test

Sun Java System Application Server Enterprise Edition 8.2 Release Notes

Chapter 2 About Application Server Enterprise Edition 8.2

The Sun Java System Application Server Enterprise Edition 8.2 is a J2EE 1.4 platform-compatible server for the development and deployment of J2EE applications and Java technology-based web services in large-scale production environments.

This chapter includes:

What’s New in the 8.2 Release

The Application Server Enterprise Edition 8.2 includes the following enhancements:

Hardware and Software Requirements

This section lists the requirements that must be met before installing the Sun Java System Application Server Enterprise Edition 8.2 product.

Platform Requirements

The following table lists the operating systems that are supported for Sun Java System Application Server Enterprise Edition 8.2 product. Additionally, the minimum and recommended memory requirements are identified for installing and running the Application Server.

Table 2–1 Sun Java System Application Server 8.2 Platform Requirements

Operating System 

Minimum Memory 

Recommended Memory 

Minimum Disk Space 

Recommended Disk Space 

JVM [Only 32–bit (rather than 64–bit) JVMs are supported.]

Sun Solaris 9, 10 (SPARC) 

Solaris 9, 10 (x86) 

512 MB 

1 GB 

250 MB free 

500 MB free 

J2SE_5_08 

Sun Java Desktop System 

512 MB 

1 GB 

250 MB free 

500 MB free 

J2SE_5_08 

Redhat Enterprise Linux 3.0 U1, 4.0 

512 MB 

1 GB 

250 MB free 

500 MB free 

J2SE_5_08 

Windows Server 2000 SP4+ 

Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP4+ 

Windows Server 2003 

Windows XP Pro SP1+ 

1 GB 

2 GB 

500 MB free 

1 GB free 

J2SE_5_08 

Note –

The system requirements listed above for Application Server and those listed for HADB in HADB Requirements and Supported Platforms are not exactly the same. This is not a documentation error. It is not uncommon to run Application Server and an HADB server on different machines.

On UNIX, you can check your operating system version using the uname command. Disk space can be checked using the df command.

Note –

You must use the NTFS file system rather than FAT or FAT32 when running the Application Server on any Microsoft Windows platform.

System Virtualization Support

System virtualization is a technology that enables multiple operating system (OS) instances to execute independently on shared hardware. Functionally, software deployed to an OS hosted in a virtualized environment is generally unaware that the underlying platform has been virtualized. Sun performs testing of its Sun Java System products on select system virtualization and OS combinations to help validate that the Sun Java System products continue to function on properly sized and configured virtualized environments as they do on non-virtualized systems. For information about Sun support for Sun Java System products in virtualized environments, see System Virtualization Support in Sun Java System Products.

Important Patch Information

Solaris Patch Requirements

It is recommended that Solaris 9, 10 (x86, SPARC) users have the “Sun recommended patch cluster” installed. This patch cluster is available under Recommended and Security Patches on SunSolve.

RedHat Enterprise Linux 3.0 Additional Package Requirements

To run native components of this product, including installer, the following package, which is not part of the standard RedHat Enterprise Linux 3.0 distribution, should be installed: compat-libstdc++-7.3-2.96.118.i386.rpm

The package can be downloaded from http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/843376/com/compat-libstdc++-7.3-2.96.118.i386.rpm.html

JDBC Drivers and Databases

The Sun Java System Application Server is designed to support connectivity to any DBMS with a corresponding JDBC driver. For a list of components that Sun has tested and found to be acceptable for constructing J2EE compatible database configurations, please refer to the following table.

Table 2–2 J2EE-Compatible JDBC Drivers

JDBC Vendor 

JDBC Driver Type 

Supported Database Server 

i-net Software 

Type 4 

Oracle (R) 8.1.7, 9i, 9.2.0.3+, 10.1.x, 10.2.x

Sybase ASE 12.5. 

