This chapter describes the domain configuration files, which are XML documents, that Oracle WebLogic Server uses to persist the configuration of a domain.
This chapter includes the following sections:
Each domain describes its configuration in an XML document that is located in the domain's configuration directory. At run time, each Oracle WebLogic Server instance in a given domain creates an in-memory representation of the configuration described in this document.
The domain directory must have Write privileges, as well as Read privileges, for the domain to function properly, even if no changes are made to the configuration after it is created. This is because WebLogic Server performs its own internal deployments, and configuration files may be rewritten when the server is restarted.
The central configuration file for a domain is
/config/config.xml. This file specifies the name of the domain and the configuration of each server instance, cluster, resource, and service in the domain. The file includes references to additional XML files that are stored in subdirectories of the
/config directory. These included files are used to describe major subsystems of Oracle WebLogic Server.
As a performance optimization, Oracle WebLogic Server does not store most of its default values in the domain's configuration files. In some cases, this optimization prevents XML elements from being written to the configuration files. For example, if you never modify the default logging severity level for a domain while the domain is active, the
config.xml file does not contain an XML element for the domain's logging configuration.
As an additional performance optimization, each Managed Server maintains a copy of the domain's configuration files. This copy is read-only and can be updated only as part of a change management process (see Chapter 4, "Managing Configuration Changes").
In most circumstances, you should not use a text editor or other non-Oracle tools to modify a domain's configuration document. Instead, use the Administration Console, WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST), or one of the other tools described in "System Administration" in Understanding Oracle WebLogic Server.
However, because the Oracle WebLogic Server configuration document is an XML file that conforms to a schema, it is possible to modify them using XSLT or an XML parser application such as Apache Xerces or JDOM. Be sure to test any scripts that you create thoroughly and always make a backup copy of each configuration file before you make any changes to it.
The schemas that define a domain's configuration document are in the following locations:
In JAR files under
WL_HOME is the directory in which you install Oracle WebLogic Server. Within this directory:
domain.xsd document is represented in the
weblogic-domain-binding.jar under the pathname
security.xsd document is represented in the
weblogic-domain-binding.jar under the pathname
weblogic-diagnostics.xsd document is represented in the
diagnostics-binding.jar under the pathname
Do not edit configuration files for a domain that is currently running. Because Oracle WebLogic Server rewrites the files periodically, your changes will be lost. Depending on your platform, you also could cause Oracle WebLogic Server failures.
Security credentials for domain security and the embedded LDAP server are stored in the
config.xml file in encrypted form. If you create your
config.xml file with a text editor or other non-Oracle tool, you need to locate these credentials, encrypt them, and copy the encrypted credential into your
For information about Oracle WebLogic Server's encryption utility, see "encrypt" in the Command Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server. Once you have encrypted the credentials, include the encrypted values in your
config.xml file in elements as in Example 3-1:
You can configure Oracle WebLogic Server to make backup copies of the configuration files. This facilitates recovery in cases where configuration changes need to be reversed or the unlikely case that configuration files become corrupted. When the Administration Server starts up, it saves a JAR file named
config-booted.jar that contains the configuration files. When you make changes to the configuration files, the old files are saved in the
configArchive directory under the domain directory, in a JAR file with a sequentially-numbered name like
For information on archiving configuration files, see "Archive configuration files" in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Help. If you want to use WLST to configure Oracle WebLogic Server to make backup copies, set the
ConfigBackupEnabled attribute in
true and the
ArchiveConfigurationCount attribute to the number of configuration archive files that you want to retain, shown in Example 3-2.
By default, Oracle WebLogic Server creates domain directories under Oracle Middleware
/user_projects/domains directory. This section describes the contents of the domain directory and its subfolders. In this section,
server-name represent names that you define when you create a domain.
Individual applications in a domain might create additional files and directories in the domain directory.
If you have not yet created a domain, you can see an example of an existing domain directory by looking in
WL_HOME is the directory in which you installed Oracle WebLogic Server.
This directory provides a quick way to deploy applications in a development server. When the Oracle WebLogic Server instance is running in development mode, it automatically deploys any applications or modules that you place in this directory.
