Technical data

The Administration Server and Managed Servers
Configuring and Managing WebLogic Server 1-7
you can replace a failed Administration Server with a backup WebLogic Server
instance that can assume the role of Administration Server. For more information, see
Starting Administration Servers and Recovering Failed Servers.
Failover for Managed Servers
When a Managed Server starts, it contacts the Administration Server to retrieve its
configuration information. If a Managed Server is unable to connect to the specified
Administration Server during startup, it can retrieve its configuration directly by
reading a configuration file and other files located on the Managed Server’s file
system.
A Managed Server that starts in this way is running in Managed Server Independence
mode. In this mode, a server uses cached application files to deploy the applications
that are targeted to the server. You cannot change a Managed Server's configuration
until it is able to restore communication with the Administration Server. For more
information, see Recovering Failed Servers.
Domain-Wide Administration Port
You can enable an administration port for use with servers in a domain. The
administration port is optional, but it provides two important capabilities:
! It enables you to start a server in standby state. While in the standby state, the
administration port remains available to activate or administer the server.
However, the server’s other network connections are unavailable to accept client
connections. See Starting and Stopping WebLogic Server for more information
on the standby state.
! It enables you to separate administration traffic from application traffic in your
domain. In production environments, separating the two forms of traffic ensures
that critical administration operations (starting and stopping servers, changing a
server’s configuration, and deploying applications) do not compete with
high-volume application traffic on the same network connection.
For more information, see Configuring a Domain-Wide Administration Port.