Training

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Plan for a portal installation
• Install portal, including silent installation
• Create a customized look and feel
• Install new portlet applications
• Configure Portal composite applications
• Add portlets to pages and change page layout
• Configure security using LDAP
• Migrate portal configuration databases to an external database
• Resolve most common problems
• Perform basic performance tuning
• Create multiple virtual portals
• Use Web Content Management to maintain the web site

• Introduction to WebSphere Portal, key concepts and benefits
• WebSphere Portal Server installation
• Portal configuration utilities
• Portal troubleshooting
• Portal security authentication
• Portal page management
• Portlet administration
• Portlet resource security
• Composite application management
• Managing web content
• Portal search configuration
• Portal look and feel customization
• Portal server clustering
• Portal performance tuning
• Managing multiple portal environments
• Virtual portals

This is a course for administrators who are responsible for installing and maintaining a WebSphere Portal Server based web site.

Prior experience with WebSphere Application Server administration is required.

Student may take the following course to gain experience with WebSphere Application Server 6.1 administration.

• What is a Portal
• An Example of a WebSphere Portal Site
• General Portal Architecture
• WebSphere Portal Products
• A Typical Network Architecture for WebSphere Portal
• WebSphere Portal Server
• WebSphere Portal Server Architecture
• Page Aggregation Modules
• Portlet
• WebSphere Portal Built-in Portlets
• Portlet Application
• Portlet Mode and State
• WebSphere Portal Information
• Java Portlet Specification v1.0 (JSR-168)
• Java Portlet Specification v2.0 (JSR-286)
• Portlet Security Overview
• Portal Access Control
• Portal User Management
• Credential Vault Service
• Best Practices For Development
• Summary
• Review Questions
• Review Answers

• Installing WPS
• WPS Components
• Optional Component: Database
• Optional Component: LDAP Server
• Optional Component: WebSphere Process Server
• Optional Component: HTTP Server
• Hardware Requirements
• Operating Systems
• Supported Databases
• Supported LDAP Servers
• Supported Web Servers
• Preparing the OS
• Preparing the OS
• Installation Source
• Running the Install Program
• Simple Install Example
• Install Complete
• Test
• Starting Portal Server
• Accessing The Home Page
• The Portal Home Page
• The Portal Administration Page
• Stopping Portal Server
• Getting Server Status
• Looking At Log Files
• SystemOut.log
• Summary

• Installation Architectures
• Development Environment
• Functional Testing
• Integration Testing
• Production Environment
• Clustering Considerations
• Configuration Utilities
• ConfigEngine Utility
• ANT Script File
• How ConfigEngine Uses ANT
• More on Properties
• Property Precedence
• What Can You Do with ConfigEngine?
• Migrating Database
• Database Domains
• Migrate to DB2
• Migrate to Oracle
• Summary

• Problem Determination
• Types of Problems
• Problem Isolation
• Steps to Follow
• HTTP Server Access Log
• HTTP Server Error Log
• HTTP Server Start Up Error
• WebSphere Specific Notes
• Tools for Resolving WebSphere Problems
• Admin Console Messages
• Configuration Problems
• Runtime Messages
• Message Details
• Important Log Files
• Log Types
• Log Detail Levels
• Configuring Log Files
• Viewing Logs
• Log File Format
• Configuring Tracing
• Reading Java Exceptions
• Debugging
• IBM Tools
• Application Server Does Not Start
• High CPU Usage
• Application Server Hanging  
• Portal Server Installation Logs
• Portal Server Runtime Logs
• Portal Server Tracing
• Summary

• Authentication
• Authentication
• LDAP Security Basics
• LDAP Data Structure
• Example
• Distinguished Name (DN)
• DN and RDN Example
• Searching
• User Registries
• Portal User Registry
• Alternate Security Registries
• The ConfigWizard
• The ConfigWizard
• When to Configure Security
• Enabling Security with Standalone User Registry
• Property Extension Database
• Configure a Property Extension Database
• Adding Properties to the Property Extension Database
• Summary

• Portlets
• Portlets In Action
• Portlet Catalog
• Administrative Portlets
• Utility Portlets
• Application Portlets
• Elements of a Portal Site
• Page and Label
• Page/Label Hierarchy
• Creating Pages and Labels
• Setting Page Properties
• Layout Of A Page
• Layout Of A Page
• Adding Portlets To A Page
• Page Locking
• Private Page
• URL Mapping
• URL Mapping Portlet
• URL
• Behavior of the Back Button
• Configuring Anchors
• Delayed Cleanup Of Deleted Portal Pages
• Deleting Orphaned Data

• Terminologies
• Portlet
• Portlet Modes
• Example of Using Edit Mode
• Portlet Window States
• Portlet API
• Portlet Deployment Descriptors
• Installing a Portlet Web Module
• How is a Portlet Web Module Installed?
• Deploying Portlets Within an EAR
• Managing Portlet Web Modules
• Managing Portlet Applications
• Managing Portlets
• Adding a Portlet To a Page
• Configuring A Portlet
• Copying A Portlet Application
• Copy A Portlet
• Removing A Portlet From A Page
• Uninstalling a Portlet Application
• Portlet Caching
• Cache Scope
• Enabling Portlet Caching

• Key Concepts
• Authorization
• How Does Authorization Work?
• Roles
• Role Membership
• More on Authorization
• Resources
• Common Access Rights
• Delegated Administration
• Managing Users and Groups
• Setting Resource Permissions
• Resource Permissions GUI

