Obviously the Big Blue stack I used was based heavily in Java and at the time that meant WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment (ND) Profile was the server of choice for IBM BPM and IBM ODM.

Since then Liberty has taken a much larger role, which is really nice to see.  But it seems like a lot of big enterprises still rely on traditional WAS and WAD ND so I don’t think this knowledge is a complete waste.

When I got to my solutions role I knew very little about WAS apart from the fact that it was a Java Application Server and that’s about it.  I had some experience with Weblogic and WAS Community Edition on my personal Oracle VMs, but nothing very specific and nothing like managing a network deployment environment.  Installing one Java EE app on WAS CE didn’t compare to deploying applications across a three node cell.  IBM BPM on WAS was a big introduction for me and that made IBM ODM on WAS so much easier.

Here are some notes for IBM WebSphere Application Server ND/Traditional/Legacy (whatever you want to call it these days).  I’ll log another post with a few tiny notes on WAS Liberty Profile from a POC with IBM Process Federation Server.

I know this information is petty for most folks but for a guy brand-new to WAS ND just understanding the layout and the components was extremely helpful.

WebSphere (Network Deployment)

• Application Server – a Java application that runs other Java applications
• Server – an entity that actually runs the Java EE application (one or more than one, depending on the configuration)
• Node – for all intents and purposes its a server running enterprise Java applications
• Cell – a group of nodes
• Deployment Manager – a specific server instance responsible for managing a cell.  It essentially consolidates server management for all the nodes in the cell.  It communicates to each node via a Node Agent.  Most people interact with the Deployment Manager using the WAS Integrated Solutions Console – essentially a web-application that manages WebSphere.
• Node Agent – an admin type server program that communicates with the Deployment Manager to localize the management tasks.

This is a great resource for more in-depth information about Traditional ND and Liberty Profile:

https://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg248022.pdf

And one more link with a great diagram of WAS ND:

https://itdevworld.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/websphere-concepts-cell-node-cluster-server/