Oracle's lower level PaaS services offer all the power and flexibility of Oracle software but run as a managed service in the Oracle Cloud. For example, Java Cloud Service runs WebLogic, Traffic Director and Coherence for you, whereas SOA Cloud Service is the equivalent for SOA Suite, Service Bus and API Manager. Does this mean your job as a Fusion Middleware Administrator will disappear? No, far from it - you'll be able to put your skills to far more valuable use! Instead of worrying about how much hardware you need, tracking down patches, or just keeping the systems running, with JCS and SOA CS your focus will be different: liaising with your development teams to deploy new versions of applications safely into production, shaking out and fixing performance issues, scheduling patching and planning for future growth while maintaining consistent service levels - all tasks of high value to your users. In this session hear an administrator's view of full Java Cloud Service (i.e. not just JCS SaaS Extension) and its, recently launched, sibling SOA Cloud Service. This presentation will also include a live "under the covers" demo of SOA CS, and discuss findings of a recent survey carried out amongst the presenter's production administrator friends. Come along to find out how these Oracle Cloud Services can work for you! This presentation was given by Simon Haslam at the UKOUG Tech15 conference in Birmingham UK on 8th December 2015.

1. Java & SOA Cloud Service for
Fusion Middleware Administrators
Simon Haslam

2. Simon Haslam
Consultant, Veriton
Working with Oracle software since 1995
and Amazon Web Services since 2010
Middleware & SOA
WebLogic, SOA, BPM and
Java Cloud Service Specialist
Veriton
UK-based consultancy,
focussed on Oracle infrastructure
 Experience of
JCS since June 2015,
SOA CS for <2 weeks!

3. Presentation objectives & themes
Describe the
Java & SOA
Cloud Services
New
Opportunities
for Middleware
Administrators

4.  Java & SOA Cloud Service overview
 Provisioning Instances
 Further Administration

5. Jargon
Infrastructure
as a Service
IaaS
Platform
as a Service
PaaS
Process Management, Integration,
Docs Management,
SOA, Java, Database
SaaS
Application
Software
as a Service
Sales Cloud
Service Cloud (Right Now)
HCM etc
Custom
Apps
Virtualisation
Servers, storage
Network
user 
hardware

6. Layers of Oracle PaaS
SaaS Extension
SOA Cloud Service
Database
Cloud Service
Documents
Cloud
Service
Process
Cloud
Service
Integration
Cloud
Service
Full VM
control
Java Cloud Service
Consoles
& APIs
etc

7. Java Cloud Service – what is it?
 WebLogic Servers running in Oracle Cloud
◦ Plus supporting software: Oracle Traffic Director, Coherence,
Database
 New “pay as you go” licensing model
 Full VM access/control (2/3)
 Automated software provisioning, plus…

8. Domain
JAVA CLOUD SERVICE
Data Center(s)
Servers & Storage
VMs
WebLogic Instances
Oracle
updates &
backs up
Applications
JAVA CLOUD SERVICE
VIRTUAL IMAGE
Data Center(s)
Servers & Storage
VMs
WebLogic Instances
Domain
Applications
Oracle provisions
Data Center(s)
Servers & Storage
VMs
WebLogic Instances
Domain
Applications
JAVA CLOUD SERVICE
SAAS EXTENSION
Out of scope
for this presentation
Note: “Virtual Image” is not
quite the same for DBCS

9. SOA Cloud Service – what is it?
 SOA Suite products (SOA, OSB, API Manager +
Adapters)
◦ running on JCS & DBCS, themselves running in Oracle Cloud
 New “pay as you go” licensing model
◦ Full only, no Virtual Image
 Full VM access/control
 Automated software provisioning, plus…

10.  Java & SOA Cloud Service overview
 Provisioning Instances
 Further Administration

11. Choices for Full JCS or JCS-VI
 Billing Frequency
 WebLogic (Edition & Version)
 WebLogic Cluster size & ‘Shape’ of VMs(s)
 (optional) Coherence
 (optional) Oracle Traffic Director

