Oracle® Fusion Middleware

What's New in Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.2.0

12c (12.2.1.2.0)

E77982-05

July 2017

This document describes new features for all components of Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.2.0.

Oracle Fusion Middleware What's New in Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.2.0, 12c (12.2.1.2.0)

E77982-05

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Contents

Preface

- Documentation Accessibility

- Conventions

1 Introduction and Roadmap

- Document Scope and Audience

- Guide to This Document

2 What's New in Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.2.0

- WebLogic Server Update Summary

- Multitenancy Support

- WLST Changes to Support Multitenancy

- Deployment Support for Multitenancy

- Partition-Specific Deployment Plans

- Concurrent Deployment

- JNDI Support for Multitenancy

- Partition Security

- Partition Work Managers

- Partition Scope Monitoring and Debugging

- Domain to Partition Conversion Tool

- Continuous Availability

- Java EE 7 Support

- Batch Application Processing (JSR 352)

- Concurrent Managed Objects (JSR 236)

- Default Data Source

- JMS 2.0 Support for Simplified JMS Application Development (JSR 343)

- Java EE Connector Architecture 1.7 (JSR 322)

- Enterprise JavaBeans 3.2 (JSR-345)

- Clustering and High Availability Support for WebSocket 1.1 Applications

- GZIP Compression Support

- Java EE 7 Security Standards

- Sample Applications

- Avitek Medical Records — MedRec

- New Java EE 7 Examples

- JDK 8 and Server JRE 8 Certification

- Docker Certification

- Runtime Improvements

- Deployment

- Overriding Resource Group Template Application Configuration

- Parallel Deployment

- FastSwap Enhancements

- Deployment Performance Enhancements

- Behavior Change for Application Names

- JDBC Data Sources

- Enhanced Data Source Shutdown

- Retry Count

- Connection Initialization Callback for Non-Oracle Drivers

- JDBC Store Improved Retry Handling

- JDBC Store Connection Caching Policy

- Gradual Draining

- JTA

- Transactions without TLog Write

- Messaging

- Messaging Support for Multitenancy

- Simplified JMS Cluster Configuration and High Availability Enhancements

- Monitoring WebSocket Applications

- Policy Classloader

- ReadyApp Integration with WebLogic Server

- RESTful Web Services

- Simple WLST APIs for Dynamic Clusters

- ThreadLocal Clean Out Support for Work Managers

- Manageability Improvements

- Elasticity Support for Dynamic Clusters

- Resource Groups

- Resource Group Templates and Resource Overrides

- Named Concurrent Edit Sessions

- REST Resources for WebLogic Server Management

- Fusion Middleware Control

- Security

- New Method for Two-Way SSL Authentication in Java Clients Using JNDI

- Java EE 7 Standards Support

- LDAP Authentication Provider Manageability Enhancements

- Default Minimum TLS Protocol Version

- Support for weblogic-jwt-token

- Logging Enhancements

- WebLogic Diagnostic Framework

- WebLogic Server Development and Supplemental Distribution

- Zero Downtime Patching

- WLST

- New Domain Commands

- New Diagnostic Commands

- New Node Manager Commands

- New Edit Session Commands

- New System Component Commands

- Other New Commands

- Modifications to Existing Commands

- idd Variable and Argument

- Resource Consumption Management

- Documentation Update History

- Standards Support, Supported Configurations, and WebLogic Server Compatibility

- Standards Support

- Java Standards

- Web Services Standards

- Other Standards

- Supported Configurations

- Licensing Information

- WebLogic Server Compatibility

- Database Interoperability

- Application Data Access

- Database Dependent Features

- Deprecated Functionality (Oracle WebLogic Server 12c 12.2.1.2.0)

- WebLogic Full and Standard Clients

- Log4j

- LogMBean.ServerLoggingBridgeUserParentLoggersEnabled Attribute

- Username and Password in boot.properties File

- Maven 11x Plug-In Deprecated

- JSP Tags for XML Processing

- Deprecated Functionality in WLST

- Server Argument to WLST Diagnostics Commands

- The addTemplate and readTemplate Control Commands

- Implicit Importing of Modules Using WLST

- URL Format for REST Management

- WebLogic Server/Spring Integration Features

- Deprecated Diagnostics Exceptions

- RESTful Web Services

- Jersey 1.18 (JAX-RS 1.1 RI) Client APIs

- Runtime Monitoring MBeans

- CacheFilter API

- JAX-RPC WebService-ReliableMessaging

- SSLMBean.ExportKeyLifespan Attribute

- setSSLClientCertificate and setSSLClientKeyPassword Methods

- Removed Functionality and Components

- Compatibility Security

- 6.x Realms

- Certificate Request Generator Servlet

- weblogic.Admin

- JAXR

- Jersey 1.18 (JAX-RS 1.1. RI) Server APIs

- WebLogic Keystore Provider

- weblogic.security.provider.PrincipalValidatorImpl

- weblogic.xml.stream.util.XMLPullReaderBase

- Connect-Time Failover

- Compatibility MBean Server and Type-Safe MBean Interfaces

- Startup Option for Lighter-Weight Runtime

Preface

This preface describes the document accessibility features and conventions used in this guide—What's New in Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.2.0.

Documentation Accessibility

For information about Oracle's commitment to accessibility, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program website at http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=docacc.

Access to Oracle Support

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Conventions

The following text conventions are used in this document:

Convention

Meaning

boldface

Boldface type indicates graphical user interface elements associated with an action, or terms defined in text or the glossary.

italic

Italic type indicates book titles, emphasis, or placeholder variables for which you supply particular values.

monospace

Monospace type indicates commands within a paragraph, URLs, code in examples, text that appears on the screen, or text that you enter.

1 Introduction and Roadmap

This chapter describes the contents and audience for this guide—What’s New in Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.2.0.

This chapter includes the following sections:

- Document Scope and Audience

- Guide to This Document

Document Scope and Audience

This document describes new features for all components of Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1). This document is a resource for system administrators and operators responsible for monitoring and managing a WebLogic Server installation. It is relevant to all phases of a software project, from development through test and production phases.

Guide to This Document

This document is organized as follows:

- This chapter, Introduction and Roadmap, provides a roadmap and describes the audience for this guide.

- What's New in Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.2.0 describes the new and changed functionality in this WebLogic Server release.

2 What's New in Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.2.0

Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) includes new features in multitenancy support, continuous availability, resource consumption management, migrating WebLogic domains to partitions, Zero Downtime Patching, and more. This document describes the new features made in the initial release of 12c (12.2.1), and also describes the changes made in the subsequent patch set releases: 12.2.1.1.0 and 12.2.1.2.0.

This chapter includes the following topics:

- WebLogic Server Update Summary

- Multitenancy Support

- Continuous Availability

- Java EE 7 Support

- JDK 8 and Server JRE 8 Certification

- Docker Certification

- Runtime Improvements

- Manageability Improvements

- Documentation Update History

- Standards Support, Supported Configurations, and WebLogic Server Compatibility

- Deprecated Functionality (Oracle WebLogic Server 12c 12.2.1.2.0)

- Removed Functionality and Components

WebLogic Server Update Summary

Oracle has released two patch set releases for Oracle WebLogic Server 12c 12.2.1.0.0.

These updates are summarized in the following sections.

Patch Set 1

Oracle WebLogic Server version 12.2.1.1.0, also known as Patch Set 1, introduced the updates summarized in the following table.

Feature

Description

Resource consumption management

A configurable, partition auto-restart trigger action has been added that restarts the partition on the server instance on which the partition's resource consumption quotas have been breached. See Triggers in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

Partition administration

The partition administrator role has been added. When logged in or connected to a partition as a member of the management identity domain, the partition administrator can manage the security realm data associated with the partition, such as managing users and groups, credential maps, roles, and policies. See Managing Security Data as a Partition Administrator: Main Steps and Examples in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

Domain to Partition Conversion Tool

The Domain to Partition Conversion Tool (D-PCT) has been added, which provides the ability to migrate existing applications and resources from a non-multitenant domain to a multitenant domain partition. See Domain to Partition Conversion Tool.

Cross-site transaction recovery

This patch set introduces a site leasing mechanism to provide automatic recovery when a site failure or mid-tier failure occurs. With site leasing, WebLogic Server provides a more robust mechanism to failover and failback transaction recovery without imposing dependencies on the TLog, which affect the health of the servers hosting the transaction manager. See Active-Active XA Transaction Recovery in Developing JTA Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Continuous availability best practices documentation

New best practices for multi-data center deployments are described in Design Considerations for Continuous Availability in Continuous Availability for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Administration enhancements for Coherence

This patch set release includes enhancements to the WebLogic Server Administration Console for configuring the following Coherence features:

- Coherence federated caching – You can now set up federation with basic active/active and active/passive configurations using the Administration Console, eliminating the need to use configuration files.

- Coherence persistence – A persistence tab has been added that provides the ability to configure persistence-related settings that apply to all services.

See Configuring Cache Federation and Configuring Cache Persistence in Administering Clusters for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Zero Downtime Patching

Zero Downtime Patching includes the following new capabilities:

- Support has been added for updating applications running in a multitenant partition without affecting other partitions that run in the same cluster.

- Coherence applications can now be updated while maintaining high availability of the Coherence data during the rollout process.

- The requirement to use Node Manager start the Administration Server to upgrade it has been removed.

See Zero Downtime Patching.

JDBC data sources

Enhancements include the following:

- A configured connection initialization callback can now be called with any driver and any data source type.

- New asynchronous, task-based operations have been added for data source suspend and shutdown.

- Using JDBC Store's retry mechanism, you can now configure multiple retry attempts over a specified time period.

See JDBC Data Sources for more information about JDBC feature updates.

Diagnostics

The Policies and Actions component of the WebLogic Diagnostics Framework has been updated to support the heap dump and thread dump actions, which capture heap dumps or thread dumps, respectively, when certain runtime conditions are met. See Configuring Actions in Configuring and Using the Diagnostics Framework for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Patch Set 2

Oracle WebLogic Server version 12.2.1.2.0, also known as Patch Set 2, adds the features described in the following table.

Feature

Description

Oracle Server JRE 8

Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.2.0 is certified for use with Oracle Server JRE 8.0. See JDK 8 and Server JRE 8 Certification.

JDBC data sources

WebLogic JDBC now supports gradual draining of connections in the JDBC connection pool, to improve performance during maintenance shutdowns. See Gradual Draining.

Security

The weblogic.jndi.Environment class has been enhanced for configuring two-way SSL authentication for Java clients using JNDI. See New Method for Two-Way SSL Authentication in Java Clients Using JNDI.

Multitenancy Support

Multitenancy in WebLogic Server provides a sharable infrastructure for use by multiple organizations. These organizations are a conceptual grouping of your own choosing, which you can think of as tenants. By allowing one domain to support multiple tenants, WebLogic Server Multitenant improves density and achieves a more efficient use of resources while eliminating the hurdles typically present when trying to share multiple applications: runtime cross-application impact, security differences, data commingling, and administrative challenges.

