Terminology: Weblogic Managed Server and JVMs

Terminology: Weblogic Managed Server and JVMs

A Domain can include multiple WebLogic Server instances. A minimal domain contains only one WebLogic Server instance, which functions both as an Administration Server and as a Managed server—such a domain can be useful while developing applications, but is not recommended for use in a production environment.

A Managed Server is a WebLogic Server instance that runs deployed applications. It refers to the Administration Server for all of its configuration and deployment information. Usually, you use Managed Servers to run applications in a production environment.

Each Managed Server runs on its own JVM.  Admin Server also runs in a different JVM.

A Managed Server retrieves its configuration data from the domain's Administration Server. There can be many Managed Servers in a domain, but only one Administration Server. Usually, you create and start server instances as Managed Servers to run your business applications in a production environment. In this standard scenario, the server instance that you start as the Administration Server does not run business applications. Instead, it only manages resources in the domain. To improve reliability and performance, you can install the WebLogic Server software on several computers and run the servers that you create on the various WebLogic Server hosts.

The first server instance that you start in a domain always functions as the Administration Server. If you start additional servers in a domain, you must start them as Managed Servers.

	Node Manager is a Java utility that runs as separate process from WebLogic Server and allows you to perform common operations tasks for a Managed Server, regardless of its location with respect to its Administration Server.