Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 2006Q2 SP6 Release Notes

Features and Enhancements

Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 provides the following features and enhancements:

Java Servlet 2.3 and JavaServer Pages (JSP) 1.2 Support

Sun Java System Web Server includes a Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE^TM)-compliant implementation of the Java Servlet 2.3 and JavaServer Pages (JSP) 1.2 specifications. A J2EE-compliant Web container provides the flexibility and reliability needed to design and deploy web applications that comply with Java technology standards. Web applications can be deployed on a per virtual server basis.

For information about these technologies, see the following resources:

Java Servlets at http://java.sun.com/products/servlet/index.html
JavaServer Pages at http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/index.html

For information about developing Servlets and JSPs, see Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP6 Programmer’s Guide to Web Applications.

J2SE Platform 1.4 JDK/JRE Support

Sun Java System Web Server supports Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE^TM) 1.4. J2SE is bundled with the Web Server and installed during installation. You can also install your own JDK at a later time.

The 64-bit Solaris SPARC release of Sun Java System Web Server requires a 64-bit JDK. On all other platforms, a 32-bit JDK is required.

Note –

For Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP7, AIX will be bundled with JDK 1.4.2.

J2SE Platform 1.5 JDK/JRE Support

Sun Java System Web Server supports Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) 1.5 and has been tested and certified with 1.5.0_01 on Solaris, Linux, and Windows platforms.

WebDAV Support

Sun Java System Web Server supports the Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) protocol. WebDAV enables collaborative Web publishing and has the following features:

Compliance with RFC 2518 and interoperability with RFC 2518 clients
Security and access control for Web publishing
Basic publishing operations on file-system-based WebDAV collections and resources

WebDAV provides integrated support for content meta data, name space management, and overwrite protection. These technologies combined with the many authoring tools that support WebDAV provide an ideal development platform for collaborative environments.

NSAPI Filters Support

Sun Java System Web Server extends the Netscape Server Application Programmer's Interface (NSAPI) to support NSAPI filters.

Filters enable the custom processing of HTTP request and response streams. This allows a function to intercept and potentially modify the content presented to or generated by another function. For example, a plug-in could install a NSAPI filter to intercept a XML page generated by another plug-in's Server Application Function (SAF) and then transform that XML page into a HTML, XHTML, or WAP page appropriate for the client. Alternatively, a NSAPI filter could decompress data received from a client before presenting it to another plug-in.

For more information, see Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP6 NSAPI Programmer’s Guide.

HTTP Compression Support

Sun Java System Web Server supports content compression, which allows you to increase delivery speed to clients and serve higher content volumes without incurring a corresponding increase in hardware expenses. Content compression reduces content download time, a benefit most apparent to users of dial-up and high-traffic connections.

For more information, see Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP6 Administrator’s Guide.

Search Engine Support

Sun Java System Web Server supports a Java-based search engine that provides full-text search indexing and retrieval. The search feature allows you to search documents on the server and display results on a Web page. Server administrators can create the indexes of documents against and customize the search interface to meet user specific needs.

The default URL to access the search functionality is as follows:

http://<server-instance >:port number/search

Example:

http://plaza:8080/search

When the end-user invokes this URL, the Search page (a Java web application) is launched.

For detailed information about conducting basic and advanced searches, see the Online Help provided with the search engine. To access Online Help, click the Help link on the Search page. For more information, see Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP6 Administrator’s Guide.

Enhanced Security

Sun Java System Web Server allows you to restrict access using flat file authentication. Sun Java System Web Server supports the Java Security Manager. Enabling the Security Manager can improve security by restricting the rights granted to your J2EE web applications. By default, the Security Manager feature is disabled when you install the product. To enable Security Manager, uncomment the following entries in the server.xml file:

<JVMOPTIONS>-Djava.security.manager</JVMOPTIONS>

<JVMOPTIONS>-Djava.security.policy=instance_dir/config/server.policy</JVMOPTIONS>

where instance_dir is the path to the installation directory of this server instance.

For more information about server.xml, see Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP6 Administrator’s Configuration File Reference.

JNDI Support

Sun Java System Web Server supports the Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI). JNDI provides connectivity to heterogeneous enterprise naming and directory services.