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 4.0 Service Pack 1 

IBM 

Type 2 

IBM DB2 8.1 Service Pack 3+ 

Java DB 

Type 4 

Apache Derby 10.1.3 

PointBase 

Type 4 

PointBase Network Server 5.2 

DataDirect 

Type 4 

Oracle (R) 8.1.7, 9i, 9.2.0.3+, 10.1.x, 10.2.x

Sybase ASE 12.5.2 

Microsoft SQL Server 

IBM DB2 8.1 Service Pack 3+ 

MySQL 

Type 4 

5.x

Sun Java System JDBC Driver for Oracle 

Type 4 

Oracle (R) 9.2.0.3, 10G 

Sun Java System JDBC Driver for DB2 

Type 4 

IBM DB2 8.1 Service Pack 3+ 

Sun Java System JDBC Driver for Sybase 

Type 4 

Sybase ASE 12.5.2 

Sun Java System JDBC Driver for Microsoft SQL Server 

Type 4 

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 4.0 Service Pack 1 

Oracle 

Type 4, Type 2 

Oracle (R) 9.2.0.3, 10G 

Using the Bundled Java DB Database

This section provides instructions for using the Java DB database implementation bundled with Application Server 8.2.

Starting and Stopping the Java DB Database

Sun Java System Application Server 8.2 introduces two new asadmin commands for starting and stopping the Java DB Network Server.

Java DB Utility Scripts

The Java DB configuration that ships with Application Server 8.2 also includes several useful scripts which can help you use Java DB. The following scripts are available for use in the <appserver_install_dir>/derby/frameworks/NetworkServer/bin directory:

ProcedureTo Configure Your Environment to Run the Java DB Utility Scripts

  1. Set the DERBY_INSTALL environment variable to point to the <appserver_install_dir>/derby directory.

  2. Unset your CLASSPATH environment variable.

  3. You can also optionally set the following properties:

    1. DERBY_SERVER_HOST to the host on which the network server will listen.

      Can also be set to 0.0.0.0 to enable all listeners.

    2. DERBY_SERVER_PORT to the port number on which the network server will listen.

See Also

For more information about these utilities, see the Derby Tools and Admin guides.

Exporting Tables from Pointbase to Java DB

This example shows how to capture the DDL for a table in Pointbase and create the same table in Java DB using Netbeans 5.0. Another option for doing this is by using the commander tool and the unload database command:

./startcommander.sh
Do you wish to create a new Database. (Yes (Y) or No (N))? [default: N]: 
Enter product to connect with: (Embedded (E) or Server (S))? [default: E]: e
Enter driver to use? [default: [com.pointbase.jdbc.jdbcUniversalDriver]: 
Enter database URL? [default: [jdbc:pointbase:embedded:sample]: 
Enter Username? [default: PBPUBLIC]: 
Enter Password? [default: PBPUBLIC]: 

PointBase Commander 5.2 ECF build 294 size restricted version EMBEDDED

Interactive SQL command language. SunOS/5.9

(C) Copyright 2004 DataMirror Mobile Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.

Licensed to: Sun_customer_demo_use
For commercial version contact PointBase at: 
pointbase.com
PHONE: 1-877-238-8798 (US & CANADA)
       1-408-961-1100 (International)
WEBSITE: www.pointbase.com

SQL>unload database sampledb.sql;
SQL> unload database sampledb.sql;
SQL> 13 Row(s) Unloaded. (PBPUBLIC.CUSTOMER_TBL)
SQL> 4 Row(s) Unloaded. (PBPUBLIC.DISCOUNT_CODE_TBL)
SQL> 30 Row(s) Unloaded. (PBPUBLIC.MANUFACTURE_TBL)
SQL> 11 Row(s) Unloaded. (PBPUBLIC.MICRO_MARKETS_TBL)
SQL> 9 Row(s) Unloaded. (PBPUBLIC.OFFICE_TBL)
SQL> 4 Row(s) Unloaded. (PBPUBLIC.OFFICE_TYPE_CODE_TBL)
SQL> 15 Row(s) Unloaded. (PBPUBLIC.ORDER_TBL)
SQL> 6 Row(s) Unloaded. (PBPUBLIC.PRODUCT_CODE_TBL)
SQL> 30 Row(s) Unloaded. (PBPUBLIC.PRODUCT_TBL)
SQL> 10 Row(s) Unloaded. (PBPUBLIC.SALES_REP_DATA_TBL)
SQL> 10 Row(s) Unloaded. (PBPUBLIC.SALES_REP_TBL)
SQL> 52 Row(s) Unloaded. (PBPUBLIC.SALES_TAX_CODE_TBL)
SQL> 12 Table(s) Unloaded.
SQL> quit;