13. REST APIs
http://docs.oracle.com/cloud/latest/jcs_gs/JSRMR/index.html

15. What does a small JCS cluster look like?
 E.g. 5 VMs:
◦ 1 Traffic Director
◦ 2 WebLogic
◦ (optional) 2 or more Coherence (3 is more “Coherence-friendly”)
 One domain including:
◦ WebLogic & Coherence clusters
◦ Node Managers
◦ FMW Infrastructure, including schema in DB
◦ Demo SSL certificates
◦ An OTD virtual host to the WLS Cluster
 A default backup schedule

16. Admin
Server
Managed
Server 1
Traffic
Server
Admin
Server
Managed
Server 2 Coherence
Server 1
Coherence
Server 2
Firewall (NAT/PAT)
Routing
5.02.5
2.5
2.5 5.0
7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5
7.5
Memory for
example OC3 config
GB

17. Provisioning Choices for SOA CS
 Product / domain type
 Compute shape (MS high memory, from OC3M)
 (optional) Oracle Traffic Director

18. SOA CS – Topology Choices

19. Provisioning Constraints for SOA CS
 Monthly only billing (at moment?)
 SOA 12.1.3.0.1 (currently)
◦ plus a cloud adapter patch + another interim patch
◦ built on top of JCS 12.1.3.0.4 (July CPU+ 3 interim patches)
 Coherence within MS
 Full JCS only

20. DEMO

21. Admin
Server
Managed
Server 1
Traffic
Server
Admin
Server
Managed
Server 2
Firewall (NAT/PAT)
Routing
10.5
2.5
10.5
15 15
7.5
Memory for
example OC3M
config for managed
servers & OC3 for LB
GB

22. Thoughts aboutTopology
 Combined admin server & managed server 1
 One managed server per VM
◦ Can’t do EDG-style separate WSM-PM, ESS, BAM without
additional VMs
 No shared storage (other than object stores)
◦ JMS, JTA can go in database, but have to synchronise
deployment plans & other configuration manually (will drive
changes to SOA?)

23.  Java & SOA Cloud Service overview
 Provisioning Instances
 Administration

24. Tailor the Environment
 Set up SSL certificates
 Set up security providers
 Changes to Server Start parameters, setUserOverrides.sh
 Manage storage space
 See “Keeping Your Service Instances Manageable by Oracle
Java Cloud Service”
http://docs.oracle.com/cloud/latest/jcs_gs/JSCUG/GUID-68749D52-DAC9-44E7-
90AD-6C891300156E.htm#JSCUG3281

25. Directory structure
 ORACLE HOME: /u01/app/oracle/middleware
 JDK HOME: /u01/jdk
 DOMAIN HOME: /u01/data/domains/<domain-name>
 Others:
◦ /u01/data/backup – backup location
◦ /u01/app/oracle/tools – Oracle ‘cloud tooling’
SOA CS is same as
built on top of JCS

26. Backup / restore
 Backup types
◦ Binaries plus domain configuration
◦ Domain only (aka ‘incremental’)
◦ Database can be included too (creates an RMAN tag in DBCS instance)
 Schedule
◦ Weekly full & daily incremental by default
 Location and Retention Policy
◦ Held locally for a week, then moved to Storage Service
◦ Retained for 30 days by default
 Backups are encrypted (using a key known only to OPC)
Full JCS only

27. Patching
 WebLogic PSUs plus JDKs
 JCS backs up beforehand and can rollback later
 (all?) Patches are rolling (if you have load balancer)
 Each Managed Server is:
1. backed up
2. removed from Traffic Director origin server pool
3. shut down
4. JDK or Oracle Home replaced with a patched image
5. restarted
6. added back to Traffic Director pool
Full JCS only
No SOA CS patches
yet to see

29. JCS Management
 Provisioning/managing non-trivial JCS platforms will mostly be using
REST APIs
◦ Everything in OPC console can be done via REST APIs
◦ REST tools (browser plug-ins like Postman or RESTClient, curl etc) and JSON
format are quick/easy to learn
 All your existing tools/techniques still work with JCS
◦ Connecting to Node Manager
◦ Java Mission Control & other JVM diagnostics tools
◦ Enterprise Manager 12c (Hybrid Cloud Agent etc)
SOA CS REST APIs are apparently coming soon

30. QuickTips
 Naming conventions
 Key management
 The Oracle product filesystems are overwritten
(swapped) during patching – don’t put any of your
own files in there!
◦ e.g. EM agent
 Set up disk free space alerts