JDBC Support

Sun Java System Web Server provides out-of-the-box Java DataBase Connectivity (JDBC), and supports a wide range of industry-standard and customized JDBC drivers.

Sun Java Studio Enterprise Support

Sun Java System Web Server supports Sun Java Studio Enterprise 8. Sun Java Studio technology is Sun's powerful and extensible integrated development environment (IDE) for Java technology developers. Sun Java Studio is based on the NetBeans software and is integrated with the Sun Java platform.

Sun Java Studio support is available on all platforms supported by Sun Java System Web Server 6.1. The plug-in for the Web Server can be obtained in the following ways:

From the companion CD in the Sun Java System Web Server Media Kit
By using the AutoUpdate feature of Sun Java Studio
From the download center for Sun Java System Web Server

Note –

Sun Java Studio 8 plug-in for Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP6 works only with a local Web Server, that is, with the IDE and the Web Server on the same machine

For information about using the web application features in Sun Java Studio 8, see http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/javatools/jsenterprise/learning/tutorials/index.html.

Set the Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP6 instance as default, and then take the same actions described in the tutorial.

Also see the NetBeans tutorial at http://www.netbeans.org/kb/41/j2ee-tut/.

For more information about Sun Java Studio 8, see http://www.sun.com/software/sundev/jde/.

For additional developer resources, see Additional Sun Resources in these release notes.

Using Sun Java Studio Enterprise 8 for Debugging

Sun Java Studio Enterprise 8 can be used for remote debugging if you want to manually attach the IDE to a remote Web Server started in debug mode. The steps are as follows:

Restart the server instance in the debug mode by using the Sun Java System Web Server Administration interface (Server Manager > JVM General > Debug Enabled).
Note the JPDA port number.
Start the IDE.
Choose Debug > Start.
Select the dt_socket method.
Enter the remote machine name and JPDA port number.

At that moment, any breakpoint created in the IDE on Servlet source code of a deployed application will be active.

Active Server Pages Support

Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 supports the Active Server Pages specification through Sun Java System Active Server Pages version 4.0.1 (formerly Sun^TM ChiliSoft ASP) and 4.0.2. Sun Java System Active Server Pages adds a secure and enterprise-grade Active Server Pages engine to the Sun Java System Web Server.

Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 supports Sun Java System Active Server Pages 4.0.1 and 4.0.2 on the following platforms:

Solaris^TM (SPARC®) 8 and 9
Windows 2000 and XP
Red Hat Advanced Server 2.1

A license is not required for Sun Java System Active Server Pages if you are installing it to the Sun Java System Web Server. The Sun Java System Active Server Pages installer is available on the companion CD if you purchase the Sun Java System Web Server Media Kit, or you can download from http://www.sun.com/software/chilisoft/index.html.

Note the following:

The Sun Java System Active Server Pages plug-in requires an additional 50 MB (approximately) of disk space after Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 is installed.
Before you begin installation, make sure you are logged in as root.

PHP Compatibility

PHP can be used with the Sun Java System Web Server using one of the three supported APIs namely CGI, NSAPI, and FastCGI. PHP is a page scripting language available from the PHP group. The PHP group provides instructions on its Web site (http://www.php.net) for configuring the PHP software to use any of the following APIs:

CGI API is the most stable interface that can be used but will suffer from performance limitations inherent in CGI.
NSAPI uses the Sun Java System Web Server's native API to run the PHP software within the Web Server's memory. This configuration will provide the best performance, but risks crashing the server if non thread safe PHP modules are used.
FastCGI interface provides a compromise between performance and stability. FastCGI allows the PHP software to remain running after serving requests while continuing to run outside of the Web Server's memory. If an unstable PHP module is used, it will not crash the Web Server. For this reason Sun recommends you to use FastCGI interface with the PHP software.

The FastCGI interface is supported with Web Server through the installation of the FastCGI add-on available athttp://www.sun.com/download/products.xml?id=42d693c3.

When run as a FastCGI process, the PHP software uses the following environment variables to control the life cycle of PHP processes.
- PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN determines the number of PHP processes that will be created to respond to requests.
- PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS determines the number of requests a PHP process can respond to before terminating itself and being replaced with a new PHP process.

