Steps to Virtualization?

rwinterpacht

We have content and source code managed in TeamSite 552 sp3 on Solaris 8, and deploy to app and web servers running iPlanet and WebSphere (3.5, 4.0, and looking at 5.0). What are the steps need to setup virtualization? Are NFS mounts required on the target servers to "see" the content on TeamSite? Does it require Turbo? Or does it just involve mapping URL's with the configuration in TeamSite to handle requests and redirect to a URL on the target machine(s)?

All we'd like to do is have a preview of generated files in TeamSite where links work, images appear, navigating the site, etc.

Thanks,
Raf Winterpacht

PJoneja

Raf -

I wish Turbo could work for you, but it sounds like you have a mixed environment which Turbo won't support. It seems to me that you have the following options:

1) The fastest way to get your apps virtualized is to set up NFS mounts on your on your target servers, manually deploy the apps to their targets, and set up proxy preconnect remaps (don't forget to restart the proxy server!) to redirect requests to those targets. One problem with this is that you have a lot of manual work to do each time you create new apps or new workareas that need to be virtualized. You also have the problem that you have to keep the fully assembled app in the areas that you are deploying. And finally, you may have trouble with the way that some of your app servers like to deploy apps. For example, WebSphere 4 likes to make a copy of the app that you tell it to deploy and then it serves the copy rather than the original.

2) Another option is to use workflow and OpenDeploy to deploy your apps to the target servers. You will still need to set up proxy remaps, but you will not need the NFS mounts. This method allows you to use whatever directory structure you like and keep only source code in TeamSite. To do this, you will need to write deployment scripts to compile and assemble your apps for deployment. The disadvantage to this method is that you will have synchronization problems between what is in TeamSite and what is being virtualized.

3) The last major option that I see is an automated version of option 1. Set up NFS mounts on your target servers but automate the process of deploying the apps. This will be easier for some app servers and more difficult for others. For example, WebSphere 5.0 support JMX, so it should be easier than previous versions of WebSphere where you'll need to use command line tools to deploy your apps. If the deployment process is consistent, you should be able to write some generic proxy remaps so that you don't have to keep adding new remap rules every time you need to deploy another app. This is basically what most of the Turbos do.

Hope this is helpful!

-Pam