Roadmap for WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5

Some documents linked from this information roadmap were created for previous releases of IBM WebSphere Application Server products. The documents are included here because the information applies to and is useful for WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5.

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Understand the overall purpose, capabilities, and new features of WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5 products.

• New to WebSphere These developerWorks pages provide an overview of the WebSphere product family, and provide links to additional products and information.

• What's new in WebSphere Application Server V8.5 IBM WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5 is a major release that offers dramatic run time improvements, plus simpler and easier ways to develop and deploy applications. This article describes some of the new technical features and enhancements that make these improvements possible.

• WebSphere Application Server: New Features in V8.5 This IBM Redpaper publication presents a high-level view of some of the features and enhancements in WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5.

• Recommended reading list: Java EE and WebSphere Application Server This reading list is intended for customers, consultants, and other technical specialists interested in using and learning more about WebSphere Application Server, and is updated quarterly. These documents illustrate, and are organized by, different stages of the project lifecycle.

• WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment (All operating systems) - Product overview This information center section provides an overview of the WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment product on all supported operating systems, which include the AIX, HP-UX, IBM i, Linux, Solaris, Windows, and z/OS operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server (Distributed operating systems) - Product overview This information center section provides an overview of the WebSphere Application Server product on distributed operating systems, which include the AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, and Windows operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server for IBM i - Product overview This information center section provides an overview of the WebSphere Application Server product on IBM i.

• WebSphere Application Server, Express (Distributed operating systems) - Product overview This information center section provides an overview of the WebSphere Application Server, Express product on distributed operating systems, which include the AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, and Windows operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server, Express for IBM i - Product overview This information center section provides an overview of the WebSphere Application Server, Express product on IBM i.

• IBM Education Assistant - Overview This website provides information about Liberty profile, application resiliency, developing applications, and operations.

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Plan and implement test, staging, and production environments. Many available components help you tailor the application serving environment to fit your needs and your infrastructure. IBM consultants are available to assist.

• WebSphere Application Server detailed system requirements These pages describe the minimum product levels you should install before opening a problem report with the WebSphere Application Server support team. Because other products frequently ship fixes, updates, and new releases, we cannot test every possible configuration. In general, you can install and run with updates to supported products if those updates are forward-compatible.

• WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Concepts, Planning, and Design Guide This IBM Redbooks publication provides information about the concepts, planning, and design of IBM WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5 environments. This book provides information about the planning and design of application-serving environments, from small to large, and complex implementations. It includes planning guidelines for various Websphere Application Server products and contains information about migration from previous releases.

• Specifications and API documentation The WebSphere Application Server product supports various industry standards. This topic lists the specifications and application programming interface (API) documentation supported in current and prior product releases.

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Find out how to install the product and establish application serving capability in new and existing environments.

• WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment - Installing your application serving environment This information center section describes how to install the Network Deployment product on all supported operating systems. The information includes planning, preparing for, completing, and maintaining product installations, including configuring the product after installation.

• WebSphere Application Server - Installing on distributed operating systems This information center section describes how to install the WebSphere Application Server (base) product on distributed operating systems, which include the AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, and Windows operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server - Installing on IBM i This information center section describes how to install the WebSphere Application Server (base) product on IBM i.

• WebSphere Application Server, Express - Installing on distributed operating systems This information center section describes how to install the WebSphere Application Server, Express product on distributed operating systems, which include the AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, and Windows operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server, Express - Installing on IBM i This information center section describes how to install the WebSphere Application Server, Express product on IBM i.

• Create custom installation repositories for WebSphere Application Server with the IBM Packaging Utility This developerWorks article describes a free, no-cost companion tool called IBM Packaging Utility that can help you create and customize enterprise repositories that contain the right combination of products and maintenance levels needed for all aspects of your business.

• IBM WebSphere Application Server for z/OS Installation This IBM Education Assistant module provides information about installing IBM WebSphere Application Server for z/OS.

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• Version 8.5 recommended updates Avoid support calls by keeping your software up to date. This document provides a comprehensive list of recommended updates for WebSphere Application Server releases, along with a list of previously delivered updates.

• All updates for WebSphere Application Server This query finds all updates (fixes, patches, and so on) published for WebSphere Application Server, ordered from most recent to least recent.

• IBM Software support lifecycle - WebSphere This website lists IBM products, including WebSphere, in terms of when they became generally available and when they will go out of service.

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Migrating is copying the configuration from a previous release of this product into a new release. Application migration is included here. Coexisting is running a new release of a WebSphere Application Server product on the same machine at the same time as you run an earlier release, or running two installations of the same release of a WebSphere Application Server product on the same machine at the same time. Interoperating is exchanging data between two coexisting product installations.

• WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment - Migrating This information center section, "Migrating, coexisting, and interoperating," provides product documentation on migration, upgrading, coexistence, and interoperability for WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment on all supported operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server - Migrating on distributed operating systems This information center section, "Migrating, coexisting, and interoperating," provides product documentation on migration, upgrading, coexistence, and interoperability for WebSphere Application Server on distributed operating systems, which include the AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, and Windows operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server - Migrating on IBM i This information center section, "Migrating, coexisting, and interoperating," provides product documentation on migration, upgrading, coexistence, and interoperability for WebSphere Application Server on IBM i.