WebLogic Server Multitenant provides resource isolation within domain partitions, an administrative and runtime slice of a WebLogic domain that is dedicated to running application instances and related resources for a tenant. Domain partitions achieve greater density by allowing application instances and related resources to share the domain, WebLogic Server itself, the Java virtual machine, and the operating system while isolating tenant-specific application data, configuration, and runtime traffic.

WebLogic Server MT enables an end-to-end multitenant infrastructure, including multitenancy from the load balancer to the middle tier and cache tier, and to the database tier. WebLogic Server MT extends the Oracle WebLogic Server Enterprise Edition and Oracle WebLogic Suite products, and includes the following components:

- Oracle WebLogic Server MT, which enables consolidation of applications into fewer domains (by allowing partitions within domains) while maintaining secure isolation

- WebLogic MT extensions to Java SE Advanced, which enables memory, CPU and I/O isolation, monitoring, and management for applications within a JVM

- Oracle WebLogic Coherence Enterprise Edition to Grid Edition option, which enables consolidation of caches into fewer Oracle Coherence clusters while maintaining secure isolation

- Oracle Traffic Director which provides WebLogic Server MT-aware and fully integrated tenant-aware local load balancing

The features of multitenancy support are summarized in the topics that follow. For complete details, see About WebLogic Server MT in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

- WLST Changes to Support Multitenancy

- Deployment Support for Multitenancy

- JNDI Support for Multitenancy

- Partition Security

- Partition Work Managers

- Partition Scope Monitoring and Debugging

- Domain to Partition Conversion Tool

WLST Changes to Support Multitenancy

To support multitenancy, new WLST commands have been added to Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1, and existing commands have been modified to support new arguments for multitenancy environments.

The following WLST commands have been added for multitenancy:

- importPartition—Imports a domain partition from a partition archive.

- exportPartition—Exports a domain partition to a partition archive.

- startPartitionWait—Starts a domain partition and waits until the partition has started.

- migrateResourceGroup—Migrates a domain partition resource group from one target to another target.

The following arguments have been added to existing WLST commands to support multitenancy:

- The resourceGroup, resourceGroupTemplate, and partition arguments have been added to the deploy command. Use these to specify the resource group, resource group template, and partition to which a deployment is scoped.

- The resourceGroupTemplate, partition, and removePlanOverride arguments have been added to the redeploy command. Use these to specify the resource group template and partition to which the redeployment is scoped, and to specify whether or not the previous plan override at the resource group level should be removed.

- The resourceGroupTemplate and partition arguments have been added to the undeploy command. Use these to specify the resource group template and partition to which the deployment is scoped.

- The resourceGroupTemplate, partition, and removePlanOverride arguments have been added to the updateApplication command. Use these to specify the resource group template and partition to which the new deployment is scoped, and to specify whether or not the previous plan override at the resource group level should be removed.

- The resourceGroup, resourceGroupTemplate, and partition arguments have been added to the distributeApplication command. Use these to specify the resource group, resource group template, and partition to which the copied deployment bundle is scoped.

- The partition argument has been added to the startApplication and stopApplication commands. Use this argument to specify the partition to which the deployment is scoped.

- The partition argument has been added to the exportDiagnosticDataFromServer command. Use this argument to specify the partition from which diagnostics data will be retrieved.

- The partition argument has been added to the saveDiagnosticImageCaptureFile and saveDiagnosticImageCaptureEntryFile commands. Use this argument to specify the partition from which the image or image entry will be retrieved.

- The partition argument has been added to the captureAndSaveDiagnosticImage command. Use this argument to specify the partition from which the image will be retrieved.

The partition argument is also supported for the following new WLST diagnostic commands. Use this argument to restrain the scope of the diagnostic command to a particular partition within a domain:

- activateDebugPatch

- deactivateDebugPatches

- exportHarvestedTimeSeriesData

- exportHarvestedTimeSeriesDataOffline

- getAvailableDiagnosticDataAccessornames

- purgeCapturedImages

For information about these and other new WLST commands, see WLST.

Deployment Support for Multitenancy

Using WebLogic Server Multitenant, you can deploy applications and libraries to resource groups templates and resource groups at the domain and partition levels. You can perform deployment operations to these scopes using the new attributes added to existing deployment clients. The following deployment clients support multitenant application deployment:

- weblogic.Deployer

- WLST deployment commands

- JSR-88 API for deployment

- JMX Deployment API

- WLDeploy ant task

- Maven goals for deployment

- WebLogic Server Administration Console

- Fusion Middleware Control

See Deploying Applications in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant and Deploying Applications to Resource Groups and Templates in Deploying Applications to Oracle WebLogic Server.

Partition-Specific Deployment Plans

You can use partition-specific deployment plans to customize any application deployed to a resource group template or resource group within a partition. Partition-specific deployment plans are specified at the resource group level within a partition, not at the partition level. When WebLogic Server applies a partition-specific deployment plan to a specified application, the changes prescribed by the plan affect only the application deployment within that partition.

To configure partition-specific application deployment plans, use the redeploy or updateApplication WLST commands. The new WLST options resourceGroupTemplate and partition identify the scope of the application deployment, and the existing WLST options planPath and appName identify the location of the partition-specific deployment plan and the name of the application deployment to modify.

See Using Partition-Specific Deployment Plans in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

Concurrent Deployment

WebLogic Server supports concurrent deployment operations across multiple edit sessions. Concurrent deployment allows different partition administrators to deploy applications at the same time, without one administrator having to wait for another administrator's application to complete the deployment process. Concurrent deployment improves performance and prevents administrators from being blocked by other administrators. Concurrent deployment occurs automatically; there are no attributes to configure.

JNDI Support for Multitenancy

To support multitenancy, JNDI will be partition-aware and provide partition isolation internally. Partition-aware JNDI includes the following features:

- Partition-scoped and domain-scoped global JNDI resources—There will be one global JNDI tree for every partition and domain on a node. For example, when deploying an EJB to multiple partitions and domains, the EJB's JNDI name is bound to the global JNDI tree for each partition and domain. When looking up the JNDI name, the JNDI tree that is used depends on the scope of the lookup (partition or domain).

- Object-based partition association—When a JNDI context is created within a domain partition, the context object sticks to the partition namespace so that all subsequent JNDI operations are done within the context of the partition.

- Cross-partition access—Partition JNDI resources can be accessed from remote standalone Java code using the WebLogic Server client, or by code that resides in a remote WebLogic Server instance. They can also be accessed from another partition on the same server.

- Clustered JNDI—The JNDI tree that represents a cluster appears to the client as a single global tree. The tree containing cluster-wide services is replicated across each WebLogic Server instance or partition in the cluster.

- Foreign JNDI—You can use foreign JNDI to access another partition whether it is local or remote. By setting up a foreign JNDI provider with the properties of the other partitions, you can look up and use an object that exists outside of the partition.

- New provider URL patterns—For local access across partitions, the following new provider URL patterns have been introduced:

- local://?partitionName=DOMAIN creates the context on the domain.

- local://?partitionName=partitionName creates the context on the specified partition.

- Partition JNDI resource lifecycle—Partition JNDI resources are maintained based on the partition lifecycle. When a partition is created and started, the partition JNDI tree is created with the partition root node and becomes available. When the partition is shut down, the partition JNDI tree is deleted.

- Partition information binding—When initializing the partition tree, partition information is bound to the partition global JNDI tree. Therefore, you can obtain the partition information of the context by looking up:

- weblogic.partitionName, which returns the context-based partition's partition name or "Domain" if it is a domain.

- weblogic.partitionID, which returns the current partition's partition ID or "0" if it is a domain.

See Configuring and Programming JNDI in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

Partition Security

To support multitenancy and partitions, the WebLogic Security Service includes the following new features in this release:

- Multiple active realms
To provide isolation of the security configuration and metadata, WebLogic Server now supports the ability to have multiple active security realms in a domain. Support for multiple active realms enables per-partition configuration for realm-based services by allowing each partition to execute against a different realm. Partitions may also share a security realm, which may be appropriate when the security configuration between two partitions does not require isolation.

- Identity domains
An identity domain is a logical name space for users and groups, typically representing a discrete set of users and groups in a physical store. Identity domains are used to identify the users associated with particular partitions.

- Partition-aware security services
Partition-aware security services contain context about the partition in which they execute so that, for example, they can control access to a resource based on the partition to which the resource belongs. Partition-aware services are also identity domain aware.

To support partition-aware security services, WebLogic Server adds several new predicates that can be used in security policies to scope access at the partition level.

- Partition administrator management of partition security realm data
The partition administrator role, added in release 12.2.1.1.0, can manage the security realm data associated with the partition, such as managing users and groups, credential maps, roles, and policies. To enable security management capabilities for the partition administrator, the system administrator must specify a management identity domain to which the partition administrator belongs. The management identity domain must be the same as the primary identity domain for the partition.

See Configuring Security in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

Partition Work Managers

Partition-specific Work Managers provide fairness of thread usage and prioritization of work requests among partitions that share the same WebLogic Server instance.

Partition Work Managers:

- Allow system administrators to set thread usage policies among partitions and configure customized QoS levels.

- Allow partition administrators to configure Work Manager policies for their partitions.

- Support the prioritization of thread usage by work requests from various partitions.

- Ensure the fairness in thread resource usage among partitions.

See Configuring Partition Work Managers in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

Partition Scope Monitoring and Debugging

The WebLogic Diagnostics Framework (WLDF) provides the following partition scope diagnostic capabilities:

- Partition scope logging

- Partition scope debugging

- Partition scope log file and diagnostic data access

- Monitoring of partition resources

- Partition scope application instrumentation

- Partition scope diagnostic image capture

See Monitoring and Debugging Partitions in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

Domain to Partition Conversion Tool

Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.1.0 introduces the Domain to Partition Conversion Tool (D-PCT), which provides the ability to migrate existing applications and resources from a non-multitenant domain to a multitenant domain partition.

D-PCT also supports the ability to:

- Migrate a WebLogic domain that is based on Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3.6, 12.1.2, or 12.1.3 to a partition in a WebLogic Server 12.2.1 or later domain

- Create and configure partitions, resource groups, and resource group templates as part of the migration

- Select individual applications, libraries, and resources to be migrated

- Target resources and applications to multiple virtual targets

See Migrating a WebLogic Server Domain to a Domain Partition in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

Continuous Availability

Oracle WebLogic Server Continuous Availability provides an integrated solution for building maximum availability architectures (MAA) that span data centers across distributed geographical locations. Integrated components include Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle Coherence, Oracle Traffic Director, Oracle SiteGuard, and Oracle Database. The major benefits of this integrated solution are faster failover or switchover, increased overall application availability, data integrity, reduced human error and risk, recovery of work, and local access of real-time data.

