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Oracle GlassFish Server 3.1 Deployment Planning Guide
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Document Information

Preface

1.  Product Concepts

Java EE Platform Overview

Java EE Applications

Containers

Java EE Services

Web Services

Client Access

External Systems and Resources

GlassFish Server Components

Server Instances

Administrative Domains

Domain Administration Server (DAS)

Clusters

Named Configurations

HTTP Load Balancer Plug-in

Session Persistence

IIOP Load Balancing in a Cluster

Message Queue and JMS Resources

Configuration Roadmap for High Availability of GlassFish Server

To Configure GlassFish Server for High Availability

2.  Planning your Deployment

3.  Checklist for Deployment

Index

Java EE Platform Overview

GlassFish Server implements Java platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 6 technology. The Java EE platform is a set of standard specifications that describe application components, APIs, and the runtime containers and services of an application server.

Java EE Applications

Java EE applications are made up of components such as JavaServer Pages (JSP), Java servlets, and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) modules. These components enable software developers to build large-scale, distributed applications. Developers package Java EE applications in Java Archive (JAR) files (similar to zip files), which can be distributed to production sites. Administrators install Java EE applications onto GlassFish Server by deploying Java EE JAR files onto one or more server instances (or clusters of instances).

Containers

Each server instance includes two containers: web and EJB. A container is a runtime environment that provides services such as security and transaction management to Java EE components. Web components, such as Java Server Pages and servlets, run within the web container. Enterprise JavaBeans run within the EJB container.

Java EE Services

The Java EE platform provides services for applications, including:

Web Services

Clients can access a Java EE application as a remote web service in addition to accessing it through HTTP, RMI/IIOP, and JMS. Web services are implemented using the Java API for XML-based web services (JAX-WS). A Java EE application can also act as a client to web services, which would be typical in network applications.

Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is an XML format that describes web service interfaces. Web service consumers can dynamically parse a WSDL document to determine the operations a web service provides and how to execute them. GlassFish Server distributes web services interface descriptions using a registry that other applications can access through the Java API for XML Registries (JAXR).

Client Access

Clients can access Java EE applications in several ways. Browser clients access web applications using hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). For secure communication, browsers use the HTTP secure (HTTPS) protocol that uses secure sockets layer (SSL).

Rich client applications running in the Application Client Container can directly lookup and access Enterprise JavaBeans using an Object Request Broker (ORB), Remote Method Invocation (RMI) and the internet inter-ORB protocol (IIOP), or IIOP/SSL (secure IIOP). They can access applications and web services using HTTP/HTTPS, JMS, and JAX-WS. They can use JMS to send messages to and receive messages from applications and message-driven beans.

Clients that conform to the Web Services-Interoperability (WS-I) Basic Profile can access Java EE web services. WS-I is an integral part of the Java EE standard and defines interoperable web services. It enables clients written in any supporting language to access web services deployed to GlassFish Server.

The best access mechanism depends on the specific application and the anticipated volume of traffic. GlassFish Server supports separately configurable listeners for HTTP, HTTPS, JMS, IIOP, and IIOP/SSL. You can set up multiple listeners for each protocol for increased scalability and reliability.

Java EE applications can also act as clients of Java EE components such as Enterprise JavaBeans modules deployed on other servers, and can use any of these access mechanisms.

External Systems and Resources

On the Java EE platform, an external system is called a resource. For example, a database management system is a JDBC resource. Each resource is uniquely identified and by its Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) name. Applications access external systems through the following APIs and components: