The SOA infrastructure can be started up and shut down in several ways—through the console, WLST, or the command line, each having their own benefits. All approaches are valid and depend on your standards and preference. However, our recommendation is that you use a set of scripts to make this repetitive process less cumbersome and more consistent. The following figure demonstrates how AdminServer can start up or shut down a remote managed server by issuing commands through Node Manager:
Figure 3.1: AdminServer issues commands to remote hosts through Node Manager
Regardless of the approach you follow, be aware of a few points. You should ideally start up Node Manager first. If you have a clustered installation, then Node Manager should be started up on each host separately. Node Manager serves multiple purposes—it can automatically restart a managed server that has crashed, it provides you the ability to start up or stop managed servers remotely, and it is required...