31. Sometimes I can’t help myself…

32. My experiment
 Set up a cron job running every minute to write VM time and
global time (via a REST API on internet) into a log file
 1) manually move VM clock forward 10 seconds (not so brave!)
◦ Reboot fixed time, but not totally clear where
 2) move VM clock forward 1 hour so I could see exactly where
there was a 1h jump back!
◦ Reboot fixed time actually at the instant of VM startup (i.e. before OS)

33. Result
 VM clock gets sync’d with host on VM boot
 I assume underlying hosts are NTP sync’d (or similar)
 Is it possible for clock to drift???
◦ VM is managing its time independently so doesn’t rely on
Dom0
◦ Possible study for another day
 Probably good enough, at least for now…
JCS VMs are HV PVM
xen.independent_wallclock = 1

34. Presentation objectives & themes
Describe the
Java & SOA
Cloud Services
New
Opportunities
for Middleware
Administrators

35. What about us Administrators?!
©Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.

36. Recognize this?
Better than nothing,
but …

37. https://archive.org/details/yourcomputer_magazine

38. Recognize this?
Better than nothing,
but this is like typing in
code every time you
want to run a program!

39. … use one of these instead!

40. Deployment
There are LOTS of tools to help (including previous tools)
– pick something!

41. Survey: Middleware Admins & DBAs

42. Results*
* This was not a scientific survey –
20 responses to my twitter requests

43. Results*
* This was not a scientific survey –
20 responses to my twitter requests
CI / CD
Tuning
ToolsPredictive
Alerting
EM, snaps
Assisted
Help?
Rolling
patching Done
by PaaS
Post-cloud influences
& time savers
Can your custom apps
be replaced by SaaS ?

44. Oracle PaaS Admin.Tasks for your Org.
 Platform Design
◦ Sizing / costing
◦ Naming conventions (as important as ever)
◦ Capacity planning
 Operations
◦ Application Deployment
◦ Performance Assurance and Tuning
◦ Monitoring and management
PaaS is intended to be used by administrators, not power users
Someone still has to be responsible for mission-critical systems

45. Consumption
 Someone needs to monitor consumption
 As for all cloud services…
◦ It’s (too?!) easy to spin up new environments
◦ Do they all need to be running?
 Consider monthly vs hourly
◦ Hourly is +25% but if instance only used
8h/day then 42% of monthly cost
 Consider JCS vs JCS-VI
Image credit: http://cropmetrics.com/2013/11/gas-gauge-analogy-cropmetrics-water-management/

46. What does this mean for your role as
Middleware Administrator?
 Middleware administrators don’t spend that much time on
installing software / creating domains
 Highest value work is rolling out new applications/features &
fixing performance of existing ones
If we looked further down the stack expect a different picture
e.g. sys admins, virtualization admins, storage admins

47. What does the Business want?
• Backup
• High availability & DR
• Environments
• Upgrades & patching
• Monitoring
IT
• “on” like Facebook
• Have what they want
• New func. as soon as $
• Justifiable cost
• Compliance
Business

48. What does the Business want?
• Backup
• High availability & DR
• Environments
• Upgrades & patching
• Monitoring
• “on” like Facebook
• Have what they want
• New func. as soon as $
• Justifiable cost
• Compliance
IT Business
Our job is to
enable this!
Focus on
Adding Value

49. Presentation objectives & themes
Describe the
Java & SOA
Cloud Services
New
Opportunities
for Middleware
Administrators

50. Summary
 JCS/JCS-VI gives you power/flexibility of WebLogic including most of
the control you are used to
 SOA CS provisions SOA quicker than almost any other way
 Oracle PaaS viable for various uses, providing you can live with design
decisions
 You will be doing far less menial, low-value work
– make yourself more valuable!
 …but someone still has to be responsible for your Oracle platforms…
you! 

51. Further Information
https://blogs.oracle.com/emeapartnerweblogic/entry/virtual_technology_summit
_september_16th
Now on YouTube too!

52. Further Information
JCS, SOA CS, PCM etc blog posts:
http://simonhaslam.co.uk

53. Questions & Answers
For help with your Oracle Cloud project
http://veriton.com
@simon_haslam
Please click feedback
or fill in form 