Backing Up a Domain and

Upgrading WebLogic Server

Copyright 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

Back up a WebLogic Server domain
Restore a WebLogic Server domain
Describe the WebLogic Server upgrade process

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 Backup and Recovery

Backup Recovery
Scheduled Unscheduled (usually)
At least weekly At least annually (if
Uses different tools for only to test procedures)
different components Not necessarily the reverse of
backup; it may use other tools

Backup and recovery:

Protect against failures of hardware or software, and accidental
or malicious changes to the environment
Guarantee a point of recovery and minimize loss of business
availability
May impact system availability (the system must be offline for an
offline backup)
May include hardware and software

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 Backup Solution

Artifacts that need to be backed up include the database,

installed products, configured WebLogic domains,
WebLogic Server instances, and persistence stores for
WebLogic Server TLogs (transaction logs) and JMS
resources.
Use Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) to back up
database artifacts.
Use file copy to back up product installations and
configured domains, WebLogic Server instances, and
persistent stores.
You can also use the pack utility to back up managed
servers.

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 Types of Backups

Online:
Non-disruptive
Possibly inconsistent
If backing up takes one hour, the changes made during that
hour will not be within the backup and must be tracked
Offline:
Requires all processes to be stopped
Relatively easy
Full:
Easier to recover, slower to create
Incremental:
Harder to recover, faster to create

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 When to Back Up

Offline backup after the initial domain is created

Online backups at scheduled intervals
Online backup after a component changes or the cluster
configuration changes
Online backup before application deployment
Offline backup before and after patches or upgrades
Online database backups for:
LDAP
Persistent stores
SOA repository

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 Limitations and Restrictions for Online Backups

Online backups of WebLogic Server persistent stores are

likely to be inconsistent (changes can occur while you are
backing up).
Database backups can more easily accommodate
inconsistencies.
File-based stores and OS copies cannot easily
accommodate online backup.

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 Performing Full Offline Backup

1. Shut down all the processes.

2. Back up <MW_HOME>.
3. Back up the domain.
4. Back up directories from which applications are deployed.
5. Back up the managed server domains on other machines
or re-create their domains with the pack/unpack utilities.
6. Back up the instance home for configured system
components (like OHS).
7. Back up the database using RMAN.
8. Back up Oracle Inventory.
9. Back up the oraInst.loc and oratab files (in /etc).

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 Performing Full Online Backup

1. Lock the WebLogic Server configuration.

2. Back up the domain. For example:

$> tar -zcpf domain_backup_04-12-2013.tarz /domain_dir/*

3. Back up the application directories.

$> tar -zcpf app_backup_04-12-2013.tarz /app_dir/*

4. If the managed servers are in another location, back up

those domain directories.
5. Back up the Oracle instance home.
6. Back up the database with RMAN.

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 Impact of Administration Server Failure

Failure of the administration server:

Prevents configuration changes in the domain
Prevents application deployments
Does not affect running managed servers
Prevents starting never-started-before managed servers
Allows starting previously-started managed servers if
Managed Server Independence (MSI) mode is enabled
MSI is enabled by default
Periodically, the managed servers attempt to synchronize
configuration data with the administration server.
When the administration server becomes available, the
managed servers get the latest configuration data from the
administration server.

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 Automatically Backing Up
a Domain Configuration
Enabling this attribute causes a JAR file of the entire config
directory to be created each time a configuration change is
activated.

Disabled by default

How many archives

to save

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 Recovery Operations

Some of the common recovery operations include restoring:

A Middleware home
An Oracle home
An Oracle WebLogic Server domain
The administration server configuration
A managed server
An Oracle instance
Fusion Middleware system component configurations and
data

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 Directories to Restore

Binaries (installation directories)

Be mindful of preserving group ownership and permissions.
These should be read-only for most users.
Configurations
If the last configuration caused the problem, recover to a
point in time prior to that.
Log files are:
Not required for recovery
Created if they do not exist
Data
Database restores data within tablespaces, not directories.
RMAN restore brings data up to the last backup,
then recover brings data up to a later point in time.

