1 Introduction and Roadmap

Document Scope and Audience

This document is written for application developers and administrators who are developing or deploying Web-based applications on one or more clusters. It also contains information that is useful for business analysts and system architects who are evaluating WebLogic Server or considering the use of WebLogic Server clusters for a particular application.

The topics in this document are primarily relevant to planning, implementing, and supporting a production environment that includes WebLogic Server clusters. Key guidelines for software engineers who design or develop applications that will run on a WebLogic Server cluster are also addressed.

It is assumed that the reader is familiar with Java EE, HTTP, HTML coding, and Java programming (servlets, JSP, or EJB development).

Guide to this Document

• This chapter, Chapter 1, "Introduction and Roadmap," describes the organization of this guide.

• Chapter 2, "Understanding WebLogic Server Clustering," provides a brief introduction to WebLogic Server clusters.

• Chapter 3, "Communications In a Cluster," describes how WebLogic Server instances communicate to one another in a cluster and how they utilize a cluster-wide JNDI tree.

• Chapter 4, "Understanding Cluster Configuration," explains how the information that defines the configuration of a cluster is stored and maintained, and identifies the methods you can use to accomplish cluster configuration tasks.

• Chapter 5, "Load Balancing in a Cluster," describes the load balancing support that a WebLogic Server cluster provides for different types of objects, and provides planning and configuration considerations for architects and administrators.

• Chapter 6, "Failover and Replication in a Cluster," describes how WebLogic Server detects failures in a cluster, and summarizes how failover is accomplished for different types of objects.

• Chapter 7, "Whole Server Migration," describes the different migration mechanisms supported by WebLogic Server.

• Chapter 8, "Service Migration," describes the service migration mechanisms supported by WebLogic Server:

• Chapter 9, "Cluster Architectures," describes alternative architectures for a WebLogic Server cluster.

• Chapter 10, "Setting up WebLogic Clusters," contains guidelines and instructions for configuring a WebLogic Server cluster.

• Chapter 11, "Clustering Best Practices," provides recommendations for design and deployment practices that maximize the scalability, reliability, and performance of applications hosted by a WebLogic Server cluster.

• Chapter 12, "Troubleshooting Common Problems," provides guidelines on how to prevent and troubleshoot common cluster problems.

• Appendix A, "The WebLogic Cluster API," describes the WebLogic Cluster API.

• Appendix B, "Configuring BIG-IP Hardware with Clusters," describes options for configuring an F5 BIG-IP controller to operate with a WebLogic Server cluster.

• Appendix C, "Configuring F5 Load Balancers for MAN/WAN Failover," explains how to configure F5 hardware load balancers.

• Appendix D, "Configuring Radware Load Balancers for MAN/WAN Failover," describes how to configure Radware hardware load balancers.

Related Documentation

• "Understanding Enterprise JavaBeans" in Programming WebLogic Enterprise JavaBeans for Oracle WebLogic Server

• "Creating and Configuring Web Applications" in Developing Web Applications, Servlets, and JSPs for Oracle WebLogic Server.

New and Changed Clustering Features in This Release

For a comprehensive listing of the new WebLogic Server features introduced in this release, see What's New in Oracle WebLogic Server.