Use application validation to install and test an edition under
realistic conditions in parallel with the production application edition.
For example, edition 1.0 of an application is installed, active, and running
on a dynamic cluster. Edition 2.0 is the candidate validation edition and
is installed on the same deployment target in the inactive state. Validating
edition 2.0 clones the edition 2.0 deployment target. For example, the validation
might create a new dynamic cluster, such as the DC-Validation dynamic
cluster, and map edition 2.0 to this new cluster. The cloned cluster uses
the existing cluster members as the server template for the creation of the
cloned servers.
Before you begin
You must define unique routing
rules for edition 2.0. Routing rules enable editions to run concurrently and
hypertext transfer protocol requests for the validation edition to correctly
route to the validation target without interfering with edition 1.0. For this
scenario, use the
my_application application. Install both
application editions, 1.0 and 2.0, on the
dynamic_cluster_1 dynamic
cluster.
If you want to maintain the cloned validation cluster after you
roll out the new edition, set the dynamic cluster custom property, saveClonedCluster=true.
Otherwise, the validation target is deleted after edition rollout.
Restriction: Only two cluster members can be used or created in validation
mode. You can map routing and service policies to the validation mode enterprise
application, but no more than two cluster members are started to maintain
the work. You can overwrite this setting after the validation cluster is created
by changing the minimum and maximum number of dynamic cluster instances.
If
you are a user with either a monitor or an operator role, you can only view
the application edition manager information. If you have the role of configurator
or administrator, you have all the configuration privileges for the application
edition manager.
About this task
After the validation clone target is created, edition 2.0 is
activated, and the routing rules are defined, you can start, stop, and reconfigure
the edition.
Procedure
- Click Applications > Edition control center to verify that
the application has two installed editions, with only one active edition.
- Click the my_application application.
- Select edition 2.0 and click Validate. The
validation status page shows each step of validating the dynamic_cluster_1
dynamic cluster and deploying edition 2.0 to the cloned cluster. The edition
control center shows that one of the editions is in validation mode, and the
manage editions page shows that edition 2.0 target is now the dynamic_cluster_1-Validation dynamic
cluster. The dynamic cluster page shows that the dynamic_cluster_1-Validation dynamic
cluster is created, and the servers page shows the cloned servers.
- Verify that the validation occurred correctly. Click Applications
> Enterprise applications. Edit the my_application-edition2.0 application.
Select Map modules to servers. Verify that edition 2.0 is mapped to the validation cluster.
From the Map Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) references to beans detail view, verify
that the Java Naming and Directory Interface name is adjusted for the new
cloned target name.
For an application edition, with fully-qualified
bindings based on the original deployment target name, to operate correctly
on a validation deployment target, you must change its binding names to reflect
the fully-qualified binding names based on the validation deployment target
name. For example, an application with a resource reference bound to /clusters/clusterb1/jdbc/CustomerData must
have the binding changed to /clusters/cluster1-validation/jdbc/CustomerData
as the application is prepared to run on the deployment target clone.
- Test the new edition. Start the validation cluster,
and with your routing rules in place, drive a test load to edition
2.0 to test it with your production edition 1.0.
- When you complete edition 2.0 testing, replace edition
1.0 with 2.0.
- Stop the validation target, for example, dynamic_cluster_1-Validation.
- Delete the routing rules specific to edition 2.0 to
route all requests for the my_application application to
a single edition. Save your changes and synchronize the nodes.
- Roll out the new edition. Click Applications
> Edition control center >application_name. Select edition
2.0 and click Rollout.
Clicking Rollout launches an interruption-free replacement
of edition 1.0 with edition 2.0. During
the rollout, edition 2.0 is retargeted to its original deployment
target, for example, dynamic_cluster_1, and its state transitions
from validation to active.
Results
You validated a new application edition on a duplicate dynamic cluster,
and then rolled out the new edition to the original production dynamic cluster.