The files you place in this directory can be Java EE applications, such as:
An EAR file
A WAR, EJB JAR, RAR, or CAR archived module
An exploded archive directory for either an application or a module
This directory contains scripts that are used in the process of starting and stopping the Administration Server and the Managed Servers in the domain. These scripts are generally provided as
.sh files for UNIX and
.cmd files for Windows. The
bin directory can optionally contain other scripts of domain-wide interest, such as scripts to start and stop database management systems, full-text search engine processes, and such. For more information, see Managing Server Startup and Shutdown for Oracle WebLogic Server.
This directory contains the current configuration and deployment state of the domain. The central domain configuration file,
config.xml, resides in this directory.
Contains data that is used to optimize performance when validating changes in the domain's configuration documents. This data is internal to Oracle WebLogic Server and does not need to be backed up.
This directory contains system modules for instrumentation in the WebLogic Diagnostic Framework. For more information, see Configuring and Using the Diagnostics Framework for Oracle WebLogic Server.
This directory contains system modules for JDBC: global JDBC modules that can be configured directly from JMX (as opposed to JSR-88). For more information, see Database Connectivity for Oracle WebLogic Server.
This directory contains system modules for JMS: global JMS modules that can be configured directly from JMX (as opposed to JSR-88). For more information, see Messaging for Oracle WebLogic Server.
This directory holds configuration information for connection to the Node Manager. For more information, see "Node Manager Configuration and Log Files" in the Node Manager Administrator’s Guide for Oracle WebLogic Server.
This directory contains system modules for the security framework. It contains one security provider configuration extension for each kind of security provider in the domain's current realm. For more information, see Understanding Security for Oracle WebLogic Server.
This directory contains a set of JAR files that save the domain's configuration state. Just before pending changes to the configuration are activated, the domain's existing configuration state, consisting of the
config.xml file and the other related configuration files, is saved in a versioned JAR file with a name like
config.jar#2, and such.
The maximum number of versioned JAR files to be kept is specified by the
archiveConfigurationCount attribute of
DomainMBean. Once this maximum number is reached, the oldest conversion archive is deleted before a new one is created.
This directory contains extensions to the Administration Console, which enable you to add content to the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console, replace content, and change the logos, styles and colors without modifying the files that are installed with Oracle WebLogic Server. For example, you can add content that provides custom monitoring and management facilities for your applications. See Extending the Administration Console for Oracle WebLogic Server.
This directory contains files used for WebLogic domain provisioning. You should not modify any files in this directory.
JAR files you put in this directory are made available (within a separate system level classloader) to all Java EE applications running on WebLogic Server instances in the domain. For more information, see "Adding JARs to the Domain
/lib Directory" in Developing Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server.
This directory contains domain configuration files representing configuration changes that have been requested, but not yet activated. Once the configuration changes have been activated, the configuration files are deleted from this directory. For more information, see Chapter 4, "Managing Configuration Changes".
This directory holds those security-related files that are the same for every Oracle WebLogic Server instance in the domain:
This directory also holds security-related files that are only needed by the domain's Administration Server:
For more information, see Understanding Security for Oracle WebLogic Server.
This directory contains one subdirectory for each Oracle WebLogic Server instance in the domain. The subdirectories contain data that is specific to each server instance.
This directory is the server directory for the Oracle WebLogic Server instance with the same name as the directory.
This directory holds directories and files that contain cached data. By "cached" we mean that the data is a copy, possibly in a processed form (compiled, translated, or reformatted), of other data.
This directory holds files that maintain persistent per-server state used to run the Oracle WebLogic Server instance, other than security state, as opposed to temporary, cached or historical information. Files in this directory are important data that must be retained as the Oracle WebLogic Server instance is brought up, is brought down, crashes, restarts, or is upgraded to a new version.
This directory holds the embedded LDAP database. The run-time security state for the Oracle WebLogic Server instance is persisted in this directory.
