Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 8.2 Upgrade and Migration Guide

Chapter 1 Application Server Compatibility Issues

Application Server 8.2) is upward binary compatible with Application Server 8 2004Q2 and with Application Server 7 2004Q2 except for the incompatibilities noted below. J2EE applications that run on versions 7 and 8 also work on version 8.2 except for the incompatibilities listed in this chapter.

The topics discussed in this chapter include incompatibilities in the following areas:

Web Server Features

The following web server-specific features are no longer supported in version Application Server 8.2:

cgi-bin, shtml
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) support
Netscape API (NSAPI) plugin APIs
Native-content-handling features
Web server tools (flexanlg, htpasswd)
HTTP QoS
Web server configuration files (*.conf, *.acl, mime.types)
Web server-specific log rotation facility
Watch dog process (appserv-wdog)

Security Realms

The package names of the security realm implementations have been renamed from com.iplanet.ias.security.auth.realm in Application Server 7 to com.sun.enterprise.security.auth.realm in Application Server 8.2. Custom realms written using the com.iplanet.* classes must be modified.

The com.sun.enterprise.security.AuthenticationStatus class has been removed.

The com.sun.enterprise.security.auth.login.PasswordLoginModule authenticate method implementation has changed as follows:

/**
    * Perform authentication decision.
    * <P> Note: AuthenticationStatus and AuthenticationStatusImpl
    * classes have been removed.
    * Method returns silently on success and returns a LoginException
    * on failure.
    *
    * @return void authenticate returns silently on 
    *               successful authentication.
    * @throws LoginException on authentication failure.
    *
    */
abstract protected void authenticate()
    throws LoginException;

For more information, see:

http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/appserver/reference/techart/as8_authentication/index.html

Sun Deployment Descriptor: `sun-web.xml`

In Application Server 7, the default value for the optional attribute delegate was false. In Application Server 8.2, this attribute defaults to true. This change means that by default the Web application classloader first delegates to the parent classloader before attempting to load a class by itself. For details, see Application Server 8.2 Options Contrary to J2EE 1.4 Specification Recommendations.

The `encodeCookies` Property

URL encoding of cookies is performed, if the encodeCookies property of the sun-web-app element in the sun-web.xml file is set to true. In Application Server 7, the default value of the encodeCookies property was true. This property was not present in Application Server 8. In Application Server 8.2, the default value is false.

URL encoding of cookies is unnecessary. Setting this property to true is strongly discouraged. This property is provided only for those rare applications that depended on this behavior in Application Server 7.

CORBA Performance Option

In Application Server 7, users were able to specify the following system property to optionally turn on some Object Request Broker (ORB) performance optimization:

-Djavax.rmi.CORBA.UtilClass=com.iplanet.ias.util.orbutil.IasUtilDelegate

The ORB performance optimization is turned on by default in Application Server 8.2. If you are using the preceding system property reference, you must remove it to avoid interfering with the default optimization.

File Formats

In Application Server 8.2, domain.xml is the main server configuration file. In Application Server 7, the main server configuration file was server.xml. The DTD file of domain.xml is found in lib/dtds/sun-domain_1_1.dtd. The upgrade tool included in Application Server 8.2 can be used to migrate the server.xml from Application Server 7 to domain.xml for Application Server 8.2.

The lib/dtds/sun-domain_1_1.dtd file for Application Server 8.2 is fully backward compatible with the corresponding file for Application Server 8, sun-domain_1_0.dtd.

In general, the configuration file formats are not backward compatible. The following configuration files are not supported:

*.conf
*.acl
mime.types
server.xml (replaced with domain.xml)

Tools Interoperability

As a general rule, tools are not interoperable between Application Server 7 and 8.2. Users must upgrade their Application Server 7 tools to work with Application Server 8.2.

Security Policy

You cannot change the security policy of Application Server 8.2. In Application Server 7, you could change the security policy because the read/write permission java.util.PropertyPermission is "*", "read,write";. In Application Server 8.2the read/write permission for java.util.PropertyPermission is "*", "read";.

Implicit URL Rewriting

Application Server 6.x supported implicit URL rewriting, in which the web connector plug-in parsed the HTML stream being sent to the browser and appended session IDs to attributes such as href= and frame=. In Application Server 7/ 8 and Application Server 8.2, this feature is not available. You need to review your applications and use encodeURL and encodeRedirectURL on every URL that the applications present to clients (such as mobile phones) that do not support cookies.

Primary Key Attribute Values

In Application Server 7, it was possible to change any field (in the Administration Console) or attribute (in the Command Line Interface (CLI)). In Application Server 8.2, a field or attribute that is the primary key of an item cannot be changed. However, an item can be deleted and then recreated with a new primary key value. In most cases, the primary key is a name, ID, reference, or JNDI name. The following table lists the primary keys that cannot be changed.

Note –

In the domain.xml file, a field or attribute is called an attribute, and an item is called an element. For more information about domain.xml, see the Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 8.2 Administration Reference.

Table 1–1 Primary Key Attributes


Item	Primary Key Field or Attribute
`admin-object-resource`	`jndi-name`
`alert-subscription`	`name`
`appclient-module`	`name`
`application-ref`	`ref`
`audit-module`	`name`
`auth-realm`	`name`
`cluster-ref`	`ref`
`cluster`	`name`
`config`	`name`
`connector-connection-pool`	`name`
`connector-module`	`name`
`connector-resource`	`jndi-name`
`custom-resource`	`jndi-name`
`ejb-module`	`name`
`external-jndi-resource`	`jndi-name`
`http-listener`	`id`
`iiop-listener`	`id`
`j2ee-application`	`name`
`jacc-provider`	`name`
`jdbc-connection-pool`	`name`
`jdbc-resource`	`jndi-name`
`jms-host`	`name`
`jmx-connector`	`name`
`lb-config`	`name`
`lifecycle-module`	`name`
`mail-resource`	`jndi-name`
`message-security-config`	`auth-layer`
`node-agent`	`name`
`profiler`	`name`
`element-property`	`name`
`provider-config`	`provider-id`
`resource-adapter-config`	`resource-adapter-name`
`resource-ref`	`ref`
`security-map`	`name`
`server`	`name`
`server-ref`	`ref`
`system-property`	`name`
`thread-pool`	`thread-pool-id`
`virtual-server`	`id`
`web-module`	`name`
`persistence-manager-factory-resource`	`jndi-name`

Command Line Interface: start-appserv and stop-appserv

The start-appserv and stop-appserv commands are deprecated. Use of these commands results in a warning. Useasadmin start-domain and asadmin stop-domain instead.

In Application Server 8.2, the Log Messages to Standard Error field has been removed from the Administration Console. The log-to-console attribute in the domain.xml file is deprecated and ignored. The asadmin set command has no effect on the log-to-console attribute. Use the ---verbose option of the asadmin start-domain command to print messages to the window in which you executed the asadmin start-domain command. This option works only if you execute the asadmin start-domain command on the machine that has the domain you are starting.

Command Line Interface: asadmin

The following sections describe changes to the command line utility asadmin:

For more information about the asadmin commands, see the Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 8.2 Reference Manual.

asadmin Subcommands

Sub-commands are backward compatible except as noted below.

The reconfigsubcommand is deprecated and ignored.

The following sub-commands are no longer supported in Application Server 8.2. The software license key and web core were removed, and Application Server 8.2 no longer supports controlled functions from web server features.

install-license
display-license
create-http-qos
delete-http-qos
create-mime
delete-mime
list-mime
create-authdb
delete-authdb
list-authdbs
create-acl
delete-acl
list-acls

Error Codes for Start and Stop Subcommands

For Application Server 7, the error codes for the start and stop subcommands of the asadmin command were based on the desired end state. For example, for asadmin start-domain, if the domain was already running, the exit code was 0 (success). If domain startup failed, the exit code was 1 (error).

For Application Server 8.2, the exit codes are based on whether the commands execute as expected. For example, the asadmin start-domain command returns exit code 1 if the domain is already running or if domain startup fails. Similarly, asadmin stop-domain returns exit code 1 if the domain is already not running or cannot be stopped.

Deprecated and Unsupported Options

Options in the following table are deprecated or no longer supported.

Table 1–2 Deprecated and Unsupported asadmin Options


Option	Deprecated or Unsupported in Subcommands
`--acceptlang`	Deprecated for the `create-virtual-server` subcommand.
`--acls`	Deprecated for the `create-virtual-server` subcommand.
`--adminpassword`	Deprecated for all relevant subcommands. Use `--passwordfile` instead.
`--blockingenabled`	Deprecated for the `create-http-listener` subcommand.
`--configfile`	Deprecated for the `create-virtual-server` subcommand.
`--defaultobj`	Deprecated for the `create-virtual-server` subcommand.
`--domain`	Deprecated for the `stop-domain` subcommand.
`--family`	Deprecated for the `create-http-listener` subcommand.
`--instance`	Deprecated for all remote subcommands. Use `--target` instead.
`--mime`	Deprecated for the `create-virtual-server` subcommand.
`--optionsfile`	No longer supported for any commands.
`--password`	Deprecated for all remote subcommands. Use `--passwordfile` instead.
`--path`	Deprecated for the `create-domain` subcommand. Use `--domaindir` instead.
`--resourcetype`	Deprecated for all relevant subcommands. Use `--restype` instead.
`--storeurl`	No longer supported for any commands.
`--target`	Deprecated for all `jdbc-connection-pool`, `connector-connection-pool`, `connector-security-map`, and `resource-adapter-config` subcommands.
`--type`	Deprecated for all relevant subcommands.

