IBM WAS trend is going down as there are a lot of alternative application servers available in the market, but that doesn’t mean its dead yet.
There are still many organization use it and will be in the future. If you are working in other Middleware technologies and assigned a WAS administration role, then it requires a little bit of learning. I’ve covered many WAS related articles, but they are not organized in order. Many of you asked how to get it started as a beginner, so in this article, I attempt to put together things together, which is easy to follow as a newbie.
Basic Introduction
Let’s get it started by getting familiar with IBM WAS terminology. The above post should give you an idea about the basics. As a Middleware administrator, you often have to work on multiple technologies and platforms can be Windows or Linux. Let’s check out some of the platform related articles. Now, you should have an idea about some of the popular commands used regularly to support and manage the OS. Useful Linux find Commands for System Administrator Linux Commands for Middleware/WebSphere Administration Next, you want to get familiar with the installation. It would be rare, but I won’t be surprised if some organizations still use WAS 7. Or, if you are still working on WAS 7 and asked to get involved on WAS 8.5, then the following installation guide will help you. IBM has released version 9, and if you need to play around there, here are the installation steps. You might be wondering what’s new in WAS 8.5, so here you go. Once you are done with the installation, you want to create a profile. What do you want to do next? Maybe knowing how to create a cluster. There is a new type of cluster called Dynamic Cluster in WAS 8.5.x and get an idea, check out the below link. It’s time to get to know about stop/start procedure and other essential scripts which you will use regularly. Are you feeling comfortable with the IBM WAS administration now? Let’s take a look at some of the everyday tasks you will have to perform while working in a production environment. Having a performance-related issue and Dev or IBM asked to perform a dump for further analysis. and, to generate and analyze the thread dump There might be an intermittent issue, and you want to automate taking thread dump whenever WAS is hung. Let’s take a look at configuring the heap dump. You often need that during capacity planning and stress test. Don’t forget to check the following for some of the essential configuration instructions. IBM regularly releases the Fix Pack containing security, performance fixes, and improvements. And, as a WAS engineer, you should update them regularly to keep the application secure and fast. Did you ask how to integrate with web servers? And some bonus to read in free time. How to Integrate IBM HTTP Server with WebSphere in 8.5.5? And, if you are planning to change a job. How to Monitor & Identify Performance Issue in WebSphere? Do you feel more comfortable in dealing with IBM WAS now? I know it’s not complete, but I believe as a beginner, this should give you sufficient knowledge to get it started.