• WebSphere Application Server, Express - Migrating on distributed operating systems This information center section, "Migrating, coexisting, and interoperating," provides product documentation on migration, upgrading, coexistence, and interoperability for WebSphere Application Server, Express on distributed operating systems, which include the AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, and Windows operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server, Express - Migrating on IBM i This information center section, "Migrating, coexisting, and interoperating," provides product documentation on migration, upgrading, coexistence, and interoperability for WebSphere Application Server, Express on IBM i.

• Knowledge Collection: Migration planning for WebSphere Application Server This IBM Support website provides information to help you migrate between different versions of WebSphere Application Server.

• IBM Education Assistant - WebSphere Application Server Migration Toolkit This website tours the WebSphere Application Server Migration Toolkit, which assists you in migrating applications from non-IBM application servers to WebSphere Application Server.

• WebSphere Application Server - Competitive Migration Guide This Redbooks publication helps you migrate Java EE applications that are developed for Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle Application Server, JBoss, and Apache Tomcat so that they run on IBM WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5. This book also helps you migrate from earlier versions of WebSphere Application Server to Version 8.5.

• Porting Websphere Application Server MBeans for distributed platforms to z/OS MBeans developed for WebSphere Application Server for distributed platforms might need changes to run successfully on WebSphere Application Server for z/OS. This article describes errors that you might encounter when porting MBeans from a distributed platform to the z/OS platform, along with fixes for the errors.

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Find information about setting up your application serving environment.

• WebSphere Application Server V8: Administration and Configuration Guide This IBM Redbooks publication discusses how to configure a WebSphere Application Server Version 8 runtime environment, to package and deploy applications, and to perform ongoing management of the WebSphere environment. Chapters cover: working with profiles, Centralized Installation Manager, consoles, commands, scripting, databases, EIS applications, monitoring, session management, class loaders, and application deployment.

• Administration and configuration This IBM Education Assistant module provides information about configuring the application serving environment.

• WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment - Configuring This information center section, "Setting up the application serving environment," provides product documentation on configuring servers, nodes, profiles, and resources for WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment on all supported operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server - Configuring on distributed operating systems This information center section, "Setting up the application serving environment," provides product documentation on configuring servers, profiles, and resources for WebSphere Application Server on distributed operating systems, which include the AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, and Windows operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server - Configuring on IBM i This information center section, "Setting up the application serving environment," provides product documentation on configuring servers, profiles, and resources for WebSphere Application Server on IBM i.

• WebSphere Application Server, Express - Configuring on distributed operating systems This information center section, "Setting up the application serving environment," provides product documentation on configuring servers, profiles, and resources for WebSphere Application Server, Express on distributed operating systems, which include the AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, and Windows operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server, Express - Configuring on IBM i This information center section, "Setting up the application serving environment," provides product documentation on configuring servers, profiles, and resources for WebSphere Application Server, Express on IBM i.

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The following series of IBM developerWorks articles apply to system administration.

• System administration in WebSphere Application Server V8.5, Part 1: An overview of new administrative features and enhancements

• System administration in WebSphere Application Server V8.5, Part 2: Using the Centralized Installation Manager

• System administration in WebSphere Application Server V8.5, Part 3: High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL)

• System administration in WebSphere Application Server V8.5, Part 4: Using pluggable SDK 7 to enable WebSphere Application Server for Java 7

• WebSphere Administration Education Roadmap This education roadmap outlines the courses available to developers who want to increase their knowledge of WebSphere Application Server administration.

• IBM Education Assistant: Administration View the many available IBM Education Assistant modules for a quick understanding of administering WebSphere Application Server.

• WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment - Administering This information center section, "Administering applications and their environment," provides product documentation on administrative clients, Apache Ant, starting and stopping servers, and administering various types of applications for WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment on all supported operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server - Administering on distributed operating systems This information center section, "Administering applications and their environment," provides product documentation on administrative clients, Apache Ant, starting and stopping servers, and administering various types of applications for WebSphere Application Server on distributed operating systems, which include the AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, and Windows operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server - Administering on IBM i This information center section, "Administering applications and their environment," provides product documentation on administrative clients, Apache Ant, starting and stopping servers, and administering various types of applications for WebSphere Application Server on IBM i.

• WebSphere Application Server, Express - Administering on distributed operating systems This information center section, "Administering applications and their environment," provides product documentation on administrative clients, Apache Ant, starting and stopping servers, and administering various types of applications for WebSphere Application Server, Express on distributed operating systems, which include the AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, and Windows operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server, Express - Administering on IBM i This information center section, "Administering applications and their environment," provides product documentation on administrative clients, Apache Ant, starting and stopping servers, and administering various types of applications for WebSphere Application Server, Express on IBM i.

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Run system administration commands and scripts to manage servers and applications.