The key features in Continuous Availability include:

- Automated cross-domain transaction recovery— Provides automatic recovery of XA transactions across an entire domain, or across an entire site with servers running in a different domain or at a different site.

- Zero Downtime Patching—Provides an automated mechanism to orchestrate the rollout of patches while avoiding downtime or loss of sessions.

- WebLogic Server Multitenant live resource group migration— Provides the ability to migrate partition resource groups that are running from one cluster/server to another within a domain without impacting the application users.

- Coherence federated caching—Replicates cache data asynchronously across multiple geographically distributed clusters.

- Coherence GoldenGate HotCache—Detects and reflects database changes in cache in real time.

- Oracle Traffic Director—Routes HTTP, HTTPS, and TCP traffic to application servers and web servers on the network.

- Oracle Site Guard—Enables administrators to automate complete site switchover or failover.

For more information about the features in Continuous Availability and the supported MAA architectures, see What is Continuous Availability? in Continuous Availability for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Java EE 7 Support

Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) is a fully compatible implementation of the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) Version 7.0. Java EE 7 enables developers to make use of the latest innovations in the Java Enterprise APIs, which include new programming models, as well as consolidating, enhancing, and in some cases simplifying existing specifications.

The Java EE 7 APIs and related capabilities simplify development of server applications accessed by "rich" clients using lightweight web-based protocols such as REST, WebSocket, and Server-Sent Events. Improvements to development tooling and open source support expand developer choices and simplify creation of development environments.

New Java EE 7 support updates provided in WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) are described in the following sections:

- Batch Application Processing (JSR 352)

- Concurrent Managed Objects (JSR 236)

- Default Data Source

- JMS 2.0 Support for Simplified JMS Application Development (JSR 343)

- Java EE Connector Architecture 1.7 (JSR 322)

- Enterprise JavaBeans 3.2 (JSR-345)

- Clustering and High Availability Support for WebSocket 1.1 Applications

- GZIP Compression Support

- Java EE 7 Security Standards

- Sample Applications

Batch Application Processing (JSR 352)

Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) adds support of a Batch Processing Runtime for the Java EE 7 Platform (JSR 352), which provides support for defining, implementing, and running batch jobs.

The batch runtime in WebLogic Server uses a data source, also known as the JobRepository, and a managed executor service to execute asynchronous batch jobs. The executor service processes the jobs and the JobRepository data source stores the status of current and past jobs. The default batch runtime in each WebLogic domain can be used without any configuration using the Derby demo database. For environments that use an enterprise-level database schema, you can configure a dedicated JobRepository data source and executor service for each WebLogic domain.

For more information about configuring and managing the batch runtime, see Using the Batch Runtime in Administering Server Environments for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Concurrent Managed Objects (JSR 236)

Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) adds support of the Concurrency Utilities for Java EE 1.0 (JSR 236), which is a standard API for providing asynchronous capabilities to Java EE application components, such as servlets and EJBs.

WebLogic Server provides concurrency capabilities to Java EE applications by associating the Concurrency Utilities API with the Work Manager to make threads container-managed. You configure concurrent managed objects (CMOs) and then make them available for use by application components. Similar to Work Managers, CMOs can be defined at the domain level, application level, and module level, by using the Administration Console, MBeans, or deployment descriptors:

For more information about configuring and managing concurrent resources, see Configuring Concurrent Managed Objects in Administering Server Environments for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Default Data Source

Oracle provides a Default Data Source required by a Java EE 7-compliant runtime. This preconfigured data source can be used by an application to access the Derby Database that can be installed with WebLogic Server. See Using the Default Data Source in Administering JDBC Data Sources for Oracle WebLogic Server.

JMS 2.0 Support for Simplified JMS Application Development (JSR 343)

This release of WebLogic Server supports the JMS simplified API defined by the Java Message Service (JMS) 2.0 specification. See Understanding the Simplified API Programming Model in Developing JMS Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Java EE Connector Architecture 1.7 (JSR 322)

Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) supports the Java EE Connector Architecture 1.7 specification. See Understanding Resource Adapters in Developing Resource Adapters for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Enterprise JavaBeans 3.2 (JSR-345)

Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) supports the Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs) 3.2 specification (JSR 352). See Understanding Enterprise JavaBeans in Developing Enterprise JavaBeans for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Clustering and High Availability Support for WebSocket 1.1 Applications

This release of Oracle WebLogic Server adds support for clustering and high availability with WebSocket applications. WebSocket clustering uses Coherence as part of its implementation to establish communication among all cluster members. WebSocket clustering enables horizontal scaling, allows you to send messages to all members of the cluster, increases the maximum number of connected clients, and decreases broadcast execution time.

GZIP Compression Support

Oracle WebLogic Server adds support for GZIP compression in the WebLogic Web container, which you can enable at the domain or Web application level. With GZIP compression enabled, you can configure attributes, such as minimum content length and compression content types, and monitor related statistics. See Enabling GZIP Compression for Web Applications in Developing Web Applications, Servlets, and JSPs for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Java EE 7 Security Standards

Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) includes support for the following security standards:

- Java Authorization Contract for Containers 1.5

- Java Authentication Service Provider Interface for Containers 1.1 (JASPIC)

- Packaged Permissions

- Uncovered HTTP Methods (JSR 340 for Servlet 3.1)

See Security.

Sample Applications

The sample applications that can optionally be installed with WebLogic Server have been updated for Java EE 7, as described in the following sections:

- Avitek Medical Records — MedRec

- New Java EE 7 Examples

Avitek Medical Records — MedRec

Avitek Medical Records (or "MedRec") is a comprehensive educational sample application that demonstrates WebLogic Server and Java EE features, as well as best practices. In Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1), MedRec has been upgraded to demonstrate the following Java EE 7 features:

- Java Persistence 2.1

- Simplified API of JMS 2.0

- Contexts and Dependency Injection 1.1

- Batch 1.0

- JAX-RS 2.0

- JavaServer Faces 2.2

- JSON Processing 1.0

- HTML5

New Java EE 7 Examples

New sample applications have been added to show the following Java EE 7 features:

- JSON Processing 1.0

- Servlet 3.1

- JavaServer Faces 2.2

- Expression Language 3.0

- Batch Processing

- Concurrency Utilities

- Contexts and Dependency Injection 1.1

- Java EE Connector Architecture 1.7

- Java Persistence 2.1

- Java Message Service API 2.0

- Enterprise JavaBeans 3.2

- Java API for RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS) 2.0 asynchronous processing, filters and interceptors, and server-sent events (SSE) Jersey support.

JDK 8 and Server JRE 8 Certification

Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) is certified for use with JDK 8. Supported Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) clients are certified for use with JDK 7 and JDK 8 Update 40. A certified JDK is required for running the WebLogic Server installation program.

As of release 12.2.1.2.0, Oracle WebLogic Server is also certified for use with Oracle Server JRE 8.

See the following topics:

- The Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations page on Oracle Technology Network.

- The Java SE Downloads page on Oracle Technology Network from which Oracle Server JRE 8 is available, including release notes and installation instructions:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html

- Roadmap for Verifying Your System Environment in Installing and Configuring Oracle WebLogic Server and Coherence

Docker Certification

Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1 is certified to run inside a Docker container. Docker is a Linux-based container technology that enables you to quickly create lightweight clustered and non-clustered WebLogic Server domain configurations on a single host OS or virtual machines, for either development or production environments.

As part of this certification, Oracle provides Docker files and supporting scripts for building images of Oracle WebLogic Server. These images are built as an extension of existing Oracle Linux images. These scripts and build images are available on GitHub at the following location:

https://github.com/oracle/docker/tree/master/OracleWebLogic

For information about using Docker with WebLogic Server, and the combinations of Oracle WebLogic Server, JDK, Linux and Docker versions that are certified for building your Docker images, see the Oracle WebLogic Server on Docker Containers white paper on the Oracle Technology Network.

Runtime Improvements

Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) builds on support from prior WebLogic Server versions to improve the reliability, availability, scalability and performance of WebLogic Server applications with regards to use of clustered environments, new Oracle Database features, and multi-data center architectures.

These support improvements are described in the following topics:

- Deployment

- JDBC Data Sources

- JTA

- Messaging

- Monitoring WebSocket Applications

- Policy Classloader

- ReadyApp Integration with WebLogic Server

- RESTful Web Services

- Simple WLST APIs for Dynamic Clusters

- ThreadLocal Clean Out Support for Work Managers

Deployment

Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) includes the following new and changed deployment features:

- Overriding Resource Group Template Application Configuration

- Parallel Deployment

- FastSwap Enhancements

- Deployment Performance Enhancements

- Behavior Change for Application Names

Overriding Resource Group Template Application Configuration

When a resource group references a resource group template, it inherits the application configuration defined in the resource group template. You can customize a specific application in a resource group by overriding the default application configuration in the resource group template.

To override the application configuration defined in a resource group template, specify a different deployment plan that the application should use for its configuration. You can apply application overrides or remove existing overrides using the Administration Console, Fusion Middleware Control, or by using the update or redeploy command with one of the supported deployment clients.

See Overriding Application Configuration in Deploying Applications to Oracle WebLogic Server and Overriding Application Configuration in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

Parallel Deployment

This release of Oracle WebLogic Server adds support for parallel deployment. For use cases involving the deployment of multiple applications, the deployment of a single application with multiple modules, or the deployment of one or more applications across multiple partitions, parallel deployment improves startup and post-running deployment time. In multitenant environments, parallel deployment helps avoid cross-tenant performance impact.

For more information about parallel deployment, see Enabling Parallel Deployment for Applications and Modules in Deploying Applications to Oracle WebLogic Server and Enabling Parallel Deployment in Multitenant Environments in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

FastSwap Enhancements

This release of Oracle WebLogic Server enhances FastSwap to work with the Java EE Contexts and Dependency Injection (CDI) specification.

Used in development mode, FastSwap helps developers avoid redeployment of an application and reduce turnaround time during development iterations. To improve the developer experience, you can now use FastSwap with CDI. For more information about FastSwap, see Using FastSwap Deployment to Minimize Redeployment in Deploying Applications to Oracle WebLogic Server.

Deployment Performance Enhancements

This release of Oracle WebLogic Server adds several deployment performance enhancements. Improvements include:

- Application class loading in parallel.

- Indexing of class finder data to locate classes and resources faster.

- Deployment factory caching during identification of a deployment, helping large deployments process faster.

- Annotation scanning caching for libraries and applications, benefiting server restart and resulting in faster deployment time.

- Annotation scanning in parallel so that each JAR file in the class path of a module is handled in parallel.

Behavior Change for Application Names

As of Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1, application names must be unique within each deployment scope. When deploying an application globally to a domain, if that application name is already in use in the current domain, the application deployment fails. This is a behavior change from previous WebLogic Server versions, when specifying the same application name caused WebLogic Server to automatically derive a unique name based on the specified name.

