We are announcing a major release for Oracle WebLogic Server (WLS) on Azure Virtual Machines. The release is jointly developed with the WebLogic team as part of a broad-ranging partnership between Microsoft and Oracle. Software available under the partnership includes Oracle WebLogic, Oracle Linux, and Oracle Database, as well as interoperability between Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and Azure. This release covers common use cases for WLS on Azure, such as base image, single working instance, clustering, load balancing via App Gateway, database connectivity, integration with Azure Active Directory, caching with Oracle Coherence and consolidated logging via the ELK stack. WLS is a key component in enabling enterprise Java workloads on Azure. Customers are encouraged to evaluate these solutions for full production usage and reach out to collaborate on migration cases.
Use cases and roadmap
The partnership between Oracle and Microsoft was announced in June of 2019. Under the partnership, we announced the initial release of the WLS on Azure Virtual Machines at Oracle OpenWorld 2019. The solutions simplify migration by automating boilerplate provisioning of virtual networks and storage, installing OS/Java resources, setting up WLS, and configuring integration with key Azure services.
Earlier releases focused on a basic set of use cases such as single working instance and clustering. This release expands features to cover most migration scenarios. Some of the features added include distributed caching via Coherence, consolidated logging via ELK, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate management, Domain Name System (DNS) configuration, and support for Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) as a load-balancing option. The database integration feature supports Azure PostgreSQL, Azure SQL, and Oracle Database running on OCI or Azure.
The solutions let you choose from a variety of base images including WebLogic 12.2.1.3.0 with JDK8u131/251 and Oracle Linux 7.4/7.6, or WebLogic 14.1.1 with JDK11u01 on Oracle Linux 7.6. All base images are also available on Azure on their own. The standalone base images are suitable for customers that require very highly customized deployments.
In addition to the WLS on Virtual Machines solutions, Oracle and Microsoft have provided an initial set of solutions to run WLS on the Azure Kubernetes Service.
Going forward, we will be adding more enhancements to the WLS on Virtual Machines solutions such as support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux in addition to Oracle Linux and adding base images for some older WLS versions such as 10.3.6. We will also add more robust automation for the WLS on AKS solutions.
The solutions will enable a variety of robust production-ready deployment architectures with relative ease, automating the provisioning of most critical components quickly and allowing customers to focus on business value add. Once the initial provisioning is completed by the solutions, you are free to further customize the deployment including integrating with more Azure services.
These offers are all Bring-Your-Own-License. They assume you have already procured the appropriate licenses with Oracle and are properly licensed to run offers in Azure.
Get started
Customers interested in WLS on Azure Virtual Machines should explore the solutions, provide feedback and stay informed of the roadmap. Customers can also take advantage of hands-on help from the engineering team behind these offers. The opportunity to collaborate on a migration scenario is completely free while the offers are under active development.