• WebSphere Application Server Administration Using Jython This book covers WebSphere Application Server administration and Jython, a Java implementation of Python. The book covers WebSphere management tasks and techniques, presenting real, easy-to-adapt solutions for everything from server configuration and security to database management.

• WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment - Scripting on all operating systems This information center section, "Scripting the application serving environment (wsadmin)," covers using the wsadmin scripting tool and commands to administer production environments and realistic test environments.

• Sample Scripts for WebSphere Application Server This IBM developerWorks article provides sample Jacl and Jython scripts to automate common administration tasks and configure security. Download the scripts and run them as is, or modify them to suit your environment.

• Reusing Jython scripts for WebSphere Application Server system administration This IBM developerWorks article provides information about reusing Jython objects that apply to WebSphere Application Server Version 6.1 through Version 8.5.

• Comment lines: Step into the Swing era - How to easily add a GUI to your WebSphere Application Server administrative scripts This IBM developerWorks article discusses how to use Swing to easily add a graphical user interface (GUI) to a Jython wsadmin script for IBM WebSphere Application Server.

• Comment lines: Step into the Swing era, Part 2 - Build upon your scripting foundation This IBM developerWorks article continues the discussion of using Swing to add a GUI to wsadmin Jython scripts to make your IBM WebSphere Application Server system admin scripts more user friendly.

• Using Jython servlets with WebSphere Application Server for more than system administration This IBM developerWorks article describes how to add Jython processing to supplement your servlet and JSP application programming.

• Using the latest Jython with a WebSphere Application Server wsadmin thin client This IBM developerWorks article describes how to use Jython 2.5.2 with WebSphere Application Server instead of Jython 2.1, which is shipped with the product.

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• Scalability and availability View this IBM Education Assistant module for a quick understanding of scalability and availability on WebSphere Application Server. This module was created for Version 7.0 but also applies to Version 8.5.

• WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment - Balancing workloads This information center section, "Balancing workloads," covers using server clusters and cluster members to monitor and manage the workloads of application servers.

• WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment - Establishing high availability This information center section, "Establishing high availability," covers configuring a high availability infrastructure.

• Techniques for Managing Large WebSphere Installations This IBM Redbooks publication discusses large WebSphere Application Server topologies, focusing specifically on best practices when planning and configuring the high availability manager, core groups, and core group bridging. A review of high availability, core groups, and core group bridging features is followed by extensive coverage of planning, designing, and implementing a large cell migration. The book then covers detailed scenarios of configuring single and multiple core group topologies.

• Proxy server versus the HTTP plug-in: Choosing the best WebSphere Application Server workload management option This developerWorks article looks at the traditional approach to load balancing web requests to a WebSphere Application Server cluster, and then examines an alternative method using the WebSphere proxy server. This article describes and compares the methods, enabling you to select the method that is better for your applications.

• WebSphere proxy server routing capabilities in a secured environment This developerWorks article discusses the various routing capabilities of the WebSphere proxy server, which is a feature of IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment. The article presents multiple configuration scenarios along with background information, setup instructions, and tips to help you achieve success routing content using proxy server features in a secured environment.

• Comment lines: Ensuring enterprise availability when deploying Enterprise JavaBeans in WebSphere Application Server This developerWorks article presents a number of key best practices from the field for application developers and system administrators that can dramatically improve the resilience of EJB applications.

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The Liberty profile is a highly composable, fast to start, dynamic application server runtime environment.

• Using the Liberty profile as an application development environment This information center topic provides links to information about installing and using the Liberty profile.

• IBM Education Assistant - Liberty This website provides information and videos about the Liberty profile.

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• Rational Application Developer documentation The IBM Rational Application Developer information center provides extensive information about the IBM Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software product and the IBM WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools for Eclipse product. The Rational Application Developer product provides an integrated development environment to design, develop, analyze, test, profile, and deploy web, service-oriented architecture (SOA), Java, and Java EE applications. It contains code quality tools to help you analyze code and improve performance. WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools for Eclipse is a lightweight set of tools for developing, assembling, and deploying Java EE applications to WebSphere Application Server Versions 7.0 and 8.x.

• No charge: WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools and WebSphere Application Server for Developers This developerWorks article provides information about and links to downloads for the IBM WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools, which are plug-ins from the Eclipse Marketplace that can be installed into an existing Eclipse environment to support development for WebSphere Application Server. This no-charge offering compliments the IBM WebSphere Application Server for Developers to provide a lightweight, development environment for the developer desktop. The plug-ins include Web 2.0, JEE and OSGi tools that can be used with the required WebSphere server adapters (Versions 7.0, 8.0, 8.5 or Liberty profile) for deployment to WebSphere Application Server.

• Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software V8 Programming Guide This IBM Redbooks publication is a programming guide that describes the features and tooling included with Rational Application Developer Version 8.0.1. Many of the chapters provide working examples that demonstrate how to use the tooling to develop applications and achieve the benefits of visual and rapid application development. This publication is an update of Rational Application Developer Version 7.5 Programming Guide, SG24-7672.