JDBC Data Sources

Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) includes the following new and changed features:

- Enhanced Data Source Shutdown

- Retry Count

- Connection Initialization Callback for Non-Oracle Drivers

- JDBC Store Improved Retry Handling

- JDBC Store Connection Caching Policy

- Gradual Draining

Enhanced Data Source Shutdown

In Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.1.0, new asynchronous, task-based operations have been added for data source suspend and shutdown. When a data source is shutting down, suspend closes all idle connections immediately and closes connections when returned to the pool. See Shutting Down the Data Source in Administering JDBC Data Sources for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Retry Count

During a ConnectionInitializationCallback operation, the application may want to know when the connection work is being replayed. The getReplayAttemptCount method on the WLConnection interface is added in WebLogic Server 12.2.1.1.0 to obtain the number of times that replay is attempted on the connection. See Application Continuity Auditing in Administering JDBC Data Sources for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Connection Initialization Callback for Non-Oracle Drivers

As of Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.1.0, you can now configure the connection initialization callback that can be called with non-Oracle drivers. See Create an Initialization Callback in Administering JDBC Data Sources for Oracle WebLogic Server.

JDBC Store Improved Retry Handling

In previous releases, a JDBC Store's retry mechanism would make one reconnect attempt, then throw a JDBCStoreException if it was not able to reconnect to the database. In Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.1.0, Oracle allows you to configure multiple retry attempts over a specified time period. See Configuring JDBC Store Reconnect Retry in Administering the WebLogic Persistent Store.

JDBC Store Connection Caching Policy

Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.1.0 adds an option to reduce the number of JDBC connections cached by a JDBC store.

See Configuring a JDBC Store Connection Caching Policy in Administering the WebLogic Persistent Store.

Gradual Draining

When planned maintenance occurs, a planned down service event is processed by WebLogic Server data source. By default, all unreserved connections in the pool are closed and borrowed connections are closed when returned to the pool.  This can cause an uneven performance because:

- New connections need to be created on the alternative instances.

- A logon storm on the other instances can occur.

It is desirable to gradually drain connections instead of closing them all immediately. The application can define the length of the draining period during which connections are closed.

In Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.2.0, this feature is supported for an AGL data source running with Oracle RAC. See Gradual Draining in Administering JDBC Data Sources for Oracle WebLogic Server.

JTA

This release of WebLogic Server includes the following new and changed JTA features:

- Transactions without TLog Write

Transactions without TLog Write

Oracle improves XA transaction performance by providing the option to eliminate the writing of XA transactions to the TLog. XA transaction resources (determiners) are used during transaction recovery when a TLog is not present. See XA Transactions without Transaction TLogs Write in Developing JTA Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Messaging

This release of WebLogic Server includes the following new and changed messaging features:

- Messaging Support for Multitenancy

- Simplified JMS Cluster Configuration and High Availability Enhancements

Messaging Support for Multitenancy

WebLogic JMS provides support for the WebLogic Messaging Service in WebLogic 12.2.1 and later environments, including:

- Core WebLogic Messaging components including modules, JMS resources, path service, stores, and admin helpers such as one that can locate an available JMS destination

- Integration solutions, including the Messaging Bridge, JMS pools, and foreign JMS servers

- Store-and-Forward (SAF) agents

- AQ JMS using foreign JMS servers

See Configuring Messaging in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

Simplified JMS Cluster Configuration and High Availability Enhancements

Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1 and later provides enhanced support for simplified messaging configurations that set up JMS using cluster targeting instead of individually configuring and targeting JMS resource artifacts on each server in a cluster. This enhanced support for cluster targeted JMS improves high availability and removes the limitations from previous releases.

Cluster targeting now supports:

- High availability features:

- Automatic service migration—automatically restarts a failed JMS instance on a different WebLogic Server instance.

- Fail-back—returns an instance to its original host server when the host server restarts.

- Restart-in-place—automatically restarts a failed JMS instance on its running WebLogic Server instance.

- Unit-of-Order and Unit-of-Work messaging

- Singleton destinations (in addition to already supported distributed destinations)

- SAF agents, bridges, and path services (in addition to already supported JMS servers and stores)

See Simplified JMS Cluster and High Availability Configuration in Administering JMS Resources for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Monitoring WebSocket Applications

In Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1), you can monitor message statistics and runtime properties for WebSocket applications and endpoints. Endpoint-level monitoring collects information per individual endpoint, while application-level monitoring aggregates information from all endpoints deploying in the given application.

The following MBeans have been added or modified to support WebSocket monitoring:

- WebAppComponentRuntimeMBean

- WebsocketApplicationRuntimeMBean

- WebsocketEndpointRuntimeMBean

- WebsocketMessageStatisticsRuntimeMBean

- WebsocketBaseRuntimeMBean

You can also use the WebLogic Server Administration Console or Fusion Middleware Control to monitor WebSocket applications.

See Monitoring WebSocket Applications in Developing Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Policy Classloader

This release of WebLogic Server integrates the policy classloader implementation as the default system class loader when using WebLogic start scripts. The policy classloader improves class loader performance and server startup time and is supported in all WebLogic modes (development and production).

See Class Caching With the Policy Classloader in Developing Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server.

ReadyApp Integration with WebLogic Server

This release of WebLogic Server integrates the ReadyApp framework. At times, applications are not fully initialized when WebLogic Server completed its startup process. By using the ReadyApp framework, applications can register with the WebLogic Server ReadyApp during the deployment process and influence the true readiness state of the server instance. Applications notify ReadyApp of their application state so server instances can determine if an application is fully initialized and ready to accept requests. ReadyApp also allows load balancers to detect server readiness by providing a reliable health-check URL.

See Using the ReadyApp Framework in Deploying Applications to Oracle WebLogic Server.

RESTful Web Services

This release of Oracle WebLogic Server provides the following new and changed features for RESTful web services:

- Provides support for Jersey 2.x (JAX-RS 2.0 RI) by default in this release. Registration as a shared library with WebLogic Server is no longer required.

- Provides enhanced monitoring of RESTful web services in the WebLogic Administration Console, including enhanced runtime statistics for your RESTful applications and resources, detailed deployment and configuration data, global execution statistics, and resource and resource method execution statistics. The following runtime MBeans have been modified or added to support enhanced monitoring:

- JaxRsApplicationRuntimeBean

- JaxRSExceptionMapperStatisticsRuntimeMbean

- JaxRsExecutionStatisticsRuntimeMBean

- JaxRsResourceMethodBaseRuntimeMBean

- JaxRsResourceMethodRuntimeMBean

- JaxRsResourceRuntimeMBean

- JaxRsResponseStatisticsRuntimeMBean

- JaxRsSubResourceLocatorRuntimeMBean

- JaxRsUriRuntimeMBean

- Includes the ability to disable RESTful web services monitoring at the individual application level, or globally at the domain level.

- Reflects support for the Jersey 2.21.1 (JAX-RS 2.0 RI).

- Supports securing Jersey 2.x (JAX-RS 2.0 RI) web services using Oracle Web Services Manager (OWSM) security policies.

- Adds support for Java EE 7.

See Introduction to RESTful Web Services in Developing and Securing RESTful Web Services for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Simple WLST APIs for Dynamic Clusters

This release of WebLogic Server adds WLST commands to improve usability for dynamic cluster lifecycle operations. By using the WLST scaleUp and scaleDown commands, you can easily start and stop dynamic servers in a dynamic cluster and expand or shrink the size of a dynamic cluster.

See Starting and Stopping Servers in Dynamic Clusters and Expanding or Reducing Dynamic Clusters in Administering Clusters for Oracle WebLogic Server.

ThreadLocal Clean Out Support for Work Managers

This release of Oracle WebLogic Server enhances ThreadLocal clean out support in Work Managers. To clean up stray ThreadLocal use by applications and third-party libraries, configure the eagerThreadLocalCleanup attribute in the KernelMBean. By default, the self-tuning thread pool only cleans up ThreadLocal storage when a thread returns to a standby pool and after an application is undeployed. See ThreadLocal Clean Out in Administering Server Environments for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Manageability Improvements

Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) continues to provide new management features that simplify the configuration, monitoring, and ongoing management of WebLogic domains and applications with regards to elasticity support in dynamic clusters, multitenancy administration, REST, security, patching, and more.

These new features are described in the following sections:

- Elasticity Support for Dynamic Clusters

- Resource Groups

- Resource Group Templates and Resource Overrides

- Named Concurrent Edit Sessions

- REST Resources for WebLogic Server Management

- Fusion Middleware Control

- Security

- Logging Enhancements

- WebLogic Diagnostic Framework

- WebLogic Server Development and Supplemental Distribution

- Zero Downtime Patching

- WLST

- Resource Consumption Management

Elasticity Support for Dynamic Clusters

This release of WebLogic Server introduces elasticity. Elasticity enables the automatic scaling of dynamic clusters and re-provisioning of associated resources based on demand. The Elasticity Framework leverages the WebLogic Diagnostic Framework (WLDF) policies and actions system. See Overview in Configuring Elasticity in Dynamic Clusters for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Resource Groups

WebLogic Server Multitenant introduces resource groups as a convenient way to group together Java EE applications and the resources they use into a distinct administrative unit within the domain. The resources and applications in a resource group are "fully qualified" in that the administrator provides all the information needed to start or connect to those resources, including credentials for connecting to a data source and targeting information for Java EE applications. A resource group will either contain these deployable resources directly or refer to a resource group template which contains the resources. Resource groups can be defined at the domain level, or be specific to a domain partition.

See Configuring Resource Groups in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

Resource Group Templates and Resource Overrides

Resource group templates are a named, domain-level collection of deployable resources intended to be used as a pattern by (usually) multiple resource groups. Each resource group that refers to a given template will have its own runtime copies of the resources defined in the template. A resource group template is a convenient way to define and replicate resources for multiple tenants. Resource group templates make it very easy to deploy the same collection of applications and resources to multiple domain partitions.

Resource group templates are particularly useful in SaaS environments where WebLogic Server Multitenant activates the same applications and resources multiple times, once per domain partition. Some of the information about such resources is the same across all domain partitions, while some of it, such as JMS queues and database connections, varies from one partition to the next. WebLogic Server Multitenant provides several methods for overriding resource definitions:

- Resource Override Configuration MBeans

- Resource deployment plans

- Partition-specific application deployment plans

Administrators can employ and combine any of these techniques.

See Configuring Resource Group Templates and Configuring Resource Overrides in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

Named Concurrent Edit Sessions

Prior to this release, WebLogic Server supported only one active configuration edit session at a time. The system administrator got a global edit lock, made changes, and then activated them. Other administrators could not make changes at the same time. However, this release of Oracle WebLogic Server enables multiple, named concurrent edit sessions, which allows more than one administrator to make configuration changes at the same time. This is typically useful when multiple administrators work in different parts of the system. Also, when configuring a system takes a long time because of the serial execution of configuration commands, a single administrator can open multiple named edit sessions. This saves time by running the configuration edit sessions in parallel.

