6 Configuration and Administration Tools Overview

6.1 OracleAS Web Cache Manager for Configuration and Management

OracleAS Web Cache Manager is a graphical user interface tool that combines configuration and monitoring options to provide an integrated environment for configuring and managing OracleAS Web Cache and the Web sites for which it caches content. With OracleAS Web Cache Manager, you can easily:

• Start, stop, and restart OracleAS Web Cache

• Administer invalidation or rollover log files

• Monitor performance and requests

• Configure general properties of the cache

• Configure log settings

• Configure listening and operation port settings

• Configure origin server settings

• Configure site-specific settings

• Configure caching rules

• Associate caching rules with URLs

This section introduces you to the features of OracleAS Web Cache Manager. However, the primary documentation for using OracleAS Web Cache Manager is the accompanying online help. This section contains these topics:

• Starting OracleAS Web Cache Manager

• Navigating OracleAS Web Cache

• Applying Static and Dynamic Configuration Changes

6.1.2 Navigating OracleAS Web Cache

The OracleAS Web Cache Manager interface includes:

• Top frame containing Apply Changes and Cancel Changes buttons and OracleAS Web Cache status message

• Navigator frame with configuration and monitoring menu items

• Right frame with property sheet for selected menu item

Figure 6-1 shows the OracleAS Web Cache Manager interface.

Figure 6-1 OracleAS Web Cache Manager Interface

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6.1.2.1 Apply Changes and Cancel Changes Buttons

The Apply Changes button applies submitted static and dynamic configuration changes to OracleAS Web Cache; the Cancel Changes button cancels submitted static and dynamic configuration changes to OracleAS Web Cache.

See Also: "Applying Static and Dynamic Configuration Changes" for further information about applying static and dynamic configuration changes

6.1.2.2 Status Messages

Status messages appear beneath the Apply Changes and Cancel Changes buttons. Table 6-1 describes the possible status messages.

Table 6-1 OracleAS Web Cache Manager Status Messages

Message	Description
Web Cache running with current configuration.	This message appears if OracleAS Web Cache is running with an up-to-date configuration.
Press "Apply Changes" to commit your modifications.	This message appears if Submit has been selected in some dialog box, but the Apply Changes button has not been chosen.
Restart Web Cache to make configuration changes take effect	This message appears if OracleAS Web Cache is running with an older version of the configuration. This can happen when static configuration changes have been applied to webcache.xml, but OracleAS Web Cache was not restarted.
Dynamic Changes Applied. Restart Not Needed	This message appears if one or more dynamic configuration changes were applied. See Also: "Applying Static and Dynamic Configuration Changes"
Retrieve configuration from remote cache	This message appears if the cache has been recently upgraded to the current version of OracleAS Web Cache but the configuration has not been copied to the local cache configuration file.

In addition, information about any needed operation is displayed in the Cache Operations page.

6.1.2.3 Navigator Frame

The navigator frame provides a graphical tree view of configuration, administration, and performance monitoring capabilities for OracleAS Web Cache and its supported Web sites.

The navigator frame contains the following major categories:

• Operations: This category contains pages that enable you to:

  • Start, stop, and restart OracleAS Web Cache

  • Invalidate documents in the cache

  • Rollover log files

• Monitoring: This category contains pages that enable you to:

  • Monitor the performance of OracleAS Web Cache

  • Monitor the performance of origin servers

  • View the contents of a cache

  • Analyze the performance of pages configured for end-user performance monitoring

• Properties: This category contains pages that enable you to:

  • Configure security settings such as usernames and passwords for administrators and invalidation users

  • Specify the process identity for OracleAS Web Cache processes

  • Specify settings for the auto-restart mechanism

  • Specify network time-outs

  • Specify the size of the cache and the number of connections

  • Configure a cache cluster

• Logging and Diagnostics: This category contains pages that enable you to:

  • Configure event logging settings

  • Configure access logging settings

  • Configure end-user performance monitoring

  • Configure diagnostic information

• Ports: This category contains pages that enable you to:

  • Configure OracleAS Web Cache listening ports

  • Configure listening ports for administration, statistics, and invalidation requests

• Origin Servers, Sites, and Load Balancing: This category contains pages that enable you to:

  • Specify origin servers

  • Configure site definitions

  • Map site definitions to origin servers

  • Configure error pages

  • Configure session binding

  • Specify the location of the wallet used for communication to an origin server

• Rules for Caching, Personalization, and Compression: This category contains pages that enable you to:

  • Configure caching rules

  • Specify expiration policies

  • Configure session definitions

  • Configure cookie definitions

• Rules Association: This category contains pages that enable you to associate caching rules with:

  • Compression

  • Expiration policies

  • Session policies

  • Cookies

  • HTTP request headers

  • HTTP errors

  • ESI propagation policies

6.1.2.4 Right Frame

The right frame contains property sheets that enable you to configure and administer OracleAS Web Cache. Figure 6-2 shows the Caching, Personalization, and Compression Rules page used for viewing caching rules.

Figure 6-2 Caching, Personalization, and Compression Rules Page

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6.1.2.5 The Cache Operations Page

The Cache Operations page, shown in Figure 6-1, of OracleAS Web Cache Manager (Operations > Cache Operations) provides information about the status of a cache and what operations are needed. From this page, you can start, stop, or restart a cache.

If the cache is part of a cache cluster, all caches in the cluster are listed on the Cache Operations page. In addition to starting, stopping, and restarting a cache, you can propagate the configuration to other cluster members from this page. You can perform the operations on a selected cache or on all caches in the cluster. To minimize disruption in your Web site, you can specify an interval to stagger the times that the operations begin on the caches.

See Also: "Starting and Stopping OracleAS Web Cache" for further information about using the Cache Operations page

6.1.3 Applying Static and Dynamic Configuration Changes

Using the following menus in the navigator frame, you can change the configuration for OracleAS Web Cache:

• Properties

• Logging and Diagnostics

• Ports

• Origin Servers, Sites, and Load Balancing

• Rules for Caching, Personalization, and Compression

• Rule Association

Configuration changes are saved in a temporary configuration file, before they are applied to the webcache.xml file in the $ORACLE_HOME/webcache directory on UNIX or ORACLE_HOME\webcache directory on Windows.

Most configuration changes are static. When static changes are applied with Apply Changes, OracleAS Web Cache saves the temporary configuration file to the webcache.xml file. You must restart OracleAS Web Cache to apply changes.

However, OracleAS Web Cache recognizes some changes as dynamic. OracleAS Web Cache Manager provides dynamic configuration for the following features:

• Setting buffering and verbosity detail level in the Event Logs page (Logging and Diagnostics > Event Logs)

• Setting buffering in the Access Logs page (Logging and Diagnostics > Access Logs)

• Enabling and disabling of diagnostics information in the HTML response body of a document in the Diagnostics page (Logging and Diagnostics > Diagnostics)

• Setting routing to origin servers in the Origin Servers page (Origin Servers, Sites, and Load Balancing > Origin Servers)

OracleAS Web Cache Manager displays the icon, shown in Figure 6-3, to distinguish dynamic configuration from static configuration changes.

Figure 6-3 OracleAS Web Cache Manager Dynamic Configuration Icon

Description of the illustration icon.gif

When dynamic changes are applied with Apply Changes, OracleAS Web Cache immediately applies the configuration changes and saves the temporary configuration file to the webcache.xml file. No restart is needed.

If you use OracleAS Web Cache Manager to apply both a dynamic and static configuration change, you must restart OracleAS Web Cache.

See Also: "Starting and Stopping OracleAS Web Cache" for further information about restarting OracleAS Web Cache

6.2 Oracle Enterprise Manager for Metrics

Oracle Enterprise Manager is the primary tool for administering Oracle Application Server. It is a complete management solution for administering, configuring, and monitoring the application server and its components.

The Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control Console enables you manage an Oracle Application Server instance.

For OracleAS Web Cache, you can use the Application Server Control Console to start, stop, or restart the cache, as well as monitor cache and origin server status.

• The Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control Console enables you view historical metrics for multiple Oracle Application Server targets.

  For OracleAS Web Cache, you can use the Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control Console to view the overall status of OracleAS Web Cache and view OracleAS Web Cache performance metrics.

  Based on the metrics, you can make changes to the configuration with OracleAS Web Cache Manager. Later, you can use Enterprise Manager to monitor how configuration changes affect the performance of the OracleAS Web Cache.

  
  

  See Also: Oracle Application Server 10g Administrator's Guide and Oracle Enterprise Manager Advanced Configuration for further information about using Oracle Enterprise Manager to monitor OracleAS Web Cache

  
  

6.3 OPMN for Process Administration

Oracle Process Manager and Notification (OPMN) Server manages Oracle Application Server processes, including Oracle HTTP Server, OC4J, and OracleAS Web Cache processes, and channels all notifications from different components instances to all interested in receiving them.

With OPMN, you can administer the OracleAS Web Cache processes, including the admin server process and cache server process:

• The admin server process manages the OracleAS Web Cache Manager interface.

• The cache server process manages the cache.

The executable used for managing these process is webcached, which resides in $ORACLE_HOME/webcache directory on UNIX and the ORACLE_HOME\bin directory on Windows.

In addition, if auto-restart is enabled for the cache, OPMN monitors the cache server process. If the cache server process fails, OPMN restarts the process. The executable used for managing auto-restart is webcachemon, which resides in $ORACLE_HOME/webcache directory on UNIX and the ORACLE_HOME\bin directory on Windows.

To use OPMN, you use the opmnctl utility. First, you must start OPMN, using the following command:

opmnctl start

Then, you use OPMN to control OracleAS Web Cache. The following shows the format of the opmnctl commands:

opmnctl command [parameter=value] [parameter=value]

Table 6-2 shows the commands of the opmnctl utility that are applicable to OracleAS Web Cache.

opmnctl status -help 

Table 6-3 shows the parameters for the opmnctl utility. It also shows the valid values that are applicable for OracleAS Web Cache. Unless otherwise noted, you can use any parameter with any command, except for status, listed in Table 6-2.

The opmn executable is located in the $ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin directory on UNIX and the ORACLE_HOME\bin directory on Windows.

6.4 Script for Setting File Permissions on UNIX

For UNIX operating systems, you can use the webcache_setuser.sh script to set the file permissions according to the mode in which in you need to run OracleAS Web Cache. The file webcache_setuser.sh is located in the directory $ORACLE_HOME/webcache/bin.

Prior to running the webcache_setuser.sh script, stop both the cache and admin server processes, using the OPMN utility command:

opmnctl stopproc ias-compononent=WebCache

You cannot use the options in the Cache Operations page to stop or start the admin server process. See "Starting and Stopping OracleAS Web Cache" for more information on starting and stopping OracleAS Web Cache.

The following shows the format of the webcache_setuser.sh syntax:

webcache_setuser.sh command user_ID

Table 6-4 describes the commands.

The parameter user_ID is the user ID associated with the OracleAS Web Cache processes. (By default, that user ID is the ID of the user that performed the installation.) For setroot and revert modes, the user ID must be the ID of the user that performed the installation. The user ID must match the user ID specified in the Process Identity page (Properties > Process Identity) of OracleAS Web Cache Manager.

6.5 Configuration and Administration Tasks at a Glance

OracleAS Web Cache configuration and administration tasks are described throughout this guide and in the OracleAS Web Cache Manager online help system. Table 6-5 lists the common tasks, and points you to the topic in this guide that describes the task.