has exceeded

our expectations. It’s a tangible example of

the transformative influence of service-

oriented architecture.”

- John Turato,

Vice President of Technology,

Avis Budget Group, Inc.


access, and business logic, with portal servers and integration/business process

management (BPM) servers.

Middleware assets embodied in today’s application server platforms automate the

process of sending messages, handling socket reads and tapping into message

queues—activities that become progressively more critical as SOA gains

momentum, and applications are progressively composed of loosely connected

modules or components. Forrester research called application server platforms

“the most important category of application platform software for most

enterprises.”1

Application servers create middle tier services that make it easier for both custom

and packaged applications to utilize a common user interface on the front end and

a common set of database calls on the back-end. Oracle WebLogic Suite brings

together two industry-leading Java-based application servers—Oracle WebLogic

Server Enterprise Edition and Oracle Application Server Enterprise Edition—

along with other products in the Oracle Fusion Middleware family. For example,

Oracle Coherence—a key component of the Suite—increases application

performance by providing fast, distributed access to frequently used data. This

software enables applications to scale linearly and dynamically, making it easier for

IT managers to predict costs and optimize resource utilization. This unique

software product enables organizations to handle escalating application loads

without data loss or service interruptions.

BUSINESS DRIVERS: EFFICIENCY AND COST

While many companies have a vision for SOA, the reality of their IT infrastructure

is much different. The traditional approach to deploying software is to allocate one

distinct server to each application. While this may appear to be the easiest

approach, it is often the most wasteful. Each of these applications must be able to

accommodate growing loads and periods of peak capacity, such as when order

entry activity picks up during busy shopping periods or when financial software is

run to close the books at the end of a billing period. As a result, each application

typically has much more capacity than it needs and each data center has more

servers and storage devices than it needs. Most servers are used at about 10

percent of capacity on a daily basis.

Running an efficient data center begins with maximizing resource utilization and

lowering energy consumption requirements. This is important not only for

environmental reasons, but from a practical standpoint: according to a report by

the Green Grid, a global consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in

data centers, many data center facilities run out of available power before they run

out of floor space.2

1 The Forrester Wave: Application Server Platforms, Q3 2007 July 11, 2007. 2 Guidelines for Energy Efficient Data Centers, 2007.


Oracle Web Logic Server works with Oracle Coherence Enterprise Edition to

efficiently accommodate an increasing workload and it utilizes Oracle Web Logic

Operations Control to distribute application resources among the available nodes.

Not only are these application grid strategies important from a cost standpoint.

They also represent a more responsible way to conduct business. Conscientious

data center managers realize that their decisions have a direct impact on the

environment. Carbon dioxide emissions have increased 20 percent since 1990,

according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Fourth U.S. Climate

Action Report.

Of course, adopting environmentally friendly IT policies not only benefits the

environment. It improves the bottom line. For example, deploying application grid

technology has a huge impact on efficiency by enabling an organization to use its

servers more judiciously. By running multiple applications on the same server,

average capacity can be increased to 50 percent or higher, with no loss in

throughput or reliability. This results in fewer servers used, with the consequential

benefits of less floor space needed, less transportation and recycling of those

servers, and less manufacturing energy expended.

COMPONENTS OF ORACLE WEBLOGIC SUITE

Oracle WebLogic Server

Oracle WebLogic Server brings consistency to how developers integrate their core

business applications, eliminating the concern of how many connections they have

to make or how they retrieve information. Oracle WebLogic Server also adds

distributed in-memory caching to the Java applications infrastructure for fast and

comprehensive data access, predictable performance, and complete grid

management capabilities.

Oracle WebLogic Server is the application server of choice when applications and

services need mature diagnostic capabilities. With support for clustering, cross-

domain management and diagnostic tooling, it is ideal for building and running

most enterprise applications and services. Oracle WebLogic Server implements the

latest Java EE standards and offers choices for development frameworks: either

Oracle JDeveloper, which spans the Oracle Fusion Middleware family, or Eclipse-

based tooling with Oracle Workshop for WebLogic. Deep diagnostics and memory

leak detection help prevent application disruption by identifying the root cause of

issues including performance bottlenecks, poor memory utilization and other

configuration anomalies.

Suite Technology Lineup

Oracle WebLogic Server is the industry

leading application server in performance

and market share.

