Introduction to IBM workload Deployer for middleware and cloud computing

Whether your organization has just started using the cloud or has been in use for some time, you will see that IBM workload Deployer provides the functionality needed to successfully run an enterprise application in the cloud.

Since its inception, IBM Workload Deployer (formerly known as IBM Websphere®cloudburst™appliance) has been the most advanced technology in the cloud computing domain for middleware and middleware applications. The latest IBM Workload Deployer version v3.1 continues to extend functionality and platform support based on its powerful capabilities. But before introducing the new features, let's get a general idea of the background of the following IBM workload Deployer Solutions to help you understand the new features described here.

Looking back on 2009, WebSphere Cloudburst is a solution designed to improve the 3 main inefficient areas of modern organizations:

It takes too long to set up middleware and middleware application environments. Statistics show that, on average, setting up one such environment takes 4-6 months. In today's world, the idea of a web-connected consumer has a huge and compelling impact on IT, and the company is unable to take on the task of measuring any information for months. Middleware environments are inherently complex. This infrastructure supports applications that have requirements for performance, functionality, integration, and so on. This complexity often leads to a phenomenon called configuration drift; You may have experienced this in person. For example, have you ever deployed two application environments that you think are the same, and found different application behavior at each location? Your response is to look for changes that cause different behaviors in your application, but in fact statistics show that 30% of the "application bugs" are actually caused by inconsistent configurations. Ultimately, the basic effect of configuration drift is to increase IT delivery time and cost. If setting up an environment takes a long time, and it is difficult to ensure that the environment is consistent across different installations, your IT infrastructure will inevitably begin to have a large number of "in case-protected" environments. In other words, the developer will set up the middleware environment for some temporary uses (such as new Code development), and even after the work is done, put them aside. One reason is that it is easier to use an existing environment than to wait for a new one, if they need an environment just a few days or weeks and it may be difficult to create the environment faithfully again. Although some people may feel that this is an effective way of working, it is extremely inefficient for organization resources because it ultimately hosts environments that are only occasionally used. This leads to a very low average utilization of 6-10% in many IT development and test environments, and is an important factor in the fragmentation and waste of resources that results from implementing new hardware for each new project.

Today, the model model associated with the IBM workload deployer management function covers the areas of infrastructure, service (IaaS) and Platform-Service (PaaS), and most importantly, enables you to eliminate the 3 major inefficiencies. Whether you need to quickly deploy workloads that include predefined stand-alone system images (virtual devices), the full configuration of integrated middleware solutions (virtual system mode), or the need to fully automate, optimize, and manage the application environment (virtual application Mode), IBM workload Deployer are suitable for you.

This article explores new features and enhancements for virtual application patterns in IBM workload Deployer V3.1, introduces new features for virtual system mode, and finally introduces the latest management features available in IBM Workload Deployer devices.

This article assumes that you have a certain understanding of the features and features of IBM workload deployer.

Virtual Application Enhancements

The virtual application was originally introduced in IBM workload Deployer V3.0. The main advantage of a virtual application is that it frees you up to focus on what really matters to your business (your application and the way you want to support it), while supporting the device to create and manage the necessary infrastructure to support your application. IBM Workload Deployer examines standards-based application elements such as enterprise archiving, WEB archiving, schema definitions, user registry files, etc. so that it understands the needs of your application. You can also provide conditional policies that you want to perform for your application. IBM Workload Deployer is responsible for handling the remaining work, including:

creates the necessary configuration in your private cloud and configures all the necessary virtual machines for specific purposes. Monitor the application you are running to make sure it remains available. Manage applications based on the criteria you specify for service-level requirements to be scalable and streamlined flexibly.

Virtual applications are real PaaS offerings where you can provide your application elements, and IBM workload Deployer can build and manage the platforms necessary to host your application.

Virtual application patterns are built from components in a pattern type. Pattern types are created for specific types of applications and often contain functionality from multiple traditional middleware products to form a complete solution for a particular application type. IBM Workload Deployer introduces two types of initial modes:

Web application patterns created specifically for web-based online transaction processing applications are ideal for database-service (DBaaS) pattern types for database applications.

Database schema types can be used in conjunction with WEB application pattern types. An instance of an application uses a pattern based deployment model for deployment. WEB application pattern type solutions include IBM WebSphere Creator Server, IBM Tivoli®directory Server, IBM HTTP Server, and IBM WebSphere EXtreme Scale and other product functions. These features work together in a seamless way, providing a complete solution for your web-based application. The IBM workload Deployer V3.1 contains new versions of published WEB applications and DBaaS schema types.

If you have a new version and fix pack for your environment, you must be able to apply these maintenance features to a previously deployed system. As a result, IBM workload Deployer V3.1 added a new feature to simplify the process of upgrading a deployed virtual application instance to an installed version of the latest maintenance. For example, the IBM workload deployer V3.1 contains WEB Application 1.0 schema type updates from version 1.0 to 1.0.0.3. After you install and enable the latest version of the WEB application mode type, subsequent deployments using the selected version or release of virtual application mode will be deployed with the latest version of the plug-in.

It is important to note that instances of existing virtual Web application deployments will continue to use previous versions of 1.0.0.2 Web application pattern type Plug-ins until you choose to upgrade them. From the user interface, you can view a deployed virtual application instance and simply select the Upgrade button to upgrade to the latest version of the plug-in for that mode type. When you perform an upgrade on a deployed virtual application instance, you actually update all the schema types that are contained in that instance. All Plug-ins are migrated to the most recent maintenance version of your installation and are installed and enabled in the same version. This may include updates to the underlying schema type, WEB application pattern type, database schema type, or any other schema type that you are using for the virtual application instance that you are deploying. An upgrade involves running automatic scripts to update the virtual machines associated with the selected instance.