• Experience JEE Using Rational Application Developer V7.5 This IBM Redbooks publication draft is a hands-on guide to developing a comprehensive Java EE application using Rational Application Developer Version 7.5 and the embedded WebSphere Application Server Version 7.0 test environment, including items such as core functions, security, Web services, and messaging. The publication is written for WebSphere Application Server Version 7.0 but also applies to Version 8.5.

• Rational Edge - e-zine for the Rational community The Rational Edge is a monthly, online publication that focuses on the people and practices of the Rational community. Its content includes interviews with industry leaders, success stories, and articles on team development and the use of Rational technologies in solving real-world business problems. Its readers are interested in innovative ways to leverage Rational products in developing both large, mission critical, corporate applications, and smaller scale applications.

• Eclipse Foundation site The Eclipse Platform forms the base of the Rational tools. This site provides links to articles, downloads, learning resources, and community resources for Eclipse.

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• Java EE at a Glance This Oracle website covers Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) technology and its component-based model, which simplify enterprise development and deployment.

• New to Java Programming Center This Oracle website provides information for developers who are new to the Java programming language and technologies.

• developerWorks Java technology This developerWorks website provides links to articles, downloads, and learning resources for Java technology.

• The top Java EE best practices This developerWorks article lists the "Top 19" best practices for Java EE.

• IBM Application Development training This website lists IBM Education courses that you can take to improve your Java programming skills and obtain certification.

• J2EE Class Loading Demystified This developerWorks article describes the techniques used by J2EE and the WebSphere Application Server product for structuring and loading classes.

• WebSphere Application Server V7: Understanding Class Loaders This Redpaper publication describes Java and WebSphere class loaders to help you package and deploy Java EE applications.

• Managing dependencies in migrations and new applications for WebSphere Application Server V8 This developerWorks article describes the steps for effectively managing enterprise applications using IBM Rational Application Developer Version 8.0 for IBM WebSphere Application Server Version 8.0.

• Integrating Java EE applications and C-based implementations in WebSphere Application Server This developerWorks article describes how developers can leverage the Java Native Interface (JNI) programming framework to integrate their J2EE applications deployed on IBM WebSphere Application Server with C-based libraries.

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Various developerWorks articles on web services that were written for Version 7 apply to Version 8.5 as well:

• Building converged Web services with WebSphere Application Server

• Message-level security with JAX-WS on WebSphere Application Server V7, Part 1: Using Rational Application Developer V7.5.2

• Message-level security with JAX-WS on WebSphere Application Server V7, Part 2: Integrating JEE authorization

• Message-level security with JAX-WS on WebSphere Application Server V7, Part 3: Programmatic client control using Web Services Security APIs

• WS-Notification in WebSphere Application Server V7: Part 1: Writing JAX-WS applications for WS-Notification

• WS-Notification in WebSphere Application Server V7: Part 2: Configuring JAX-WS applications with WS-Security for WS-Notification

• The overriddenEndpointURI Property for JAX-RPC and JAX-WS Clients

• Using Trust Association Interceptors with WebSphere Application Server to support OAuth tokens

• Web services View the many available IBM Education Assistant modules for a quick understanding of web services.

• Web Services Education Roadmap This education roadmap outlines the courses available to developers who want to increase their knowledge of web services, with an emphasis on IBM tools.

• Making web services enterprise-ready: Using the WS-Atomic Transaction protocol and WebSphere Application Server This developerWorks article describes how to make web services enterprise-ready using the WS-Atomic Transaction (WS-AT) protocols in conjunction with IBM WebSphere Application Server's unparalleled transaction, high availability, and failover support. The article depicts the optimizations that are used when both client and service provider use WebSphere Application Server as the runtime platform, and show how to setup a high-availabilty, scalable, production-ready environment on which to run WS-AT enabled web services.

• New to SOA and web services The developerWorks SOA and web services content area contains articles, tutorials, and tips to help you make the most of web services-related applications; but if you are trying to find your way in a new topic, all of that information can be overwhelming. This page provides an overview of web services. It places all of the basics of web services technology into the proper context for you and ties together relevant developerWorks articles, tutorials and tips, IBM learning services education, webcasts, workshops, and IBM products for further investigation.

• Integrating Back-end Systems with WebSphere Application Server on z/OS through Web Services This Redbooks publication describes ways to integrate WebSphere Application Server on z/OS with CICS, IMS, and DB2 subsystems. The focus is on web services integration and using an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) solution.

• Making web services enterprise-ready: Using the WS-Atomic Transaction protocol and WebSphere Application Server This IBM developerWorks article describes how you can make your web services enterprise-ready using the WS-Atomic Transaction (WS-AT) protocols in conjunction with IBM WebSphere Application Server's unparalleled transaction, high availability, and failover support.

