Introduction

Keep a browser handy, with the WAS InfoCenter at http://publib7b.boulder.ibm.com/webapp/wasinfo1/index.jsp?deployment=ApplicationServer&lang=en bookmarked.

Most items discussed in this document apply to both Windows and UNIX setups, but the command-line commands all use Bourne-compatible shell syntax (unless otherwise noted), UNIX filesystem layout, and UNIX path delimiters. Note that there are a handful of basic features of the Administrative Console which just do not work with the lightweight server. When I discuss the Administrative Console, I mean an Administrative Console running on a standalone WAS instance.

This document does not explain installation, since that is covered by a different HOWTO. This document does explain how to use and administer the WAS server, with the specific goal of making the attentive reader a power user in a very short time.

Web Server administration is nearly entirely separate from WAS administration. Unlike other application servers, you need to take care of starting and stopping your front end web server independently of WAS.

Some names you will need to know. Instance name and node name appear in some directory paths, so I'm defining the following <KEYWORDS> to make this document easier to understand.

<INST>

If you are running an alternate instance (i.e. if your instance is not based at $WAS_HOME), then this is the "name" of your instance. (The main instance has no name).

<NODE>

WAS's identifier for this instance. (Don't confuse this with "hostname", like the WAS docs often do. You can install 10 different instance/nodes on one host.) Regardless of instance name, node names themselves should be unique for each instance (otherwise it will be impossible to use them at the same time in a Network Deployment setup).

<CELL>

WAS's identifier for this cell. By default, this is the same as <NODE> if this is a main instance, or the name of the parent (creator) instance otherwise.

There are WAS programs for remotely administering nodes, and for building and deploying standalone J2EE application clients. I do not cover those programs here since these are atypical uses.