Concepts: FileNet P8 domain
The FileNet P8 domain represents a logical grouping of physical resources and the Content Engine servers providing access to those resources. Each resource and server belong to only one domain. A server can access any resource in the domain, but cannot access any resource that lies outside of the domain.
The FileNet P8 domain is associated with one or more Java™ 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) security policy domains. The J2EE domain is used to authenticate users and establish their group memberships. The identity and group membership of the user determine which FileNet P8 domain objects the user can access.
A FileNet P8 domain has the following characteristics:
- The servers in a FileNet P8 domain are platform-independent and can be in separate J2EE domains.
- The database servers associated with the FileNet P8 domain can be in a different domain.
- Content Engine services are associated with the FileNet P8 domain in which the services were originally created and cannot provide services to other FileNet P8 domains.
- The user names that are used to log on to a client application and to gain access
to the FileNet P8 domain are provided by one of the supported application server authentication
providers.
The Global Configuration Database
The Global Configuration Database (GCD) contains definitions of the common set of attributes that control functional characteristics of the collection of resources and services for the FileNet P8 domain it represents. The GCD provides hierarchical object storage and contains bootstrap data and global configuration information for the FileNet P8 domain. The GCD defines domain resources such as object store databases, full-text index areas, fixed content storage areas, content cache areas, feature add-ons, and marking sets.
The GCD can contain sensitive information. Only specified users or groups (typically an administrator) have read and write access to the data contained within it.
FileNet P8 domain structure
The FileNet P8 domain contains the following entities. Although there is no limit to the number of entities a single FileNet P8 domain can contain, there are practical and performance issues to be considered. These issues, if applicable, are discussed in the help topics related to each entity.
- Site: A site is a geographical location where resources are connected through a local area network. Object stores, storage areas, content cache areas, index areas, and virtual servers are associated with an individual site. As virtual servers, server instances, and other resources are added to the domain, they are assigned to the default site, unless a different site is explicitly specified. A user with system administrator privileges can change the site used as the default.
- Virtual server: A virtual server is the logical service point that Content Engine clients interact with. Virtual server objects are created dynamically during system initialization and startup based on the configured topology of the J2EE application server. (The topology is the physical or logical mapping of the location of networking components or nodes within a network.) A virtual server can contain one or more server instances. When a virtual server contains multiple server instances, client requests are load-balanced across the set of server instances through the clustering capabilities of the J2EE application server or by using a hardware load balancer. Applications accessing the virtual server are unaware of the number or type of server instances that reside behind the virtual server. You must delete virtual servers manually from Enterprise Manager.
- Server instance: A Content Engine server instance is an individual J2EE application server instance. Multiple server instances, each running in their own Java™ Virtual Machine (JVM), can be hosted on a single physical server. (Multiple server instances are a common configuration when large multiprocessor servers are used.) Content Engine clients do not interact directly with a server instance; logically, clients always go through a virtual server. Virtual servers and server instances are created in the GCD when you deploy the Content Engine software on an application server, but are not removed from the GCD when the Content Engine software is undeployed from an application server. You must delete server instances manually by using Enterprise Manager.
- Object store: An object store is a repository for storing objects (such as documents, folders, and business objects) and the metadata that defines the classes and properties of objects.
- Index area: An index area is a container for one or more indexes, which are used to perform full-text searches against documents in an object store.
- Storage area: A storage area is a container for content storage, and can be configured for file storage, fixed storage, or database storage.
- Fixed content device: A fixed content device is an external (non-FileNet-P8) storage device provided by an independent software vendor. This device can be associated with a FileNet P8 fixed storage area.
- Content cache area: A content cache is a disk area that contains copies of content recently accessed through a Content Engine server. Typically used in a geographically distributed environment, it enhances response time when retrieving content.
- Add-on feature: An add-on feature is a module that contains custom metadata and data that support extensions to core Content Engine features. After a FileNet P8 domain is created, add-on features can be loaded into the GCD, making them available to any object store in
the domain. See Add-on features for more information about the classes and properties added to
the object store during this process.
- Marking set: A marking set provides a way to define a level of security on objects in addition to the normal FileNet P8 security model. By using markings, access to objects can be controlled based
on specific property values.
Inheritance
You configure the domain in the context of a server hierarchy. The server hierarchy consists of the following levels (shown in order from highest to lowest level):
domain > site > virtual server > server
The order of the objects indicates ownership. Specifically, a server belongs to a virtual server, a virtual server belongs to a site, and a site belongs to a domain. An owned object can inherit a configuration from the owner object. Consequently, the configuration that you define at the domain level can optionally cascade down to all levels. Alternatively, you can selectively override inheritance and define the configuration for an owned object. For example, you can define the configuration for site A to be independent of the configuration for the domain while still allowing the configuration for site B to be inherited from the domain. Your configuration for site A can optionally cascade down to all objects that directly or indirectly belong to site A.
Creating and adding a server instance to a FileNet P8 domain
You
can add a J2EE application server instance to an existing FileNet
P8 domain if the server instance is a member of
the J2EE application server farm in which the FileNet P8 domain resides. See Installing and configuring Content Engine for instructions for installing and deploying Content Engine on additional servers.
You must ensure that the J2EE application cluster (that is, the virtual server) names and server instance names are unique within the topology in which the FileNet P8 domain is configured. Content Engine virtual server and server instance objects are dynamically created in the GCD during system initialization; the object names are derived from the names assigned to the J2EE application cluster and server instances. Non-unique names can occur under the following conditions:
- If you do not manually ensure that the J2EE application cluster and server instance names are unique. (The application server software does not typically require uniqueness in the names given to application server instances across servers.)
- If you use the Move Site Components option in Enterprise Manager to reassign a J2EE application server instance to a different cluster (that is, virtual server).
If you have non-unique J2EE application cluster (that is, virtual server) names or server instance names, you can add the appropriate Java™ Virtual Machine (JVM) property to the command line that starts the J2EE application server instance that has the duplicate name:
com.filenet.gcd.VirtualServerName=myUniquelyNamedVirtualServer
com.filenet.gcd.ServerInstanceName=myUniquelyNamedServerInstance
where myUniquelyNamedVirtualServer is the name you assigned to the J2EE application cluster (that is, virtual server) and myUniquelyNamedServerInstance is the name you assign to the application server instance.
Backup and recovery considerations
If the database server hosting the GCD is lost, the FileNet P8 domain can no longer be accessed; therefore, it is important to back up the GCD. See Back up Content Engine for more information about backing up the GCD.