Introduction: System administration

You can administer your WebSphere Application Server through scripts, commands, the administrative console, or the Java programming interface. You administer server processes, topological units referenced as nodes and cells, and the configuration repository where configuration information is stored in Extensible Markup Language (XML) files.

Note:

If you would prefer to browse PDF versions of this documentation using your Adobe Reader, see the System Administration PDF files available from www.ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/infocenter.html.

A variety of tools, processes, and configuration files are provided for administering the WebSphere Application Server product:

• Administrative agents

  Servers, nodes and node agents, cells and the deployment manager are fundamental concepts in the administrative universe of the product. It is also important to understand the various processes in the administrative topology and the operating environment in which they apply.

  For more information, refer to Welcome to basic administrative architecture.

• Console

  The administrative console is a graphical interface that provides many features to guide you through deployment and systems administration tasks. Use it to explore available management options.

  For more information, refer to Introduction: Administrative console.

• Scripting

  The WebSphere administrative (wsadmin) scripting program is a powerful, non-graphical command interpreter environment enabling you to run administrative operations in a scripting language. You can also submit scripting language programs to run. The wsadmin tool is intended for production environments and unattended operations.

  For more information, refer to Introduction: Administrative scripting (wsadmin).

• Commands

  Command-line tools are simple programs that you run from an operating system command-line prompt to perform specific tasks, as opposed to general purpose administration. Using the tools, you can start and stop application servers, check server status, add or remove nodes, and complete similar tasks.

  For more information, refer to Introduction: Administrative commands.

• Programming

  The product supports a Java programming interface for developing administrative programs. All of the administrative tools supplied with the product are written according to the API, which is based on the industry standard JMX specification.

  For more information, refer to Introduction: Administrative programs.

  Data

  Product configuration data resides in XML files that are manipulated by the previously-mentioned administrative tools.

  For more information, refer to Introduction: Administrative configuration data.

  Product library, directories, subsystem, job queue, job description, and output queues

  An i5/OS platform uses different configurations than installations of WebSphere Application Server on other platforms.

  For more information, refer to Product library, directories, subsystem, job queue, job description, and output queues.

Sub-topics