Technical data

What Is a Domain?
Configuring and Managing WebLogic Server 2-3
Administration Server
Each WebLogic Server domain must have one server instance that acts as the
Administration Server. You use the Administration Server, programmatically or via
the Administration Console, to configure all other server instances and resources in the
domain.
Role of the Administration Server
Before you start the Managed Servers in a domain, you start the Administration Server.
When you start a standalone or clustered Managed Server, it contacts the
Administration Server for its configuration information. In this way, the
Administration Server operates as the central control entity for the configuration of the
entire domain.
You can invoke the services of the Administration Server in the following ways:
! WebLogic Server Administration Console—The Administration Console is a
graphical user interface (GUI) to the Administration Server.
! WebLogic Server Application Programming Interface (API)—You can write a
program to modify configuration attributes using the API provided with
WebLogic Server.
! WebLogic Server command-line utility—This utility allows you to create scripts
to automate domain management.
Whichever method is used, the Administration Server for a domain must be running to
modify the domain configuration.
When the Administration Server starts, it loads the
config.xml for the domain. It
looks for
config.xml in the current directory. Unless you specify another directory
when you create a domain,
config.xml is stored in:
BEA_HOME/user_projects/mydomain
where mydomain is a domain-specific directory, with the same name as the domain.
Each time the Administration Server starts successfully, and each time you modify the
configuration, a backup configuration file is created. For more information, see
“Backing up config.xml” on page 10-6.