WebSphere Provider

Standard support for WebSphere v5.x, v6.x, and v7 is provided by a specially developed Exporter utility. This utility is run on the target WebSphere installation and exports the WebSphere configuration files into a portable format suitable for processing by Visual Configuration Explorer. The main advantages of this approach are as follows:

• Windows has a path length limitiation of 255 characters. Because of this, copying over entire configuration repository file structures from non-Windows systems to the machine where Visual Configuration Explorer is installed can be very problematic. Using the installed runtime to export the WebSphere configuration avoids the pitfalls associated with collecting and using configurations stored on different file systems.
• Using the installed runtime to export the configuration means that you pick up all WebSphere configuration artifacts in their proper context. This means that you will be able to view configuration artifacts from any installed WebSphere stack product such as Business Integrator or Process Server.

A standalone WebSphere Exporter utility has been provided within the installation package for Visual Configuration Explorer. Using the Visual Configuration Explorer File->Preferences->Visual Configuration Explorer->Utilities dialog, you must first deploy the Visual Configuration Explorer Headless Automation Runtime package to a location of your choice, where it may then be distributed to the target machines you wish to use. Please refer to the Automation section under Help->Visual Configuration Explorer->Tasks for more information on deploying the Headless Automation Runtime.

A second method of exporting WebSphere configurations is by using the IBM Support Assistant v4 Collect Data facility. Note that you must first download the Visual Configuration Explorer Topology Collector product add-on. Please refer to IBM Support Assistant help for more information on deploying and using this option.

NOTE: The tools package should be updated on the target WebSphere servers with each release of VCE. Make sure that all previous versions of the tools package is first deleted prior to updating. Failure to "clean install" the tools package with each release of VCE will result in inconsistent behaviour.

The export utility will produce a binary file that represents the exported WebSphere configuration. This artifact can then be loaded directly into Visual Configuration Explorer, and all of the tool functions will be available. The naming for the exported configuration can be controlled via command options. You may rename exported files anything you wish as long at the ".configuration" extension is maintained.

Using the Headless Automation Runtime to produce the required configuration data

The Headless Automation Runtime provides the ability to export WebSphere configurations to a form suitable for use by VCE. A specific ANT script is provided in the "wasexporter" subdirectory of the Headless Automation Runtime environment. To execute the script as a standalone task, proceed as follows:

1. CD to the directory on the target server where the Headless Automation Runtime is installed.
2. Execute the wasexport.xml script as follows:
   java -jar startup.jar -buildfile wasexporter/wasexport.xml [options]
   where [options] are as follows:
   -Dwas.root="install root of WebSphere installation" [REQUIRED]
   -Dprofile.name="profile name of desired configuration" [OPTIONAL] Defaults to default profile of WebSphere install
   -Dwas.temp="path for temporary files" [OPTIONAL] Defaults to wasexporter/temp
   -Dwas.exp.dir="directory to save exported configuration" [OPTIONAL] Defaults to wasexporter/output
   -Dwas.exp.basename="base name for the exported configuration" [OPTIONAL] Defaults to either "websphere" or profile.name if specified
3. The resulting exported configuration is then copied to a location accessible by VCE and can be added as a Provider to any active workspace.

The WebSphere Configuration Exporter may also be called from another automation script as follows:

... set exporter options before calling
<target name="main" depends="initProps">
	<!--Call the WebSphere Exporter-->
	<ant antfile="wasexporter\wasexport.xml" />
...

Using the VCE Topology Collector IBM Support Assistant add-on to automate the data collection

The VCE Topology Collector for IBM Support Assistant v4 has built-in support for collecting the required WebSphere configuration files. Simply run Data Collector on the desired target system, and copy the resulting archive file into a directory where Visual Configuration Explorer has access. Exploding the archive is not required.

Working with multiple WebSphere configurations simultaneously

The WebSphere provider also supports opening multiple WebSphere repositories simultaneously. This capability is very useful for things like comparing 2 WebSphere cells, though it should be noted that the compare function is not intended to provide meaningful compare between cells of different versions.