Need help in re-architecting an environment

Question

We have 6 Solaris servers running multiple instances of BEA WLS 8.1SP3. We have about 30 instances spread out over these 6 servers. Each app instance has it's own admin and managed server(Don't ask me why we have a seperate admin server for each app since I inherited the environment). We are now trying to explore options for consolidating the app instances on fewer servers. One of the options that is on the table is to put the apps (i.e. the domains) on NetApp filers (or other NAS storage). The thought process is that this will allow us to do the following:
- consolidate the app instances on fewer boxes (barring the memory restrictions of the server)and thus also saving on the licensing cost.
- allow us to migrate the instances to a different server, in case we need to perform maintenance on a particular server, with minimal down time
I know BEA clustering could be a possible candidate but cost is a major factor.
Here are the questions that I have:
- will this strategy work?
- how are the instances tied to the license? Once we migrate an instance to a different box we are now using a different license.
- I am slightly skeptical on whether we will just be able to mount up the filer volume on a different box and bring up the managed instance (since the admin server will not know about the managed server).
- if we were to choose to migrate both the admin and managed servers (since each app has its own admin & managed server) will this strategy work?
- can you suggest any other options?
I am really hoping that the BEA gurus can provide me some good insight on this.
thanks and regards,
Vishal

Answer 1

This is the Structure.
<majorLine LineID = "123456">--> there will be only one Major Line
<itemNamme>MajorLineItem</itemName>
<quantity>2</quantity>
     <serviceLine> ---> there can be more than one service or No service for this Major line
          <lineId>123456<lineId>
          <itemNamme>serviceOfmajor</itemName>
          <quantity>2</quantity>
     </serviceLine>
     <minorLine LineID = "456789"> ---> there can be more than one minor lines for this Major line
     <itemNamme>first_MinorlineItem</itemName>
     <quantity>7</quantity>
           <serviceLine>---> there can be more than one or NO service lines for one Minor line
               <lineId>11212<lineId>
               <itemNamme>First_serivceOfMinor</itemName>
               <quantity>2</quantity>     
           </serviceLine>
           <serviceLine>---> there can be more than one service lines or No service line for one Minor line
               <lineId>1347657<lineId>
               <itemNamme>second_serivceOfMinor</itemName>
               <quantity>2</quantity>     
           </serviceLine>
       <minorLine LineID = "477838"> ---> there can be more than one minor lines or no minor line for this Major line
     <itemNamme>second_MinorlineItem</itemName>
     <quantity>3</quantity>
</majorLine>