Oracle Application Server is a

comprehensive solution for developing,

integrating, and deploying applications,

portals, and Web sites.

Oracle Coherence in-memory data grid

allows an application running on one

machine to use the memory of many

machines as if all that memory were local.

Oracle JRockit is the industry’s fastest Java

Virtual Machine. Unlike other JVMs, JRockit

works with standard Java on a standard

operating system.

Oracle WebLogic Operations Control

provides a “single pane of glass” with an

application grid-oriented set of views to

control meta-level administration.


Fusion Middleware Application GridComprehensive, hot-pluggable, pre-integrated

EnterpriseManager

WebLogicOperations Control

JRockit MissionControl

Tuxedo SystemApplication Monitor

JRockit

WebLogic Server

Tuxedo

Coherence

Provisioning

ConfigurationManagement

Application grid is a multi-node computing architecture that leverages key products and technologies

from the Oracle Fusion Middleware family.

Oracle Application Server

Oracle Application Server 10g is a comprehensive solution for developing,

integrating, and deploying applications, portals, and Web sites. It is designed to

provide a standards-based, platform for organizations deploying SOA. This

versatile application server combines robust business integration, strong Java EE

performance, and capabilities for enterprise portal, real-time business activity

monitoring, business intelligence, identity management, and wireless deployment.

Oracle Application Server provides a resilient and fault-tolerant application server

platform for the Grid, making it possible to deploy SOA and enterprise Java

systems with maximum availability and guarantee of service.

Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Diagnostics Pack

Application administrators need diagnostic solutions that not only monitor

production applications but also provide intelligence to quickly diagnose problems

and avert emergencies. Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Diagnostics Pack for Oracle

Middleware provides proactive monitoring and advanced diagnostic capabilities to

help these administrators maintain agreed-upon service levels in high-load

production environments. This management console simplifies administration and

reduces management costs by providing a single interface to monitor application

servers and related IT assets across the data center.

For example, Oracle Enterprise Manager collects performance, load and usage

metrics from Oracle Application Server, Oracle WebLogic Server and the hosts on

which these application servers are running. This makes it possible to correlate

performance statistics across the entire stack and to determine root causes of

failure. Administrators can set thresholds on metrics, receive notifications,

compare metrics across servers, view historical trends and create custom reports.

In conjunction with the deep level diagnostics that come with both WebLogic


Server and Oracle Application Server, Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Diagnostics

Pack dramatically reduces time spent solving application problems.

Oracle Coherence

Data grid software is middleware that manages data objects in memory across

many servers. Oracle Coherence is an in-memory data grid solution that enables

organizations to predictably scale mission-critical applications by providing fast

access to frequently used data. By automatically and dynamically partitioning data,

Oracle Coherence ensures continuous data availability and transactional integrity,

even in the event of a server failure. It provides organizations with a robust scale-

out data abstraction layer that brokers the supply and demand of data between

applications and data sources. This mature in-memory functionality can be scaled

to support the most demanding applications with minimal set-up and

management.

Coherence allows an application running on one machine to use the memory of many machines as if all

that memory were local.

Coherence is also referred to as a “distributed cache” since it allows an application

running on one machine to use the memory of many machines as one large pool.

Allowing more data to be placed in memory—eliminating time-consuming disk

fetches—significantly speeds up many applications. Performance is further

enhanced because operations against the data can often be performed by multiple

nodes of the grid in parallel. The in-memory data grid also significantly improves

reliability because data is replicated across two or more nodes, eliminating single

points of failure. Coherence allows applications to scale at a consistent incremental

cost from tens of nodes to thousands of nodes. As one of the workhorses of

Oracle Application Grid, Coherence enables true dynamic scaling—the ability to

add or remove capacity in small increments with no pause in operation or risk of

data loss.


Coherence Use CasesA wide variety of ways to enhance any application

CachingApplications request data from the data grid rather than

backend data sources

Analytics

Applications ask the data grid questions from simple

queries to advanced scenario modeling

Transactions

Data grid acts as a transactional system of record,

hosting data and business logic

Events

Automated processing based on event Nerve Center: Coherence continually balances resource requirements against application demands.

