WebSphere Virtual Enterprise, Version 6.1.1
             Operating Systems: AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, Windows, z/OS


Validating an edition

Validating an edition is the process of determining if a new edition is available and ready to move into production and replace the current edition. You can install and validate a new edition under realistic conditions while your production application edition continues to serve requests.

Before you begin

About this task

Consider the following scenario as an example of how validation is performed on an edition: 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.

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

  1. Click Applications > Edition control center to verify that the application has two installed editions, with only one active edition.
  2. Optional: If you want to create a validation cluster that has a different operational mode than your production cluster, you can define the VALIDATION_OPERATIONALMODE custom property on the production cluster. Add the validation cluster to the service integration bus (SIB). If you do not define this custom property, your validation cluster has the same operational mode as the production cluster.
  3. Update the Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) reference bindings to specify the new cluster name. Before rolling out the application from the validation cluster, the bindings must be changed back to the original value.
  4. Click the my_application application.
  5. 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 application edition control center shows that one of the editions is in validation mode, and the manage editions page shows that the 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.
    Tip: If you want to save the validation cluster after you perform the rollout, you can create the saveClonedCluster custom property on the validation cluster. Otherwise, the validation target is deleted after the edition rollout or after the validation is canceled for all of the applications on the validation target. For example, if you have two applications deployed to the validation target, and one of the applications is validated and rolled out, the validation target is not deleted until the second application is validated. The saveClonedCluster custom property applies only to dynamic clusters. For more information, see Application edition manager custom properties .
  6. Verify that the validation occurred correctly. Click Applications > Enterprise applications or Applications > All applications. Edit the my_application-edition2.0 application.
    • For PHP and WebSphere® Application Server Community Edition applications:

      Verify that the context root, deployment targets, and so on are pointing to the cloned cluster.

    • For enterprise (Java™ 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE)) applications:

      Select Manage modules. 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.

  7. Test the new edition. Start the validation cluster, and with your routing rules in place, try sending a request load to the edition 2.0 edition to test the edition. The edition 1.0 edition remains in production.

What to do next

If you successfully complete the edition 2.0 edition testing, you can replace the edition 1.0 edition with the edition 2.0 edition. If you encounter errors in your testing, you can cancel the validation mode.



Related concepts
Application edition manager concepts
Related tasks
Installing an edition
Performing a rollout on an edition
Performing a rollback on an edition
Creating dynamic clusters
Troubleshooting application edition manager
Canceling an application validation
Related reference
Routing and service policies
Administrative roles and privileges
Related information
Application edition manager custom properties
Task topic    

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Last updated: Oct 30, 2009 1:32:22 PM EDT
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wxdinfo/v6r1m1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.websphere.ops.doc/info/appedition/tappedval.html