In a multitenant environment, more than one administrator will need to make configuration changes concurrently. A multitenant WebLogic domain contains multiple partitions each with its own administrator. Partition administrators must be able to make configuration changes to their partitions and the resources deployed in them without affecting other partition administrators or the WebLogic system administrator. Multiple, named concurrent edit sessions support one or more configuration edit sessions per partition plus global configuration edit sessions.

See Managing Named Concurrent Edit Sessions in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

REST Resources for WebLogic Server Management

RESTful Management Services are a publicly documented programming interface to Oracle WebLogic Server. In each release of WebLogic Server, the availability of REST resources for WebLogic Server administration has been enhanced and extended. In this release of Oracle WebLogic Server, WebLogic RESTful management resources provide a comprehensive public interface for configuring, monitoring, deploying and administering WebLogic Server in all supported environments.

For information about the RESTful management resources provided in this release of WebLogic Server, see About the WLS RESTful Management Interface in Administering Oracle WebLogic Server with RESTful Management Services.

Fusion Middleware Control

Fusion Middleware Control provides management support for all Fusion Middleware components, including WebLogic Server. Use Fusion Middleware Control to manage WebLogic Server when using other Fusion Middleware products in addition to WebLogic Server.

In this release of WebLogic Server, the following subsets of functionality are now available in Fusion Middleware Control:

- Create WebLogic Server clusters, server instances, domains, machines, and server templates

- Configure and deploy applications and libraries

- Create and configure UCP and proxy data sources

- Create and configure JMS servers, Store-and-Forward agents, JMS modules, JMS resources, path services, messaging bridges, and messaging bridge destinations

- Create and configure security realms

- Manage WebLogic Server diagnostics

- Configure elasticity for dynamic clusters

- Configure Coherence clusters

- Manage WebLogic Server in a multitenant environment

See Administration in Administering Oracle WebLogic Server with Fusion Middleware Control.

As of release 12.2.1.1.0, you can use Fusion Middleware Control to connect directly to a domain partition instead of logging in at the domain level. When you do this the user name that you specify is validated against the security realm and the management identity domain for that partition. See Configuring Security in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

Security

The new security features provided in Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) are described in the following sections:

- New Method for Two-Way SSL Authentication in Java Clients Using JNDI

- Java EE 7 Standards Support

- LDAP Authentication Provider Manageability Enhancements

- Default Minimum TLS Protocol Version

- Support for weblogic-jwt-token

New Method for Two-Way SSL Authentication in Java Clients Using JNDI

As of release 12.2.1.2.0 a new method, setSSLContext(), has been added to the weblogic.jndi.Environment class for configuring two-way SSL authentication for Java clients using JNDI. Alternatively, you can use loadLocalIdentity(). The methods previously recommended, setSSLClientCertificate() and setSSLClientKeyPassword(), have been deprecated in this release. See Two-Way SSL Authentication with JNDI in Developing Applications with the WebLogic Security Service.

Java EE 7 Standards Support

This release of WebLogic Server supports the following Java EE 7 standards and features for security:

- Java Authorization Contract for Containers 1.5 (JSR 115)

- Java Authentication Service Provider Interface for Containers (JASPIC) 1.1 (JSR 196)

- Packaged Permissions (Java EE 7 Platform Specification)

- Uncovered HTTP methods for Servlet 3.1 (JSR 340)

LDAP Authentication Provider Manageability Enhancements

The following enhancements have been added to the LDAP Authentication provider improve the configuration process:

- LDAP Authentication provider performance enhancements for improved caching, searching, and LDAP server connection handling, such as:

- The ability to collect hit/miss metrics on user and group caching, allowing you to determine the best settings for user and group caching to maximize response time and throughput.

- Support for specifying a timeout on the LDAP server connection.

- Support for testing the LDAP server connection prior activating the LDAP Authentication provider, similar to the way JDBC connections can be tested during data source configuration. Testing occurs automatically at the time you activate the this provider: if the test succeeds, the provider is activated.

See Improving the Performance of WebLogic and LDAP Authentication Providers in Administering Security for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Default Minimum TLS Protocol Version

As of Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1, the default minimum version of the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol configured in WebLogic Server is Version 1.1.

Support for weblogic-jwt-token

The WebLogic Identity Assertion and WebLogic Credential mapping providers have been enhanced to include support for the JSON web token, weblogic-jwt-token. This token type, which is configured by default in these security providers, is used internally for propagating identity among web applications in the domain.

Logging Enhancements

In this release of WebLogic Server, the WebLogic logging services include the following changes:

- Partition scope logging — The logs for several WebLogic Server components, such as partition scope JMS, SAF, and servlet resources, are kept in partition-specific log files. The logs for server and domain scope resources, such as the server scope HTTP access log, the Harvester component, the Instrumentation component, and also the server and domain logs, can be tagged with partition-specific information to enable logging that is performed on behalf of a partition to be identified and made available to partition users.
See Monitoring and Debugging Partitions in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

Note:

To revert the format of generated log messages to that they are compatible with the format used in versions of WebLogic Server prior to 12.2.1, you can enable the DomainMBean.LogFormatCompatibilityEnabled attribute. See Log File Format Compatibility with Previous WebLogic Server Versions in Configuring Log Files and Filtering Log Messages for Oracle WebLogic Server.

- Monitoring for excessive logging — When enabled, the logging service monitors the domain for excessive rates of logging and, when present, suppresses messages that are being generated repeatedly.
See Preventing Excessive Logging in Configuring Log Files and Filtering Log Messages for Oracle WebLogic Server.

WebLogic Diagnostic Framework

In this release of WebLogic Server, the WebLogic Diagnostic Framework (WLDF) includes the following changes:

- The terms watch and notification are replaced by policy and action, respectively. However, the definition of these terms has not changed.

- Four new action types are introduced as part of the Policy and Action component of WLDF. Actions are triggered when a policy expression evaluates to true. In addition to JMX notification actions, JMS message actions, SMTP (e-mail) actions, SNMP trap actions, and diagnostic image actions, WebLogic Server now supports the following new action types:

- Elastic actions — scale a dynamic cluster up or down

- REST notification — sends a notification to a REST endpoint

- Script — executes an external command line script

- Log — sends a custom message to the server log

- Heap dump — captures heap dumps when certain runtime conditions are met (added in 12.2.1.1.0)

- Thread dump — capture thread dumps when certain runtime conditions are met (added in 12.2.1.1.0)

In addition, WLDF enhances the SMTP action to allow you to send custom subject and body elements in an email message.

See Configuring Actions in Configuring and Using the Diagnostics Framework for Oracle WebLogic Server.

- This release of WebLogic Server introduces dynamic debug patches. Dynamic debug patches allow you to capture diagnostic information using a patch that is activated and deactivated without requiring a server restart. Dynamic debug patching requires target WebLogic Server instances to be started with the WLDF instrumentation agent. See Using Debug Patches in Configuring and Using the Diagnostics Framework for Oracle WebLogic Server.

- This release of WebLogic Server introduces smart rules. Smart rules are prepackaged policy expressions with a set of configurable parameters that allow the end user to create a complex policy expression just by specifying the values for these configurable parameters. See Configuring Smart Rule Based Policies in Configuring and Using the Diagnostics Framework for Oracle WebLogic Server.

- When you initiate a diagnostic image capture, the images produced by the different server subsystems are captured and combined into a single .zip file. In previous releases of WebLogic Server, the components of a diagnostics image capture file all used the .img extension even though these files are all in text format and can be viewed in a text editor. As of WebLogic Server 12.2.1, the file extensions have been updated to either .txt or .xml to clarify that these are text files.
See Data Included in the Diagnostics Image Capture File in Configuring and Using the Diagnostics Framework for Oracle WebLogic Server.

- WLST command changes, described in WLST.

WebLogic Server Development and Supplemental Distribution

As of WebLogic Server 12.2.1, the WebLogic Server Development and Supplemental distributions are available as JAR files and are installed using the java command. The installation uses the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) and is automatically done in silent mode; you only need to specify the ORACLE_HOME location for the installation.

Zero Downtime Patching

WebLogic Zero Downtime Patching (ZDT Patching) automates the rollout of out-of-place patching or updates across a domain while allowing your applications to continue servicing requests. To use ZDT Patching, you create a workflow that orchestrates how updates are rolled out, and then you execute the workflow using use either WLST or the WebLogic Server Administration Console.

ZDT Patching supports the following workflow types:

Feature

Description

Move servers to a patched Oracle Home

Transitions the Administration Server or clusters, or both, to another Oracle Home that has already been patched using OPatch.

Update to a new Java version

Updates the Administration Server or clusters, or both, to use a newly installed Java Home.

Deploy updated applications

Deploys updated applications to the selected clusters.

Perform a rolling restart of servers

Sequentially and safely restarts the Administration Server or servers in the selected clusters, or both, including graceful shutdown and restart.

For a comprehensive overview of ZDT patching, see Introduction to Zero Downtime Patching in Administering Zero Downtime Patching Workflows.

In Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.2.0, ZDT Patching is enhanced to provide support for the following additional features:

- Starting the Administration Server without a dependency on Node Manager— In the previous release, for the rollout to be successful, the Administration Server had to be started using Node Manager. This restriction is now removed. See Starting the Administration Server in Administering Zero Downtime Patching Workflows.

- To support multitenancy and partitions, the following new features have been introduced:

- Rolling restart of partitions—ZDT Patching allows WebLogic Server administrators and partition administrators to perform the rolling restart of partitions. See Initiating a Rolling Restart of Servers or Partitions in Administering Zero Downtime Patching Workflows

- Rolling out application updates to partitions and resource groups—ZDT Patching now provides application rollout capabilities to both partitions and resource groups. See Rolling Out Updated Applications: Overview in Administering Zero Downtime Patching Workflows.

WLST

This section describes new WLST commands for WebLogic Server and changes to existing WLST commands in this release of WebLogic Server. Additional new WLST commands and arguments for multitenancy are described in WLST Changes to Support Multitenancy.

New Domain Commands

The following WLST commands related to domain creation and domain extension are added in this release of WebLogic Server :

- setTopologyProfile—Sets the topology profile at domain creation to either Compact or Expanded.

- selectTemplate—Selects an existing domain or extension template for creating or extending a domain.

- selectCustomTemplate—Selects an existing custom domain or extension template for creating or extending a domain.

- loadTemplates—Loads all templates that were selected using the selectTemplate or selectCustomTemplate commands.

- readTemplateForUpdate—Opens an existing domain template for template update.

- unselectTemplate—Deselects a currently selected template.

- unselectCustomTemplate—Deselects a currently selected custom template.

- showTemplates—Displays all currently selected and loaded templates.

- showAvailableTemplates—Displays all currently selected templates for loading.

New Diagnostic Commands

The following diagnostics commands were added in this release of WebLogic Server:

- purgeCapturedImages—Purges the diagnostic image files on the server as per the specified age criteria.

