Plz help me with WebLogic Express 8.1

[Deepak Dew]

Hi,
My company has decided to use WL Express 8.1 Basic edition along with Apache webserver in front the the group of WL express Servers.
WebLogic Express is a servlet engine. Now, the WebLogic Express Basic edition does not support clustering.
The problem is that I want the apache server to laodbalance the http requests proxied to the WebLogic Servers which is possible using plug in parameter
WebLogicCluster.
But the question is whether I can use the WebLogic Express Basic Edition to have load balancing or not?
Plz reply this asap.
Thanks
Deepak

[Scott Dunbar]

No, WL Express does not do clustering. However, with the Apache plugin in the front the plugin will do round-robin load balancing. The only problem you'll have is that if a server goes down all session information tied to that server is lost.

As an aside, I have a difficult time understanding why anyone would use WL Express. Tomcat 5 has load balancing and session replication built in. Unless you expect to ugrade to a full WLS license I would stick with Tomcat. WL Express is a dumb attempt by BEA to stem the tide of lost sales to Tomcat.
[ November 15, 2004: Message edited by: Scott Dunbar ]

[Deepak Dew]

Hi Scott,
Thanks a lot for your prompt reply.
My company has decided to use WL Express probably with the intention of going full fledged WLS in the near future.
Well, I know that WL express basic cann't do clustering.
I think I got the answer from you ie Load Balancing(round robin only) is still possible with WL Express basic servers after Apache 2.0 though fail over is not supported as there is no cluster support.

Deepak

[Deepak Dew]

Hi
Just browsing thru the bea website and it says that "JSP and servlet load balancing." not supported in WebLogic Express basic edition.
the url is http://dev2dev.bea.com/products/wlserver81/express/whitepapers/whitepaper_servletengine_comparison.jsp#advbea
I wanted to make sure that if I use Apache webserver in the front then would Apache be able to load balance the requests coming to it when proxying them to a group of weblogic express servers.
Plz answer asap.
Thanks
D