Weblogic 12c setting PermSize when using NodeManager

Question

We have a Windows Server 2012 64bit + Weblogic 12c setup. The AdminServer requires a higher PermSize when being used with a 64bit OS, thus we need to modify the "setDomainEnv.cmd" (as described in other questions here on stackoverflow).

When starting the AdminServer through the usual "startWeblogic.cmd" script, it uses the settings in "setDomainEnv.cmd" that sets the PermSize etc. successfully, but when using NodeManager "startServer()" command, it does not.

I read something in the documentation about the fact that one can control the parameters that are loaded on startup of a managed server (with NodeManager), but I did not find the right way to do it.

I would hope that we can achieve a consistent behaviour when starting a managed server (and the AdminServer) through NodeManager or manually.

Any ideas?

UPDATE:

I checked what's going on when starting managed server and(!) in comparison what's going on when starting the AdminServer. Result: the AdminServer process (it starts a 'javaw.exe' instance in contrast to a 'java.exe' instance for a managed server) never get's passed ANY parameters set in the setDomainEnv.cmd script.. it's basically full of Oracle internal parameters.

To me all this looks completely messed up and inconsistent. In addition to this I found an issue reported by Oracle that mystically talks about setting environment variables when running on a 64bit OS (see headline "Developer ZIP Distribution Fails on Windows 64-bit and Linux 64-bit"):

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24329_01/doc.1211/e26593/issues.htm#WLSRN238

I have idea if this applies to my version or not, since the version I downloaded does not say "developer" version, it basically was the primary weblogic download for the latest release.

The question that comes to my mind is this: what is the expected way of starting the AdminServer if not using "startServer"? Is there a bug that nobody cares about, since it is usually done differently? I am really disappointed to how confusing this rather simple topic evolves when starting to read Oracle documentation: it simply does not say anything about it at all.

Command line that is triggered when starting the AdminServer through "startServer()" command:

