GlassFish v2.1 b60e crib sheet / installation notes

Recently, having been working on a project that's migrated from JBoss 4.2.2 to GlassFish v2.1, I needed to hand over a crib sheet / quick guide to people supporting the live system, so as it might be useful in general. Only really covering the basics, but here it is anyway:

GlassFish AS Basic Crib / notes:

Prerequisites:

• Java JDK 6.x latest
  

GlassFish AS version V2.1 b60e Final Release

Download jar here http://java.net/download/javaee5/v2.1_branch/promoted/Linux/glassfish-installer-v2.1-b60e-linux.jar

For RHEL derived CentOS, recommended installation would be something like /usr/local/projectname/glassfish

Installation:

java -Xmx256m -jar glassfish-installer-v2.1-b60e-linux.jar

cd glassfish

chmod -R +x lib/ant/bin

lib/ant/bin/ant -f setup.xml

Follow the installer instructions, accepting EULA and any defaults presented...

This will unpack and install the server, creating a default domain called "domain1"

A domain is an administrative "unit" - possibly related to, but not the same as an actual domain.

All domains live in: {glassfish_home}/domains/

We need just one for now, so all our stuff will be in:

{glassfish_home}/domains/domain1/

the installation process will create a default empty domain, domain1 with a default config file, the main configuration file is called domain.xml

e.g. {glassfish_home}/domains/domain1/config.xml

This file may contain some host /installation specific information, as well as stuff specific to our application.

Starting and stopping GlassFish AS:

{glassfish_home}/bin/asadmin start-domain domain1

{glassfish_home}/bin/asadmin stop-domain domain1

If all is good you will see confirmation on the command prompt when started, such as:

Domain domain1 started

Managing GlassFish AS:

By default, the web based management console is available on port :4848

The default admin account is username = admin, password = adminadmin

URL is: http://{hostname}:4848

Web-app deployment options:

There are a few options, the main two are:

Manually, using autodeploy directory

Simply copy .war file to: {glassfish_home}/domains/domain1/autodeploy

Deploying via the admin console:

On main menu on left, click on and expand the Web Applications menu entry

Click on the Deploy button, typically when deploying from a local file, use the "Packaged file to be uploaded to the server" browse button to locate the local war file. Browse for the war file, select it and click Ok

When completed, the web app will appear in the application list (if all is well)

The other settings can be left as defaults. Optionally we can chose to pre-compile JSPs here etc.

Server Logs:

The main server logs appear in the domain under logs, i.e.

{glassfish_home}/domains/domain1/logs/server.log

Logs can also be viewed (and configured, including log rotation) via the admin console, under the Application Server menu entry

Monitoring and management:

JConsole:

GlassFish is a JMX compliant app server (listening by default to port 8686)

Using jconsole, remote connect to: http://{hostname}:8686

Using the same default account: admin/adminadmin

Admin console:

Under the Application Server in the main menu - there are entries for server Monitoring.

This includes a built in chart and call flow logging - which is potentially very useful for diagnostics and monitoring…

HTTPS / SSL:

GlassFish AS will do HTTPS out of the box (using a default Sun Microsystems certificate).

HTTPS is served by default on port :8181

Hopefully in the near future I'll but together something to cover clustering and load balancing too.

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