I uploaded a new ear file to WebLogic 12c. I then issued the *nix find command that outputs the md5sums of the files that the search finds. I noticed that there are two different versions of the ear I uploaded.
I know that one of the md5sums is a sum for the previous version of the ear file and the other md5sum is for the latest version of the file. I saw that the previous version is in a folder under a directory called stage. The latest version is under a folder called AdminServer. Please see the output of the find command below that shows this:
[me@corp-box ~]$ find /app -name CORP_UI.ear -exec md5sum "{}" \; 0d03c0bf96b3f700da5c44454a66ace8 /app/oracle/Oracle/Middleware/Oracle_Home/user_projects/domains/die_domain/servers/CORP/stage/CORP_UI/CORP_UI.ear 649f5c222e014fb7af05178e13cab708 /app/oracle/Oracle/Middleware/Oracle_Home/user_projects/domains/die_domain/servers/AdminServer/upload/CORP/app/CORP_UI.ear md5sum: /app/oracle/Oracle/Middleware/Oracle_Home/user_projects/domains/die_domain/config/deployments/CORP_UI.ear: Is a directory [me@corp-box ~]$
I saw a question pertaining to the stage folder at the following URL: Is it safe to delete the stage directory?
I am wondering what the stage directory is? Is this where applications go to die? Why would the previous version of the application be in the stage directory and the new copy under the ../AdminServer/upload/.. directory?
According to oracle documentation, the Upload directory is:
"The directory path on the Administration Server where all uploaded applications are placed."
the Stage directory is:
"The directory path on the Managed Server where all staged (prepared) applications are placed."
The stage directory can be deleted after stopping the managed servers. As a matter of fact you can delete the whole directories /servers/ and their content. Whenever you restart the managed servers they are recreated by weblogic. Just pay attention not to delete the admin server directory!