16 Setting Up the Middleware Self Service Portal

This chapter describes the procedure to set up and enable the Middleware Self Service Portal. It contains the following sections:

Setting Up the Self Service Portal
Viewing the Middleware Pool Home Page

Setting Up the Self Service Portal

The EM_SSA_ADMINISTRATOR can configure and set up the middleware self service portal by creating middleware pools, service templates, and so on.

Prerequisites

MWaaS must be enabled by following the steps described in the Getting Started section.
Enterprise Manager is set up to manage the cloud environment.
One or more PaaS Infrastructure Zones must have been created. See Creating a PaaS Infrastructure Zone for details.
A configured Middleware Provisioning Deployment Procedure must have been created.

Follow this procedure to set up the MWaaS Self Service Portal.

Log into Enterprise Manager Grid Control as EM_SSA_ADMINISTRATOR.
From the Setup menu, select Cloud, then select Middleware. The Middleware Cloud Self Service Portal Setup page appears.
Click Middleware Pools. The existing middleware pools are listed on the Middleware Pools page. A middleware pool contains a set of resources that can be used to provision a service instance within a PaaS Infrastructure Zone.

Figure 16-1 Middleware Cloud Self Service Portal Setup: Middleware Pools
Click Create. The Create Software Pool: General page appears. Enter a name and description for the middleware pool.
Specify the placement policy constraints. These constraints are used to set maximum limits on resource utilization for each host. In the Maximum Number of Java Servers (per host) field, enter the maximum number of WebLogic Server instances that can be running on each host in the pool.

Figure 16-2 Create Software Pool: General
Click Next. The Create Middleware Pool: Targets page appears. In this page, you can add one or more Oracle homes to the middleware pool being created.
1. In the Zone Name drop box, select the PaaS Infrastructure Zone in which the middleware pool is to be created. See Creating a PaaS Infrastructure Zone for details.
2. Specify the Version of the Oracle home being added to the middleware pool.
3. Click Add and select one or more Oracle homes to be added to the middleware pool. Click Submit to create a software pool. The newly created pool will appear in the Middleware Cloud Self Service Portal Setup: Middleware Pools page. The middleware pool can now be added to the Service Template.
Click the Request Settings tab. Specify the following and click Apply.
- Future Reservation: How far in advance can a request be made.
- Request Archive Retention: Period for which archived requests are stored before they are automatically deleted by the system.
- Request Duration: Maximum duration for which requests can be made.
Click Quotas. Quota is the aggregate amount of resources that can be granted to each self service user belonging to a certain role. This quota applies only to the service instances provisioned through the Middleware Self Service Portal.

Figure 16-3 Middleware Cloud Self Service Portal Setup: Quotas
Click Create. In the Create New Quota window, select the Role Name for which the quota is to be granted. Specify the quota limits for the role as follows:
- Memory: The maximum memory that can assigned to the instances owned by a specific user.
- Application Servers: The number of Application Servers that can be owned by a user at any point in time.
Note:
Only roles that have the EM_SSA_USER privileges are displayed in the Select Roles dialog box.
Click the Service Templates tab. You can create service templates that can be used to provision an instance of a service in a set of selected zones.
Click Create to launch the Create New Service Template wizard. The Create Service Template: Name page appears.

Figure 16-4 Create Service Template: General
Enter a name and description for the service template. The description must be unique and provide information on the type of service template being created.
Click the Search icon next to the Deployment Procedure field and select a Configured Middleware Provisioning deployment procedure that specifies the configuration of the WebLogic Domain. The configured deployment procedure can contain only one cluster with one WebLogic Server. You can scaleup or scale down by adding or deleting WebLogic servers to this cluster. Click Next.

Note:
Before you create a service template, you must have saved a copy of the Configure Middleware Provisioning Deployment Procedure with appropriate values.
In the Create New Service Template: Configuration page, enter the WebLogic User Name, Password, and Port Range. The values specified here will be used to provision new WebLogic Server instances. If these values are not specified, default values will be used. It is recommended that you enter appropriate values for the user name and password fields.

