Summary

In this chapter, we learned that all configurations done in the Administrative console are ultimately saved into XML files in the underlying WAS file structure. On startup, WAS reads these files to determine its configuration. We learned there are some important XML files which you should be familiar with to help with troubleshooting, WAS configuration, and runtime issues. We also learned that when global security is turned on, it is possible to edit special property files to disable login prompts when issuing server stop commands.

We covered WAS logging, where application logs are located, and the types of logs used by WAS. We also covered the new WAS 8 High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL) logging system, which allows WebSphere Application Server to run more efficiently using binary logging information, as opposed to logging to text files.

In this chapter, we also covered the important topic of class loaders, which is very important in the running of both servers and applications...