Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server v3 Administration Guide

About HTTP Network Listeners

An HTTP listener, also known as a network listener, is a listen socket that has an Internet Protocol (IP) address, a port number, a server name, and a default virtual server. Each virtual server provides connections between the server and clients through one or more listeners. Each listener must have a unique combination of port number and IP address. For example, an HTTP listener can listen for a host on all configured IP addresses on a given port by specifying the IP address 0.0.0.0. Alternatively, the listener can specify a unique IP address for each listener while using the same port.

Because an HTTP listener is a combination of IP address and port number, you can have multiple HTTP listeners with the same IP address and different port numbers, or with different IP addresses and the same port number (if your host was configured to respond to these addresses). However, if an HTTP listener uses the 0.0.0.0 IP address, which listens on all IP addresses on a port, you cannot create HTTP listeners for additional IP addresses that listen on the same port for a specific IP address. For example, if an HTTP listener uses 0.0.0.0:8080 (all IP addresses on port 8080), another HTTP listener cannot use 1.2.3.4:8080. The host running the Enterprise Server typically has access to only one IP address. HTTP listeners typically use the 0.0.0.0 IP address and different port numbers, with each port number serving a different purpose. However, if the host does have access to more than one IP address, each address can serve a different purpose.

To access a web application deployed on Enterprise Server, use the URL http://localhost:8080/ (or https://localhost:8081/ for a secure application), along with the context root specified for the web application.

To access the Administration Console, use the URL https://localhost:4848/ or http://localhost:4848/asadmin/ (console default context root).