Along with some other new productreleases like the SOA Suite, Oracle launched the new WebLogic 11g Release 1 (10.3.4). There are many new features available, but one can see Oracle’s strategy is to focus on availibility and reliability. I will highlight some important improvements.

For more detailed descriptions, see  http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17904_01/web.1111/e13852/toc.htm#insertedID0

The Core server:

• Better plugins and optimization possibilities for ExaLogic by providing configurable items for MBeans, like the DomainMbean.ExalogicOptimizationsEnabled. This includesimproved thread management and request processing, and reduced lock contention.
• Better tuning properties for HTTP connections cache
• Plugins voor Maven deployments

Deployment

• Better file upload support for large files using the weblogic.deploy.UploadLargeFile property This only available in the 10.3.4 version

Installation

• 64 bits installer binary. Upto 10.3.3, there we’re only generic installer JarFiles for 64 bits OS available, but now there is a self extracting binary packaged with Coherence, and Oracle JRockit 1.6.0
• For Development Only  there is a  zip package available with some extra features like: Sample files, Derby database and scripts, more  Administration Console help files  ( more languages )

JDBC

• Enhanced RAC support like Connection Failover, LoadBalancing, SCAN Adresses
• JDBC Menu is reorganized, all is now under under the Services > Data Sources link in the domain tree
• Data Source Factories are in 10.3.4 new installation not available anymore, when upgrading from previous versions it’s still is.
• GridLink Datasources. This feature uses the well know ONS to notify changes in the RAC environment

See the ONS in between connected to the RAC system picking up notifications and send them through

• UTF 8 conversion tool

Generally one could say there has been done a lot of enhancement to support failover and loadbalancing

JTA

• One-Phase Commit Optimizations: with the resource manager, even multiple XA transactiions can be handled better
• More monitoring statistics for One-Phase Commit and ReadOnly transaction

JMS and other messaging

• Enhanced message distribution like Partitioned Distributed Topic for loadbalancing JMS
• Ability to share an ID over more JMS Connections for failover purposes
• Better and more publish and subscribe options, actually all for better suporting High Availability

In fact all of these enhancements provide better failover, loadbalancing and availability

Security

• Support encryption services for JDK 6
• Better validation and analysis of Certificates to end Clients
• SSO for SAML ( open standard for exchanging authentication and authorization data between security domains)

SCA ( Service Component Architecture)

• OWSM policies  supported in WebLogic SCA applications ( can be important for  SOA Suite composites)

EJB, WebServices, Servlets and JSP’s

• New MDB activation configuration properties like an activation-config-property element in the message-driven section of an ejb-jar.xml
• Use topic MDB’s together with WebLogic JMS distributed topics for using  the enhanced JMS capabilities for Message Driven Beans
• CAT: Web-based class analysis tool for detecting conflicts, debugging application classpaths and  conflicts
• More  security and monitoring options for WebServices

Coherence and WebLogic

The Cache Servers are better and more tight integrated into WebLogic Server, note the ability to stop start them with the NodeManager or WLST

Conclusion

One can see there has been a lot of rework, but mainly ” under the hood” . I think Oracle has focussed on enhancing High Availability and LoadBalancing; note the changes in the different sections of messaging and JDBC, all with the purpose of faster more reliable message handling.

I think the 4 in 10.3.4 is a valid level, this certainly isn’t the 12c, as I expect in there more merging of traditional Oracle, BEA and SUN components.