Oracle WebLogic Operations Control

Automated management is a fundamental principle of Application Grid. Sharing,

control, and visibility must be simple and automated. Operators must be able to

see across all the applications and demands being placed on the grid and make

intelligent decisions about what resources to put where at any given time. As the

Application Grid controller, Oracle WebLogic Operations Control continually

analyzes application demands and resource capacity to determine the correct

allocation of resources. Operations Control helps system administrators uphold

SLAs by optimizing resource use across multiple applications and orchestrating

dynamic resource management for the entire application grid. Through a

management framework that captures desired runtime application SLAs, it

monitors runtime environments and automates the dynamic configuration and

deployment of application instances onto available resources. Operations Control

draws upon the available hardware resources of the grid to ensure service-level

objectives are met.

These are essential capabilities, particularly for organizations that adopt application

grid to protect against performance degradation or eliminate service disruptions

during peak demand periods.


WebLogic Operations ControlIntelligent synthesis for cross-grid optimization

Application Grid

App SvrApp Svr

Data Grid

JVM

WebLogicOperationsControl

Policies

Metrics

ManualInput

SLANeeds

Automation

Svc Start/Stop

ResourceAdjust

Management Automation: WebLogic Operations control automatically enforces macro-level policies

and SLAs to control application servers and transaction processing monitors while making fine-

grained adjustments such as adjusting memory parameters.

WebLogic Operations Control provides a “single pane of glass” with an

application grid-oriented set of views to control meta-level administration such as

entering policies as well as run-time administration such as stopping and starting

services. It enables fine-grained visibility and control across the entire middleware

stack, combined with an intelligent synthesis of information to monitor application

grid behavior. Operations Control enables pro-active management to prevent

system failure including alerts, problem diagnostics, and the Guardian pattern

recognition technology and service.

The goal is to achieve uninterrupted business operations through self-tuning and

state of the art diagnostics tools. Operations Control makes these functions readily

accessible through easy to set up dashboards—without the need to adopt complex

system management products such as Tivoli.

Oracle JRockit

The Java runtime environment for Oracle WebLogic Suite is Oracle JRockit, the

world’s fastest Java virtual machine (JVM) and the engine that drives Oracle

Fusion Middleware. JRockit Mission Control allows fine-grained visibility into the

behavior of a Java application along with the ability to tune the parameters that

govern real time performance, profiling and management. Although the Java

language and runtime environment have many benefits, they can suffer from

unpredictable execution and pause times due to Java’s automated memory

management scheme. With Oracle WebLogic Real Time, these pause times

become predictable and consistent, ensuring smooth code execution.

"We’ve been a WebLogic shop for many

years. This software gives us the

performance and reliability that we need to

manage millions of transactions daily. It also

provides the scalability we need to grow with

our business and is based on open

standards to help us maintain flexibility.”

- Tim Robertson,

IT Manager, FedEx


Extreme Diagnostics: No other JVM has this granularity and sophistication of instrumentation.

JRockit can also monitor very fine-grained aspects of application behavior such as

Java heap and CPU usage. For example, at the data grid level, system

administrators need to know when an application is approaching a threshold that

requires adjusting the number of nodes in the data grid. At the application level,

they need to know when an application is approaching SLA thresholds. Operations

Control helps system administrators uphold SLAs by optimizing resource use

across multiple applications. Through a management framework that captures

desired runtime application SLAs, it monitors runtime environments and

automates the dynamic configuration and deployment of application instances

onto available resources. It draws upon the available hardware resources of the

grid to ensure application service-level objectives are met.

At the overall grid level, administrators need a view of the resources available

system-wide so they can be prepared to make macro-level trade-offs. As the

application grid controller, WebLogic Operations control continually analyzes

application demands and resource capacity to determine the correct allocation of

resources. These capabilities enable centralized governance—including dynamic

activation and scale-out. When predefined conditions occur, the controller within

Oracle WebLogic Operations Control will dynamically allocate or de-allocate

resources to applications or services by invoking the deployment capabilities of the

underlying infrastructure. Applications can be deployed on server resources and

dynamically extended or reconfigured to meet runtime requirements—without

constant monitoring by system operators.


CASE STUDY: AVIS

To help ensure a positive and consistent customer experience and keep loyal

renters coming back time and again, Avis Budget’s technology team implemented a

new SOA infrastructure in 2004 to support all customer contact channels—

including call centers, airport rental counters, standalone facilities, and the internet.