The results from executing the unload database command is written in the above example to the file sampledb.sql. The sampledb.sql file contains all of the DDL required to create the necessary tables and indexes. It also contains the DML to insert the data back into the database. The commander command RUN is intended to be used import the data into another Pointbase database using the script that was generated. Here is an example of what the INSERT statements and associated data look like in the generated file:

INSERT INTO "ADVENTURE"."CATEGORY" (
"CATID", "LOCALE", "NAME", "DESCRIPTION", "IMAGEURI" )
VALUES( ?, ?, ?, ?, ? );
{
'ISLAND              ','en_US','Island Adventures','Experience an island /
paradise in a way fit for your needs.','Island_Adventures.gif'
'JUNGLE              ','en_US','Jungle Adventures','Experience a jungle /
paradise in a way fit for your needs.','Jungle_Adventures.gif'
'MOUNTAIN            ','en_US','Mountain Adventures','Experience an /
elevated paradise with a view.','Mountain_Adventures.gif'
'ORBITAL             ','en_US','Orbital Adventures','Experience a vacuum /
paradise with a beautiful view and where no one can hear you scream.', /
'Space_Adventures.gif'
'WESTERN             ','en_US','Western Adventures','Enjoy the Wild West. /
','Western_Adventures.gif'
'SOUTH_POLE          ','en_US','South Pole Adventures','Experience a /
frozen paradise in a way fit for your needs.','SouthPole_Adventures.gif'
};

You could easily edit the file generated from the commander unload database command so that it only consisted of the DDL (for example, it would not be hard to write a program which would process the insert statements). As a simple test, we use the unload database command against the Pointbase sample database, and then edit the generated script, making the following changes:

Next, a simple Ant script is used to execute the DDL using the sql target. Finally, the same experiment is repeated for the sun-appserv-samples database requiring the following additional changes to the generated SQL file:

Converting Pointbase Java procedures to work with Java DB requires some changes to the Java code as well as to the CREATE PROCEDURE statements. Information on creating Java DB Java procedures can be found in the Derby Reference manual. Support for the Boolean datatype should be in the next release of Java DB.

Supported Web Servers

This section lists the web servers that are supported for the Sun Java System Application Server Enterprise Edition 8.2.

Table 2–3 Supported Web Servers

Web Server 

Version 

Operating System 

Sun Java System Web Server 

6,0, 6.1, 7.0 

Solaris SPARC 9, 10 

Solaris x86 9, 10

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and 4 

Apache Web Server 

1.3+, 1.4, 2.0 

Solaris SPARC 9, 10 

Solaris x86 10

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and 4 

Windows Server 2003 

Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP4+ 

Windows Server 2000 SP4+ 

Windows XP Pro SP1+ 

Microsoft IISTM

5.0+ 

Windows Server 2003 

Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP4+ 

Windows Server 2000 SP4+ 

Windows XP Pro SP1+ 

Browsers

This section lists the browsers that are supported with the Sun Java System Application Server Enterprise Edition 8.2.

Table 2–4 Supported Web Browsers

Browser 

Version 

Mozilla 

1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7.x

Netscape Navigator 

4.79, 6.2, 7.0, 8.x

Internet Explorer 

5.5 Service Pack 2, 6.0 

Firefox 

1.4, 1.5 

HADB Requirements and Supported Platforms

In addition to the requirements listed in Hardware and Software Requirements, verify that your system meets the requirements listed below for running HADB.

HADB 4.4.3 is co-packaged with Application ServerEnterprise Edition 8.2

Note –

The system requirements listed in Platform Requirements for Application Server and those listed here for HADB are not exactly the same. This is not a documentation error. It is not uncommon to run Application Server and an HADB server on different machines.

Note –

The Java components of the system have been built with JDK 1.4.2_02 and has been tested on JDK 1.5_09.

Supported Platforms

HADB Server Host Requirements

Note –

Make sure write caching is disabled on devices storing HADB data and log files. Write caching is enabled by default on some Solaris platforms; for example, Solaris x86.

HADB Management Host Requirements

HADB Client Host Requirements

Upgrading the Sun Java System Application Server

The in-place upgrade from any prior Application Server release is not supported. Refer to the Application Server Enterprise Edition Upgrade and Migration Guidefor complete instructions for upgrading from a previous version of the Application Server to the current version.

