Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9 Administration Guide

About the Sun Java System Application Server

The Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition is a Java EE platform compatible server for the development and deployment of Java EE applications and Java Web Services. Production use of this server is free of charge. This section contains the following topics:

What is the Application Server?

The Sun Java System Application Server is a fully-featured, Java EE platform application server providing the foundation for building reliable, scalable, and manageable applications. With its comprehensive set of features and support for component-based development, the Sun Java System Application Server provides the underlying core functionality necessary for the development and deployment of business-driven applications.

Improved Administration — Application Server provides remote secure management using a browser-based Admin Console and a scriptable command-line interface. The new Admin Console features include:
Comprehensive web services management and development support
Enhanced monitoring, visualization and diagnostic tools
Enhancements to the Java Management Extensions (JMX™) MBean API to provide for remote, secure, programmatic administration and monitoring using JMX
Improved Performance — Application deployment is faster, which makes iterative application development quicker and easier. The runtime performance of EJB components is also improved.
Expanded Platform Support — The Application Server supports additional operating systems, databases, locales, and hardware (see the Release Notes for the latest list of supported platforms).
Migration and Upgrade Tools — These tools enable you to verify Java EE applications for standards conformance and portability, help with migrations from other Java EE application servers, and aid in upgrading from previous versions of the Application Server.
Java 2 Standard Edition Support — The Application Server supports Java 2 Standard Edition, which includes enhanced management and monitoring features and many performance and scalability improvements.
JDBC Drivers — The Application Server includes DataDirect^TM JDBC^TM drivers for major databases. You can use these drivers for deployment.
Web Services Security — Container message security mechanisms implement message-level authentication (for example, XML digital signature and encryption) of SOAP web services invocations using the X.509 and username/password profiles of the OASIS WS-Security standard.
WS-I Profile 1.1 — As mandated by the Java EE specification, Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) Basic Profile 1.1 enables interoperability for web services applications.
Backend Connectivity with iWay Adapters — Sun Microsystems supports twenty-two iWay adapters to key backend systems to help customers leverage existing applications from the Application Server environment. These adapters support the Java EE Connector Architecture 1.5 specification and web services standards (SOAP), and include developer tools to reduce time to connect to backend applications.

Key Features

The Sun Java System Application Server includes the following key features:

Java EE Platform Support — This release implements all of the specifications covered by the Java EE platform. For a complete list of the Java EE technologies included, see Java EE 5 Platform APIs in Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9 Release Notes.
JavaServer Faces 1.2 — Application Server supports JavaServer Faces, which simplifies building user interfaces for Java Server applications. Developers can quickly build web applications by assembling reusable user-interface components in a page, connecting the components to an application data source, and wiring client-generated events to server-side event handlers.
JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library 1.2 — The Application Server supports the JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library (JSTL) 1.2, which encapsulates core functionality common to many JSP applications.
Administrative Tools — The Application Server includes a command-line tool and a browser-based Administration Console graphical user interface.
High Performance Message Delivery — This product supports concurrent message delivery with the Sun Java System Message Queue software.
Developer Tool Integration — The Application Server supports the NetBeans Integrated Development Environment and Sun Java Studio Creator.

Application Server Architecture

This section describes Figure 1–1, which shows the high-level architecture of the Application Server.

Figure 1–1 Application Server Architecture

Figure shows high-level architecture, including containers,
services, tools, and communication with outside systems such as databases.