The infrastructure, known as One Merged Enterprise & Global Architecture

(OMEGA), is a service-oriented architecture (SOA) built on Oracle WebLogic

Server. Today, the OMEGA foundation enables Avis to seamlessly process more

than 60,000 transactions daily.

Among the first business processes that Avis addressed was the rental return

process. Avis Budget Car Rental Group wanted to help provide renters with the

documents they need for completing their expense reports without having to

worry about losing printed slips of paper. Using Oracle WebLogic Server,

developers created E-Receipts, which has been described by company officials as

“a tangible example of the transformative influence of SOA.”

Avis is particularly pleased with the operational cost savings that SOA is delivering.

When an organization deploys new applications in non-mainframe environments,

SOA helps bring the applications to market quickly that are easier to manage and

modify. For example, drivers who need cars while their personal cars are being

repaired can often have their insurance companies pay for a rental. Avis Budget

Group, Inc. uses the notification service to communicate with insurance carriers

and drivers about payment authorization.

For example, drivers who need rental cars while their personal cars are being

repaired can often have their insurance companies pay for the rental cars. Avis

Budget Group, Inc. uses the notification service to communicate with insurance

carriers and drivers about payment authorization. Avis is in the process of

expanding its SOA capabilities by leveraging the principles of application grid.

Company Overview

Avis and Budget brands is the largest

general-use vehicle rental company in North

America, Australia, New Zealand, and other

regions

Industry: Travel & Transportation

Employees: 30,000

Revenue: US$6 billion

Challenge

Ensure a positive and consistent customer

experience that encourages loyal renters

Deploy SOA infrastructure to support all

customer contact channels, including call

centers, airport rental counters, standalone

facilities, and the internet

Solution

Oracle WebLogic Server

Results

Created a paperless process for rental

returns

Accelerated time to market

Increased flexibility and responsiveness

Enabled Avis to expand its marketing

initiatives

Gained the ability to easily process more

than 60,000 transactions per day


CONCLUSION: GREATER THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS

Today’s IT systems must be carefully aligned with business strategy to enable

managers to respond effectively to constant change. The business may grow in

some areas and shrink in others and IT must react quickly to accommodate

these contractions and expansions. Oracle helps IT managers achieve efficiency

and performance by adopting a middleware infrastructure software strategy called

Oracle Application Grid. Oracle WebLogic Suite helps them develop, deploy and

maintain the foundational middleware for application grid infrastructure in a

cohesive, cost effective way.

Individually, each product in Oracle WebLogic Suite offers powerful capabilities.

Together, these products simplify the design, implementation and maintenance of

application grid installations, with minimal integration, fewer licenses, faster ramp

up and lower total cost of ownership. Using the Suite as a starting point,

organizations can adopt application grid principles with less custom software and

minimal reliance on outside consultants or professional services teams.

Customers deploy Oracle WebLogic Suite for many of the same reasons that they

are attracted to the application grid, such as the ability to align IT more closely

with business needs, to expand and contract applications dynamically, to enable

automated monitoring and management, and to enable in-memory data caching.

Other vendors offer individual capabilities that customers must integrate. With

Oracle WebLogic Suite they obtain all of the essential functionality, pre-integrated,

right out of the box.

Suite Differentiators

• Complete framework for

deploying applications

• Pro-active management to

prevent system failure

• Self-tuning with state of the art

diagnostic tools

• No need for complex system

management products

• High performing JVM with

application profiling and

management

• Inherent scalability without

complex set up

• Strong developer support for

Java and .Net

• Powerful security safeguards

against outside attacks

• Mainframe class transaction

processing monitor


December 2008

Author: David Baum

Oracle Corporation

World Headquarters

500 Oracle Parkway

Redwood Shores, CA 94065

U.S.A.

Worldwide Inquiries:

Phone: +1.650.506.7000

Fax: +1.650.506.7200

www.oracle.com

Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved.

This document is provided for information purposes only

and the contents hereof are subject to change without notice.

This document is not warranted to be error-free, nor subject to

any other warranties or conditions, whether expressed orally

or implied in law, including implied warranties and conditions of

merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We specifically

disclaim any liability with respect to this document and no

contractual obligations are formed either directly or indirectly

by this document. This document may not be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

for any purpose, without our prior written permission.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its

affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

oracle weblogic suite: a middleware foundation for...

Documents