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The capabilities provided by the Feature Pack for Service Component Architecture (SCA) are included in WebSphere Application Server Version 8, so the following articles apply to Version 8.5:

• Exploring the WebSphere Application Server Feature Pack for SCA, Part 1: An overview of the Service Component Architecture feature pack

• Exploring the WebSphere Application Server Feature Pack for SCA, Part 2: Web services policy sets

• Exploring the WebSphere Application Server Feature Pack for SCA, Part 3: Intents and policies available in the SCA feature pack

• Exploring the WebSphere Application Server Feature Pack for SCA, Part 4: SCA Java annotations and component implementation

• Exploring the WebSphere Application Server Feature Pack for SCA, Part 5: Protocol bindings for Service Component Architecture services

• Exploring the WebSphere Application Server Feature Pack for SCA, Part 6: Using Spring with Service Component Architecture

• Exploring the WebSphere Application Server Feature Pack for SCA, Part 7: Using Atom and JSON-RPC for Web 2.0 support

• Exploring the WebSphere Application Server Feature Pack for SCA, Part 8: Java EE support in the Feature Pack for SCA

• New to WebSphere and SOA Learn how WebSphere products fit into a service-oriented architecture solution.

• Service Oriented Architecture -- SOA Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) helps you increase the flexibility of your business processes, strengthen your underlying IT infrastructure, and retain and reuse existing assets. The basis for any Service Orientation and Service-Oriented Architecture starts with businesses processes. A service is simply a business task. To successfully gain IT flexibility and solve real business problems, a strong and tight link between business and IT is key.

• Service Data Objects (SDO) View the many available IBM Education Assistant modules for a quick understanding of Service Data Objects (SDO).

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• Comment lines: Your quick start guide to OSGi This developerWorks article presents some notable OSGi framework concepts that are relevant when developing OSGi platform solutions for IBM WebSphere Application Server V8 using the IBM Rational Application Developer V8.0.3 workbench.

• Convert a JPA-based Java EE Web application to OSGi with Blueprint object injection in WebSphere Application Server V7 The capabilities provided by the Feature Pack for OSGi Applications and Java Persistence API (JPA) 2.0 are included in WebSphere Application Server Version 8, so this developerWorks article applies to Version 8. This article describes the steps for converting a Java EE web application that uses JPA 1.0 to an OSGi application that uses features in JPA 2.0 plus Blueprint injection of objects. Sample code for a simple WebSphere Application Server application is included for illustrative purposes.

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• Modernized Java-based batch processing in WebSphere Application Server, Part 1: Introducing Modern Batch and the compute-intensive programming model This developerWorks article introduces Modern Batch and shows a sample implementation for the compute-intensive programming model.

• Modernized Java-based batch processing in WebSphere Application Server, Part 2: Transaction batch programming model This developerWorks article covers the transaction batch model and other aspects of the batch framework, including the various interfaces used to submit and control jobs, integration with schedulers, and troubleshooting tips.

• Create a Simple Compute Grid Parallel Batch Application: Batch Application using Parallel capabilities, running on a WebSphere Network Deployment Cluster This developerWorks article describes how to develop a simple Java batch application using IBM Rational Application Developer 8.0.2 as the development environment and WebSphere Extended Deployment Compute Grid 8.0.0.1 as the runtime environment.

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Package code components into modules that can be deployed onto an application server. Tools that provide an integrated development environment make assembly easier.

• Development and assembly tools This information center topic describes the IBM Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software product and the IBM WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools for Eclipse product, which are supported tools for integrated development environments. With these tools, you can develop, assemble, and deploy applications to a WebSphere Application Server server or cluster.

• IBM Rational Application Developer documentation The IBM Rational Application Developer documentation describes how to use the tools to design, develop, analyze, assemble, test, profile, and deploy applications.

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Install an application on an application server and address any dependencies and resource needs so that users can access the application.

• WebSphere Application Server V7: Deploying Applications This Redpaper publication discusses how to use the Rational Application Developer Assembly and Deploy features to perform common tasks for packaging an application. The publication is written for Version 7.0 but also applies to Version 8.5.

• WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment - Deploying applications This information center section describes how to deploy Java EE modules on product servers on all supported operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server products - Deploying business-level applications This information center section describes how to deploy and administer business-level applications on product servers for all supported operating systems.

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The product offers samples that demonstrate common enterprise application tasks. Many samples also provide instructions for deployment and coding examples. The samples are provided with the product or are available for download from the Samples information center.

• Accessing the samples This information center topic describes how to obtain the sample applications.

• WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5 samples This Samples, Version 8.5 information center provides samples that you can download and use to learn more about the product and components.

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Monitor servers and applications to assess dimensions such as the response times perceived by users, the basic health of the systems that participate in an end-to-end user request, and the resource usage of applications.

• Performance This IBM Education Assistant module provides an overview of performance monitoring and tuning.

• WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment - Monitoring on all operating systems This information center section, "Monitoring," discusses how to create an overall monitoring strategy, including monitoring to understand response times, problems, and resource usage of applications, for WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment on all supported operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server - Monitoring on distributed operating systems This information center section, "Monitoring," discusses how to create an overall monitoring strategy for WebSphere Application Server on distributed operating systems, which include the AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, and Windows operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server - Monitoring on IBM i This information center section, "Monitoring," discusses how to create an overall monitoring strategy for WebSphere Application Server on IBM i.

