Introduction: System administration
You can administer your WebSphere® Application Server product through scripts, command line tools, the administrative console, or the Java™ programming interface. You administer server processes, topological units referenced as nodes and cells, and the configuration repository where configuration information is stored in Extensible Markup Language (XML) files.
A variety of tools, processes, and configuration files are provided for administering the product:
Administrative topology
Servers, nodes and node agents, cells and the deployment manager are fundamental concepts in the administrative universe of the product. It is also important to understand the various processes in the administrative topology and the operating environment in which they apply.
For more information, refer to Welcome to basic administrative architecture.
WebSphere Application Server operations
Depending on the task, you can perform administrative tasks from the administrative console, the MVS™ console, or the TSO or resource recovery services (RRS) panels .
For more information, including a table that lists the main Application Server operations tasks and that links you to information that helps you perform these tasks, refer to Where to perform WebSphere Application Server operations.
- Console
The administrative console is a graphical interface that provides many features to guide you through deployment and systems administration tasks. Use it to explore available management options.
For more information, refer to Introduction: Administrative console.
- Scripting
The WebSphere administrative (wsadmin) scripting program is a powerful, non-graphical command interpreter environment enabling you to run administrative operations in a scripting language. You can also submit scripting language programs to run in batch mode. The wsadmin tool is intended for production environments and unattended operations.
For more information, refer to Introduction: Administrative scripting (wsadmin).
- Command line tools
Command-line tools are simple programs that you run from an operating system command-line prompt to perform specific tasks, as opposed to general purpose administration. Using the tools, you can start and stop application servers, check server status, add or remove nodes, and complete similar tasks.
For more information, refer to Introduction: Administrative commands.
- Programming
The product supports a Java programming interface for developing administrative programs. All of the administrative tools supplied with the product are written according to the API, which is based on the industry standard Java Management Extensions (JMX) specification.
For more information, refer to Introduction: Administrative programs.
- Data
Product configuration data resides in XML files that are manipulated by the previously-mentioned administrative tools.
For more information, refer to Introduction: Administrative configuration data.
Product library, directories, subsystem, job queue, job description, and output queues
An IBM® i platform uses different configurations than installations of WebSphere Application Server on other platforms.
For more information, refer to Product library, directories, subsystem, job queue, job description, and output queues.