Land Oracle WebLogic Server logs to Elasticsearch and Kibana

This page documents how to configure an existing deployment of Oracle WebLogic Server to land logs to Elasticsearch and Kibana using Azure CLI.

Prerequisites

Environment for Setup

Azure CLI, use az --version to test if az works.

WebLogic Server Instance

The ELK ARM template will be applied to an existing Oracle WebLogic Server instance. If you don’t have one, please create a new instance from the Azure portal, by following the link to the offer in the index.

Virtual machine size requirement

Ensure the virtual machines that have been deployed have at least 2.5GB of memory. The default virtual machine size for WLS does not have enough memory. Use at least Standard_A2_v2.

Elasticsearch instance

Refer to Create an an Elastic on Azure instance

Prepare the Parameters JSON file

You must construct a parameters JSON file containing the parameters to the ELK ARM template. See Create Resource Manager parameter file for background information about parameter files.

We must specify the information of the existing Oracle WebLogic Server and Elasticsearch instance. This section shows how to obtain the values for the following required properties.

Parameter Name	Explanation
`_artifactsLocation`	See below for details.
`adminVMName`	Virtual machine name of which hosts the Oracle WebLogic Server admin server.
`elasticsearchEndpoint`	The Elasticsearch endpoint.
`elasticsearchPassword`	Password of the Elasticsearch account. Used to distibute message with REST API to Elasticsearch instance.
`elasticsearchUserName`	User name of the Elasticsearch account.
`location`	Must be the same region into which the server was initially deployed.
`logsToIntegrate`	Specify the WebLogic logs to export to Elasticsearch, you must select at least one log.
`managedServerPrefix`	Must be the same prefix with which the cluster was initially deployed.
`numberOfManagedApplicationInstances`	Number of VMs that have been deployed to host managed application server.
`numberOfManagedCacheInstances`	Number of VMs that have been deployed to host managed cache server, please set the value if your cluster is Coherence cluster.
`wlsDomainName`	Must be the same value provided at initial deployment time.
`wlsPassword`	Must be the same value provided at initial deployment time.
`wlsUserName`	Must be the same value provided at initial deployment time.

`_artifactsLocation`

This value must be the following.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oracle/weblogic-azure/2024-02-29-1-Q1/weblogic-azure-vm/arm-oraclelinux-wls-cluster/arm-oraclelinux-wls-cluster/src/main/arm/

Number of Managed application instances

You can get the existing Managed application instances number with the following command using Azure CLI.

$ resourceGroup=<your-resource-group>
$ managedServerPrefix=<managed-server-prefix>
$ numberOfManagedApplicationInstances=$(az resource list -g ${resourceGroup} --resource-type Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines --query [*].name | grep "${managedServerPrefix}VM[0-9]" | sed -e 's/[^0-9]/ /g' -e 's/^ *//g' -e 's/ *$//g' | tr -s ' ' | sed 's/ /\n/g' | sort  -nr | head -n1)
$ echo ${numberOfManagedApplicationInstances}

Number of Managed cache instances

This parameter works for Coherence cluster. If your cluster is not Coherence cluter, keep it with default value 0.

You can get the existing Managed cache instances number with the following command using Azure CLI. It should be 0 if no value returned.

$ resourceGroup=<your-resource-group>
$ managedServerPrefix=<managed-server-prefix>
$ numberOfManagedCacheInstances=$(az resource list -g ${resourceGroup} --resource-type Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines --query [*].name | grep "${managedServerPrefix}StorageVM[0-9]" | sed -e 's/[^0-9]/ /g' -e 's/^ *//g' -e 's/ *$//g' | tr -s ' ' | sed 's/ /\n/g' | sort  -nr | head -n1)
$ echo ${numberOfManagedCacheInstances}

Example Parameters JSON

Here is a fully filled out parameters file. We will leave values of adminUsername, authenticationType, dnsLabelPrefix, and usePreviewImage as default value.

Some things to note:

We did not include values for parameters that have a default value.
Even though this parameters file has values for sensitive fields such as passwords, these values are not echoed on the command line, or repeated in the logs because they are passed directly as secureString type in ARM. Please ensure any occurrences of the parameters file in the filesystem are sufficiently secured.