Note:
You cannot lock any of the fields on this page.
Figure 16-5 Create Service Template: Configuration

The Expected Memory Consumption (For Use By Placement Logic) parameter must be specified (cannot be left blank) and the value must match the -Xmx value specified in the profile. For example, if the profile specifies -Xmx512m, the memory required value must be set to 0.5. Similarly, a profile value of -Xmx1024m would need a memory required value of 1, and so on. Refer to the Note in Loading Provisioning Profiles to the Software Library for more details.
Click Next. The Create New Service Template: PaaS Infrastructure Zones page appears.

Figure 16-6 Create Service Template: PaaS Infrastructure Zones
Click Add to select the zones into which that the service instances can be provisioned.
Click the Search icon in the Software Pool field and select Software Pool that contains Oracle homes with the same WebLogic Server version as specified in the Configure Deployment Procedure you have selected in the Create Service Template: Name page. Click Next.
Click Add to select the SSA user roles to which this service template will be available. All users belonging to the selected role can use this service template.
Click Submit. The newly created service template will appear in the Middleware Cloud Self Service Portal Setup: Service Templates page. You can click on the Service Template Name link to view additional details.

To edit an existing MWaaS service template, follow these steps:
1. Click Edit in the Service templates page to launch to the Edit Service Template wizard.
2. In this mode, you can modify the description, user name, password, and port range of the WebLogic Server instance being provisioned, add or remove PaaS Infrastructure Zones, Software Pools into which the template is being deployed, and add or remove users who can use this template.
Click the Chargeback tab to add the middleware pools to the Chargeback Application. On this page, you can determine chargeback zones, services, items, and prices. After the Chargeback is setup, you can view charges and plan details. For more details on setting up the Chargeback Service, see Chapter 4, "Chargeback Administration".

Sample Scenario

A PaaS Infrastructure Zone is a group of homogeneous resources such as hosts, or other targets. Each resource in a zone represents a location at which a service instance is to be deployed. Before you enable or setup MWaaS, you must create a PaaS Infrastructure Zone which allows you to define the placement policy constraints for a specified set of targets and the users to whom this zone will be available. You can set up a zone which contains targets in different locations such as the West Coast, East Coast, and so on.

To set up the portal for the west coast zone, follow these steps:

Create a PaaS Infrastructure Zone named west coast zone by following the instructions in Creating a PaaS Infrastructure Zone.
After the zone has been created, you must create the middleware pool. The middleware pool is a set of resources used to provision a service instance for a zone.

Create a middleware pool (west coast pool) and add one or more targets (WebLogic Oracle Homes).
Associate the west coast pool with the west coast zone.
Create a service template and associate the west coast zone and the west coast pool. The service template is then made available to one or more SSA users who can then request services, create data sources, deploy, redeploy services, and so on.

Viewing the Middleware Pool Home Page

The Middleware Pool Home page provides detailed information of the middleware pool. To view this page, click the Pool Name link in the Middleware Pools region of the Middleware Cloud Self Service Portal Setup: Middleware Pools page. The Middleware Pool Home page contains the following regions:

Figure 16-7 Middleware Pool Home Page

General: This region shows the following information:
- PaaS Infrastructure Zone: The zone with which the middleware pool is associated. Click on the link to drill down to the PaaS Infrastructure Zone Home page.
- Oracle Homes: The total number of Oracle Homes in the middleware pool.
- Total Java Servers: The total number of WebLogic servers in the middleware pool.
- Maximum No of Java Servers (per host): The maximum number of WebLogic servers that can be running on each host.
Incidents and Problems: Shows the outstanding incidents and problems for the target.
Service Template Summary: The number of service templates with which the software pool is associated.
CPU and Memory: These charts show the average CPU and memory utilizations by all servers (virtual servers and physical hosts) in the middleware pool.
Members: This region shows a list of members in the middleware pool. The name of the target, the target type (Oracle Home), the host on which it is running, the location of the Oracle Home, and the location of the Middleware Home is displayed.