Other Requirements

The following additional requirements should be met before installing the Sun Java System Application Server software.

Bugs Fixed in the Enterprise Edition 8.2 Release

This section lists the customer-escalated issues resolved for the Sun Java System Application Server Enterprise Edition 8.2 product.

Bug Number 

Description 

6368745 

AS: cannot upgrade from AS7 (Java ES 2) to AS8.2 (Java ES 5) 

6432308 

AS, JES5b7a, asupgrade from JES2 to JES5 fails 

6378409 

AS 8.2:backward compatibility broken because of jsf libraries that are included in 8.2 

6371534 

AS82EE:configure-ha-cluster hangs on Windows if the installation path contains space 

6242761 

The node agent cannot be started by init as documented without generating errors 

6267772 

Instructions about the configuration for Borland OptimizeIt are incorrect 

6273226 

Add text explaining to add the -Xrs jvm option to run a server/NA running as a windows s

6361145 

Cannot upgrade LB plugin when in place upgrade from 8.1EE to 8.2EE 

6362881 

Installer doesn't give upgrade option when upgrade 8.1ur2 to 8.2ee 

6325988 

interop problem on first incoming RMI-IIOP request with FVD/codeBase 

6363689 

JES5 ASEE8.2 build03 - Unable to stop the instance 

6364900 

Session value lost at the time of fail over when 1 web app includes a second web app 

6370993 

Session Failover collapses when the Application Context Root is Modified to “/” in Cluster

6373729 

Appserver 8.1 code cannot communicate with WebLogic 9.0 because of ORB conflict 

6377594 

lookup problems with Weblogic initialcontext factory 

6381538 

Standalone Client fails with NPE 

6406055 

WARNING: “IOP00110205: (BAD_PARAM) Object reference came from foreign ORB” org.omg.CORBA. 

6388329 

JSP compilation error in Application Server after Access Manager upgrade 

6419659 

Requests not redirected correcly by the LB Plugin when transport-guarantee is CONFIDENTIAL 

6390584 

OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space 

6401424 

SEGV from service_plain_range in libns-httpd40.so when requested to byte serve a PDF file. 

6401704 

Need WebDAV Support for AppServer 8.# 

6416478 

jsp testsuite failue: javax.servlet.jsp.el.ELException 

6438908 

Header location corruption when relativeRedirectAllowed=true 

6456553 

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException when appending cookies to the response 

6295010 

Connections in the steady pool are not checked for idle timeout which conflicts with firewalls 

6350435 

Application Server fails to handle the failure of a database during an XA operation to two databases 

6377830 

setAutoCommit to false gets propagated when the same connection is being the next user 

6399830 

IT 319 : password alias feature not working in domain.xml 

6360040 

SJAS 8.x : AppServer LDAP Realm Bind User tends to access all groups and members 

6370095 

Cannot set acceptor-thread higher than 10. 

6399365 

InvokerServlet is not working in Enterprise Edition only 

6303835 

Excess logging: Misleading security messages in server log 

6349541 

8.1 EE UR2 - SSL Listeners cannot be made to binding to a specific IP address... 

6380040 

Automated cleanup of logfiles required 

6387278 

Client authentication broken or not threadsafe(ProgrammaticLogin) 

6407896 

HttpServletRequestWrapper that overrides getUserPrincipal() causes ClassCastException 

6321194 

Round Robin policy not working 

6362269 

Verifier does not run correctly on Windows when installation path contains a space 

6365888 

Connections from the default connector connection pool are not enlisted in transactions 

6369554 

connection pool need to validate a connection before giving it to application 

6370574 

After AS upgrade with Confugre Later there is missing /var/opt/SUNWappserver directory 

6371723 

lbplugin leaks memory for all webserver version (more for Apache mod_loadbalancer) 

6395390 

Round Robin not happening on http requests that failover. 

6402713 

Loadbalancer failing to connect to HTTPS requests. 