C:\PROGRA~1\Java\JDK17~1.0_6\jre\bin\javaw.exe -classpath "C:\PROGRA~1\Java\JDK17~1.0_6\jre\lib\rt.jar;C:\PROGRA~1\Java\JDK17~1.0_6\jre\lib\i18n.jar;C:\PROGRA~1\Java\JDK17~1.0_6\lib\tools.jar;D:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver\server\lib\weblogic_sp.jar;D:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver\server\lib\weblogic.jar;D:\Oracle\Middleware\oracle_common\modules\net.sf.antcontrib_1.1.0.0_1-0b3\lib\ant-contrib.jar;D:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver\modules\features\oracle.wls.common.nodemanager_2.0.0.0.jar;D:\Oracle\Middleware\oracle_common\modules\com.oracle.cie.config-wls-online_8.1.0.0.jar;D:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver\common\derby\lib\derbyclient.jar;D:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver\common\derby\lib\derby.jar;D:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver\server\lib\xqrl.jar" "-Djava.runtime.name=Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment" -Dpython.cachedir=C:\Users\ADMINI~1\AppData\Local\Temp\2\wlstTempAdministrator -Djava.protocol.handler.pkgs=weblogic.utils|weblogic.utils|weblogic.utils -Djava.vm.version=24.65-b04 "-Djava.vm.vendor=Oracle Corporation" -Djava.vendor.url=http://java.oracle.com/ -Dpath.separator=; "-Djava.vm.name=Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM" -Dweblogic.RootDirectory=D:\Oracle\Middleware\user_projects\domains\test1234\. "-Djava.vm.specification.name=Java Virtual Machine Specification" -Djava.runtime.version=1.7.0_67-b01 -Djavax.rmi.CORBA.UtilClass=weblogic.iiop.UtilDelegateImpl -Djava.awt.graphicsenv=sun.awt.Win32GraphicsEnvironment -Djava.endorsed.dirs=C:\PROGRA~1\Java\JDK17~1.0_6\jre\lib\endorsed -Dos.arch=amd64 -Djava.io.tmpdir=C:\Users\ADMINI~1\AppData\Local\Temp\2\ -Dline.separator=
 "-Djava.vm.specification.vendor=Oracle Corporation" -Djava.naming.factory.url.pkgs=weblogic.jndi.factories:weblogic.corba.j2ee.naming.url "-Dos.name=Windows Server 2012 R2" -Dprod.props.file=D:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver\.product.properties -Dorg.omg.CORBA.ORBSingletonClass=weblogic.corba.orb.ORB -Djava.library.path=C:\PROGRA~1\Java\JDK17~1.0_6\jre\bin;C:\Windows\Sun\Java\bin;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;;D:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver\server\native\win\x64;D:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver\server\bin;D:\Oracle\Middleware\oracle_common\modules\org.apache.ant_1.9.2\bin;C:\PROGRA~1\Java\JDK17~1.0_6\jre\bin;C:\PROGRA~1\Java\JDK17~1.0_6\bin;D:\Oracle\product\12.1.0\dbhome_1\BIN;C:\Windows\System32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WINDOW~1\v1.0\;C:\PROGRA~2\VISUAL~1\bin;C:\PROGRA~1\doxygen\bin;C:\PROGRA~1\TORTOI~1\bin;C:\PROGRA~2\WINDOW~4\8.0\WINDOW~1\;C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~1\110\Tools\Binn\;D:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver\server\native\win\x64\oci920_8;. "-Djava.specification.name=Java Platform API Specification" -Djava.class.version=51.0 -Dorg.omg.CORBA.ORBClass=weblogic.corba.orb.ORB -Dos.version=6.3 -Djavax.rmi.CORBA.PortableRemoteObjectClass=weblogic.iiop.PortableRemoteObjectDelegateImpl -Djava.awt.printerjob=sun.awt.windows.WPrinterJob -Djava.specification.version=1.7 -Djava.class.path=C:\PROGRA~1\Java\JDK17~1.0_6\lib\tools.jar;D:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver\server\lib\weblogic_sp.jar;D:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver\server\lib\weblogic.jar;D:\Oracle\Middleware\oracle_common\modules\net.sf.antcontrib_1.1.0.0_1-0b3\lib\ant-contrib.jar;D:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver\modules\features\oracle.wls.common.nodemanager_2.0.0.0.jar;D:\Oracle\Middleware\oracle_common\modules\com.oracle.cie.config-wls-online_8.1.0.0.jar;D:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver\common\derby\lib\derbyclient.jar;D:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver\common\derby\lib\derby.jar;D:\Oracle\Middleware\wlserver\server\lib\xqrl.jar -Djava.vm.specification.version=1.7 -Dweblogic.management.GenerateDefaultConfig=false -Djava.home=C:\PROGRA~1\Java\JDK17~1.0_6\jre "-Djava.specification.vendor=Oracle Corporation" -Dawt.toolkit=sun.awt.windows.WToolkit "-Djava.vm.info=mixed mode" -Djava.version=1.7.0_67 -Djava.ext.dirs=C:\PROGRA~1\Java\JDK17~1.0_6\jre\lib\ext;C:\Windows\Sun\Java\lib\ext "-Djava.vendor=Oracle Corporation" -Djava.vendor.url.bug=http://bugreport.sun.com/bugreport/ -Dweblogic.store.DisableDiskScheduler=true -Dpython.verbose=warning weblogic.Server

UPDATE 2:

Start the AdminServer through node manager (nmStart('AdminServer')) creates a usual "java.exe" process and starts up the AdminServer with correct memory settings. But this is even more confusing: why is "startServer()" creating a separate process (javaw.exe) with entirely different settings? Why are my settings now totally different for AdminServer? What is the "correct" way of starting the AdminServer (development/production?). Two thumbs down on this environment.

UPDATE 3:

After repeating further tests the solution of getting "startServer()" to work is basically as follows: do not worry about the node manager settings at all, edit the "startWeblogic" script directly by adding additional java options inside of it (as usual by adding -D start parameters). The reason for all this is basically that the global settings (as used by node manager) are ignored completely, see my pasted command line output.

Answer 1

Check the nodemanager.properties file in your Oracle install ( e.g. /opt/ora/mw/wlserver_10.3/common/nodemanager/nodemanager.properties ) and verify that these options are set:

StartScriptName=startManagedWebLogic.sh
StartScriptEnabled=true

so the nodemanager is starting your servers with the appropriate scripts. You also have to option of setting server specific start attributes via the admin console - go to:

Servers -> Server Name -> Server Start tab -> Arguments

You can fill in server specific JVM args, like -XX:MaxPermSize=4096m in this field that will be used by the nodemanager. This may be a better/easier idea than hard coding it in the setDomainEnv script.

UPDATE

---

Attempt issuing an nmStart() command rather than a startServer() command for the AdminServer.

startServer allows you to start a server WITHOUT the nodemanager. It uses javaw.exe to effectively background the process

nmStart allows you to start the server WITH the nodemanager - which is why you get the correct memory settings. Because the process is started via a service, it is more or less automatically backgrounded, which is why you see the normal java.exe