Ever wonder how you would install and deploy IBM WebSphere Application Server in large scale in enterprise environments? Interested in patching your WebSphere binaries in record time? If so, this session is for you. Cerner experts will share their experiences rapidly installing, deploying and managing WAS ND at scale and we will look at proven and tested strategies and techniques like creating master images for massive deployment and swinging profiles that will make managing your WebSphere infrastructure a breeze.

1. Rapid Deployments of IBM
WebSphere ND at Scale
Matt Boveri (Cerner)
matt.boveri@cerner.com
Yee-Kang Chang (IBM)
yeekangc@ca.ibm.com

2. What about you?
• WebSphere Administrators?
• Application Developers or Architects?
• Infrastructure Architects?
• Managers?
• Others?
2

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Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment. The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon many
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an individual user will achieve results similar to those stated here.
Please note

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
Contents
About Cerner
WAS usage at Cerner
Challenges
What Cerner has tried
WAS concepts
• Separation of install and
config
• Working with master images
Cerner’s solution
• How does Cerner use
Swinging Profile
• Benefits
• Quantitative improvements
• Automation
• What’s next
Techniques/How-tos
• Creating master images with
Installation Manager
• Swinging Profiles
• Shared Binaries
Resources

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
Cerner today

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
WAS at Cerner
WebSphere ND CELLs
• Small
• Medium
• Large
Few to many Dynamic clusters
Single to many ears per cluster

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
Challenges
• Large Scale
• Regular patching
• Growth needs
• Uptime
• Stability
• Performance
Problem: How can we quickly and efficiently deploy and scale our WebSphere ND CELLs?

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
WebSphere on Windows – Standard Install
Standard IMCL Install
Automated install (~ 1hr per node)
Automated FP and iFix installs (~1hr per node)
• Also configures many custom settings we set

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
WebSphere on Linux – Standard Install
Standard IMCL Install
Manual Install (1hr+ per node)
Manual FP and iFix installs (1hr+ per node)
All configurations needed to be made by the supporting engineer

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
WebSphere on Linux – Non-Standard Install
Non-Standard Swinging Profiles Install
Automated install (~15min per node)
Automated FP and iFix installs (~15min per node)
• Also configures many custom settings we set
Potential for FP and iFix install on reboot

13. WAS Concepts

14. WAS Install
(Binaries)
Profile (Config) + Apps
Installer / Install Data
Anatomy of a WAS
(traditional) install
• WAS Install
• Jars, scripts etc – Your WAS
• Profile
• Server configuration, applications
etc – Your data
• Installer
• IBM Installation Manager and its
data – What you need to install and
update your WAS
• Profile is created under your WAS
install location by default – Hence, it
appears that the Install and the Profile
go as one

15. WAS Install
(Binaries)
Profile (Config) + Apps
Installer / Install Data
Separation of Install &
Config
• Your WAS and your data do not have
to be put under the same location!
• They can be in different locations
• Separation → Flexibility and
opportunity for rapid deployments
• Setup and manage your WAS
install (binaries) separate from
your WAS data (profile)
• Create images of your WAS
installs for rapid and large scale
deployments

16. Profile
Master
Image
Profile Profile
… …
Rapid Deployments

17. Install WAS Create Profile Start WAS
Start WASApply Fix PackStop WAS
Start WASApply Fix PackStop WAS
Initial Install = Same
Usual Fix Pack Update

18. Install WAS Create Profile Start WAS
Start WASApply Fix PackStop WAS
Start WASApply Fix PackStop WAS
Create Image with Fix Pack
Stop WAS Start WASCopy Image
Start WASCopy Image
Initial Install = Same
Usual Fix Pack Update
Optimized Fix Pack Update
Swing Profile
Stop WAS Swing Profile

19. Cerner’s Solution

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
Solution
Swinging profiles
• Swinging profiles between production
installations
• Installing and configuring a swinging
profile environment

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
Benefits
Speed
Consistency
Automation
Security
Performance

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
Speed
Install time ~15 minutes per node
Updates take seconds
• Fix Packs
• iFixes

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
Consistency
Same binaries are used across all domains:
• Validation
• Development
• Non-production
• Production

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
Automation
Installs
Updates
Reboots
Cell Management
Cell Maintenance

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
Security
Access to tested binaries by all CELLs
Automated patching means less effort to stay up to date
OS and WAS patches can be parallelized with reboots

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
Performance
Staying current
• Latest security and performance patches
Regular reboots
• Fresh systems
• Cleaned temp storage and memory

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
Quantitative Improvements
Fix Pack on Windows: 1hr per node
Fix Pack on Linux: Seconds per node

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
Menu Script

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
What’s Next?
Automated scheduled reboots – Complete
OS minor release patching on reboot
• 7.x to 7.x_latest – Complete
• 7.x to 7.y – In progress
WAS fix pack patching on reboots – In progress

30. Techniques/How-tos

31. • Work directly with the Installation
Manager installer (install kit)
• Co-locate the agent data location
and the shared resources directory
with each of your install (package
group)
<install_home>
/was
/iim_data
/iim_shared
• You have a master image!
• Service each image or instance by
referencing the co-located agent
data
Creating & Servicing Master Images
WAS Binaries
/was
IIM Agent Data
/iim_data
IIM Install Kit
unzipped
IIM Shared Resources
/iim_shared
Master Image
<install_home>
IIM Repo with
WAS Offering

