IBM WebSphere: Deployment and Advanced Configuration

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Summary: The answer to "So we have written the code, now what!?!?"
Review: "IBM Websphere: Deployment and Advanced Configuration" provides a single reference for your organization's IT staff to design and most importantly, use J2EE applications and technologies.

The most useful concepts learned from this book were how to automate so many tedious processes that are bound to the development and deployment cycle. The text provides a great starting point for understanding surrounding technologies like ANT and wsadmin. Implementing these automated processes has saved time and eliminated errors.

Aside from recommending best practice deployment concepts, the text provides a hefty resource on application server settings as well. This book has been such a blessing in its ability to provide not only the "how" we enable or modify a setting, but also answers the "why" we would want to do such a thing.

Finally, the text does an excellent job conveying information regarding J2EE technologies and advanced server configurations to provide high availability systems, performance increases, and security hardening.

This book is a must have for any enterprise running J2EE architectures and doubly so if you are using IBM Websphere.


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Summary: A Must Have for WebSphere Administrators
Review: Finally, we have in one reference, all of the important considerations that must be taken into account, when deploying and administering WebSphere applications. The book is based on the deep subject matter expertise of the authors, but more importantly, also on their significant engagement experience over the last 5 years with WebSphere clients. While the book is sufficiently rich in technical detail, so as to appeal to even the most experienced WebSphere administrators, the authors write with an engaging style that can provide knowledge and insight for the most novice of readers. Finally, there is much in the way of J2EE best practice that would well serve J2EE developers.

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Summary: An epic tale of J2EE deployment
Review: I laughed, I cried, it's a real page turner. Seriously, if you want to know the best processes and procedures to get your J2EE application into production in a seamless repeatable manner, then this book is required reading. They guys have written the book on WebSphere application deployment, long before this book was published. This book is based on experts in the field. Read, put it on your shelf so you can refer back to it, and don't forget the excellent code samples.

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Summary: Finally someone filled in the gaps
Review: One of the biggest gaps in app development is where the app developers leave off and the system administrators take over. This leaves quite a bit of work for the 2 groups to haggle over and is really neither one's expertise. Until now I've not seen another book that bridges that gap and provides really great examples of what and (more importantly) how to have automated processes for building and deploying applications.

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Summary: Transition a sysadmin?
Review: This book is basically a sequel to another recent text, "IBM WebSphere System Administration". Here, Barcia et al focus on the problems involved in deploying a WebSphere application. It may be heavily used, within a large company, say, or exposed to many queries from users coming from anywhere on the Internet. They point out that numerous books exist to aid developers of J2EE applications, but relatively few on how you would then deploy and continually administer those applications. Partly, this imbalance is due to the container-specific nature of the latter texts. As shown here. The book has a comprehensive discussion of how to manage a WebSphere. But relatively little carries over to running JBoss or Oracle's 10g server, for example.

A useful feature of the book is how it can help a regular sysadmin make the transition to being a WebSphere sysadmin. A possible upward career move. The knowledge here is more specialised than that for running a generic AIX or linux cluster. But there is enough overlap in some topics to make it a logical move. For example, the book talks about the WAS network deployment architecture. Essentially, it is for load balancing and redundancy. The natural purview of your sysadmin.

Also, if you're not a sysadmin, but an IT manager facing WebSphere deployment issues, you may want to consider redeploying a sysadmin here. Show her this book and see if she's interested.

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Summary: Complete overview to J2EE development with WebSphere
Review: This is a comprehensive book which covers every topic from installation, to application design and performance tuning with WebSphere. Their is very little code, a surprising number of screenshots. The text is uniformly architectural, ranging from somewhat in-depth (e.g. the coverage of EJBs), to very in-depth (e.g. the chapter on security).

If you are new to J2EE development and you are looking for an overall field guide to the topic at the architectural level, then this may be the book for you. If you are looking for in-depth coverage of specific topics, like EJBs, deployment, or performance tuning, then you should look for other books that are more in-depth.

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Summary: Excellent Book
Review: This is an excellent book, very clear, concise and the number of quality figures in this book make all the difference !
It is a must for IBM Websphere J2EE Developers, Deployers and Administrators.


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Summary: If only I had it sooner ...
Review: When a book makes me miss my stop on the bus, I know it's a good book. "IBM WebSphere Deployment and Advanced Configuration" is the WebSphere 5 book I have been waiting for. It is the final one in a series of three, but stands alone if you are familiar with J2EE. (The first book in the series is Kyle Brown's WSAD book - also excellent and they complement each other well.)

Four IBM WebSphere specialists write the book. They manage to explain everything in a way that is easy to understand, yet detailed. After explaining the WAS (WebSphere Application Server) architecture, the book focuses on the major J2EE components. The authors include best-practices and recommendations throughout. There is even an appendix on Web Services.

The first three parts of the book cover the portion of WAS applying to all versions. The fourth part covers the Network Deployment version and its specific features. There is also an incredibly useful problem solving section.

While this is not a development book, the authors do highlight deployment decisions that should be made in the development phase and describe the ideal development/testing environment. Except for a few pages, the book is IDE neutral. However, WSAD users will find many things can be done on the IDE or the server.

In the week and a half I've had this book, I have used it as a reference many times. It has already helped me solve several problems. I only wish I had it sooner.