How to DISABLE and ENABLE Production Mode in WebLogic domain for WebLogic 9 & above

Sharing my own experience on this post.

I started working a third party product at the client location and there one of the suggestion, to run the product smoothly is to create the WebLogic domain with Production Mode always enabled. But I never noticed that I went wrong while creating the WebLogic domain and selected the Development instead and completed the 60% of the installation, as per the documentation provided by the vendor. Later on when I restarted the WebLogic domain and tailing the logs for Admin server [sitting with the vendor], we realized that domain was running in Development Mode. Vendor refused to support this issue and did not want me continue forward with the rest of the installation until the domain is running in Production Mode. I had to sit late and complete the initial 60% of work with WebLogic domain running in Production Mode because I was not aware of "How to Enable the Production Mode in the domain"

This post is to help others who can come across such situation.




Topic A: Disabling the Production Mode
One way to disable Production Mode, by simply editing config.xml which resides in $DOMAIN_HOME/config directory. 
Note: It is not possible to disable Production Mode via Weblogic Console GUI

1. Look for the line that sets the production-mode-enabled parameter.
<production-mode-enabled>true</production-mode-enabled>

   Edit the production-mode-enabled parameter to false as below to ensure the server starts in development mode. If you do not find this configuration in your config.xml, you can add this configuration after <configuration-version>9.2.0.0</configuration-version>
<production-mode-enabled>false</production-mode-enabled>

2. Save your changes and restart the Domain.


<Apr 13, 2011 7:40:41 PM GMT> <Notice> <WebLogicServer> <BEA-000331> <Started WebLogic Admin Server "admin" for domain "base_domain" running in Development Mode> 


3. Verify by logging into Weblogic Console GUI.
    In the Left hand pane under Domain Structure section click on the Domain Name. Now navigate to Configuration - General tab. If you see a Production Mode parameter with a "Unchecked" check box as in snapshot below then your WebLogic domain is running in Development Mode.

Topic B: Enabling the Production Mode

Option 1:
One of the way to enable Production Mode is just easy and via Weblogic Console GUI.


1. Once you login to Weblogic Console, in the Left hand pane under Domain Structure section click on the Domain Name.
 
2. Now navigate to Configuration - General tab on the right hand pane.


3. Select the "production mode" check box to enable production mode.





4. Save the changes and click Activate Changes. Once Changes are activated you see the below snapshot on the console and below similar entries in the Admin server logs.

 
<Apr 13, 2011 7:44:58 PM GMT> <Warning> <Management> <BEA-141239> <The non-dynamic attribute RotateLogOnStartup on weblogic.management.configuration.WebServerLogMBeanImpl@f1655a77([base_domain]/Servers[ManagedServer1]/WebServer[ManagedServer1]/WebServerLog[ManagedServer1]) has been changed. This may require redeploying or rebooting configured entities>


5. Restart the domain and your domain will be running in PRODUCTION MODE.


<Apr 13, 2011 7:47:24 PM GMT> <Notice> <WebLogicServer> <BEA-000329> <Started WebLogic Admin Server"admin" for domain "base_domain" running in Production Mode>

Options 2:

Other way to enable Production Mode, by simply editing config.xml which resides in $DOMAIN_HOME/config directory. 
Note: It is not possible to disable Production Mode via Weblogic Console GUI

1. Look for the line that sets the production-mode-enabled parameter.
<production-mode-enabled>false</production-mode-enabled>

   Edit the production-mode-enabled parameter to true as below to ensure the server starts in development mode. If you do not find this configuration in your config.xml, you can add this configuration after <configuration-version>9.2.0.0</configuration-version>
<production-mode-enabled>true</production-mode-enabled>

2. Save your changes and restart the Domain.


<Apr 13, 2011 7:47:24 PM GMT> <Notice> <WebLogicServer> <BEA-000329> <Started WebLogic Admin Server "admin" for domain "base_domain" running in Production Mode>



3. Verify by logging into Weblogic Console GUI.
    In the Left hand pane under Domain Structure section click on the Domain Name. Now navigate to Configuration - General tab. If you see a Production Mode parameter with true value as in snapshot below then your WebLogic domain is running in Production Mode.