{
    "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentParameters.json#",
    "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
    "parameters": {
        "_artifactsLocation": {
            "value": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oracle/weblogic-azure/2024-02-29-1-Q1/weblogic-azure-vm/arm-oraclelinux-wls-cluster/arm-oraclelinux-wls-cluster/src/main/arm/"
        },
        "adminVMName": {
           "value": "adminVM"
        },
        "elasticsearchEndpoint": {
           "value": "https://example.eastus2.azure.elastic-cloud.com:9243"
        },
        "elasticsearchPassword": {
           "value": "wlkpsw"
        },
        "elasticsearchUserName": {
           "value": "elastic"
        },
        "location": {
            "value": "eastus"
        },
        "managedServerPrefix": {
            "value": "msp"
        },
        "numberOfManagedApplicationInstances": {
            "value": 2
        },
        "numberOfManagedCacheInstances": {
            "value": 0
        },
        "wlsDomainName": {
            "value": "wlsd"
        },
        "wlsPassword": {
          "value": "welcome1"
        },
        "wlsUserName": {
          "value": "weblogic"
        }
    }
}

Invoke the ARM template

Assume your parameters file is available in the current directory and is named parameters.json. This section shows the commands to configure your Oracle WebLogic Server deployment to connect to Elasticsearch and Kinaba intance. Replace yourResourceGroup with the Azure resource group in which the Oracle WebLogic Server is deployed.

First, validate your parameters file

The az group deployment validate command is very useful to validate your parameters file is syntactically correct.

az deployment group validate --verbose --resource-group `yourResourceGroup` --parameters @parameters.json --template-uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oracle/weblogic-azure/2024-02-29-1-Q1/weblogic-azure-vm/arm-oraclelinux-wls-cluster/arm-oraclelinux-wls-cluster/src/main/arm/nestedtemplates/elkNestedTemplate.json

If the command returns with an exit status other than 0, inspect the output and resolve the problem before proceeding. You can check the exit status by executing the commad echo $? immediately after the az command.

Next, execute the template

After successfully validating the template invocation, change validate to create to invoke the template.

az deployment group create --verbose --resource-group `yourResourceGroup` --parameters @parameters.json --template-uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oracle/weblogic-azure/2024-02-29-1-Q1/weblogic-azure-vm/arm-oraclelinux-wls-cluster/arm-oraclelinux-wls-cluster/src/main/arm/nestedtemplates/elkNestedTemplate.json

As with the validate command, if the command returns with an exit status other than 0, inspect the output and resolve the problem.

This is an example output of successful deployment. Look for "provisioningState": "Succeeded" in your output.