• Credential Vault
• Credential
• Components of Credential Vault
• Structure of the Credential Vault
• Slot Scope
• Slot Scope
• Credential Access Level
• Single Sign-on Scenario
• Vault Administration

• Global Settings
• Portal Configuration Services
• The WAS Admin Console
• Using the WAS Admin Console
• Changing A Parameter
• Configuring Various Services
• Credential Vault Service
• External Access Control Service
• Auditing Service
• Enabling Auditing Service
• Localizer Service
• Persistent Session State
• Persistent Session State Options
• Session State Level
• HTTP Proxy
• Unique Names
• Custom Unique Names Portlet

• What Is A Composite Application?
• What Is A Component?
• Components and Applications
• Benefits Of Composite Applications
• Template
• Enabling Composite Application Support
• Composite Application Design and Use
• Creating A Template
• Configuring A Template
• Edit the Template Layout
• Creating the Application
• Configuring the Application
• Using the Application
• Protecting Applications and Templates
• Defining Roles
• Roles Portlet
• Assign Application Members
• Summary

• Importing Content
• Web Page Portlet
• Web Clipping Portlet
• Configuring the Web Clipping Portlet
• Clipping Options
• Clipping Type
• HTML Clipping
• Add the Clipping
• RSS Portlet
• Configure the RSS Portlet
• Add the RSS Portlet
• Document Management Changes
• Third Party Portlets

• Introduction
• Key Features
• Main Components of WCM
• How Does it Work?
• Enabling WCM
• Accessing WCM Authoring Tools
• Using the WCM Tool
• Authoring Template
• Creating Authoring Template
• Presentation Template
• Corporate News Presentation Template
• Presentation Template XML Markup
• Site and Site Area
• Example Site and Site Area
• Content
• Content Example
• Creating Content
• Security and Workflow of Content
• Components
• Showing a Component from an Authoring Template
• Rendering Content in a Web Site
• The Web Content Viewer Portlet
• Summary

• Customization Basics
• Theme
• Screen
• The Home Screen
• Skin
• Container
• How is a Page Rendered?
• Theme Customizer Tool
• Using the Theme Customizer  
• Portal Designer in RAD
• Manual Customization Technique
• Theme Resources
• Creating a Theme
• Customizing the New Theme
• Creating a Skin
• Skins And Layouts
• Customizing a Skin
• Client-side Aggregation Theme

• Introduction to xmlaccess
• Running xmlaccess
• Example Input File
• Basic Syntax
• XML Input Structure
• Export Example
• Deleting Users and Groups
• Detailed XML Script Reference
• Portal Resources Represented in XML
• Object ID
• Looking up Objects
• Symbolic Reference
• Symbolic Reference Example
• Additional Examples - Create Users
• Additional Examples - Deploy Theme
• Additional Examples - Deploy Portlet
• Guidelines
• Portal Scripting Interface - Introduction
• Portal Scripting Interface – Benefits
• Portal Scripting Interface – Usage
• Using Portal Scripting Interface in a Cluster
• JACL
• JACL Grammar
• Script Beans
• Script Beans - $Portal
• Script Beans - $Content
• Script Beans - $Layout
• Script Beans - $Portlet
• Script Beans - $Look
• Profile Scripts
• Example – Add Pages
• Running the Example
• Summary

• What are Virtual Portals?
• Characteristics of Virtual Portals
• Virtual Portals
• Virtual Portals – Scoped Resources
• Creating Virtual Portals
• Pre-configuring Virtual Portals
• Virtual Portals - Actions
• Virtual Portal User Population
• Leveraging Realms with Virtual Portals

• What is Clustering?
• Sample Clustered Topology
• Basic Steps
• Install WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment
• Configure the Deployment Manager
• Configure Primary Node to Communicate with DM
• Federate and Cluster the Primary Node
• Configure External Web Server with Portal Cluster
• Configure WCM Content through External Web Server
• Add Additional Members: Horizontal Clustering
• Add Additional Members: Vertical Clustering
• Session Failover
• Configure Session Failover
• Start and Validate the Cluster
• Installing a Portlet Web Module
• Unfederating a Node

• What is ReleaseBuilder?
• High Level Concepts
• Preparing a Staging Server
• Making a Release in Staging
• Exporting Shared Configurations
• Computing the Differences
• Applying Changes in Production
• Caveats

• WebSphere Platform
• WebSphere Features
• WebSphere Editions
• Role of Network Deployment Software
• IBM HTTP Server
• WebSphere Profiles
• Creating Profiles
• Benefits of Profiles
• Product Files Directories
• Profile Directories
• Cell/Node/Server
• Config Directory
• Network Deployment Cell
• Deployment Manager and Node Agents
• Network Deployment Profiles
• Configuration File Synchronization
• Synchronization Problems
• Firewall Issues
• Federating Nodes
• Federating an Application Server Profile
• Federating a Custom Profile
• Federating Nodes
• Web Server Integration
• Benefit of a Web Server
• IBM HTTP Server Installation
• Web Server Plug-in
• Web Servers in WebSphere
• Mapping Applications to Web Servers
• Plug-in Configuration
• Workload Management (WLM) Basics
• Cluster
• Vertical Scaling
• Horizontal Scaling
• "Mixed" Scaling
• Reference
• Summary