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We are very happy to announce that we have enabled evaluation licenses for our WebSphere on Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) Marketplace solutions. The solutions are jointly developed and supported by IBM and Microsoft. We have also added support for standalone WebSphere Base instance on VMs deployments. In addition, we have integrated a sample getting started application into our WebSphere Liberty/Open Liberty on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)/Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO) solutions. These changes make getting started with WebSphere and Azure even easier. Evaluate the WebSphere on Azure solutions for full production usage and reach out to collaborate on migration cases.


 


WebSphere Base Standalone Instance on VMs


IBM and Microsoft previously released a Marketplace solution to automate WebSphere Network Deployment (ND) cluster deployments on VMs. We now have an additional offer targeting single instance deployments of WebSphere Base on VMs. The solutions automatically provision a number of resources including virtual network, storage, network security group, Java, Linux, and WebSphere. With minimal effort, you can set up a fully functional WebSphere deployment including the Console. The solutions support WebSphere 9.0.5 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.3.


 


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The solutions enable a variety of robust production-ready deployment architectures. Once the initial provisioning is complete, you can fully customize the deployment including integrating with a wide range of Azure services.


 


Evaluation Licenses for WebSphere on VMs


The WebSphere traditional on VMs solutions primarily follow a Bring Your Own License model. You must have the appropriate licenses from IBM and be properly licensed to run production workloads on Azure. The solutions ensure that you have adequate WebSphere entitlements. Now you can also use evaluation licenses for both WebSphere ND and Base. This enables key use cases such as exploration, prototyping, and trial. With the evaluation option, it is possible to apply WebSphere entitlements to a deployment later on.


 


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Liberty on ARO/AKS Sample Application


In addition to WebSphere traditional on VMs solutions, IBM and Microsoft have previously released Marketplace solutions targeting WebSphere Liberty/Open Liberty on AKS and ARO. Similar to the VM solutions, the AKS/ARO solutions enable you to focus on developing and deploying your containerized applications instead of initial provisioning and configuration of Java and Azure resources. The resources automatically provisioned by these solutions include virtual networks, an ARO/AKS cluster, the OpenShift Container Registry (OCR)/Azure Container Registry (ACR), and the Liberty Operator. The solutions can optionally deploy a Docker image that includes Open Liberty or WebSphere Liberty and your application. The image must be anonymously accessible from a registry such as Docker Hub. In addition, we now have an option in the solutions to deploy an IBM provided Liberty sample application. The sample application helps you get started with Liberty, containers, and Azure with minimal prior knowledge required.


 


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Note, WebSphere Liberty is available as a limited trial option before entitlement must be applied to the deployment. Open Liberty is open source and free to use unsupported. You can also use Open Liberty supported through WebSphere Liberty entitlements.


 


Get started with WebSphere on Azure


Explore the WebSphere on Azure solutions, provide feedback, and stay informed of the roadmap. You can also take advantage of hands-on help from the engineering team behind these solutions. The opportunity to collaborate on a migration scenario is completely free while the solutions are under active initial development.

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.