• WebSphere Application Server, Express - Monitoring on distributed operating systems This information center section, "Monitoring," discusses how to create an overall monitoring strategy for WebSphere Application Server, Express on distributed operating systems, which include the AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, and Windows operating systems.

• WebSphere Application Server, Express - Monitoring on IBM i This information center section, "Monitoring," discusses how to create an overall monitoring strategy for WebSphere Application Server, Express on IBM i.

• JVM updates in WebSphere Application Server V8: Using wsadmin and Jython to easily collect and report WebSphere Application Server PMI data This developerWorks article describes how you can use wsadmin introspection with Jython to easily retrieve Performance Monitoring Infrastructure (PMI) metrics for IBM WebSphere Application Server.

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Various developerWorks articles on messaging apply to Version 8.5:

• Using the WebSphere MQ messaging provider in WebSphere Application Server V7: Part 1: Introducing the new WebSphere MQ messaging provider

• Using the WebSphere MQ messaging provider in WebSphere Application Server V7, Part 2: Using channel exits

• The top 15 WebSphere MQ best practices

• Information about using the WebSphere MQ messaging provider for WebSphere Application Server Version 8.0 IBM WebSphere MQ and IBM WebSphere MQ for z/OS can be used with, or as an alternative to, the default messaging provider that is included with WebSphere Application Server Version 8. This document describes the levels of WebSphere MQ queue manager that can be connected to using the WebSphere MQ messaging provider included with the application server.

• WebSphere Application Server V7 Messaging Administration Guide This Redbooks publication provides information about the messaging features of WebSphere Application Server Version 7. It contains information about configuring, securing, and managing messaging resources, with a focus on the WebSphere default messaging provider.

• Using the service integration bus link in WebSphere Application Server to route messages from a local queue to a remote queue This developerWorks article explains the communication between messaging engines running on different instances of WebSphere Application Server that enables you to route a message from a local queue to a remote queue using the SI bus.

• WebSphere Application Server V7: Accessing Databases from WebSphere When an application or WebSphere component requires access to a database, that database must be defined to WebSphere as a data source. This paper shows how to create the definitions.

• WebSphere Application Server V7: Accessing EIS Applications from WebSphere J2EE Connector architecture (JCA) defines a standard architecture for connecting the J2EE platform to heterogeneous Enterprise Information Systems (EIS). This Redpaper publication discusses the various considerations for accessing EIS applications from the product.

• Using Spring and Hibernate with WebSphere Application Server This developerWorks article explains how to configure Spring or Hibernate frameworks for various scenarios with the product.

• Re-engineering applications using optimized local adapters on WebSphere Application Server for z/OS IBM WebSphere Application Server for z/OS Version 7 introduced optimized local adapters support to provide an optimized, high performance bidirectional connector for the product and applications running in external z/OS address spaces. Optimized local adapters provide support for two-way synchronous local calling between applications in the product and z/OS batch, CICS, IMS, ALCS, and USS processes. The product provides security context propagation in each direction with identity assertion, and it provides two-phase commit transaction support for calls between the product and CICS. This developerWorks article describes how optimized local adapters work and how you can use the feature to help re-engineer and modernize legacy z/OS applications.

• Understanding connection transitions: Avoiding multi-threaded access to a JCA connection in WebSphere Application Server This developerWorks article describes some of the application coding practices that lead to JCA connection sharing across multiple threads, and explains the multi-threaded detection capabilities provided by WebSphere Application Server.

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Several developerWorks articles provide information about using the WebSphere Application Server security infrastructure. Publications written for Version 7.0 also apply to Version 8.5.

• Advanced security hardening in WebSphere Application Server V7, V8 and V8.5, Part 1: Overview and approach to security hardening

• Q & A: Frequently asked questions about WebSphere Application Server security

• Advanced authentication in WebSphere Application Server

• WebSphere Application Server V7.0 Security Guide This Redbooks publication describes how to implement secure solutions with WebSphere Application Server Version 7.0. It focuses on security for the application server and its components, including enterprise applications.

• Implementing Kerberos in a WebSphere Application Server Environment This Redbooks publication discusses Kerberos technology with WebSphere Application Server Version 7.0.0.5 on distributed platforms. Kerberos Authentication and single sign-on (SSO) features enable interoperability and identity propagation with other applications (such as .NET, DB2, and others) that support the Kerberos authentication mechanism. With this feature, you can log in once and then can access other applications that support Kerberos Authentication without having to log in a second time. It provides an SSO, end-to-end interoperability solution and preserves the original requester identity.

• Enabling WebSphere Application Server with Single Signon This Redpaper publication describes how to install and configure an application on an application server that supports single sign-on.

• WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment - Securing applications and their environment This information center section discusses all aspects of security for the product on all supported operating systems. Part of your security framework WebSphere Application Server plays an integral part of the multiple-tier enterprise computing framework. Based on open architecture, WebSphere Application Server provides many plug-in points to integrate with enterprise software components to provide end-to-end security. Security infrastructure and mechanisms protect Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) resources and administrative resources, addressing your enterprise security requirements.

