Albert Leigh's Weblog: Sun IBM WebSphere Solution Architect

My colleague Dileep Kumar and I will be hosting the "Ask the Experts" Jam Session at the Global WebSphere Community site on March 24, 2009. Bring your questions about WebSphere on Solaris. We will be available to discsuss during...

Day/Time:

• Americas: March 24/11:00 am EDT to 3:00 pm EDT
• UK: March 24/3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. GMT
• Asia Pacific: March 25/2:00 am to 6:00 am Sydney EDT

To analyze the performance of WebSphere applications on Solaris ...[Read More]

In JDK 5, a new performance feature for self tuning of the JVM known as JVM Ergonomics was added. .... [Read More]

If you see scalability issue with WebSphere Application Server on Solaris systems (especially on the CMT based servers), you should consider using an alternate memory allocator. The white paper titled "Improving Application Efficiency Through Chip Multi-Threading", has excellent explanation about the CMT and SPARC architecture overview and how to improve application performance and CMT system efficiency.[Read More]

Keeping your WebSphere application environment on Solaris updated with the recommended Fix Packs and Service Releases from IBM and Solaris update releases and patches is a key to better performance and reliability. For example, if you have WebSphere Application Server v6.1 with Fix Pack 5, you may find slowness in the garbage collection process using the throughput collector (ParallelGC).[Read More]

For WebSphere Application Server (WAS) on Solaris, IBM bundles it with the Sun JVM that contains IBM's modifications (e.g. IBM ORB, XML and Security libraries) as explained in this blog entry by my colleague Dileep Kumar of Sun.

More specifically, you can find the summary of WAS and its Java versions in the table below. Additional details can be located at this IBM site.

WAS v7.0	Java EE 5	JDK/JRE 6
WAS v6.1	J2EE 1.4	JDK/JRE 5
WAS v6.0.2	J2EE 1.4	JDK/JRE 1.4.2
WAS v5.1.1	J2EE 1.3	JDK/JRE 1.4.2
WAS v5.1	J2EE 1.3	JDK/JRE 1.3.x

In order to tune WAS JVM on Solaris, it is greatly helpful if you understand the performance tuning aspects of Sun JVM such as Java memory management, Garbage Collectors, etc. You can get performance whitepapers for respective JVM versions here and Java Memory Management Whitepaper. Dileep also has blogged about specific recommended JVM options for WAS on Solaris here.

Finally, there are numerous Sun JVM options and one of the references that I strongly recommend is the collection compiled by Joseph D. Mocker of Sun Microsystem. Of course, we have much more specific information about WAS v6.1 on Solaris 10 in this IBM Redbook (e.g. Chapter 9).

Sun and IBM WebSphere teams have collaborated together to write this new Redbook titled "IBM WebSphere Application Server V6.1 on the Solaris Operating System". I, along with my Sun colleague Dileep Kumar, were part of the IBM Redbook Residency in November and December of 2007. We enjoyed working with the IBM team that included Phil Monson (one of the finest project managers), Dennis Martin, Ilari Ahtiainen and Joe Reinwald on the project.

The book is now available as a draft Redbook on the internet at: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247584.html.

This book documents the best practices of deployment and performance management of WAS v6.1 on Solaris 10. Chapters include:

• Chapter 1. Introduction to WebSphere Application Server on Sun Solaris
• Chapter 2. Configuring a Solaris environment for WebSphere Application Server
• Chapter 3. Installation of WebSphere Application Server for Solaris 10
• Chapter 4. Installation of WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment for Solaris 10
• Chapter 5. Configuration of WebSphere Application Server in Advanced Solaris 10 Environment
• Chapter 6. Management and Maintenance of WAS on Solaris
• Chapter 7. Advanced Topologies
• Chapter 8. Security and Identity Management
• Chapter 9. WebSphere Application Server Performance Tuning on Solaris 10
• Chapter 10. Problem Determination
• Appendix A. WebSphere Application Server V6.0.2 considerations
• Appendix B. Sun Solaris 8 Migration Assistant (Etude)
• Appendix C. Additional material

We are still ironing out some contents and quite close to a release version. Please provide us with your feedback. You can reach me at {FirstName}.{LastName}@Sun.COM -- see my name at the top of my blog.