Dotted Names

The following use of dotted names in asadmin get and set subcommands are not backward compatible:

The default server name is server instead of server1.
.resource becomes domain.resources.resource.
.app-module becomes domain.applications.app-module.
Attributes names format is different. For example,poolResizeQuantity is now pool-resize-quantity.
Some aliases supported in Application Server 7 are not supported in Application Server 8.2 .

In Application Server 8.2, the ---passwordfile option of the asadmin command does not read the password.conf file, and the upgrade tool does not upgrade this file. For information about creating a password file in Application Server 8.2, see the Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 8.2 Administration Guide.

This table displays a one-to-one mapping of the incompatibilities in dotted names between Application Server 7 and 8.2. The compatible dotted names are not listed in this table.

Table 1–3 Incompatible Dotted Names Between Versions


Application Server 7 Dotted Names	Application Server 8.2 Dotted Names
`server_instance.http-listener.listener_idserver_instance.http-service.http-listener.listener_id`	`.http-service.http-listener.listener_id.http-service.http-listener.listener_id`
`server_instance.orbserver_instance.iiop-service`	`.iiop-service.iiop-service`
`server_instance.orblistenerserver_instance.iiop-listener`	`.iiop-service.iiop-listener.listener_id.iiop-service.iiop-listener.listener_id`
`server_instance.jdbc-resource.jndi_name`	`.resources.jdbc-resource.jndi_namedomain.resources.jdbc-resource.jndi_name`
`server_instance.jdbc-connection-pool.pool_id`	`.resources.jdbc-connection-pool.pool_iddomain.resources.jdbc-connection-pool.pool_id`
`server_instance.external-jndi-resource.jndi_nameserver_instance.jndi-resource.jndi_name`	`.resources.external-jndi-resource.jndi_namedomain.resources.external.jndi-resource.jndi_name`
`server_instance.custom-resource.jndi_name`	`.resources.custom-resource.jndi_namedomain.resources.custom-resource.jndi_name`
`server_instance.web-container.logLevel` (see note below)	`.log-service.module-log-levels.web-container.log-service.module-log-levels.web-container`
`server_instance.web-container.monitoringEnabled` (see note below)	`.monitoring-service.module-monitoring-levels.web-container.monitoring-service.module-monitoring-levels.web-container`
`server_instance.j2ee-application.application_nameserver_instance.application.application_name`	`.applications.j2ee-application.application_namedomain.applications.j2ee-application.application_name`
`server_instance.ejb-module.ejb-module_name`	`.applications.ejb-module.ejb-module_namedomain.applications.ejb-module.ejb-module_name`
`server_instance.web-module.web-module_name`	`.applications.web-module.web-module_namedomain.applications.web-module.web-module_name`
`server_instance.connector-module.connector_module_name`	`.applications.connector-module.connector_module_namedomain.applications.connector-module.connector_module_name`
`server_instance.lifecycle-module.lifecycle_module_name`	`.applications.lifecycle-module.lifecycle_module_namedomain.application.lifecycle-module.lifecycle_module_name`
`server_instance.virtual-server-class`	N/A*
`server_instance`.`virtual-server`.`virtual-server_id`	`.`http-service.virtual-server.virtual-server_id.http-service.virtual-server.virtual-server_id
`server_instance.mime`.`mime_id`	N/A*
`server_instance`.`acl`.`acl_id`	N/A*
`server_instance`.`virtual-server`.`virtual-server_id`.`auth-db`.`auth-db_id`	N/A*
`server_instance`.`authrealm`.`realm_idserver_instance`.`security-service.authrealm`.`realm_id`	`.security-service.auth-realm.realm_id.security-service-auth-realm.realm_id`
`server_instance.persistence-manager-factory-resource.jndi_nameserver_instance.resources.persistence-manager-factory-resource.jndi_name`	`.resources.persistence-manager-factory-resource.jndi_namedomain.resources.persistence-manager-factory-resource.jndi_name`
`server_instance.http-service.acl.acl_id`	N/A*
`server_instance.mail-resource.jndi_name`	`.resources.mail-resource.jndi_namedomain.resources.mail-resource.jndi_name`
`server_instance.profiler`	`.java-config.profiler.java-config.profiler`

* — These attribute names in Application Server 7 do not correspond directly with Application Server 8.2 dotted names.

Tokens in Attribute Values

The asadmin get command shows raw values in Application Server 8.2 instead of resolved values as in Application Server 8. These raw values may be tokens. For example, executing the following command:

asadmin get domain.log-root

The preceding command displays the following value:

${com.sun.aas.instanceRoot}/logs

Nulls in Attribute Values

In Application Server 8, attributes with no values contained null. This caused problems in attributes that specified paths. In Application Server 8.2, attributes with no values contain empty strings, as they did in Application Server 7.