Good morning all !

I have a question:

We were working in a script, to clone a virtual machine with WAS installed, and after that, run other script to fix the hostname references (from old machine to new machine).

But, we found an article from IBM, saying that IBM will not support virtual machines cloned with the WAS installed.

Today I tried to check the article again, and for my surprise, the article was removed:

www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=s...

Then, my question is: Can we really clone virtual machines with the WAS installed, and after that fix the files and directories with the old hostname?

This will help a lot, since we can do this on JBoss, for example !

Please, let me know what do you think !
 

Hi Thiago Corredor,

  An explanation about, why is not supported clone virtual machines?
 
  Is a WebSphere Application Server product installation supported if it is cloned to multiple virtual machines?
  developer.ibm.com/answers/questions/1720...
 
  Hope this helps. Tell us if you need more support

Regards

Hi Gabriel !

Are you from Brazil also?   :-) 

I already checked that article, and in fact, does not help.

Because the agility we need, include also cloning profiles, since we have the same configuration for all new Environments.

This is sad...

Today, we spend about 2 hours to have all things configured. If we are able to clone the template servers, and fiz the hostnames references, we will spend about 10 minutes.

Im my opinion, IBM shoud change this limitation, otherwise, new aplications server options will be tested....

Regards 

Hi Thiago,

  Not I'm from Bilbao (Basque Country) :-)
 
  You know, IBM is IBM you have the choice to launch an RFE to get your requirements
 
  WebSphere RFE Community
  www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/?BRAND_ID...
 
  Anyway I have clients that has their virtual server templates (only with the IM and WAS binaries installed), and all profile and server configuration is done using scripts. Normally all the configuration is done in less than 15 minutes
 
  They use options like backupConfig and restoreConfig or ConfigArchives and the changeHostname or renameNode
 
  ConfigArchiveOperations command group for the AdminTask object using wsadmin scripting
  www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/S...
 
  exportServer
  The exportServer command virtualizes the server configuration and exports a server to a configuration archive. This process breaks any existing associations between the server configurations in the configuration archive and the configurations in the system. This process also removes applications from the server that you specify, breaks the relationship between the server that you specify and the core group of the server, cluster, or service integration bus member.
 
  exportWasprofile
  Restriction: Only a base server configuration with a single node is supported for the exportWasprofile command.
 
  backupConfig command
  www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/S...
 
  restoreConfig command
  www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/S...
 
  ChangeHostname
  www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/S...
 
  renameNode command
  www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/S...
 
  Another choice is to use Liberty profile in that case you have more flexibility if you install servers not using IM (you install server like in JBoss) and all the configurations are in ONLY ONE FILE
 
  Installing the Liberty profile
  www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/S...

  you are free to choice other application servers but in my opinion you need to take in mind more considerations than how to clone your servers to do the choice.
 
  Hope this helps. Tell us if you need more support
   
 Regards

Thanks Gabriel !

I will take a look on WebSphere RFE.

I really would like having my shell script checked and tested by IBM, to show and confirm if it can be used.

The script only change the hostnames references on:

1 - Folders Names (i.e.: li1010Cell01)
2 - Files Names (i.e.: li1010server.xml)
3 - Files Contents (i.e.: server.xml with hostname references).

After a server reboot, the server back up with WebSphere running fine. And this process take a few minutes.

Also, we can take advantage of applications already installed (some default applications).

Regards