Containers — A container is a runtime environment that provides services such as security and transaction management to Java EE components. Figure 1–1 shows the two types of Java EE containers: Web and EJB. Web components, such as JSP pages and servlets, run within the Web container. Enterprise beans, the components of EJB technology, run within the EJB container.
Client Access — At runtime, browser clients access Web applications by communicating with the Web server via HTTP, the protocol used throughout the internet. The HTTPS protocol is for applications that require secure communication. Enterprise bean clients communicate with the Object Request Broker (ORB) through the IIOP or IIOP/SSL (secure) protocols. The Application Server has separate listeners for the HTTP, HTTPS, IIOP, and IIOP/SSL protocols. Each listener has exclusive use of a specific port number.
Web Services — On the Java EE platform, it is possible to deploy a Web application that provides a Web service implemented by Java API for XML-Based RPC (JAX-RPC). A Java EE application or component can also be a client to other Web services. Applications access XML registries through the Java API for XML Registries (JAXR).
Services for Applications — The Java EE platform was designed so that the containers provide services for applications. Figure 1–1 shows the following services:
- Naming — A naming and directory service binds objects to names. A Java EE application locates an object by looking up its JNDI name. JNDI stands for the Java Naming and Directory Interface API.
- Security — The Java Authorization Contract for Containers (JACC) is a set of security contracts defined for the Java EE containers. Based on the client’s identity, the containers restrict access to the container’s resources and services.
Transaction management — A transaction is an indivisible unit of work. For example, transferring funds between bank accounts is a transaction. A transaction management service ensures that a transaction either completes fully or is rolled back.

Access to External Systems

The Java EE platform enables applications to access systems that are outside of the application server. Applications connect to these systems through objects called resources. One of the responsibilities of an administrator is resource configuration. The Java EE platform enables access to external systems through the following APIs and components:

JDBC — A database management system (DBMS) provides facilities for storing, organizing, and retrieving data. Most business applications store data in relational databases, which applications access via the JDBC API. The information in databases is often described as persistent because it is saved on disk and exists after the application ends. The Application Server bundle includes the PointBase DBMS.
Messaging — Messaging is a method of communication between software components or applications. A messaging client sends messages to, and receives messages from, any other client. Applications access the messaging provider through the Java Messaging Service (JMS) API. The Application Server includes a JMS provider.
Connector — The Java EE Connector architecture enables integration between Java EE applications and existing Enterprise Information Systems (EIS). An application accesses an EIS through a portable Java EE component called a connector or resource adapter.
JavaMail — Through the JavaMail API, applications connect to an SMTP server in order to send and receive email.
Server Administration — The lower right-hand corner of Figure 1-1 shows some of the tasks performed by the administrator of the Application Server. For example, an administrator deploys (installs) applications and monitors the server’s performance. These tasks are performed with the administration tools provided by the Application Server.

Tools for Administration

The Application Server includes three administrative tools:

Admin Console

The Admin Console is a browser-based tool that features an easy-to-navigate interface and online help. The administration server must be running to use the Admin Console.

When the Application Server was installed, you chose a port number for the server, or used the default port of 4848. You also specified a user name and master password.

To start the Admin Console, in a web browser type:

http://hostname:port

For example:

http://kindness.sun.com:4848

If the Admin Console is running on the machine on which the Application Server was installed, specify localhost for the host name.

On Windows, start the Application Server Admin Console from the Start menu.

The installation program creates the default administrative domain (named domain1) with the default port number 4848, as well as an instance separate from the domain administration server (DAS). After installation, additional administration domains can be created. Each domain has its own domain administration server, which has a unique port number. When specifying the URL for the Admin Console, be sure to use the port number for the domain to be administered.

asadmin Utility

The asadmin utility is a command-line tool. Use the asadmin utility and the commands associated with it to perform the same set of tasks that can be performed in the Admin Console. For example, start and stop domains, configure the server, and deploy applications.

Use these commands either from a command prompt in the shell, or call them from other scripts and programs. Use these commands to automate repetitive administration tasks.

To start the asadmin utility:

$ asadmin

To list the commands available within asadmin:

asadmin> help

It is also possible to issue an asadmin command at the shell’s command prompt:

$ asadmin help

To view a command’s syntax and examples, type help followed by the command name. For example:

asadmin> help create-jdbc-resource

The asadmin help information for a given command displays the UNIX man page of the command. These man pages are also available in HTML format.

Application Server Management Extension (AMX)

The Application Server Management eXtension is an API that exposes all of the Application Server configuration and monitoring JMX managed beans as easy-to-use client-side dynamic proxies implementing the AMX interfaces.

For more information on using the Application Server Management Extension, see Chapter 20, Using the Application Server Management Extensions, in Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9 Developer’s Guide.