32. Swinging Profiles

33. Unexpected problems with
recent fix pack update in
production
• Swing profiles and servers
back to last good level easily
• No time-consuming rollback
operations
Swinging Profiles: Examples
Performance comparisons
• Swing common set of profiles
quickly between installs of
choice for testing
• No multiple installs of identical
profiles and servers
• No single install that is
repeatedly updated or rolled
back

34. Shared Binaries
Similar in concept to Swinging Profiles
• A variation on the technique
Install WAS on a shared drive
• Read-only install
• Share (mount) the drive across systems
• Profiles on the target systems (nodes)
• Manage WAS install (updates) on the shared drive centrally

35. Assess
• Determine if this is what you need
Setup
• Decouple install from configuration
• Setup to handle and distribute master images
Execute
• Manage installs and profiles separately
• Clone from images and swing profiles on subsequent updates
Automate
• Automate what is needed
• Find ways to further optimize

36. 1299466134_CernerOverviewStandard_v24 December 2018 © Cerner Corporation. All rights reserved. This document contains Cerner confidential and/or proprietary information belonging to Cerner Corporation and/or its related affiliates
which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
How Swinging Profiles solves Cerner’s problems
Identical binaries across environments
• Development
• Non-production
• Production environments
Quick and repeatable results on:
• New Cell Builds
• New nodes added to existing Cells
• Fix Pack and iFix updates

37. Resources
Create and service WebSphere Application Server master images with IBM
Installation Manager
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSAW57_9.0.0/com.ibm.w
ebsphere.installation.nd.doc/ae/tins_sm_images.html
Swinging profiles between product service levels
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSAW57_9.0.0/com.ibm.w
ebsphere.installation.nd.doc/ae/tins_sp_overview.html
Sharing a WebSphere Application Server traditional installation
http://www.ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/WebIndex/WP102730

38. Influence
deliverables
Sign up
now at
Think
WebSphere
Customer Advisory
Board – open invitation
email: claudiab@us.ibm.com
38IBM Cloud / © 2018 IBM Corporation
Choose your engagement level:
1. Stay ahead of the curve: more
time commitment
2. Close the gap: quarterly
involvement
3. At your own pace: impact longer
term goals
Get involved.
Be successful.

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which may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Cerner.
Thank you
Matt Boveri
Technology Architect
—
Matt.Boveri@Cerner.com
Cerner Corporation
Yee-Kang (YK) Chang
WAS Architect
—
yeekangc@ca.ibm.com
IBM Corporation

40. Backup Materials

41. Background: Concepts & Terminology
Separation of install
(binaries) and
configuration
• tWAS configuration = Profiles
Techniques for Enterprise
Deployments
Leveraging separation of install
and configuration for large scale
deployments
• Swinging profile
• Shared binaries

42. IBM Installation Manager’s Concepts & Patterns
Enterprise
Repository
Host
IMShared
Agent Data
IM
Agent Data
IMShared
Host
Host
Agent Data
IMShared
IM Install Kit
Unzipped
Mount Drive with IM
Mount Drive with IM

43. Patterns for IBM Installation Manager
Enterprise
Repository
Centralized
Installation
Manager
Agent Data
IMShared
CIM Target
HostIM Install Kit
• Response Files
• Install Jobs
IM Repository
Inventory Info
Host
IMShared
Agent Data
IM
Agent Data
IMShared
Host
Host
Agent Data
IMShared
IM Install Kit
Unzipped
Mount Drive with IM
Mount Drive with IM

44. Working with Repositories in the Enterprise
 The IBM Packaging Utility (PU) is a free companion tool to
Installation Manager
 IBM Packaging Utility and IBM Installation Manager can be used
independently of each other
 IBM Packaging Utility capabilities:
 Generate a new repository containing one or more
product offerings
 Delete packages from an existing repository, such as
unneeded fix pack levels
 Combine a split repository into a single repository
(important for servers)
 Can extract offerings for a single operating system
from a large repository, producing a smaller “platform-
scoped” repository
 Repositories can be made available to your own
organization using a web server or FTP server
 Hosting a single repository containing multiple
packages means fewer repositories need to be added
to Installation Manager's preferences

45. Managing WAS Installs
WAS 8.x and 9.0 installs
•Set the Agent Data and Shared Resources directories of Installation Manager to
custom (non default) location that are local to the host
•Backup Agent Data and Shared Resources directories after installation and
maintenance
•Recommend use of imcl command line. You can create custom scripts to automate
installs with imcl
•Enterprise Repository is the best way to host content for all WAS offerings to share
and reuse in house
•Installation Manager installer (install kit) is good way to do installation – This
eliminates the need to update IIM before every fix pack update
•For new 8.5.5.x installs, use Java SE 8 as the default SDK if application is
compatible with Java SE 8

46. Swinging Profiles: What is it?
• An environment in which WebSphere Application Server traditional Profiles
are loosely coupled to any number of WebSphere installations, rather than
the typical setup in which Profiles are bound to a single installation.
• Participating Profiles and WebSphere installations can be added or deleted
as required at any time.
• Participating WebSphere installations will typically be at differing service
levels.
• 'Swinging' refers to the act of associating all Profiles (en masse) to a
selected installation.
• After a 'Swing' takes place, all participating Profiles, and associated
application servers, will assume the service level of the selected installation.

47. ®