Provisioning
Provisioning is usually the first step in the lifecycle of an IT resource. Provisioning of an application comprises multiple provisioning operations. These operations include:
Provisioning of core stack i.e. J2EE server, HTTP server, Identity servers, and so on
Provisioning of application artefacts i.e. J2EE applications, BPEL processes, OSB services, and so on
Some of the best practices for provisioning are discussed in the sections ahead.
Creating gold images
After the first installation is completed, various required patches are applied, configuration is done, and the system is stabilized; you should create a gold image of the setup and use it for subsequent setups. This image will also help to rebuild a system from scratch just in case the server crashes.
Enterprise Manager provides support for the gold image creation for Oracle products like Oracle Application Server. For other products you can write your own scripts and use them for the gold image creation.
