A stand-alone server provides an environment for deploying mediation modules in one server process. This server process includes, but is not limited to, an administrative console, a deployment target, the messaging support, and a Common Event Infrastructure server.
A stand-alone server is easy to set up, and has a First steps console from which you can start and stop the server and open the samples gallery and the administrative console. If you install the WebSphere® ESB samples, and then open the samples gallery, a sample solution is deployed to the stand-alone server. You can explore the resources used for this sample in the administrative console.
You can deploy your own solutions to a stand-alone server, but a stand-alone server cannot provide the capacity, scalability, or robustness that is generally required of a production environment. For your production environment, it is better to use a network deployment environment.
It is possible to start off with a stand-alone server and later include it in a network deployment environment, by federating it to a deployment manager cell, provided that no other nodes have been federated to that cell. It is not possible to federate multiple stand-alone servers into one cell. To federate the stand-alone server, use the administrative console of the deployment manager or the addNode command. The stand-alone server must not be running when you federate it using the addNode command.
A stand-alone server is defined by a stand-alone server profile.