Updating applications

Why and when to perform this task

You can update an application deployed on a server. The steps below describe how to update a deployed application using the administrative console.

Note: You can also update applications using the wsadmin tool, which provides updating capabilities identical to those available using the administrative console. Further, in some situations, you can update applications without needing to restart the application server.

Steps for this task

  1. Update the contents of the application and reassemble it, using the . Typical tasks include adding or editing assembly properties, adding or importing modules into an application, and adding enterprise beans, Web components, and files.
  2. Go to the Applications page of the administrative console. Click Applications > Enterprise Applications in the console navigation tree.
  3. Back up the application. Place a checkmark in the check box beside the application you want uninstalled and click Export to export the application to an EAR file and preserve the binding information.
  4. With a checkmark beside the application, click Update.
    The binding information of the updated (new) version of the application merges with the binding information from the installed (old) version. Then, the older version uninstalls from the configuration and the new version installs.
  5. Complete the steps in the Preparing for application update page and the pages that follow it. See information on installing applications and on the settings page for application installation for guidance.

    Note that the installation steps have the merged binding information from the new version and the old version. If the new version has bindings for application artifacts such as EJB JNDI names, EJB references or resource references, then those bindings will be part of the merged binding information. If new bindings are not present, then bindings are taken from the installed (old) version. If bindings are not present in the old version and if the default binding generation option is enabled, then the default bindings will be part of the merged binding information.

    If Override existing bindings is selected, then the default bindings (specified using Generate default bindings or a custom bindings file) are chosen over bindings in the new or old EAR file.

    You can select whether to ignore bindings in the old version or ones in the new version. Select Use new bindings or Use existing bindings, respectively, instead of Merge old and new bindings. If Use new bindings is selected, only bindings specified in the new EAR file are used. If Generate default bindings is enabled, then the default bindings are merged with the binding information in the new EAR file. If Use existing bindings is selected, only the bindings specified in the old EAR file are used. If Generate default bindings is enabled, then the default bindings are merged with the binding information in the old EAR file. This option is similar to the scripting options -update.ignore.old and -update.ignore.new.

  6. Map the installed application or module to servers or clusters. Use the Map modules to application servers page of the Install New Application pages displayed during updating the application. Or, after updating the application, use the Map modules to application servers page accessed from the Enterprise Applications page.
    1. Go to the Map modules to application servers page. Click Applications > Enterprise Applications in the console navigation tree, click the application name, and then click Map modules to application servers.
    2. Specify the application server where you want to install modules contained in your application and click OK.
  7. Click Save on the administrative console taskbar to save the changes to your configuration. In the single server (base) product, after you click Save the old version of the application is uninstalled and the new version is installed into the configuration. The application binaries for the old version are deleted from the destination directory and the new binaries are copied to the directory. In the Network Deployment product, the old application files are deleted and new files are copied when the configuration on the deployment manager synchronizes with the configuration on the node where the application is installed.
    If the application is running when you update it, the application stops running before its files are copied to the destination directory of the node and restarts after the copy operation completes. Thus, the application is unavailable on the node during the time the node is synchronizing its configuration with the deployment manager.
  8. Examine the values specified for enabling reloading and the reloading interval.

    For all applications, including applications that contain Web modules, examine the Reload Enabled and Reload Interval values on the settings page for your enterprise application. If reloading of application files is enabled and the reloading interval is greater than zero (0), the application's files are reloaded after the application is updated.

    To enable reloading for only the Web modules in an application, deselect Reload Enabled. Then, in the ibm-web-ext.xmi file for the application, set the reloadingEnabled extension to true and specify a value, in seconds, for the reloadInterval extension. You can set reloadingEnabled to true and specify an integer for reloadInterval when editing your Web module's extended deployment descriptors in an assembly tool.

    Note:

    • To enable reloading of only Web modules, the value for the reloadInterval extension must be greater than zero (0). If you specify 0 for the reloadInterval extension, reloading does not occur even though the reloadingEnabled extension is set to true.
    • If Reload Enabled on the settings page for your enterprise application is selected, the value specified for the reloadingEnabled extension in the ibm-web-ext.xmi file is ignored.

  9. Restart the application so the changes take effect. If the application is updated while it is running, WebSphere Application Server stops the application, updates the application logic and restarts the application.
    1. Click Applications > Enterprise Applications in the console navigation tree to go to the Enterprise Applications page.
    2. Check the check box for the updated application.
    3. Click Start.
  10. (Optional)   If the application you are updating is deployed on a server that has its application class loader policy set to SINGLE, restart the server.

Related tasks
Deploying and managing applications
Deploying and managing using scripting



Searchable topic ID:   trun_app_upgrade
Last updated: Jun 21, 2007 8:07:48 PM CDT    WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation, Version 5.0.2
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.wasee.doc/info/ee/ae/trun_app_upgrade.html

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