6409992 

Upgrade failed with certificate from 8.1pe to 8.2EE 

6413224 

upgradetool skipped upgrade certificate option 

6422893 

HTTPS routing dosent work 

6424051 

Need to use existing admin credentials and MP in 8.xPE to 9.1 EE upgrade 

6424053 

8.XEE->9.1EE upgrade fails with a start-domain exception 

6430394 

Messages are lost when there is a n/w outage. 

6444052 

Integrate Generic RA for JMS version 1.5 into AS 8.2 EE 

6444308 

AS 8.1 UR2 EE-> 8.2 EE SS: Unable to start 8.2's domain1; wrong 8.1UR2's domain star 

6444368 

upgrade hangs from 8.0PE UR1 to 9.1 ee on win2003 side by side GUI 

6446558 

Manual transaction recovery does not work for connector-connection-pool resources. 

6447895 

Transction recovery not working for resources using embedded RA. 

6454007 

Change the input required for upgrade tool 

6455396 

Node-agent and instances fail to startup after an 8.1EE->9.1EE SBS upgrade. 

6374533 

For performance and stability reasons Application Server should bundle XWSS 1.1 and not XWSS 1.0 

6358422 

Appserver 7.1/8.1 EE: web server LB proxy plug-in should properly support keep-alive connections 

6382063 

Memory leak in com.sun.enterprise.iiop.IORToSocketInfoImpl  

Additional HADB Information

This section describes important additional information about the HADB implementation included in Application Server 8.2.

HADB Enhancements

HADB File System Support

There are several important considerations if you want to configure HADB to use one of the following file systems:

Upgrading the High Availability Database

ProcedurePre-upgrade Tasks/Data Migration

Before You Begin

Users should keep the HADB history files, management agent configuration files, log files and repository, and all the data devices outside the installation path. If not, this should be done prior to the upgrade. To move the management repository and configuration files:

  1. Stop all the old management agents and keep the HADB nodes running.

  2. On each host, move the repository directory to the new location.

  3. On each host, copy the dbconfig directory to the new location.

  4. On each host, update the mgt.cfg file, and set the correct path for dbconfig and repository directory.

  5. Start the management agents using the updated mgt.cfg file.

ProcedureUpgrade Procedure

To upgrade from HADB version 4.4.x to version 4.4.3, perform the following steps:

  1. Perform the pre-upgrade tasks mentioned above as necessary.

  2. Install HADB version 4.4.3 on all HADB hosts (on another path than that of version 4.4.x, for instance on /opt/SUNWhadb/4.4.3).

  3. Install the HADB 4.4.3 version on the hadbm client hosts, if they are different than that of the HADB hosts.

  4. Stop all management agents running on all HADB hosts.

  5. Start the management agent processes using the new version's software, but with the old configuration files. In the remaining steps, please use the hadbm command found in the new version's bin directory.

  6. Register the package in the management domain (default package name becomes V4.4, so another package name may be required to avoid conflicts with existing packages having the same name):


    hadbm registerpackage --packagepath=/opt/SUNWhadb/4.4.3 V4.4.3

  7. Run the hadbm listpackages command and check that the new package is registered in the domain.

  8. Restart the database with the new hadbm version 4.4.3. If it is necessary to move the devices and history files, run online upgrade combined with setting new paths for devices and history files in one single operation:


    hadbm set packagename=V4.4.3,devicepath=new_devpath,
historypath=new_histpath

    Otherwise, if the devices and history files are already outside of the installation directory, run the following command, which only does a rolling restart of the nodes:


    hadbm set packagename=V4.4.3 database name

  9. Check that the database status is “running” (using the hadbm status command) and that it functions normally, serving the client transactions.

  10. If everything is working, the old installation can be removed later. Before unregistering the old package, remove all references to the old package from the ma repository. Otherwise, hadbm unregisterpackage will fail with “package in use.” A dummy reconfiguration operation, for instance, hadbm set connectiontrace=same as previous value will remove all references to the old package. Now, unregister the old package:


    hadbm unregisterpackage [--hosts=host-list] old pacakge name

  11. Remove the old installation from the file system.

ProcedureTesting the Upgrade

On Solaris, to test that the upgrade was successful, check that the upgrade was performed properly:

  1. Ensure that the running processes use the new binaries. Check the following in all HADB nodes:


    new path/bin/ma -v
new path/bin/hadbm -v

  2. Check whether the database is running. The following command should show that all the HADB nodes are in a “running” state.


    new path/bin/hadbm status -n

  3. Ensure that the products using HADB have changed their pointers to point to the new HADB path.

  4. The products using the HADB can run their upgrade tests to verify the HADB upgrade is also working.

    After an online upgrade, if the new version does not work properly, go back to using the previous HADB version. However, if there has been a change to the management agent repository, the HADB itself can be downgraded, but the new management agent must be kept running.