{
  "id": "/subscriptions/685ba005-af8d-4b04-8f16-a7bf38b2eb5a/resourceGroups/haiche-cluster-elk/providers/Microsoft.Resources/deployments/elkNestedTemplate",
  "location": null,
  "name": "elkNestedTemplate",
  "properties": {
    "correlationId": "61a46b43-27d0-4478-baba-c288059892d5",
    "debugSetting": null,
    "dependencies": [
      {
        "dependsOn": [
          {
            "id": "/subscriptions/685ba005-af8d-4b04-8f16-a7bf38b2eb5a/resourceGroups/haiche-cluster-elk/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/mspVM1/extensions/newuserscript",
            "resourceGroup": "haiche-cluster-elk",
            "resourceName": "mspVM1/newuserscript",
            "resourceType": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions"
          },
          {
            "id": "/subscriptions/685ba005-af8d-4b04-8f16-a7bf38b2eb5a/resourceGroups/haiche-cluster-elk/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/mspVM2/extensions/newuserscript",
            "resourceGroup": "haiche-cluster-elk",
            "resourceName": "mspVM2/newuserscript",
            "resourceType": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions"
          },
          {
            "id": "/subscriptions/685ba005-af8d-4b04-8f16-a7bf38b2eb5a/resourceGroups/haiche-cluster-elk/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/mspStorageVM1/extensions/newuserscript",
            "resourceGroup": "haiche-cluster-elk",
            "resourceName": "mspStorageVM1/newuserscript",
            "resourceType": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions"
          }
        ],
        "id": "/subscriptions/685ba005-af8d-4b04-8f16-a7bf38b2eb5a/resourceGroups/haiche-cluster-elk/providers/Microsoft.Resources/deployments/pid-e4165284-b017-5df9-9b91-3f11dd8a72e5",
        "resourceGroup": "haiche-cluster-elk",
        "resourceName": "pid-e4165284-b017-5df9-9b91-3f11dd8a72e5",
        "resourceType": "Microsoft.Resources/deployments"
      },
      {
        "dependsOn": [
          {
            "id": "/subscriptions/685ba005-af8d-4b04-8f16-a7bf38b2eb5a/resourceGroups/haiche-cluster-elk/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/adminVM/extensions/newuserscript",
            "resourceGroup": "haiche-cluster-elk",
            "resourceName": "adminVM/newuserscript",
            "resourceType": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions"
          }
        ],
        "id": "/subscriptions/685ba005-af8d-4b04-8f16-a7bf38b2eb5a/resourceGroups/haiche-cluster-elk/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/mspVM1/extensions/newuserscript",
        "resourceGroup": "haiche-cluster-elk",
        "resourceName": "mspVM1/newuserscript",
        "resourceType": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions"
      },
      {
        "dependsOn": [
          {
            "id": "/subscriptions/685ba005-af8d-4b04-8f16-a7bf38b2eb5a/resourceGroups/haiche-cluster-elk/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/adminVM/extensions/newuserscript",
            "resourceGroup": "haiche-cluster-elk",
            "resourceName": "adminVM/newuserscript",
            "resourceType": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions"
          }
        ],
        "id": "/subscriptions/685ba005-af8d-4b04-8f16-a7bf38b2eb5a/resourceGroups/haiche-cluster-elk/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/mspVM2/extensions/newuserscript",
        "resourceGroup": "haiche-cluster-elk",
        "resourceName": "mspVM2/newuserscript",
        "resourceType": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions"
      },
      {
        "dependsOn": [
          {
            "id": "/subscriptions/685ba005-af8d-4b04-8f16-a7bf38b2eb5a/resourceGroups/haiche-cluster-elk/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/adminVM/extensions/newuserscript",
            "resourceGroup": "haiche-cluster-elk",
            "resourceName": "adminVM/newuserscript",
            "resourceType": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions"
          }
        ],
        "id": "/subscriptions/685ba005-af8d-4b04-8f16-a7bf38b2eb5a/resourceGroups/haiche-cluster-elk/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/mspStorageVM1/extensions/newuserscript",
        "resourceGroup": "haiche-cluster-elk",
        "resourceName": "mspStorageVM1/newuserscript",
        "resourceType": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions"
      }
    ],
    "duration": "PT8M54.4785762S",
    "mode": "Incremental",
    "onErrorDeployment": null,
    "outputResources": [
      {
        "id": "/subscriptions/685ba005-af8d-4b04-8f16-a7bf38b2eb5a/resourceGroups/haiche-cluster-elk/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/adminVM/extensions/newuserscript",
        "resourceGroup": "haiche-cluster-elk"
      },
      {
        "id": "/subscriptions/685ba005-af8d-4b04-8f16-a7bf38b2eb5a/resourceGroups/haiche-cluster-elk/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/mspStorageVM1/extensions/newuserscript",