• IBM Education Assistant: Security View the many available IBM Education Assistant modules for a quick understanding of securing WebSphere Application Server.

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Understand and analyze performance data, troubleshoot performance problems, develop applications that perform better, and tune many aspects of the application serving environment.

• WebSphere Application Server Performance Tuning Toolkit This website tours the WebSphere Application Server Performance Tuning Toolkit, an Eclipse-based intelligent tool designed to help users tune the performance of WebSphere Application Server using data collection, data analysis, and statistical inference technology.

• An Introduction to WebSphere Application Server Performance Tuning Toolkit This developerWorks tutorial introduces WebSphere Application Server Performance Tuning Toolkit and demonstrates how it can be used for uncovering performance bottlenecks and for tuning the WebSphere Application Server infrastructure. It assumes that you have basic knowledge of WebSphere Application Server and performance testing.

• Performance testing and analysis with WebSphere Application Server This developerWorks article provides guidance on best practices for building a performance test, comparing results across application or environment changes, and identifying bottlenecks using freely available tools from IBM. The methodologies described here apply to all versions of WebSphere Application Server, including Version 8.5.

• Performance This IBM Education Assistant module provides an overview of performance monitoring and tuning.

• WebSphere Application Server Performance information This WebSphere Application Server Performance website provides a centralized access to helpful performance reports, tools, and downloads.

• Designing and Coding Applications for Performance and Scalability in WebSphere Application Server This Redbooks publication discusses performance and scalability considerations for developing and coding WebSphere Application Server applications.

• Performance Monitoring and Best Practices for WebSphere on z/OS This Redbooks publication discusses how to set up an environment that is tuned to meet best performance and at the same can be monitored to catch eventual performance bottlenecks.

• WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment - Tuning performance This information center section discusses how to improve performance, including tools and tips for tuning servers and various application types.

• Garbage collection in WebSphere Application Server V8, Part 1: Generational as the new default policy In IBM WebSphere Application Server Version 8, the default garbage collection policy uses both generational and concurrent collection strategies. This developerWorks article describes the garbage collection policies available in the IBM Java virtual machine (JVM) and provides a guide for configuring the new default policy.

• Garbage collection in WebSphere Application Server V8, Part 2: Balanced garbage collection as a new option IBM WebSphere Application Server Version 8 introduces the new "balanced" garbage collection policy. This technology is optimized for large heaps and aims to even out pause times that are associated with garbage collection. The information in this developerWorks helps you determine whether the balanced collector is a good fit for your applications, and explains how to tune it for maximum performance.

• Case study: Tuning WebSphere Application Server V7 and V8 for performance IBM WebSphere Application Server supports an ever-growing range of applications, each with their own unique set of features, requirements, and services. Just as no two applications use an application server in the same way, no single set of tuning parameters likely provides the best performance for any two different applications. Most applications generally realize some performance improvement from tuning in three core areas: the JVM, thread pools, and connection pools. This developerWorks article uses the Apache DayTrader Performance Benchmark Sample application to demonstrate what you can tune and how to tune it, depending on the major server components and resources that your application uses.

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Depending on the offering of WebSphere Application Server that you are using, there could be a number of different components installed. When a problem occurs, you must determine the scope of the problem and which components are involved. To help you do this, the resources in this section provide information about troubleshooting problems with WebSphere Application Server and its components.

• Problem determination This IBM Education Assistant module provides an overview of problem determination.

• Version 8.5 Release Notes This information center topic links to Release Notes that describe last-minute updates, limitations, and known problems. Release Notes are published as Technotes.

• MustGather: Read first for WebSphere Application Server This article explains how to collect troubleshooting data for problems with WebSphere Application Server. Gather troubleshooting data using the automated data collectors within IBM Support Assistant before calling IBM Support.

• WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment - Troubleshooting This information center section, "Troubleshooting and support," provides information about how to troubleshoot a problem with your IBM software for all operating systems.

• Problem Avoidance for WebSphere Application Server for z/OS This Redpaper publication helps system programmers and administrators to identify problems, analyze them, and fix them so that they can deliver good support for the WebSphere Application Server for z/OS environment.

• Problem Determination Across Multiple WebSphere Products AIX Platform This IBM Redbooks publication provides detailed information about problem determination for various WebSphere products in a real life scenario. It is a valuable resource of information for IT administrators, IT specialists and application developers.

• IBM developer kits diagnostic guides This diagnosis information relates to various IBM SDKs. The guides cover IBM-specific features of IBM offerings. New or revised material is clearly shown by revision bars marking each change.

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• IBM Support Assistant The IBM Support Assistant (ISA) is a free, stand-alone application that you can install on any workstation, then enhance by installing plug-in modules for the IBM products you use. The IBM Support Assistant saves you time searching product, support, and educational resources. If a problem report needs to be opened, IBM Support Assistant helps you gather support information, then create and track your electronic problem report.