Special Deployment and Upgrade Information

This section lists additional information about HADB deployment and upgrading.

Deployment

Online Upgrade from 4.4.1 to 4.4.2

It is not possible to upgrade from 4.2 or 4.3 to 4.4 online. However, 4.4 supports online upgrade for the future versions. To upgrade from 4.4.1 to 4.4.2, perform the following steps:

  1. Install 4.4.2 on all HADB hosts (On another path than that of 4.4.1 – for instance /opt/SUNWhadb/4.4.2-6).

  2. Install the new version on the hadbm client hosts.

  3. Stop all management agents running on the HADB hosts.

  4. Start the management agent processes using the new version's software, but with the old configuration files. In the remaining steps, please use the hadbm command found in the new version's bin directory.

  5. Register the package in the management domain (default package name here becomes V4.4, so another package name may be required to avoid conflicts with existing packages having the same name):


    hadbm registerpackage --packagepath=/opt/SUNWhadb/4.4.2-6 V4.4.2

  6. Restart the database with the new version (the following command does a rolling restart of the nodes):


    hadbm set packagename=V4.4.2 database_name

  7. Check that the database status is “running” (using the command hadbm status) and that it functions normally, serving the client transactions.

  8. If everything works, the old installation can be removed later.

    Before unregistering the old package, remove all references to the old package from the ma repository. Otherwise, hadbm unregisterpackage will fail with “package in use.” A dummy reconfiguration operation, for instance, hadbm set connectiontrace=<same_as_previous_value> will remove all references to the old package. Now, unregister the old package:


    hadbm unregisterpackage [--hosts=<host_list>] <old_package_name>

    Remove the old installation from the file system, as described in the HADB installation instructions.

Known SQL Limitations

High Availability Load Balancing

The Application Server includes load balancing for HTTP, IIOP, and JMS clients; HTTP session failover support; EJB clustering and failover support; highly available EJB timers; distributed transaction recovery; support for rolling application upgrades; and a high availability database for storing the transient state of J2EE applications.

Availability allows for failover protection of Application Server instances in a cluster. If one Application Server instance goes down, another Application Server instance takes over the sessions that were assigned to the unavailable server. Session information is stored in the HADB. HADB supports the persistence of HTTP sessions, Stateful Session Beans, and Single Sign On credentials.

Compatibility Issues

In the next major release of the Sun Java System Application Server Enterprise Edition the following incompatibilities will be introduced:

Deploytool

Deploytool will no longer be available. The equivalent functionality is available in the NetBeans IDE. For more information, please see J2EE 1.4 tutorial for NetBeans 4.1 at http://www.netbeans.org/kb/.

Verifier

Classloader Changes

In the current release, the JAR and directory entries added to classpath-prefix, server-classpath, and classpath-suffix attributes of domain.xml (application server configuration file) are available in the JVM system classpath. An application depending on this behavior might be using the following methods from the class java.lang.ClassLoader to access classes or other resources from JVM system classpath:

In the next major release, the JAR and directory entries added to classpath-prefix, server-classpath, and classpath-suffix will no longer be available in the JVM system classpath. If an application uses one of the methods mentioned above, Sun strongly recommends using an equivalent method that does not assume that the resources are available in the system classpath. The equivalent methods that do not rely on the JVM system classpath are available in java.lang.ClassLoader and should be used when possible; for example:

Example 2–1 Old Code

java.net.URL url = ClassLoader.getSystemResource
("com/acme/tools/tools.properties");
Example 2–2 Suggested Change

java.net.URL url = this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResource
("com/acme/tools/tools.properties");

If it is not possible to change the code, then you may choose to use a new configuration option that will be added in the next release to set JVM system classpath.

Web Service Security Configuration

Security for Web services can be configured using the files wss-client-config.xml and wss-server-config.xml. Please note that the content and names of these configuration files are unstable and likely to change. The equivalent functionality will continue to be available.