        "resourceGroup": "haiche-cluster-elk"
      },
      {
        "id": "/subscriptions/685ba005-af8d-4b04-8f16-a7bf38b2eb5a/resourceGroups/haiche-cluster-elk/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/mspVM1/extensions/newuserscript",
        "resourceGroup": "haiche-cluster-elk"
      },
      {
        "id": "/subscriptions/685ba005-af8d-4b04-8f16-a7bf38b2eb5a/resourceGroups/haiche-cluster-elk/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/mspVM2/extensions/newuserscript",
        "resourceGroup": "haiche-cluster-elk"
      }
    ],
    "outputs": {
      "artifactsLocationPassedIn": {
        "type": "String",
        "value": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oracle/weblogic-azure/2024-02-29-1-Q1/weblogic-azure-vm/arm-oraclelinux-wls-cluster/arm-oraclelinux-wls-cluster/src/main/arm/"
      },
      "logIndex": {
        "type": "String",
        "value": "azure-weblogic-cluster-b4e465d5-6ffc-49cf-b1d9-b4dbf6455d0a"
      }
    },
    "parameters": {
      "_artifactsLocation": {
        "type": "String",
        "value": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oracle/weblogic-azure/2024-02-29-1-Q1/weblogic-azure-vm/arm-oraclelinux-wls-cluster/arm-oraclelinux-wls-cluster/src/main/arm/"
      },
      "_artifactsLocationELKTemplate": {
        "type": "String",
        "value": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oracle/weblogic-azure/2024-02-29-1-Q1/weblogic-azure-vm/arm-oraclelinux-wls-cluster/arm-oraclelinux-wls-cluster/src/main/arm/"
      },
      "_artifactsLocationSasToken": {
        "type": "SecureString"
      },
      "adminVMName": {
        "type": "String",
        "value": "adminVM"
      },
      "elasticsearchEndpoint": {
        "type": "String",
        "value": "https://example.eastus2.azure.elastic-cloud.com:9243"
      },
      "elasticsearchPassword": {
        "type": "SecureString"
      },
      "elasticsearchUserName": {
        "type": "String",
        "value": "elastic"
      },
      "guidValue": {
        "type": "String",
        "value": "b4e465d5-6ffc-49cf-b1d9-b4dbf6455d0a"
      },
      "location": {
        "type": "String",
        "value": "eastus"
      },
      "logsToIntegrate": {
        "type": "Array",
        "value": [
          "HTTPAccessLog",
          "ServerLog",
          "DomainLog",
          "DataSourceLog",
          "StandardErrorAndOutput",
          "NodeManagerLog"
        ]
      },
      "managedServerPrefix": {
        "type": "String",
        "value": "msp"
      },
      "numberOfManagedApplicationInstances": {
        "type": "Int",
        "value": 2
      },
      "numberOfManagedCacheInstances": {
        "type": "Int",
        "value": 1
      },
      "wlsDomainName": {
        "type": "String",
        "value": "wlsd"
      },
      "wlsPassword": {
        "type": "SecureString"
      },
      "wlsUserName": {
        "type": "String",
        "value": "weblogic"
      }
    },
    "parametersLink": null,
    "providers": [
      {
        "id": null,
        "namespace": "Microsoft.Resources",
        "registrationPolicy": null,
        "registrationState": null,
        "resourceTypes": [
          {
            "aliases": null,
            "apiVersions": null,
            "capabilities": null,
            "locations": [
              null
            ],
            "properties": null,
            "resourceType": "deployments"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": null,
        "namespace": "Microsoft.Compute",
        "registrationPolicy": null,
        "registrationState": null,
        "resourceTypes": [
          {
            "aliases": null,
            "apiVersions": null,
            "capabilities": null,
            "locations": [
              "eastus"
            ],
            "properties": null,
            "resourceType": "virtualMachines/extensions"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "provisioningState": "Succeeded",
    "template": null,
    "templateHash": "10060935779116645392",
    "templateLink": null,
    "timestamp": "2020-11-11T07:29:42.336797+00:00"
  },
  "resourceGroup": "haiche-cluster-elk",
  "type": "Microsoft.Resources/deployments"
}

Verify ELK connection

Follow the steps to check if WebLogic Server logs are exported to Elasticsearch.

Go to Azure portal
Copy log index from your resource group -> deployments -> elkNestedTemplate -> output -> logIndex .
Go to Elasticsearch cloud and launch Kibana.
Create index
- Go to Kibana -> Management -> Kibana -> Index Patterns
- Click Create index Patterns
- Input the log index you copy from output in Index pattern
- There should be an index you can select, otherwise, the ELK deployment failed
- Next step
- Select @timestamp in Time Filter and hit Create index pattern
View logs
- Go to Kibana -> Discover
- Select the index you just created
- You will find the WebLogic Server logs listed