- listDebugPatches—Lists active and available debug patches on the specified targets.

- showDebugPatchInfo—Displays details about a debug patch on the specified targets.

- activateDebugPatch—Activates a debug patch on the specified targets.

- deactivateDebugPatches—Deactivates debug patches on the specified targets.

- deactivateAllDebugPatches—Deactivates all debug patches on the specified targets.

- listDebugPatchTasks—Lists debug patch tasks from the specified targets.

- purgeDebugPatchTasks—Purges debug patch tasks from the specified targets.

- getAvailableDiagnosticDataAccessorNames—Gets the diagnostic data accessor names that are currently available on a server or partition.

- exportHarvestedTimeSeriesData—Exports the harvested metric data within the specified internal, in CSV format.

- exportHarvestedTimeSeriesDataOffline—Exports the harvested metric data in offline mode within the specified internal, in CSV format.

In addition, a new optional parameter, last, is available to the following commands:

- exportDiagnosticData

- exportDiagnosticDataFromServer

- exportHarvestedTimeSeriesData

- exportHarvestedTimeSeriesDataOffline

The last option allows you to specify the timestamp range specification for the last n records. When specified, the beginTimestamp and endTimestamp options are ignored. The format is XXd YYh ZZm. For example, 1d 5h 30m specifies data that is one day, five hours and 30 minutes old. You can specify any combination of day, hour, and minute components in any order.

New Node Manager Commands

The following Node Manager WLST commands were added in this release of WebLogic Server:

- nmrestart—Restarts the Node Manager instance.

- nmExecScript—Executes the named script using the connected Node Manager.

New Edit Session Commands

The following WLST edit session management commands were added in this release of WebLogic Server:

- createEditSession—Creates a new WLST edit session.

- showEditSession—Displays information about the specified edit sessions.

- destroyEditSession —Removes an open edit session.

- edit(editSessionName)—Creates a new edit session with the specified name or navigates to an existing edit session with the specified name.

- resolve—Detects any external modifications and conflicts, and resolves them.

New System Component Commands

The following system component WLST commands were added in this release of WebLogic Server:

- resync—Resynchronizes configuration files for a system component.

- resyncAll—Resynchronizes configuration files for all system components.

- showComponentChanges—Displays changes to a system component's configuration files on a remote node.

- pullComponentChanges—Removes changes to a system component's configuration files on a remote node.

- enableOverWriteComponentChanges—Forces changes to all system components during activation.

Other New Commands

Other WLST commands that were added in this release of WebLogic Server are:

- setShowLSResult—Specifies whether the ls() command should log its output to standard output.

- scaleUp—Increases the number of running dynamic servers in the specified dynamic cluster.

- scaleDown—Decreases the number of running dynamic servers in the specified dynamic cluster.

Modifications to Existing Commands

The following modifications were made to existing WLST commands in this release of WebLogic Server.

- The format argument has been added to the exportDiagnosticData and exportDiagnosticDataFromServer commands. Use this argument to specify the format in which data is exported.

- The last argument has been added to the exportDiagnosticData, exportDiagnosticDataFromServer, exportHarvestedTimeSeriesData, and exportHarvestedTimeSeriesDataOffline commands. This argument is a timestamp range specification for the last n seconds.

- The Server argument has been added to the getAvailableCapturedImages command. Use this argument to specify the server from which to obtain a list of available images.

- The waitForAllSessions argument has been added to the shutdown command. Use this argument to specify whether WLST should wait for all HTTP sessions to complete while shutting down.

- The following arguments were added to the startNodeManager command:

- block—Specifies whether WLST should block until it successfully connects to Node Manager or fails to connect within the specified timeout.

- nmConnectOptions—When block is true, use this argument to specify a list of Node Manager connection options.

- timeout—The number of milliseconds to wait for Node Manager to connect.

idd Variable and Argument

The idd variable has been added to WLST. This WLST variable is the Identity Domain of the user who is currently connected to WLST.

In addition, the idd argument has been added to the connect command to specify the Identity Domain of the user who is connecting.

Resource Consumption Management

Resource Consumption Management allows WebLogic system administrators to specify resource consumption management policies (such as constraints, recourse actions, and notifications) on JDK-managed resources such as CPU, Heap, File, and Network. For more information, see Configuring Resource Consumption Management in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

A configurable, partition auto-restart trigger action has been added that restarts the partition on the server instance on which the partition's resource consumption quotas have been breached. See Triggers in Using Oracle WebLogic Server Multitenant.

Documentation Update History

The update history of the Oracle WebLogic Server documentation library summarizes the updates that have been made to various user and reference guides, as well as online help, since the initial release of version 12c (12.2.1).

The following table summarizes updates made to the Oracle WebLogic Server documentation library since its initial 12.2.1.0.0 release:

Date

Description of Updates

June 21, 2016

Patch Set 1 (12.2.1.1.0) is generally available.

October 19, 2016

Patch Set 2 (12.2.1.2.0) is generally available.

January 30, 2017

- Due to the removal of the wlx startup option, as explained in Startup Option for Lighter-Weight Runtime, the following topics have been removed from the WebLogic Server 12.2.1.2.0 documentation:

- Using the weblogic.Server Command Line to Limit the WebLogic Server Run-Time Footprint, in Command Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server

- Limiting Run-Time Footprint When Starting WebLogic Server, in Administering Server Startup and Shutdown for Oracle WebLogic Server

- In Deploying Applications to Oracle WebLogic Server, the section Enabling Parallel Deployment for Applications and Modules was updated to clarify the circumstances in which parallel deployment is either enabled or disabled.
The section Parallel Deployment has been added to Upgrading Oracle WebLogic Server to explain this behavior.

- In Developing Web Applications, Servlets, and JSPs for Oracle WebLogic Server, the information about the <session-descriptor> element of the weblogic.xml deployment descriptor has been updated to describe the new <auth-cookie-id-length> subelement, which defines the length of the secure cookie, _WL_AUTHCOOKIE_JSESSIONID.

July 10, 2017

Oracle Server JRE 8 is certified for use with Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.2.0.

Standards Support, Supported Configurations, and WebLogic Server Compatibility

Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) provides Java EE 7 full platform support, Java SE 8 certification, support for web services standards, support on multiple operating system and JVM platforms, and support for several security standards such as X.509 v3 and SSL v3.

The following sections describe WebLogic Server standards support, supported system configuration, and WebLogic Server compatibility:

- Standards Support

- Supported Configurations

- Licensing Information

- WebLogic Server Compatibility

- Database Interoperability

Standards Support

WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) supports the following standards and versions:

- Java Standards

- Web Services Standards

- Other Standards

Java Standards

Table 2-1 lists currently supported Java standards.

Note:

See WebLogic Server Security Standards in Administering Security for Oracle WebLogic Server for the currently supported security standards, such as JAAS, JASPIC, JACC, JCE, and so forth.

Table 2-1 Java Standards Support

Standard

Version

Batch Application Processing (JSR 352)

1.0

Contexts and Dependency Injection for Java EE

1.1

Dependency Injection for Java EE

1.0

Concurrent Managed Objects (JSR 236)

1.0

Expression Language (EL)

3.0, 2.2, 2.1, 2.0

Only JSP 2.0 and greater supports Expression Language 2.x.

Java API for JSON Processing (JSR-353)

1.0

Java API for XML-Based Web Services (JAX-WS)

2.2, 2.1, 2.0

Java API for RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS)

2.0

Java API for WebSocket

1.1

JavaBeans Activation Framework

1.1

Java EE

7.0

Java EE Application Deployment

1.2

Java EE Bean Validation

1.1

Java EE Common Annotations

1.2

Java EE Connector Architecture

1.7

Java EE EJB

3.2, 3.1, 3.0, 2.1, 2.0, and 1.1

Java EE Enterprise Web Services

1.3, 1.2, 1.1

Java EE Interceptors

1.1

Java EE JDBC

4.0, 3.0

Java EE JMS

2.0, 1.1, 1.0.2b

Java EE JNDI

1.2

Java EE JSF

2.2, 2.1.*, 2.0, 1.2, 1.1

Java EE JSP

2.3, 2.2, 2.1, 2.0, 1.2, and 1.1

JSP 1.2. and 1.1 include Expression Language (EL), but do not support EL 2.x or greater.

Java EE Managed Beans

1.0

Java EE Servlet

3.1, 3.0, 2.5, 2.4, 2.3, and 2.2

Java RMI

1.0

JavaMail

1.4

Java Transaction API

1.2

JAX-B

2.2, 2.1, 2.0

JAX-P

1.3, 1.2, 1.1

JAX-R

1.0

JAX-RPC

1.1

JDKs

8.0 (8.0 and 7.0 for clients)

See JDK 8 and Server JRE 8 Certification for details.

JMX

2.0

JPA

2.1, 2.0., 1.0

JSR 77: Java EE Management

1.1

JSTL

1.2

Managed Beans

1.0

OTS/JTA

OTS 1.2 and JTA 1.2

RMI/IIOP

1.0

SOAP Attachments for Java (SAAJ)

1.3, 1.2

Streaming API for XML (StAX)

1.0

Web Services Metadata for the Java Platform

2.0, 1.1

Web Services Standards

For the current list of standards supported for WebLogic web services, see Features and Standards Supported by WebLogic Web Services in Understanding WebLogic Web Services for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Other Standards

Table 2-2 lists other standards that are supported in WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1).

Note:

See WebLogic Server Security Standards in Administering Security for Oracle WebLogic Server for additional information on standards relating to security, such as SSL, TLS, and XACML, and so forth.

Table 2-2 Other Standards

Standard

Version

X.509

v3

LDAP

v3

TLS

v1.1, v1.2

HTTP

1.1

SNMP

SNMPv1, SNMPv2, SNMPv3

xTensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML)

2.0

Partial implementation of Core and Hierarchical Role Based Access Control (RABC) Profile of XACML

2.0

Internet Protocol (IP)

Versions:

- v6

- v4

For more information about IPv6 support for all Fusion Middleware products, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations page on Oracle Technology Network.

Supported Configurations

For the most current information on supported configurations, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations page on Oracle Technology Network.

Please note the following restrictions and advice when running Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1), and Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) applications, on Java SE 8:

- Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) does not support applications using the new Java SE 8 fork/join and parallel streams features. Avoid these features when building Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1) applications using Java SE 8. The reason for this restriction is that the threads used by the fork/join thread pool will not be WebLogic Server managed threads. Any of the work performed in these threads may not be able to make use of WebLogic Server or Java EE facilities because the state of these threads, including security and transaction state, may not be created properly. Further, these threads will not be controlled by WebLogic Server Work Manager thread management facilities, possibly resulting in excessive thread usage.

- Check all third party vendor software you are using for Java SE 8 compatibility. It may be necessary to upgrade to a later version of the software that correctly handles Java SE 8 classes, and some software may not yet be compatible. For example, the current version of the open source tool "jarjar" does not work correctly with Java SE 8 yet.

