About Administering Domains (or Servers)

A domain is a group of instances that are administered together. The domain provides a preconfigured runtime for user applications. In addition to providing an administration boundary, a domain provides the basic security structure whereby separate administrators can administer specific groups of server instances. By grouping the server instances into separate domains, different organizations and administrators can share a single installation of GlassFish Server. A domain has its own configuration, log files, and application deployment areas that are independent of other domains. If the configuration is changed for a domain, the configurations for other domains are not affected.

The GlassFish Server installer creates a default administrative domain named domain1, as well as an associated domain administration server (DAS) named server. The DAS is a specially-designated instance that authenticates the administrator, accepts requests from administration tools, and communicates with server instances in the domain to carry out requests. The DAS is sometimes referred to as the default server because it is the only server instance created during GlassFish Server installation that can be used for deployment.

The default administration port is 4848, but a different port can be specified during installation. When a domain is created, you are prompted for the administration user name and password, but you can accept the default in which case user name is admin and there is no password. To reset the administration password, see To Change the Administration Password.

The graphical Administration Console communicates with a specific DAS to administer the domain associated with the DAS. Each Administration Console session enables you to configure and manage the specific domain. If you create multiple domains, you must start a separate Administration Console session to manage each domain.