How should WebSphere Administration Server be started?

Technote (FAQ)
Problem
What are the different ways which can be used to start the WebSphere® Administration Server, and what are the differences between them?
Solution
There are a number of ways in which WebSphere Administration Server can be started, depending upon the version of WebSphere, the platform (Operating System) being used, and the amount of information that you need to see during the startup process.

  • Advanced Edition (AE):

    For WebSphere Advanced Edition, the following platform specific methods exist which can be used to start the administration server:

    • Unix® (AIX®, HP-UX®, Linux®,Solaris™)
      On Unix platforms, the following shell scripts can be used to start, and monitor the administration server. The most significant difference between these is whether or not a separate Nanny process is started. The role of the Nanny process is to monitor the Administration Server, and attempt to restart it if, for some reason, it terminates.

      - $WAS_HOME/bin/adminserver.sh
      This shell script contains logic to perform some of the role of the Nanny process. Thus, no additional process is started, or required. However, it has a fixed (hard coded) retry count of 3, which is the maximum number of attempts that will be made to start the Administration Server process.

      - $WAS_HOME/bin/startupServer.sh
      This shell script launches the Nanny process, which, in turn, uses information found in the admin.config file to determine what parameters should be used to start the Administration Server, and the maximum number of attempts which should be made to do so.

    • Windows®
      On Windows platforms, the primary difference between the available techniques is whether the Administration Server is being started as part of the Operating System (for example, as a service).

      - %WAS_HOME%\bin\adminserver.bat
      This command (batch) file can be used to start the Administration Server as a separate process (for example, within a command prompt window). This can be done by either using the Windows Explorer program, or by opening a separate command prompt window. In either case, you should traverse the directory hierarchy down to the %WAS_HOME%\bin directory. From there, you should execute the adminserver.bat batch file.

      The most important reason for using this technique to start the Administration Server is to have access to any messages which might be written to the console during the startup process. If you start the Administration Server as a service, these messages are not displayed, and are discarded by the operating system.

      - As a Windows service
      Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Services

      [Note: On Windows 2000, and Windows XP, the Services tool is located under the "Administrative Tools" entry on the Control Panel.]

      Select the IBM® WebSphere Administration Server entry

      Right-click to display the available actions

      Select start

      Start -> Programs -> IBM WebSphere Application Server V4.0 ->

      Start Admin Server

      [Note: The group name under Programs will be what you specified during the product installation, and will be specific to the version of WebSphere you installed.]

      - From a command prompt
      Issue the following command to start the application server:
      net start "IBM WS AdminServer 4.0"

      [Note: If you are using a different version of WebSphere, then the name of the service to be started can be displayed using the Services tool.]

      One quick way to determine whether the Administration Server has started is to look in the tracefile for an "open for e-business" message. To locate the tracefile, look for "traceFile" directive in the admin.config file (which can be found in either the $WAS_HOME/bin, or %WAS_HOME%\bin directory).

  • Advanced Edition Single Server (AEs):
    For WebSphere Advanced Edition Single Server, there are fewer choices for starting the Administration Server.
    • Unix (AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris):
      - $WAS_HOME/bin/startServer.sh
      This is recommended script which should be used to start the Administration Server.

      - $WAS_HOME/bin/startServerBasic.sh
      This script has been provided for backwards compatibility, and should only be used to enable some problem determination (debug) parameters to identify and resolve a startup problem. In general, you should only use this script if requested to do so by IBM WebSphere Support personnel. Other than that, it is unlikely that you will ever use this script.

      One of the most significant differences between this script, and the startServer.sh script is the fact that the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) parameters are hard-coded in this file.

      - $WAS_HOME/bin/launch.sh
      Another technique for debugging the Administration Server start process is to have a specialized script generated which has debugging enabled. To generate this debugging startup script you can issue the following command:

      ./startServer.sh -script

      By default, the name of the generated debug script is "launch.sh". However, you may choose a different script name by specifying it on this generation request. For example:

      ./startServer.sh -script ScriptName.sh

    • Windows:
      Use one of the following techniques to start the Administration Server, and view the messages as they are generated during the startup process.

      - %WAS_HOME%\bin\startServer.bat
      This is the recommended script which should be used to start the Administration Server.

      - %WAS_HOME%\bin\startServerBasic.bat
      This script has been provided for backwards compatibility, and should only be used to enable some problem determination (debug) parameters to identify and resolve a startup problem. In general, you should only use this script if requested to do so by IBM WebSphere Support personnel. Other than that, it is unlikely that you will ever use this script.

      One of the most significant differences between this script, and the startServer.bat script is the fact that the Java Virtual Machine (JVM™) parameters are hard-coded into this script.

      - %WAS_HOME%\bin\launch.bat
      Another technique for debugging the Administration Server start process is to have a specialized script generated which has debugging enabled. To generate this debugging startup script you can issue the following command:

      startServer -script

      By default, the name of the generated debug script file is "launch.bat". However, you may choose a different script name by specifying it on this generation request. For example:

      startServer -script ScriptName.bat

      - Start -> Programs -> IBM WebSphere Application Server V 4.0 AEs -> Start Application Server

      [Note: The group name under Programs will be what you specified during the product installation, and will be specific to the version of WebSphere you installed.]


    One quick way to determine whether the Administration Server has started is to look in the standard output file (stdout) for an "open for e-business" message. To locate this file, look for "ioRedirect" directive in the admin-server-cfg.xml file (which is located in either the $WAS_HOME/config or %WAS_HOME%\config directory). Look for the "stdoutFilename" and "stderrFilename" attributes. For example:
      <ioRedirect xmi:id="OutputRedirect_1"
      stdoutFilename="${LOG_ROOT}/default_server_stdout.log"
      stderrFilename="${LOG_ROOT}/default_server_stderr.log"/>
    You may have to look elsewhere in the file to verify in which directory these files will be written. For example:
      <entries xmi:id="PathMapEntry_2"
      symbolicName="LOG_ROOT" path="${WAS_ROOT}/logs"
      description="The filesystem path to the directory which will contain server log files."/>
      <entries xmi:id="PathMapEntry_5" symbolicName="WAS_ROOT" path="C:\WebSphere\AppServer"
      description="The filesystem path to the product installation directory"/>











    Document Information

    Product categories: Software, Application Servers, Distributed Application & Web Servers, WebSphere Application Server, General
    Operating system(s): AIX, HPUX, Linux, Multi-Platform, Solaris, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows XP
    Software version: 3.5, 3.5.1, 3.5.2, 3.5.3, 3.5.4, 3.5.4.1, 3.5.4.2, 3.5.5, 3.5.6, 4.0, 4.0.1, 4.0.2, 4.0.3, 4.0.4, 4.1
    Software edition: Edition Independent
    Reference #: 1078792
    IBM Group: Software Group
    Modified date: 2004-09-30