- Java SE 8 has new APIs for JDBC 4.2 that are supported for versions of WebLogic Server 12.1.3 and later that are running on Java SE 8 with a JDBC driver that supports JDBC 4.2. However, although the Oracle JDBC thin driver bundled with WebLogic Server is certified on Java SE 8, the Oracle JDBC thin driver does not support JDBC 4.2. The Derby 10.10 driver that is shipped with Oracle WebLogic Server as of release 12c (12.2.1) has been tested with JDBC 4.2 and may be used. The corresponding Derby documentation is available at http://db.apache.org/derby/docs/10.10/ref/rrefjdbc4_2summary.html.

- When running using SSL connections with JCE on JDK 8, it may be necessary to install the Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files 8. You can download the JCE Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files for JDK 8 at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jce8-download-2133166.html.

Licensing Information

For the most current information on Oracle Fusion Middleware Licensing, see Licensing Information User Manual.

WebLogic Server Compatibility

For the most current information on compatibility between the current version of WebLogic Server and previous releases, see WebLogic Server Compatibility in Understanding Oracle WebLogic Server.

Database Interoperability

The certification matrices and My Oracle Support Certifications define the following terms to differentiate between types of database support:

- Application Data Access

- Database Dependent Features

Application Data Access

Application Data Access refers to those applications that use the database for data access only and do not take advantage of WebLogic Server features that are Database dependant. WebLogic Server support of databases used for application data access only are less restrictive than for database dependent features.

WebLogic Server provides support for application data access to databases using JDBC drivers that meet the following requirements:

- The driver must be thread safe.

- The driver must implement standard JDBC transactional calls, such as setAutoCommit() and setTransactionIsolation(), when used in transactional aware environments.

Note the following restrictions:

- JDBC drivers that do not implement serializable or remote interfaces cannot pass objects to an RMI client application.

- Simultaneous use of automatic database connection failover and load balancing and global transactions (XA) with a highly-available (HA) DBMS architecture is supported with Oracle DB RAC only, and only for the Oracle DB RAC versions indicated on the System worksheet. These HA capabilities are only supported by Active GridLink for RAC and Multi Data Sources with RAC. These HA capabilities are not supported on other Oracle DB RAC versions or with other HA DBMS technologies on other non-Oracle DB products. Multi Data Sources are supported on other Oracle DB versions, and with non-Oracle DB technologies, but not with simultaneous use of automatic failover and load balancing and global transactions.

- Application data access to databases meeting the restrictions articulated above is supported on other Oracle DB versions, in addition to those documented in the certification matrix.

- WebLogic Type 4 JDBC drivers also support the following databases. For these databases, WebLogic Server supports application data access only, and does not support WebLogic Server database dependent features:

- DB2 for z/OS 10.1

- Informix 11.7+

Database Dependent Features

When WebLogic Server features use a database for internal data storage, database support is more restrictive than for application data access. The following WebLogic Server features require internal data storage:

- Container Managed Persistence (CMP)

- Rowsets

- JMS/JDBC Persistence and use of a WebLogic JDBC Store

- JDBC Session Persistence

- RDBMS Security Providers

- Database Leasing (for singleton services and server migration)

- JTA Logging Last Resource optimization

- JDBC TLog

Deprecated Functionality (Oracle WebLogic Server 12c 12.2.1.2.0)

Complete details about deprecated functionality for WebLogic Server, including for previous releases, can be found on My Oracle Support at https://support.oracle.com/. Search for "Deprecated Features" in the Search Knowledge Base field.

The following functionality and components are deprecated in WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1):

- WebLogic Full and Standard Clients

- Log4j

- LogMBean.ServerLoggingBridgeUserParentLoggersEnabled Attribute

- Username and Password in boot.properties File

- Maven 11x Plug-In Deprecated

- JSP Tags for XML Processing

- Deprecated Functionality in WLST

- URL Format for REST Management

- WebLogic Server/Spring Integration Features

- Deprecated Diagnostics Exceptions

- RESTful Web Services

- CacheFilter API

- JAX-RPC WebService-ReliableMessaging

- SSLMBean.ExportKeyLifespan Attribute

- setSSLClientCertificate and setSSLClientKeyPassword Methods

WebLogic Full and Standard Clients

The following WebLogic clients are deprecated:

- The WebLogic full client, wlfullclient.jar, is deprecated as of Oracle WebLogic Server 12.1.3.

- The standard client, wlclient.jar, and the following clients that depend on it, are deprecated as of Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.2.0:

- The JMS client, wljmsclient.jar

- The JMS SAF client, wlsafclient.jar

Log4j

The use of Log4j with the WebLogic logging service, as an alternative to Java logging, is deprecated as of WebLogic Server 12.1.3. Note that Log4j 2 and later is not supported in WebLogic Server.

LogMBean.ServerLoggingBridgeUserParentLoggersEnabled Attribute

The ServerLoggingBridgeUserParentLoggersEnabled attribute on the LogMBean is deprecated as of WebLogic Server 12.1.3.

Username and Password in boot.properties File

As of WebLogic Server 12.1.1, the boot username and password system properties weblogic.management.username and weblogic.management.password have been deprecated and will be removed in a future release, and you will no longer be able to specify the username and password in the command for starting WebLogic Server in production mode.

As an alternative, Oracle recommends that you use the boot.properties file to specify the boot username and password for WebLogic Server. For more information about the boot.properties file, see Boot Identity Files in Administering Server Startup and Shutdown for Oracle WebLogic Server.

For information about other methods you can use to provide user credentials, see Provide User Credentials to Start and Stop Servers in Administering Server Startup and Shutdown for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Maven 11x Plug-In Deprecated

The weblogic-maven-plugin plug-in delivered in WebLogic Server 11g Release 1 is deprecated as of release 12.1.2. Oracle recommends that you instead use the WebLogic Server Maven plug-in introduced in version 12.1.2. See Using the WebLogic Development Maven Plug-in in Developing Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server for complete documentation.

JSP Tags for XML Processing

As of WebLogic Server 12.1.2, XSLT JSP tags and the WebLogic XSLT JSP Tag Library have been deprecated and will be removed in a future release. You can use JAXP to transform XML data. For more information, see Transforming XML Documents in Developing XML Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Deprecated Functionality in WLST

The following functionality in WLST has been deprecated as of WebLogic Server 12.2.1.

Server Argument to WLST Diagnostics Commands

The Server argument to the following WLST diagnostics commands has been deprecated:

- captureAndSaveDiagnosticImage

- createSystemResourceControl

- destroySystemResourceControl

- disableSystemResource

- enableSystemResource

- listSystemResourceControls

The Server argument is being replaced by the Target argument. For more information, see Diagnostics Commands in WLST Command Reference for WebLogic Server.

The addTemplate and readTemplate Control Commands

The addTemplate and readTemplate commands have been deprecated as of WebLogic Server 12.2.1 and will be removed in a future release. Use the selectTemplate and loadTemplates commands instead. For more information and examples, see Creating and Updating a WebLogic Domain in Understanding the WebLogic Scripting Tool.

Implicit Importing of Modules Using WLST

Support for using WLST to implicitly import modules into an application has been deprecated. When using WLST to import modules, Oracle recommends doing the operation explicitly.

The following WLST snippet shows an explicit import of the module EJBResource from weblogic.security.service:

@ from weblogic.security.service import EJBResource
ejbRes = EJBResource('DDPoliciesEar', 'DDPolinEarMiniAppBean.jar', 'DDRolesAndPolicies', 'getSubject', 'Remote', None)

URL Format for REST Management

The URL format for REST management APIs has changed in 12.1.3. The URL format introduced in 12.1.2 will continue to work, but is deprecated as of Oracle WebLogic Server 12.1.3.

WebLogic Server/Spring Integration Features

Integration features for WebLogic Server/Spring are deprecated in Oracle WebLogic Server as of version 12.2.1. Also, as of version 12.2.1, the Oracle WebLogic Server Spring console extension is not supported when using JRF or restricted-JRF.

Deprecated Diagnostics Exceptions

The following exceptions in the Harvester component of the WebLogic Diagnostics Framework are deprecated:

weblogic.diagnostics.harvester.HarvesterException
weblogic.diagnostics.harvester.HarvesterException.AmbiguousInstanceName
weblogic.diagnostics.harvester.HarvesterException.AmbiguousTypeName
weblogic.diagnostics.harvester.HarvesterException.HarvestableInstancesNotFoundException
weblogic.diagnostics.harvester.HarvesterException.HarvestableTypesNotFoundException
weblogic.diagnostics.harvester.HarvesterException.HarvestingNotEnabled
weblogic.diagnostics.harvester.HarvesterException.MissingConfigurationType
weblogic.diagnostics.harvester.HarvesterException.TypeNotHarvestable

RESTful Web Services

The following JAX-RS functionality has been deprecated as of Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.

Jersey 1.18 (JAX-RS 1.1 RI) Client APIs

Support for the Jersey 1.18 (JAX-RS 1.1RI) client APIs, including the com.sun.jersey and its nested packages, and the weblogic.jaxrs.api.client packages, are deprecated in this release of WebLogic Server but are maintained for backward compatibility. It is recommended that you update your RESTful client applications to use the JAX-RS 2.0 RI client APIs at your earliest convenience. For more information, see Introduction to RESTful Web Services in Developing and Securing RESTful Web Services for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Runtime Monitoring MBeans

The following runtime MBeans have been deprecated:

- JaxRsMonitoringInfoRuntimeMBean

- JaxRsResourceConfigTypeRuntimeMBean

Note:

The functionality provided by these MBeans has been replaced by new or updated MBeans. For more information, see Monitoring RESTful Web Services and Clients in Developing and Securing RESTful Web Services for Oracle WebLogic Server.

CacheFilter API

The WebLogic Server API weblogic.cache.filter.CacheFilter has been deprecated as of Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1.

JAX-RPC WebService-ReliableMessaging

WebLogic SAF Agent support for JAX-RPC Reliable Messaging is deprecated, along with the complete JAX-RPC API. Consequently, the SAF Agent Service Type attribute will be ignored and all SAF Agents will be treated as Service Type Sending-only in a future release. Oracle recommends use of JAX-WS Reliable Messaging as a replacement for this technology.

SSLMBean.ExportKeyLifespan Attribute

The SSLMBean.ExportKeyLifespan attribute is deprecated as of WebLogic Server 12.2.1. This attribute was used by the Certicom-based SSL implementation, which was removed from WebLogic Server in version 12.1.1 and replaced by JSSE. The JSSE implementation in WebLogic Server does not use the SSLMBean.ExportKeyLifespan attribute. For more information about JSSE, see Using the JSSE-Based SSL Implementation in Administering Security for Oracle WebLogic Server.

setSSLClientCertificate and setSSLClientKeyPassword Methods

The setSSLClientCertificate() and setSSLClientKeyPassword() methods in the weblogic.jndi.Environment class have been deprecated in this release. Use loadLocalIdentity() or setSSLContext() instead. For more information, see Two-Way SSL Authentication with JNDI in Developing Applications with the WebLogic Security Service.

