Weblogic 14c New features

Oracle WebLogic Server 14.1.1 is a new major version, adding support for Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 8, and Java SE 8 and 11.

It is supported on-premises and in the cloud, including support and tooling for running Oracle WebLogic Server in containers and Kubernetes, and certification on Oracle Cloud. 

Java EE 8 Support

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Oracle WebLogic Server 14c (14.1.1.0.0) is a fully compatible implementation of the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) Version 8.0

Java EE 8 support provided in WebLogic Server 14c (14.1.1.0.0) is described in the

following sections:

1. Java API for JSON Binding 1.0 (JSR 367)

2. Java API for JSON Processing 1.1 (JSR 374)

3. Java API for RESTful Web Services 2.1 (JSR 370)

4. JavaServer Faces 2.3 (JSR 372)

5. Java Servlet 4.0 (JSR 369)

6. Bean Validation 2.0 (JSR 380)

7. Contexts and Dependency Injection 2.0 (JSR 365)

8. Java EE Security API 1.0 (JSR 375)

9. Sample Applications Updated to cover Java EE 8 features. (Avitek Medical Records — MedRec)

JDK 11 Certification

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Oracle WebLogic Server 14c (14.1.1.0.0) is certified for use with JDK 11, in addition to JDK 8. Supported Oracle WebLogic Server 14c (14.1.1.0.0) clients are certified for use with JDK 11.0.6

WebLogic Server Slim Installer

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In Oracle WebLogic Server 14.1.1.0.0, in addition to the generic installer and the Fusion Middleware Infrastructure installer, you can use the slim installer to install and configure Oracle WebLogic Server and Coherence.

The slim installer does not contain examples, WebLogic Server Administration Console, WebLogic clients, Maven plug-ins and Java DB, and hence, has a smaller image size.

You can use this WebLogic Server installer for development, testing, and production purposes, in any infrastructure, such as, on premises (physical servers and virtual machines) or containers. Because it produces smaller WebLogic Server Docker or CRI-O images, this installer is particularly suitable for containers.

The slim installer file name is fmw_14.1.1.0.0_wls_lite_quick_slim_generic.jar.

Oracle GraalVM Enterprise Edition Certification

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Oracle WebLogic Server and Coherence 14.1.1.0.0 are certified to run on Oracle GraalVM Enterprise Edition.

Oracle GraalVM Enterprise Edition is a high performance runtime platform built on Oracle's enterprise-class Java SE. Its optimizing compiler accelerates WebLogic applications by rearranging compiled code, aggressive method inlining, escape analysis, advanced vectorization and more. Based on internal testing, you should experience up to a 5-10% performance improvement.

Runtime Improvements

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Oracle WebLogic Server 14c (14.1.1.0.0) builds on support from prior WebLogic Server versions to improve the reliability, availability, scalability, and performance of WebLogic Server applications with regard to the use of clustered environments, Oracle database features, and multi data center architectures.

These improvements are described in the following topics:

1. Security

2. RESTful Web Services

3. Automatic Database Leasing Table Creation

4. Network Channels for JTA Communication

5. Application Update Using Edition-Based Redefinition

1) Security

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The new security features provided in Oracle WebLogic Server 14c (14.1.1.0.0) are described in the following sections:

1. Default Minimum TLS Protocol Version: As of Oracle WebLogic Server 14.1.1.0.0, the default minimum version of the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol configured in WebLogic Server is Version 1.2. Oracle recommends the use of TLS V1.2 or later in a production environment. WebLogic Server logs a warning if the TLS version is set below 1.2.

2. Default WebLogic Server Host Name Verifier:

In Oracle WebLogic Server 14c (14.1.1.0.0), the default host name verifier has changed from the BEA host name verifier to a wildcard host name verifier.