• Troubleshooting Guide Resolve problems more quickly. This Troubleshooting Guide helps you get started on the troubleshooting process. It takes you through the process of identifying which component is causing the problem, finding the appropriate troubleshooting information, collecting any necessary information, and finally submitting a problem to IBM Support.

• Steps to get support for WebSphere Application Server This article discusses how to download fixes, search on keywords, find how-to information, and possibly solve a problem -- all before contacting IBM Software Support directly.

• All WebSphere Application Server APARs, from most to least recent This query finds all APARs published for WebSphere Application Server, ordered from most recent to least recent.

• All WebSphere Application Server for z/OS APARs, from most to least recent This query finds all APARs published for WebSphere Application Server for z/OS, ordered from most recent to least recent.

• All Technotes (FAQs) for WebSphere Application Server This query finds all Technotes (FAQs) published for WebSphere Application Server, ordered from most recent to least recent.

• z/OS Technical Sales and Support Library - Techdocs This site provides access to the Technical Sales Support organization’s technical information databases. It gives you access to the most current installation, planning, and technical support information available from IBM pre-sales support, and is constantly updated. You can browse or search these databases by date, document number, product, platform, keywords, and so on.

• WebSphere Application Server support site This site provides one-stop access to information from WebSphere Application Server support.

• WebSphere Technical Exchange Webcasts The WebSphere Technical Exchange can help you learn how to use the WebSphere software platform so that you can build a dynamic e-business that provides the flexibility and scalability to meet the demands of an ever-changing marketplace.

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The resources in this section provide information about training and education for WebSphere Application Server products.

• IBM Education Assistant This is a good place to find a quick overview. The IBM Education Assistant site provides narrated presentations, multimedia demonstrations, tutorials, and resource links to help you successfully understand and use IBM software products.

• WebSphere Application Server zone This developerWorks website provides articles that help you use WebSphere Application Server more productively.

• WebSphere training and certification This developerWorks website provides links to educational resources such as classroom courses, online education, and information about certification.

• WebSphere Education The WebSphere education team, which is a part of the IBM Software Group, delivers a comprehensive portfolio of education services to help customers successfully deploy and integrate IBM WebSphere Application and Integration middleware products to their maximum potential.

• WebSphere Education Tutorials on YouTube View videos from IBM WebSphere Education classes. Select videos to learn more about the WebSphere Application Server product.

• IBM Press Books IBM Press is the official publisher of IBM retail books for professionals and students, and provides various books to suit individual learning styles.

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Refer to the Reference section of the documentation for quick, random lookup of particular facts, such as the details of a programming interface. Use the following additional web addresses to cast a wide search for the specific piece of information you seek. The IBM Support Assistant offers a search from which you can include or exclude various information sources.

• Reference section in the information center The Reference section of the WebSphere Application Server information center is organized to help you locate particular facts quickly. This section gathers reference information from throughout the product documentation.

• developerWorks WebSphere developerWorks is an IBM resource for developers. This website hosts a vast collection of WebSphere Application Server resources, focusing on emerging WebSphere Application Server solutions.

• IBM WebSphere Developer Technical Journal archive This site links to back issues of the IBM WebSphere Developer Technical Journal, which provides useful articles about various topics.

• Subscribe to newsletters from IBM developerWorks Sign up to receive free developer newsletters. Select any combination of newsletters, then give us your email address and an indication of whether you prefer the text or HTML version.

• Sign up to receive developerWorks RSS or Atom feeds RSS and Atom feeds offer you a simple way to keep up with the latest information hosted on developerWorks. developerWorks offers you two ways to sign up for RSS or Atom feeds: pre-defined feeds and custom feeds that you define yourself. You can also add developerWorks content on your site.

• WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5 documentation library This page provides links to online information centers, documentation plug-ins for offline viewing with the WebSphere help system, and PDF books. This page also links to other kinds of product information, such as WebSphere Redbooks.

• WebSphere Redbooks domain Find Redbooks and Redpaper publications specifically about WebSphere products.

• Subscribe to Redbooks RSS feeds Get real-time updates on new IBM Redbooks content using RSS. IBM Redbooks offers its content in RSS feeds. These XML-based files, updated in real time, help you stay up-to-date with most recent publications from the IBM Redbooks team. The RSS feeds enable you to add current Redbooks headlines to your website.

• White papers - WebSphere Application Server This query finds white papers pertaining to WebSphere products.

• PartnerWorld PartnerWorld is a worldwide program for IBM Business Partners that offers sales and marketing tools, skill-building, courses and technical support to help create opportunities to grow your business and drive increased profit.

• Global WebSphere Community (GWC) WebSphereUserGroup.org is the information hub of the Global WebSphere Community comprising User Groups, Business Partners, IT professionals and business users. It is a forum to communicate experiences, ideas, and technical expertise related to the use of WebSphere and related products and issues.

• ibm.software.websphere.* newsgroups - displayed by Google Groups This link sends a query to the Google Groups website to find newsgroups pertaining to IBM WebSphere software.

• The Sphere Journal The Sphere Journal is an online technical journal for WebSphere developers, administrators, architects, and managers. The Sphere has articles that provide technical guidance and instruction about WebSphere products.

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