This directory holds WebLogic persistent stores. For each persistent store, there is a subdirectory that holds the files that represent the persistent store. The name of the subdirectory is the name of the persistent store. By convention there is one store named
This directory holds logs and diagnostic information. This information is historical in nature. It is not crucial to the operation of the server, and can be deleted (while the Oracle WebLogic Server instance is down, at least) without affecting proper operation. However, the information can be quite useful for debugging or auditing purposes and should not be deleted without good reason.
This directory holds information created by the Server Image Capture component of the WebLogic Diagnostic Framework. For more information, see Configuring and Using the Diagnostics Framework for Oracle WebLogic Server.
This directory contains one subdirectory for each JMS server in the Oracle WebLogic Server instance. Each such subdirectory contains the logs for that JMS server. The name of the subdirectory is the name of the JMS server.
This directory holds security-related files that can be or must be different for each Oracle WebLogic Server instance. The file
boot.properties is an example of a file that resides here because it can differ from one server to the next. This directory also maintains files related to SSL keys.
This directory holds temporary directories and files that are created while a server instance is running. For example, a JMS paging directory is automatically created here unless another location is specified. Files in this directory must be left alone while the server is running, but may be freely deleted when the server instance is shut down.
All instances of Oracle WebLogic Server use a root directory to store their working copy of the domain's configuration files, to store run-time data, and to provide the context for any relative pathnames in the server's configuration. An Administration Server always uses the domain directory as its root directory. A Managed Server can use the domain directory but can also use any other directory that you define.
For example, if you start a Managed Server on a computer that does not share a file system with the computer that hosts the Administration Server, the Managed Server will create its own root directory. The server will copy data from the domain directory to this root directory and will write run-time data in this directory.
You can specify the path and name of the server root directory for each server instance. You can specify a common server root directory for multiple server instances hosted on a single computer or you can specify a different server root directory for each server. A domain may have one or more server root directories.
You can specify the path for the server root directory by one of the following means:
path option when starting a Oracle WebLogic Server instance from command line. For example, the following command starts an Oracle WebLogic Server instance and uses
c:\MyServerRootDirectory as the server root directory:
java -Dweblogic.RootDirectory=c:\MyServerRootDirectory weblogic.Server
If you use Node Manager to start an Oracle WebLogic Server instance, you can specify a server root directory with the Root Directory attribute in the Administration Console on the Environment > Servers > server_name > Configuration > Server Start page.
If you do not use one of the above means to specify a server root directory, the path and name of the server root directory depend on whether a server instance is a Managed Server or the Administration Server and whether or not you use Node Manager to start the server instance. These variations are discussed in the next sections.
An Administration Server uses its server root directory as a repository for the domain's configuration data (such as
config.xml) and security resources (such as the default, embedded LDAP server).
To determine the root directory for an Administration Server, Oracle WebLogic Server does the following:
If the server's startup command includes the
path option, then the value of
path is the server root directory.
path is not specified, then the working directory is the server root directory.
If Oracle WebLogic Server cannot find a
config.xml file, then it offers to create one. You can use this method to create a new domain. For more information, see "Using the weblogic.Server Command Line to Create a Domain" in the Command Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.
If you use the Node Manager to start a Managed Server, the root directory is located on the computer that hosts the Node Manager process. To determine the location of the server's root directory, Oracle WebLogic Server does the following:
If you specified a root directory in the Administration Console on the Environment > Servers > server-name > Configuration > Server Start page, then the directory you specified is the server root directory.
If you did not specify a root directory in the Administration Console, then the server root directory is:
MW_HOME is the directory in which you installed Oracle WebLogic Server on the Node Manager's host computer.
If you do not use the Node Manager to start a Managed Server (and therefore use the
java weblogic.Server command or a script that calls that command), Oracle WebLogic Server does the following to determine the root directory:
If the server's startup command includes the
path option, then the value of
path is the server's root directory.
path is not specified, then the working (current) directory is the root directory. For example, if you run the
weblogic.Server command from
c:\config\MyManagedServer is the root directory.
To make it easier to maintain your domain configurations and applications across upgrades of Oracle WebLogic Server software, it is recommended that the server root directory not be the same as the installation directory for the Oracle WebLogic Server software.