Chapter 1 Quick Start
Welcome to the Quick Start Guide. This guide is for developers, system administrators,
and Application Server administrators who are interested in learning about
the capabilities of the Sun Java System Application Server 8.1 2005Q2 software.
This guide describes basic and advanced steps for using Application Server.
The steps are presented in the order that you should complete them. The basic
steps, which usually require less than 45 minutes to complete, are in these
sections:
The advanced steps, which usually require about 45 minutes to complete,
are in these sections:
The final sections of this guide include instructions for cleaning up
and information on sources of information to use after completing this Quick Start Guide.
Variable Names and Default Paths
The following table describes what the variable names and default paths
are for the directories used in this guide. Variable names are in the first
column, and default paths are in the second column.
|
Variable Name
|
Description and Path
|
|
install-dir
|
By default, the Application Server installation directory is located
here:
-
Solaris Java Enterprise System installations: /opt/SUNWappserver/appserver
-
Linux Java Enterprise System installations: /opt/sun/appserver/
-
Windows Java Enterprise System installations: SystemDrive:\Sun\ApplicationServer
-
Solaris and Linux stand-alone Application Server installations,
non-root user: user_home_directory/SUNWappserver
-
Solaris and Linux stand-alone Application Server installations,
root user: /opt/SUNWappserver
-
Windows stand-alone installations: SystemDrive:\Sun\AppServer
|
|
domain_root_dir
|
By default, the directory containing all domains is located here:
-
Solaris Java Enterprise System installations: /var/opt/SUNWappserver/domains/
-
Linux Java Enterprise System installations: /var/opt/sun/appserver/domains/
-
All other installations: install-dir/domains/
|
|
domain_dir
|
By default, domain directories are located here: domain_root_dir /domain_dir
|
About Application Server Administration
To enable administrators to manage server instances and clusters running
on multiple hosts, Application Server provides these tools:
-
The Admin Console, a browser-based graphical user interface
(GUI)
-
The asadmin utility, a command-line tool
-
Programmatic JavaTM Management
Extensions (JMXTM) APIs
These tools connect to a server called the Domain Administration Server, a specially designated
Application Server instance that intermediates in all administrative tasks.
The Domain Administration Server (DAS) provides a single secure interface
for validating and executing administrative commands regardless of which interface
is used.
A domain is a collection of configuration data,
deployed applications, and machines with a designated administrator. The domain
definition describes and can control the operation of several applications,
stand-alone application server instances, and clusters, potentially spread
over multiple machines. When the DAS is installed, a default domain called domain1 is always installed. You work with the default domain in
this guide.
To complete most of the steps presented in this guide, you will use
the Admin Console.
Starting the Server
This topic, the first of three basic topics, provides the following
sections
Starting the Domain Administration Server
To start the Domain Administration Server, start the default domain,
domain 1, using the following procedures.
Note –
Because this guide instructs you to set an environment variable AS_ADMIN_USER for administrative user name, it does not instruct
you to supply a user name argument when the asadmin command
is used. Without the environment variable, you supply this argument when you
type the command. The general syntax is:
asadmin command_verb --user username command_arguments
For example, if your user name
is admin, the syntax for asadmin start-domain is: asadmin start-domain --user admin domain1
To Start the Domain on Solaris and Linux
-
Add the install-dir/bin/ directory to the PATH environment variable.
-
Set the AS_ADMIN_USER environment variable so that
you do not need to type it for every command.
Set the value of AS_ADMIN_USER to the admin user you specified when you installed the Application Server.
For example, setenv AS_ADMIN_USER admin
-
Start the server by entering this command from the install-dir:
asadmin start-domain domain1
When you
are prompted for the admin password and the master password, enter the passwords
that you provided during installation.
-
A message appears telling you that the Domain Administration Server
is starting:
Starting Domain domain1, please wait. Log
redirected to domain_dir/domain1/logs/server.log...
-
When the startup process has completed, an additional message
appears:
Domain domain1 started
To Start the Domain on Windows
-
From the Explorer window or desktop, right click My Computer.
-
Choose Properties to display the System Properties dialog.
-
Click the Advanced tab.
-
Click Environment Variables.
-
In the User variables section:
-
If a PATH variable exists, verify that install-dir\bin exists in
the path: install-dir\bin;other_entries.
-
If a PATH variable is not present, click New.
In Variable Name, type PATH. In Variable Value, type the
path to the server’s bin directory: install-dir\bin. Click OK to commit the change.
-
Add a new environment variable AS_ADMIN_USER and
set it to the Administrative User Name that you assigned during installation.
-
Click OK to commit the change and close the remaining open windows.
-
Start the Application Server
-
For Java Enterprise System installations, from the Start menu,
choose Programs ⇒ Sun Microsystems ⇒ Application Server⇒ Start
Admin Server.
-
For stand-alone installations, from the Start menu, choose Programs ⇒
Sun Microsystems ⇒ Application Server EE ⇒ Start Admin Server.
-
When a command prompt window opens to prompt you for the admin
password and the master password, enter the passwords that you provided during
installation.
A window appears with a message telling that you
the server is starting:
Starting Domain domain1, please
wait. Log redirected to domain_dir\domain1\logs\server.log...
When the startup process has completed, you see an
additional message:
Domain domain1 started.Press
any key to continue ...
-
Press a key to close the message window.
Logging in to the Admin Console
The Admin Console is a browser interface that simplifies a variety of
administration and configuration tasks. It is commonly used to:
-
Deploy and undeploy applications
-
Enable, disable, and manage applications
-
Configure resources and other server settings
-
Configure clusters and node agents
-
Manage server instances and clusters
-
Select and view log files
For further information about using the Admin Console, consult the online
help or the Sun Java
System Application Server Enterprise Edition 8.1 2005Q2 Administration Guide.
To Log In to the Admin Console
-
Type this URL in your browser:
https:// localhost:4849/asadmin
Because
the Admin Console is a secure web application, you must use https instead
of http.
Replace the localhost variable
with the name of the system that the Domain Admin Server is running on.
4849 is the Admin Console’s default port number.
If you changed the port number during the installation, use that number instead.
Note –
If a popup window appears with a message such as Website
Certified by an Unknown Authority, click OK.
This message
appears because your browser does not recognize the self-signed certificate
that the Domain Administration Server uses to service the Admin Console over
the secure transmission protocol.
-
When the log in window appears, enter the admin user name and
password.
-
Click Log In.
When the Admin Console appears, it looks
like this:

