Configuration documents

WebSphere Application Server stores configuration data for servers in several documents in a cascading hierarchy of directories. The configuration documents describe the available appservers, their configurations, and their contents. Most configuration documents have XML content.

Hierarchy of directories of documents

The cascading hierarchy of directories and the documents' structure support multi-node replication to synchronize the activities of all servers in a cell. In a Network Deployment environment, changes made to configuration documents in the cell repository, are automatically replicated to the same configuration documents that are stored on nodes throughout the cell.

At the top of the hierarchy is the cells directory. It holds a subdirectory for each cell. The names of the cell subdirectories match the names of the cells. For example, a cell named cell1 has its configuration documents in the subdirectory cell1.

On the Network Deployment node, the subdirectories under the cell contain the entire set of documents for every node and server throughout the cell. On other nodes, the set of documents is limited to what applies to that specific node. If a configuration document only applies to node1, then that document exists in the configuration on node1 and in the Network Deployment configuration, but not on any other node in the cell.

Each cell subdirectory has the following files and subdirectories:

An example file structure is as follows:

cells
  cell1
     cell.xml resources.xml virtualhosts.xml variables.xml security.xml
     nodes
        nodeX
           node.xml variables.xml resources.xml serverindex.xml
           serverA
              server.xml variables.xml
           nodeAgent
              server.xml variables.xml
        nodeY
           node.xml variables.xml resources.xml serverindex.xml
     applications
        sampleApp1
           deployment.xml
           META-INF
              application.xml ibm-application-ext.xml ibm-application-bnd.xml
        sampleApp2
           deployment.xml
           META-INF
              application.xml ibm-application-ext.xml ibm-application-bnd.xml

Changing configuration documents

You can use one of the administrative tools (console, wsadmin, Java APIs) to modify configuration documents or edit them directly. It is preferable to use the administrative console because it validates changes made to configurations. "Configuration document descriptions" states whether you can edit a document using the administrative tools or must edit it directly.


Related tasks
Working with server configuration files
Related reference
Configuration document descriptions