Note –

Sun recommends against the use of PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN. Instead, you can use the FastCGI add-on configuration parameter min-procs to control the minimum number of PHP processes.

NSS and NSPR Support

Sun Java System Web Server supports NSS. The version of NSS included in this version of Web Server is 3.11.1 (for both 32–bit and 64-bit). NSS is a set of libraries designed to support cross-platform development of security-enabled server applications. Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP6 also includes NSPR 4.6.2.

NSS has released the following patches. You can download these patches from http://patchstatus.sfbay.sun.com/patchstatus/.

Solaris 8 SPARC: 119209-07
Solaris 9 SPARC: 119211-07
Solaris 9 x86: 119212-07
Solaris 10 SPARC: 119213-07
Solaris 10 x86: 119214-07
Linux: 121656-07

Enhanced Hardware Accelerator Encryption Support

Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 provides hardware accelerator support for Sun Crypto Accelerator 500 and 1000, a cryptographic accelerator board that enhances the performance of SSL on Web Server.

64-bit Support

To complement the existing support to 32-bit Solaris SPARC, Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP6 also supports 64-bit Solaris SPARC. Sun encourages administrators to continue to deploy the 32-bit release of Sun Java System Web Server.

The 64-bit release may be of use in certain memory-intensive deployments as it enables administrators to configure a larger file cache and Java heap than the 32-bit release. However, existing plug-ins are not compatible with the 64-bit release. These plug-ins have to be recompiled for the 64-bit release by the plug-in vendor. Java web applications that use native, and non-Java libraries should also be recompiled.

Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP6 also provides 64-bit support for FastCGI, Reverse Proxy, and Java Web Services Developer Pack (JWSDP) plug-ins.

The 64-bit release is compatible with 64-bit Solaris kernels on UltraSPARC processors. The 64-bit release cannot be used on x86 processors or with 32-bit Solaris kernels. The 32-bit release continues to be compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit Solaris kernels.

Note –

The 64-bit and 32-bit releases of Sun Java System Web Server are packaged and distributed separately. It is not possible to upgrade an existing 32-bit Sun Java System Web Server installation to a 64-bit installation. It is possible to distinguish the 32-bit and 64-bit releases by the version string that is displayed in the installer, at server startup, and in the server errors log as follows:

Release	Version String
32–bit	Sun ONE Web Server 6.1SP6
64-bit	Sun ONE Web Server 6.1SP6 (64-Bit)

Solaris PKCS #11 Support

For Web Server's SSL subsystem (NSS) to use external PKCS#11 token(s), you have to configure NSS with the modutil command to make it aware of the token(s). The Solaris libpkcs11 softtoken is a PKCS#11 compliant token which can be used with NSS. As an additional benefit on UltraSPARC-T1, systems using Solaris 10's libpkcs11 will make use of the platform crypto acceleration support.

Run the modutil command without any arguments for usage information. For example, to add the Solaris 10 libpkcs11 library as a PKCS11 token in NSS,

Ensure that SSL support has been initialized for the Web Server instance(s). You can do this using the Administration GUI.
Run the following command:

% modutil -dbdir $ALIASDIR -dbprefix $PREFIX -add libpkcs -libfile /usr/lib/libpkcs11.so -mechanisms RSA

where,
- $ALIASDIR is the path to the alias directory in the install root where the NSS database files are located.
- $PREFIX is the prefix used by the key3/cer8 database files in the alias directory and is of the form https-$INSTANCENAME-.
Note the -mechanisms flag which makes this token the preferred initial provider for the given algorithms.

Run the modutil command without any arguments for a list of all possible mechanisms.

Before using the libpkcs11 provider, initialize its password with pktool:

% pktool setpin

For further details on configuring NSS, see man pages and references:

libpkcs11(3LIB): http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/816-5173/6mbb8aduq?a=view
pkcs11_softtoken(5): http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/816-5175/6mbba7f37?a=view
pktool(1): http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/816-5165/6mbb0m9oj?a=view
modutil: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/nss/tools/modutil.html

Localized Version Support

If you are using a localized version of Web Server 6.1x, you can take advantage of the existing localization features by installing Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP6 over the existing server. Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP6 is available in Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, French, Spanish, German, and Korean.