WebSphere® Application Server stores configuration data in several documents in a cascading hierarchy of directories. Most configuration documents have XML content.
Each cell subdirectory has the following files and subdirectories:
Each deployed application subdirectory holds a deployment.xml file that contains configuration data on the application deployment. Each subdirectory also holds a META-INF subdirectory that holds a Java™ 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) application deployment descriptor file as well as IBM® deployment extensions files and bindings files. Deployed application subdirectories also hold subdirectories for all .war and entity bean .jar files in the application. Binary files such as .jar files are also part of the configuration structure.
An example file structure is as follows:
cells cell1 cell.xml resources.xml virtualhosts.xml variables.xml security.xml nodes nodeX node.xml variables.xml resources.xml serverindex.xml serverA server.xml variables.xml applications sampleApp1 deployment.xml META-INF application.xml ibm-application-ext.xml ibm-application-bnd.xml sampleApp2 deployment.xml META-INF application.xml ibm-application-ext.xml ibm-application-bnd.xml
You can use one of the administrative tools (console, wsadmin, Java APIs) to modify configuration documents or edit them directly. It is preferable to use the administrative console because it validates changes made to configurations. "Configuration document descriptions" states whether you can edit a document using the administrative tools or must edit it directly.
The WebSphere Application Server master configuration repository stores configuration files for all the nodes in the cell. When you upgrade the deployment manager from one release ofWebSphere Application Server to another, the configuration files that are stored in the master repository for the nodes on the old release are converted into the format of the new release.