WebSphere

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IBM Connections: wsadmin commands in batchfiles or shell-scripts

If you want to generate more complex jython scripts to be executed on IBM Connections environments you will recognize that you allways have to draw the decision on which server this should be executed. If you have an easy infrastructure you will be prompted to choose either 1 or 2.

This will work if you use wsadmin in commandline mode. But if you start to generate your own jython scripts you might want to execute them without being prompted. The most easiest way to solve this is to start your script with a variable.

Example:

import sys

batchMode=1;execfile("communitiesAdmin.py")

.......

The batchMode Variable predefines the serverdecision and you will no longer been prompted. Be aware that the name of the variable is case sensitive.

Have fun

Passworddecoder for WAS-Passwords

We frequently have the same problem on customer sides that we find WAS-installation (WebSphere Portal, IBM Connections, Sametime etc) and nobody remembers the passwords used for internal/ machine users.

If you look into config files you will find only the encrypted passwords.

Because of this you can decrypt your password using one of three methods.

1. You can just search the web
2. You can execute a long commandline on your server.

Examples for this with WAS Version 8

../java/bin/java -Djava.ext.dirs=/opt/WebSphere/AppServer/deploytool/itp/plugins/com.ibm.websphere.v8_1.0.201.v20111031_1843/wasJars/ -cp securityimpl.jar:iwsorb.jar com.ibm.ws.security.util.PasswordDecoder {xor}HQkdb2Y=

encoded password == "{xor}HQkdb2Y=", decoded password == "BVB09"

Same for version 7

WAS Version 7

../java/bin/java -Djava.ext.dirs=/app/websphere/appserver/deploytool/itp/plugins/com.ibm.websphere.v7_7.0.3.v20110824_2356/wasJars/ -cp securityimpl.jar:iwsorb.jar com.ibm.ws.security.util.PasswordDecoder {xor}HQkdb2Y=

encoded password == "{xor}HQkdb2Y=", decoded password == "BVB09"

The most diffcult thing for us is to remember the command and the syntax to execute. Well, we wrote a scipt.

Feel free to copy it to your homedirectory and execute it (at your own risk). The script will check for the correct path and gives you the decrypted password on the command line.

Download here...... 

How to enable Developer Mode in WebSphere Portal

If you work as an application developer, you might want to start/stop your server frequently according to your needs within your project. But starting and stopping is a very time consuming thing in Portal as we all know. For this reason IBM implements a developer mode for Portal, which reduces the time for starting and stopping to a minimum. In our testing environment (VMWare Workstation, 8 GB Ram and a ssd) starting of Portal needs up to eight minutes.

After we enabled the developer mode, starting time could be reduced to just two minutes which means just a quarter of the time we needed before.

To enable developer mode you must first ensure that the server has been stopped.To be sure, switch to the bin subdirectory of your portalserver profile (eg c:\IBM\WebSphere\wp_portal\bin). Issue the command

serverStatus -all (on Windows)./serverStatus.sh -all (on Linux)

If your asked for adminstrators credentials, enter them.

If the server does not run, just switch to your portal profiles ConfigEngine subdirectory (eg c:\IBM\WebSphere\wp_profile\ConfigEngine).Now execute the command

(on Windows)

ConfigEngine.bat enable-develop-mode-startup-performance

(on Linux)

./ConfigEngine.sh enable-develop-mode-startup-performance

This task will run for a minute or two. Look for the "Build succesfull" message to be sure that developer mode has been enabled.

That's it. This will safe you a lot of time.

Developer mode will disable a couple of applications on portal. If you have the need to enhance the list of disabled applications edit the properties-file

wp.base_TargetMapExclList.properties

which is located in the <profile_root>\PortalServer\config\StartupPerformance subdirectory.

To disable developer mode just use the same instrutions as before and enter

 ConfigEngine.bat disable-develop-mode-startup-performance (on Windows)

./ConfigEngine.sh disable-develop-mode-startup-performance (on Linux)

Enjoy!