3. New RealmMBean Attributes for the Identity Assertion Cache Service:

The following new configuration attributes were added to the RealmMBean to improve the performance of the cache services used by the Identity Assertion provider:

IdentityAssertionCacheEnabled

IdentityAssertionCacheTTL

IdentityAssertionDoNotCacheContextElements

4. PKCS12 Default Keystore Type in JDK 11:

PKCS12 is an extensible, standard, and widely-supported format for storing cryptographic keys. In JDK 11, the JDK default keystore type has changed from JKS to PKCS12.

5. New SSL System Passphrase Property for PKCS12 Trust Keystores:

If you specify a trust keystore using the -Dweblogic.security.SSL.trustedCAkeystore command-line argument and the keystore type is PKCS12, then a password is required. You can specify the password using the -Dweblogic.security.SSL.trustedCAkeystorePassPhrase system property. The password is not necessary for JKS keystores.

6. ImportPrivateKey Utility Uses JDK Default Keystore Type:

In Oracle WebLogic Server 14.1.1.0.0 and later, the default value for the storetype argument of the ImportPrivateKey utility is determined by the default keystore type for the JDK.

The default keystore type for the JDK is defined by the keystore.type property in the java.security file. For JDK 8, the default is JKS. For JDK 11, the default is PKCS12. You can change the default by specifying the storetype property

7. Demo Certificates Contain the SAN Extension by Default:

As a result of an enhancement in WebLogic Server 14.1.1.0.0, the demonstration certificates generated by the CertGen utility by default contain the fully-qualified DNS name in the Subject Alternative Name (SAN) extension value, along with the host name as the common name (CN) value. However, you can create your certificate without the SAN extension and disable the fully-qualified DNS name using the -nosandnshost option at the command line. Optionally, you can specify additional host names, or IP addresses, or both, in the SAN extension value using the -a DNS:<hostname>,IP:<ip address> option.

8. Deprecated TLS Cipher Suites

Per Oracle security guidelines, the TLS cipher suites that are prefixed with TLS_RSA_ or contain _CBC_ are deprecated and are disabled by default. These disabled cipher suites are weak and do not provide sufficient security for your system. However, if necessary for your environment, you can enable these TLS cipher suites.

2. RESTful Web Services

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Oracle WebLogic Server 14c (14.1.1.0.0) provides the following new and changed features for RESTful web services:

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) Support for WebLogic Server REST APIs. The Restful Management Service API includes new headers that are used specifically for CORS control.

Adds support for Java EE 8.

Removes support for WebLogic Server Multitenant functionality and Resource Consumption Management.

3. Automatic Database Leasing Table Creation

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Oracle WebLogic Server 14c (14.1.1.0.0) provides options to automatically create WebLogic cluster database leasing tables

4. Network Channels for JTA Communication

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Oracle WebLogic Server 14c (14.1.1.0.0) provides options to configure custom network channels for JTA communication. The network channels are used for JTA interserver communication.

5. Application Update Using Edition-Based Redefinition

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Edition-based redefinition (EBR) enables you to update the database component of an application while it is in use, thereby minimizing or eliminating application downtime.

When using EBR, a synchronized rolling update lets you update the configuration data concurrently with the new software version, thus ensuring that there is complete synchronization between the configuration and the software versions on the server.

Manageability Improvements

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Oracle WebLogic Server 14c (14.1.1.0.0) continues to provide new management

features that simplify the configuration, monitoring, and ongoing management of

WebLogic Server domains and applications.

These features are described in the following sections:

1. Running Oracle WebLogic Server on Docker

Docker is a Linux-based container technology that enables you to quickly create lightweight clustered and nonclustered WebLogic Server domain configurations on a single or multi host OS, or virtual machines

2. WebLogic Deploy Tooling

The Oracle WebLogic Deploy Tooling (WDT) simplifies the automation of WebLogic Server domain provisioning and applications deployment.

3. WebLogic Image Tool

The Oracle WebLogic Image Tool lets you automate building, patching, and updating your WebLogic Server Docker images, including your own customized images.

