About Your Administrative Tools

For the most part, you can perform the same tasks by using either the graphical Administration Console or the asadmin command-line utility, however, there are exceptions. Step-by-step instructions for using the Administration Console are provided in the Administration Console online help. Procedures for using the command-line utilities are provided in this guide and in the command-line help pages, which are similar to man pages.

Instructions for manually editing configuration files are provided when there is no way to accomplish the tasks by using the Administration Console or the asadmin utility.

Enterprise Server provides the following administration tools:

• Administration Console

• Command-Line Utility for Administration (asadmin)

• Update Tool

• Command-Line Utility for Security (keytool)

• Java Monitoring and Management Console (JConsole)

Instructions written for the Enterprise Server tools use standard UNIX® forward slashes (/) for directory path separators in commands and file names. If you are running Enterprise Server on a Microsoft Windows system, use backslashes (\) instead. For example:

• UNIX: as-install/bin/asadmin

• Windows: as-install\bin\asadmin

Administration Console

The Administration Console is a browser-based utility that features an easy-to-navigate graphical interface that includes extensive online help for the administrative tasks.

You can display the help material for a page in the Administration Console by clicking the Help button on the page. The initial help page describes the functions and fields of the page itself. Associated task instructions can be accessed on additional pages by clicking a link in the See Also list.

To Start the Administration Console

To use the Administration Console, the domain administration server (DAS) must be running. Each domain has its own DAS, which has a unique port number. When Enterprise Server was installed, you chose a port number for the DAS, or used the default port of 4848. You also specified a user name and password if you did not choose anonymous login.

When specifying the URL for the Administration Console, use the port number for the domain to be administered. The format for starting the Administration Console in a web browser is http://hostname:port. For example:

http://kindness.sun.com:4848

If the Administration Console is running on the host where the Enterprise Server was installed, specify localhost for the host name. For example:

http://localhost:4848

For Microsoft Windows, an alternative way to start the Enterprise Server Administration Console is by using the Start menu.

Command-Line Utility for Administration (asadmin)

The asadmin utility is a command-line tool that invokes commands for identifying the operation or task that you want to perform. You can run asadmin commands either from a command prompt or from a script. Running asadmin commands from a script is helpful for automating repetitive tasks.

Not all asadmin command options are supported for this release of Enterprise Server. If you specify an unsupported option, a syntax error does not occur. Instead, the command runs successfully and the unsupported option is silently ignored.

The following topics are addressed here:

• Help for the asadmin Utility

• To Start the asadmin Utility

Help for the asadmin Utility

The asadmin(1M) help page explains the basics of how the asadmin command works. To display the help page for the asadmin utility, type asadmin without a subcommand.

You can display a help page for an asadmin command by typing the command name followed by the --help option. For example:

asadmin create-jdbc-resource --help

To display the help page for a remote command, Enterprise Server must be running.

Use the asadmin list-commands command to display the available commands. A collection of the asadmin help pages is available in HTML and PDF format in the Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server v3 Prelude Reference Manual.

To Start the asadmin Utility

To issue an asadmin command, go to the default as-install/bin directory and type the asadmin command and a subcommand. For example:

asadmin create-jdbc-resource

A list of the asadmin commands included in this release is contained in Appendix A, The asadmin Utility Commands.

Update Tool

Enterprise Server provides a set of image packaging system (IPS) tools for updating software on a deployed Enterprise Server. Typical updates include new releases of Enterprise Server, and new or revised Enterprise Server add-on components.

• Update Tool is a graphical utility that you can either invoke in the Administration Console, or from the command line by using the updatetool command. A desktop Update Tool Notifier lets you know when updates are available and provides a direct means of applying the updates to your Enterprise Server.

  Instructions for using the graphical versions of the Update Tool are contained in the Administration Console online help and the standalone Update Tool online help.

• The pkg command is the command-line version of Update Tool.

  Instructions for using the pkg command are contained in Chapter 3, Extending Enterprise Server.

Command-Line Utility for Security (keytool)

The keytool utility is used to set up and work with Java Security Socket Extension (JSSE) digital certificates. See Administering JSSE Certificates for instructions on using keytool.

Java Monitoring and Management Console (JConsole)

Java SE provides tools to connect to an MBean Server and view the MBeans registered with the server. JConsole is one such popular JMX Connector Client and is available as part of the standard Java SE distribution. See Connecting JConsole to Enterprise Server for instructions on implementing JConsole in the Enterprise Server environment.