Oracle WebLogic Server 11g Administration Handbook

Administration and Managed Servers

Each WebLogic Server domain has a minimum of one server. If there's but a single server, as is often the case in development environments, then you use that server for both management purposes and for deploying your applications. However, in production environments, the norm is to use multiple Managed Servers, usually organized into a cluster for providing load balancing, high availability, and scalability benefits. In the following sections, let's revisit the two types of servers—the Admin Server and the Managed Server—that you must manage in a WebLogic Server environment.

Admin Server

Although you can deploy web applications through the Admin Server, its main purpose is to act as the central command center ...