4. WebLogic Server Kubernetes Operator

The Oracle WebLogic Server Kubernetes Operator is an application-specific controller that extends Kubernetes to create, configure, and manage instances of complex applications

5. WebLogic Monitoring Exporter

The Oracle WebLogic Monitoring Exporter is a web application that you can deploy on a WebLogic Server instance that you want to monitor.

6. WebLogic Logging Exporter

The Oracle WebLogic Logging Exporter provides an easy to configure, robust, and production-ready solution to access WebLogic Server log information through Elasticsearch and displayed in Kibana dashboards.

Database Interoperability

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Database Interoperability

The certification matrices and My Oracle Support Certifications define the following terms to differentiate between types of database support:

1. Application Data Access

2. Database Dependent Features

1)Application Data Access

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Application Data Access refers to those applications that use the database for data access only and do not take advantage of WebLogic Server features that are Database dependant. WebLogic Server support of databases used for application data access only are less restrictive than for database dependent features.

WebLogic Server provides support for application data access to databases using JDBC drivers that meet the following requirements:

The driver must be thread safe.

The driver must implement standard JDBC transactional calls, such as setAutoCommit() and setTransactionIsolation(), when used in transactional aware environments.

Note the following restrictions:

JDBC drivers that do not implement serializable or remote interfaces cannot pass objects to an RMI client application.

Simultaneous use of automatic database connection failover and load balancing and global transactions (XA) with a highly-available (HA) DBMS architecture is supported with Oracle DB RAC only, and only for the Oracle DB RAC versions indicated on the System worksheet. These HA capabilities are only supported by Active GridLink for RAC and Multi Data Sources with RAC. These HA capabilities are not supported on other Oracle DB RAC versions or with other HA DBMS technologies on other non-Oracle DB products. Multi Data Sources are supported on other Oracle DB versions, and with non-Oracle DB technologies, but not with simultaneous use of automatic failover and load balancing and global transactions.

Application data access to databases meeting the restrictions articulated above is supported on other Oracle DB versions, in addition to those documented in the certification matrix.

WebLogic Type 4 JDBC drivers also support the following databases. For these databases, WebLogic Server supports application data access only, and does not support WebLogic Server database dependent features:

DB2 for z/OS 10.1

Informix 11.7+

2)Database Dependent Features

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When WebLogic Server features use a database for internal data storage, database support is more restrictive than for application data access. The following WebLogic Server features require internal data storage:

Container Managed Persistence (CMP)

Rowsets

JMS/JDBC Persistence and use of a WebLogic JDBC Store

JDBC Session Persistence

RDBMS Security Providers

Database Leasing (for singleton services and server migration)

JTA Logging Last Resource optimization

JDBC TLog

Deprecated Functionality (Oracle WebLogic Server 14c 14.1.1.0.0)

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The following functionality and components are deprecated in WebLogic Server 14c (14.1.1.0.0):

WebLogic Authorization and WebLogic Role Mapping Providers

WebLogic Authorization and WebLogic Role Mapping Providers

The WebLogic Authorization provider, which is referred to as the DefaultAuthorizer, and the WebLogic Role Mapping provider, which is referred to as the DefaultRoleMapper, have been deprecated in this release. Beginning with WebLogic Server 9.1, the XACML Authorization provider and the XACML Role Mapping provider are the default providers.

Removed Functionality and Components

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Several components, deprecated in previous versions of WebLogic Server, are removed from Oracle WebLogic Server 14c (14.1.1.0.0).

WebLogic Server Multitenant Functionality and Resource Consumption Management

EJBGen

WebLogic Full and IIOP-Based Clients

WebLogic JMS Resource Adapter

Oracle Traffic Director (OTD)

Compatibility Setting for JTA Security Interoperability Mode

JMS Interop Modules

Administration Console Extensibility

WebLogic jCOM

Automated Cross-Site XA Transaction Recovery

DDInit and ddcreate Utilities