Websphere Hierarchy of Configuration Documents

Hierarchy of directories of documents

In a Network Deployment environment, changes made to configuration documents in the cell repository, are automatically replicated to the same configuration documents that are stored on nodes throughout the cell.

At the top of the hierarchy is the cells directory. It holds a subdirectory for each cell. The names of the cell subdirectories match the names of the cells. For example, a cell named cell1 has its configuration documents in the subdirectory cell1.

An example file structure is as follows:

• Each cell subdirectory has the following files and subdirectories:
• The cell.xml file provides configuration data for the cell.Files such as security.xml, virtualhosts.xml, resources.xml, and variables.xml provide configuration data that applies across every node in the cell
• Each cluster subdirectory holds a cluster.xml file, which provides configuration data specifically for that cluster.
• The nodes subdirectory holds a subdirectory for each node in the cell.
  The names of the nodes subdirectories match the names of the nodes.Each node subdirectory holds files such as variables.xml and resources.xml, which provide configuration data that applies across the node.
• Each server subdirectory holds a server.xml file, which provides configuration data specific to that server.
  Server subdirectories might hold files such as security.xml, resources.xml and variables.xml, which provide configuration data that applies only to the server. The configurations specified in these server documents override the configurations specified in containing cell and node documents having the same name.
• The applications subdirectory, holds a subdirectory for each application deployed in the cell.
  The names of the applications subdirectories match the names of the deployed applications.Each deployed application subdirectory holds a deployment.xml file that contains configuration data on the application deployment. Each subdirectory also holds a META-INF subdirectory that holds a Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) application deployment descriptor file as well as IBM deployment extensions files and bindings files. Deployed application subdirectories also hold subdirectories for all .war and entity bean .jar files in the application. Binary files such as .jar files are also part of the configuration structure.

cells
  cell1
     cell.xml resources.xml virtualhosts.xml variables.xml security.xml
     nodes
        nodeX
           node.xml variables.xml resources.xml serverindex.xml
           serverA
              server.xml variables.xml
           nodeAgent
              server.xml variables.xml
        nodeY
           node.xml variables.xml resources.xml serverindex.xml
     applications
        sampleApp1
           deployment.xml
           META-INF
              application.xml ibm-application-ext.xml ibm-application-bnd.xml
        sampleApp2
           deployment.xml
           META-INF
              application.xml ibm-application-ext.xml ibm-application-bnd.xml