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 Recovery After Disaster

Possible causes of failure:

Data loss
User error
Malicious attack
Corruption of data
Media failure
Application failure
Recovery depends on the cause:
Repair
Replace
Relocate

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 Recovery of Homes

This applies to recovering a Middleware home, an Oracle

home, or an Oracle instance home after data loss or corruption:
1. Stop all processes.
2. Make a new full offline backup as a checkpoint (which can
be reused).
3. Change directory to the affected home.
4. Use the OS copy, tar -x, or unzip command for the
directories affected.
5. Make a new full offline backup (especially if you have been
performing incremental backups up until this point).
6. Restart all processes: A. Database listener B. Database
C. Oracle instances (OHS, OID) D. Node Manager
E. Administration server F. Managed servers

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 Recovery of a Managed Server

If the managed server fails, Node Manager will

automatically restart it (if it started it).
If the files are damaged, you can recover the files in their
original places and restart the managed server.
If the computer is damaged, perform either of the following:
Restore the files on a new host with the old computer name
by using the OS commands, for example, copy, cp, tar, or
unzip. (If you backed up by using pack, restore by using
unpack.)
Restore the files on another host with a different host name
by using pack and unpack.
If you used a virtual host name on the old computer, then even if the new
computer has a different name, you can still use OS commands to restore
the files. Just assign the new computer the same virtual host name.

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 Recovery of the Administration Server

If the administration server fails, and it was started by

using Node Manager (through a WLST script), then Node
Manager automatically restarts it.
If the files are damaged, you can recover the files in their
original places and restart the administration server.
If the computer is damaged, restart the administration
server on a new computer.

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 Restarting the Administration Server on a
New Computer
To create a backup of the administration server:
1. Install Oracle WebLogic Server on the backup computer.
2. Copy the application files to the backup computer.
3. Copy the configuration files (or the domain) to the backup
computer.
4. Restart the administration server on the backup computer.
Note that steps Assign it
1, 2, and 3 adminhost adminhost the same
must be AdminServer AdminServer host
completed 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.2 name.
BEFORE the
admin server
failure.

DNS Server managed1 managed2

Update
the DNS adminhost = 192.168.0.11 192.168.0.12
Server.
192.168.0.2

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 Managed Server Independence

Managed Server Independence (MSI) mode reduces the

urgency to restart a failed admin server.

Enabled
by default

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 Upgrading WebLogic Server 11g to 12c

1. Plan the upgrade.

A. Inventory the environment (admin server, managed servers,
applications, external resources, scripts/templates).
B. Verify that all hardware and software components are
supported.
C. Verify the compatibility of your applications.
D. Create an upgrade plan.
2. Prepare to upgrade
A. Undeploy incompatible applications.
B. Shut down servers.
C. Back up the environment.
D. Install new Oracle products.
E. Prepare remote managed server domains.
F. Set up environment variables.

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 Upgrading WebLogic Server 11g to 12c

3. Upgrade Run the

Oracle
Upgrade
Assistant(s)*
Start

Yes

Back up the Are there No

Run the re- Are FMW
domain on remote
configuration products
the admin managed
wizard installed? No
server servers?

(Details later)
Yes

(Details later)
Back up the Upgrade the
* Refer to the FMW installation or domain on managed
End
upgrade guides for the products remote server
you are using. machines domains

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 Run the Reconfiguration Wizard

A. In the terminal
window, run
<MW_HOME>/
oracle_common/
common/bin/
reconfig.sh.
B. Go through the
wizard screens.
C. Manually finish the
Node Manager
configuration.

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 Upgrade the Managed Server Domains

A. Ensure that during the preparation phase, you copied

these files from the pre-upgraded admin server domain
directory to the managed server domains root directory:
/config/config.xml and
/security/SerializedSystemIni.dat.
B. Port the reconfigured domain from the admin server
computer to the managed server computers with pack and
unpack.

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 Upgrading WebLogic Server 11g to 12c

4. Complete post-upgrade procedures:

A. Re-apply any customizations you had in server start scripts.
B. Verify and reset file permissions (in Linux, file ownership
goes to the user that did the upgrade).
C. Verify server start options (for example, JAVA_HOME and
CLASSPATH may need to be updated for servers started via
Node Manager).
D. After the environment has been tested, move it to
production.

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 Quiz

The administration server of the domain has failed. Can a

managed server currently not running be started?
a. Yes, if Managed Server Independence Mode is enabled
and the server has been started before.
b. No, a managed server must always contact its admin
server when it comes up.

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 Summary

In this lesson, you should have learned how to:

Back up a WebLogic Server domain
Restore a WebLogic Server domain
Describe the WebLogic Server upgrade process

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 Practice 17-1 Overview:
Backing Up and Restoring a Domain
This practice covers the following topics:
Backing up a domain
Restoring a domain

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