J2EE Support

The Sun Java System Application Server Enterprise Edition 8.2 supports the J2EE 1.4 platform. The following table describes the enhanced APIs available on the J2EE 1.4 platform.

Table 2–5 APIs Available on the J2EE 1.4 Platform

API 

Description 

Components 

Application and Application Client 

Implementation of standard deployment descriptors by means of XML schemas 

Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) 2.1 

Timer service and EJB Web-service endpoint 

Java Servlet 2.4 

Web-service endpoint filter 

JavaServer Pages (JSP) 2.0 architecture 

Expression language and tag library 

J2EE Connector Architecture 1.5 

Inbound resource adaptor and Java Message Service (JMS) pluggability 

Web Services 

Java Web Services Developer Pack 1.5 

Integrated toolkit for building, testing and deploying XML applications, Web services, and Web applications 

Java API for XML-based Remote Procedure Calls (JAX-RPC) 1.1 

Mapping for WSDL and Java technology and support for development of Web-service clients and endpoints 

WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 

The enabling element for interoperability using WSDL and SOAP 

SOAP with attachment API for Java (SAAJ) 1.2 

An API for SOAP-based messaging; fosters the creation of SOAP messages with attachments 

Java APIs for XML Registries (JAXR) 1.0 

A uniform and standard API for accessing XML registries, such as those for Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI and ebXML) 

Other 

J2EE Deployment 1.1 

Standard APIs that enable deployments of J2EE components and applications 

J2EE Management 1.0 

Definitions for the information model for managing the J2EE platform 

Java Management Extensions (JMX) 1.2 

Standard management API 

Java Authorization Contract for Containers (JACC) 1.0 

Definitions of security contracts between a J2EE Application Server and the authorization policy provider 

Java API for XML Processing (JAXP) 1.2 

An API with which applications can parse and transform XML documents; also adds support for processing of XML schemas 

JMS 1.1 

A messaging standard that enables J2EE application components to create, send, receive, and read messages; also adds support for uniform APIs for queues and topics 

JavaMail 1.3 

A set of abstract classes that model a mail system; also includes minor updates to the APIs 

Switching to Another Supported Java Version

Sun Java System Application Server 8.2 requires J2SE 5.0 or greater as the underlying JVM. If you want to switch from one Java version to another, perform the following general steps. (Windows and Unix)

ProcedureTo switch to another supported Java version

  1. Download the Java SDK (not the JRE) and install it on your system, if you have not already done so.

    The Java SDK can be downloaded from http://java.sun.com/j2se.

  2. Completely stop the Application Server.

    You can use the following command line:


    as-install/bin/asadmin stop-domain

    Alternatively, you can use the Administration Console GUI:

    1. Click the Application Server node.

    2. Click Stop Instance.

  3. Edit the install_dir/config/asenv.conf file (asenv.bat on Windows), changing the value for AS_JAVA to point to the new J2SE home directory.

  4. Edit the as-install/samples/common.properties file, changing the line beginning com.sun.aas.javaRoot... to reference the new J2SE home directory.

  5. Restart the Application Server.


    as-install/bin/asadmin start-domain

High Performance

The Application Server includes a high performance EJB container, Web container and services, and supports concurrent message delivery with the Sun Java System Message Queue software.

Scalability

The Application Server supports horizontal scalability through clustering of server instances and request load balancing. It also achieves class leading vertical scalability supporting large multi-processor machines. The integrated message broker can be clustered for better scalability and availability. Client access from HTTP clients, RMI/IIOP based Rich Client Applications, Web Services Clients, and JRM Clients can be load balanced to Application Server clusters.

JavaServer Faces 1.1 Support

The Sun Java System Application Server Enterprise Edition 8.2 supports JavaServer Faces 1.1 technology. The JavaServer Faces technology consists of a set of server-side APIs that represent user-interface components that manage their state, event, handling, and input validation. The APIs also define page navigation and support internationalization and accessibility. You can add custom user-interface components with a JSP custom tag library.

While developing with JavaServer Faces technology, each member of a development team can focus on a single piece of the process. A simple programming model then links the pieces, resulting in a much more efficient and simpler development cycle.