Enterprises nowadays aim at providing reliable applications appropriately scalable to customer needs in complex, diverse IT environments. At the same time, the capability to respond to new challenges without system downtime is also required. BEA WebLogic Server version 9.0 launched this summer provides a secure basis for achieving these goals. We asked László Németh, technological director of Alerant about this novelty product.

Standardized
BEA WebLogic Server 9.0 is basically a standard, J2EE based application server, which establishes the basis for creating multi-level, Java based large-enterprise software components. It is an environment, where different off-the-shelf or internally developed applications can be installed and run in a uniform environment. BEA WebLogic Server 9.0 is also suitable for developing component based Internet or intranet solutions.
Since the tool is built on a standard basis, the enterprises’ already existent infrastructural elements or newly developed applications are also capable of accessing services run on the server on a standardized platform.
The application server always includes the most recent J2EE specifications and standards, these technological elements ensure among other things the handling of messages and transactions, database access, they identify users and manage user access rights.

Novelties of version 9.0
During the design and development of WebLogic Server 9.0 the main goal was to enhance reliability and to ensure uninterrupted user services – said László Németh. Novelties added to development and operations also serve the above purpose.
It is true though, that former WebLogic Server versions were also capable of providing reliable operations, it had been manifested basically at an infrastructural level. The framework system itself operated in a 7x24-hour timeframe, however, complicated dministrative tricks were required to maintain the continuity of services run in it. For instance in case a new version of the application was installed, service provision had to be suspended for the period of re-installation.
The emphasis in the new version is on the uninterrupted nature of services. Version 9.0 is already capable to paralelly run different versions of the application. In the event of re-installation the operations initiated in the old version will be still completed in the old version, but users newly logging on to the system will already be given access to the new application. This way a continuous service can be provided without major efforts.

Standard specialities
A series of standard-adjusted modules have been included in the application server. Thanks to these the infrastructure itself resolves some of the problems and the more infrastructural elements are deployed during the development, the more reliable and faster applications can be created.
The technological director of Alerant points out that a significant novelty in development that makes developers’ work easier is that WebLogic Server 9.0 supports Web services according to the new J2EE standard. Certainly – he adds – former applications, which are not yet based on standardized solution, can be continue to be run, but as for the new developments, asynchronous or digitally authenticated Web services can be called in or received.

To operate: at a higher level
The most significant novelty of WebLogic Server 9.0 – apart from its increased performance and stability – is the higher-level operability. This on the one hand means that the administration platform became more easily manageable and more transparent. The renewed administration consol is based on portal technology, offering a simpler way to extend it. The option for extension allows that the administration of individual applications is integrated into the factory-provided basic management platform of the application server.
The operators’ convenience and administration safety is further enhanced by the option to automate routine tasks. By using the new script tool, the operational tasks can be performed in a programmed manner. Thus modifications to the production servers configuration can be prepared in advance and can be tested in a test environment, then can be performed with one operation in the live environment.
The new application server has been supplemented with self-tuning and diagnostic features, too. The purpose of these is to quickly detect and identify critical or error conditions, to locate bottlenecks and to avoid overload of the system. In order to enhance efficiency and stability the new WebLogic Server is capable of automatically adjust to ever-changing system load, to fine-tune its parameters and to compare its operation with historic events – László Németh concludes his short overview of the novelties of the product.


ASYNCHRONOUS TRANSFER, MESSAGE SEQUENCE
One of the novelties targeted to the developers is the high-availability asynchronous message passing feature. This means that a tool – which previously was possible to access only by using special software – has been incorporated beyond the standard Java Messaging System (JMS) platform, which facilitates very secure connection among distributed machines, whether it is a server-server or client-server connection.

An additional novelty in message handling is that the sequence of message processing can be set within defined groups. Sequenced processing represents a serious synchronisation problem in distributed systems. This problem can be resolved in the new version at a declarative level, it does not require development. For instance by properly configuring the JMS server, the strictly defined sequence of banking operations can be easily maintained.