Removed Functionality and Components

Several components deprecated in previous versions of WebLogic Server are removed from Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1).

- Compatibility Security

- 6.x Realms

- Certificate Request Generator Servlet

- weblogic.Admin

- JAXR

- Jersey 1.18 (JAX-RS 1.1. RI) Server APIs

- WebLogic Keystore Provider

- weblogic.security.provider.PrincipalValidatorImpl

- weblogic.xml.stream.util.XMLPullReaderBase

- Connect-Time Failover

- Compatibility MBean Server and Type-Safe MBean Interfaces

- Startup Option for Lighter-Weight Runtime

Compatibility Security

As of release 12.2.1, WebLogic Server has removed support for Compatibility security in both the server and client. In prior releases, Compatibility security is used for running security configurations developed with WebLogic Server 6.x. For information about interoperability with a version of WebLogic Server that uses Compatibility security, see Protocol Compatibility in Understanding Oracle WebLogic Server. The following components that provided Compatibility security in previous releases are removed as of Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1:

- CompatibilityRealm

- CachingRealm

- LDAPRealm

- NTRealm

- FileRealm

- Custom security realm

- RDBMS security realm

- Realm Adapter provider

- Realm Adapter Auditing provider

- Realm Adapter Authentication provider

- Realm Adapter Authorization provider

- Realm Adapter Adjudication provider

The following classes that provided support for Compatibility security were removed:

- weblogic.management.configuration.Acl

- weblogic.management.configuration.BasicRealmMBean

- weblogic.management.configuration.CachingRealmMBean

- weblogic.management.configuration.CustomRealmMBean

- weblogic.management.configuration.FileRealmMBean

- weblogic.management.configuration.Group

- weblogic.management.configuration.LDAPRealmMBean

- weblogic.management.configuration.ListResults

- weblogic.management.configuration.NTRealmMBean

- weblogic.management.configuration.PasswordPolicyMBean

- weblogic.management.configuration.Principal

- weblogic.management.configuration.RDBMSRealmMBean

- weblogic.management.configuration.RealmException

- weblogic.management.configuration.RealmIterator

- weblogic.management.configuration.RealmMBean

- weblogic.management.configuration.RealmManager

- weblogic.management.configuration.RemoteEnumeration

- weblogic.management.configuration.SecurityMBean

- weblogic.management.configuration.UnixRealmMBean

- weblogic.management.configuration.User

- weblogic.management.mbeans.custom.LDAPRealm

- weblogic.management.mbeans.custom.NTRealm

- weblogic.management.mbeans.custom.Realm

- weblogic.management.mbeans.custom.Security

- weblogic.management.mbeans.custom.UnixRealm

- weblogic.management.internal.BatchedEnumeration

- weblogic.management.internal.RemoteEnumerationImpl

- weblogic.management.internal.RemoteRealmException

- weblogic.management.internal.RemoteRealmManager

- weblogic.management.internal.RemoteRealmManagerImpl

- weblogic.security.acl.AbstractListableRealm

- weblogic.security.acl.AbstractManageableRealm

- weblogic.security.acl.AclEntryImpl

- weblogic.security.acl.AclImpl

- weblogic.security.acl.AdminPermissions

- weblogic.security.acl.CachingRealm

- weblogic.security.acl.CertAuthentication

- weblogic.security.acl.CertAuthenticator

- weblogic.security.acl.ClosableEnumeration

- weblogic.security.acl.CredentialChanger

- weblogic.security.acl.DebuggableRealm

- weblogic.security.acl.DefaultGroupImpl

- weblogic.security.acl.DefaultUserImpl

- weblogic.security.acl.DynamicUserAcl

- weblogic.security.acl.Everyone

- weblogic.security.acl.ExplicitlyControlled

- weblogic.security.acl.FlatGroup

- weblogic.security.acl.GroupImpl

- weblogic.security.acl.InvalidLogin

- weblogic.security.acl.ListableRealm

- weblogic.security.acl.LoginFailureRecord

- weblogic.security.acl.ManageableRealm

- weblogic.security.acl.OwnerImpl

- weblogic.security.acl.PasswordGuessing

- weblogic.security.acl.PasswordGuessingWrapper

- weblogic.security.acl.PermissionImpl

- weblogic.security.acl.PrivilegedAction

- weblogic.security.acl.PrivilegedExceptionAction

- weblogic.security.acl.Realm

- weblogic.security.acl.RealmProxy

- weblogic.security.acl.RefreshableRealm

- weblogic.security.acl.SSLUserInfo

- weblogic.security.acl.Security

- weblogic.security.acl.SecurityMessage

- weblogic.security.acl.SecurityMulticastRecord

- weblogic.security.acl.TTLCache

- weblogic.security.acl.UnlockUserRecord

- weblogic.security.acl.internal.AuthenticationDelegate

- weblogic.security.acl.internal.ClusterRealm

- weblogic.security.acl.internal.DefaultRealmImpl

- weblogic.security.audit.Audit

- weblogic.security.audit.AuditProvider

- weblogic.security.internal.RealmTest

- weblogic.security.ldaprealm.LDAPRealm

- weblogic.security.ldaprealmv1.LDAPDelegate

- weblogic.security.ldaprealmv1.LDAPException

- weblogic.security.ldaprealmv1.LDAPGroup

- weblogic.security.ldaprealmv1.LDAPRealm

- weblogic.security.ldaprealmv1.LDAPUser

- weblogic.security.ldaprealmv2.LDAPDelegate

- weblogic.security.ldaprealmv2.LDAPEntity

- weblogic.security.ldaprealmv2.LDAPGroup

- weblogic.security.ldaprealmv2.LDAPRealm

- weblogic.security.ldaprealmv2.LDAPRealmException

- weblogic.security.ldaprealmv2.LDAPUser

- weblogic.security.ntrealm.NTDelegate

- weblogic.security.ntrealm.NTRealm

- weblogic.security.unixrealm.SubprocessException

- weblogic.security.unixrealm.UnixDelegate

- weblogic.security.unixrealm.UnixGroup

- weblogic.security.unixrealm.UnixRealm

- weblogic.security.unixrealm.UnixUser

- weblogic.security.providers.realmadapter.AdjudicationProviderImpl

- weblogic.security.providers.realmadapter.AuditProviderImpl

- weblogic.security.providers.realmadapter.AuthenticationProviderImpl

- weblogic.security.providers.realmadapter.AuthorizationProviderImpl

- weblogic.security.providers.realmadapter.IdentityAsserterImpl

- weblogic.security.providers.realmadapter.LoginModuleImpl

- weblogic.security.providers.realmadapter.RealmAdapterAdjudicatorImpl

- weblogic.security.providers.realmadapter.RealmAdapterAuditorImpl

- weblogic.security.providers.realmadapter.RealmAdapterAuthenticatorImpl

- weblogic.security.providers.realmadapter.RealmAdapterAuthorizerImpl

- RealmAdapterAdjudicatorMBean

- RealmAdapterAuditorMBean

- RealmAdapterAuthenticatorMBean

- RealmAdapterAuthorizerMBean

6.x Realms

The 6.x realm configuration and associated APIs have been removed from WebLogic Server as of version 12.2.1. The following deprecated configuration MBeans and associated elements have been removed from the DomainMBean configuration element:

Configuration MBean

Associated DomainMBean Configuration Element

SecurityMBean

<security>

FileRealmMBean

<file-realm>

CachingRealmMBean

<caching-realm>

PasswordPolicyMBean

<password-policies>

BasicRealmMBean

<basic-realm>

CustomRealmMBean

<custom-realm>

LDAPRealmMBean

<ldap-realm>

NTRealmMBean

<nt-realm>

RDBMSRealmMBean

<rdbms-realm>

RealmMBean

<realm>

UnixRealmMBean

<unix-realm>

Certificate Request Generator Servlet

The Certificate Request Generator servlet has been removed from Oracle WebLogic Server as of version 12.2.1, including the weblogic.servlet.security.CertificateServlet class.

weblogic.Admin

The weblogic.Admin utility, a command-line interface for administering, configuring, and monitoring WebLogic Server, has been removed from Oracle WebLogic Server as of version 12.2.1. Oracle recommends the WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST) for all command-line operations previously available from the weblogic.Admin utility. See Understanding the WebLogic Scripting Tool.

Note:

The weblogic.Admin utility used the compatibility MBean server to access MBeans. As noted in Compatibility MBean Server and Type-Safe MBean Interfaces, the compatibility MBean server is also removed. However, you can use WLST to browse and access the full set of MBeans for configuring, monitoring, and managing WebLogic Server resources, including security realms.

JAXR

The JAVA API for XML Registries (JAXR) has been removed from Oracle WebLogic Server as of version 12.2.1.

Jersey 1.18 (JAX-RS 1.1. RI) Server APIs

The Jersey 1.18 (JAX-RS 1.1 RI) server APIs have been removed from Oracle WebLogic Server as of version 12.2.1. You should use the corresponding standard JAX-RS 2.0 or Jersey 2.x APIs instead. See Introduction to RESTful Web Services in Developing and Securing RESTful Web Services for Oracle WebLogic Server.

WebLogic Keystore Provider

The WebLogic Keystore provider, which was deprecated in previous releases, has been removed from WebLogic Server as of version 12.2.1.

weblogic.security.provider.PrincipalValidatorImpl

The weblogic.security.provider.PrincipalValidatorImpl class, which was deprecated in the previous release, is removed from WebLogic Server as of version 12.2.1.

weblogic.xml.stream.util.XMLPullReaderBase

The weblogic.xml.stream.util.XMLPullReaderBase class, which was deprecated in a previous release, has been removed from Oracle WebLogic Server as of version 12.2.1.

Connect-Time Failover

Oracle Connect-Time Failover was deprecated in an earlier release. This functionality and the supporting documentation has been removed from Oracle WebLogic Server as of version 12.2.1.

Compatibility MBean Server and Type-Safe MBean Interfaces

As of Oracle WebLogic Server 12.2.1, the compatibility MBean server and all type-safe interfaces to WebLogic Server MBeans are removed.

Startup Option for Lighter-Weight Runtime

The startup option for running a lighter-weight runtime instance of WebLogic Server in a domain has been removed from Oracle WebLogic Server as of version 12.2.1. This startup option, shown below, resulted in a WebLogic Server instance that omitted the startup of the Enterprise JavaBean, Java EE Connector Architecture, and Java Message Service services:

-DserverType="wlx"

The following sections of the WebLogic Server documentation that explain how to use this startup option have been removed:

- Limiting Run-Time Footprint When Starting WebLogic Server in Administering Server Startup and Shutdown for Oracle WebLogic Server

- Using the weblogic.Server Command Line to Limit the WebLogic Server Run-Time Footprint in Command Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server

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