In the left pane, select what you want to manage from the tree provided.
In the right pane, various administrative tasks are listed under the “Common
Tasks” heading.
Tip –
Click the Registration tab to register your software if you have
not already done so.
Examining the Log File
Application Server instances and the Domain Administration Server produce
annotated logs on the file system. By default, all errors, warnings or useful
informative messages are logged.
To View the Domain Administration Server Log File
-
From the Common Tasks list in the right pane, click Search Log
Files to launch a new browser window for Log Viewer.

-
In the Log Viewer window, select “server” from the
Instance Name drop–down list and click Search.
The Domain
Administration Server’s recent log file entries are displayed.
-
Scan the messages and look for any WARNING or SEVERE messages indicating that problems were encountered during
server start-up.
You can close Log Viewer at any time. After you
create clusters and deploy applications, examine log files if any of the operations
failed. Use Log Viewer to view the log files of any running Application Server instance
in the domain.
For more information about the log file, see Chapter 15, Configuring
Logging, in Sun Java System Application
Server Enterprise Edition 8.1 2005Q2 Administration Guide.
Next Steps
In this section you started the Domain Administration Server and confirmed
that it is running. You also logged in to the Admin Console and used the Log
Viewer. You can stop the Quick Start trail here if you do not wish to continue,
or you can go on to the next section.
Creating a Cluster
This section, the second of three basic topics, explains how to create
a cluster that contains two Application Server instances. For simplicity, the cluster
runs completely within one machine. This topic includes the following tasks:
To Start the Node Agent
A node agent is a lightweight process running on
each machine that participates in an Application Server administrative domain.
The node agent is responsible for starting and stopping server instances on
the host. It also collaborates with the Domain Administration Server to create
new Application Server instances.
One node agent is needed on a machine, for each Application Server administrative
domain that the machine belongs to. If you chose the Node Agent Component
during installation, a default node agent called hostname was
created.
-
In a terminal window, type this command:
asadmin
start-node-agent hostname
Replace
the variable hostname with the name of the host
where the Application Server is running.
-
When you are prompted, provide the master password.
The
node agent starts and connects with the Domain Administration Server.
Note –
If the Domain Administration Server is not running, the node agent
might fail to start.
To Create a Cluster
A cluster is a group of server instances (typically
on multiple hosts) that share the same configurations, resources, and applications.
A cluster facilitates load balancing across server instances and high availability
through failover. You can create clusters spanning multiple machines and manage
them with the help of the node agent process on each machine. In this guide,
for simplicity, our sample cluster will be on one host, the same one where
the Domain Administration Server is running.
Before You Begin
You must have already started the node agent process on each machine,
as described in previous section. When you specify instances during cluster
creation, you must associate the instance with a running node agent for the
machine on which you want the instance to run. If the node agent is not running,
the instance will not start. Node agent and instance names must be unique
across clusters that are created in a domain.
-
Log in to the Administration Console at https:// localhost:4849 if you have not already done
so.
Replace the localhost variable
with the name of the system that the Domain Administration Server is running
on.
4849 is the Admin Console’s default
port number. If you changed the port number during the installation, use that
number instead.
-
On the right pane, under Common Tasks, click Create New Cluster
to display the Create Cluster input page.
-
Type FirstCluster as the name of the new cluster.
-
From the drop-down list of available configuration templates,
select the default-config configuration and choose Make a copy of
the selected Configuration.
-
Click the Add button twice, to create two entries to specify two
instances for the cluster.
-
Type i1 and i2 as
instance names. The node agent name is automatically populated with the name
of the local machine.
You see a screen like this:

-
Click OK. The create process can take a few minutes.
Note –
This exercise requires automatically assigned port numbers for
HTTP, HTTPS, IIOP and IIOPS. You can change them later, if desired.
When the create process is completed, the Cluster Created Successfully
page appears, and FirstCluster appears in the tree in the
left pane. A copy of the configuration template default-config was
made for this cluster, and the name FirstCluster-config was
assigned to it.
-
In the left pane, expand Clusters and click FirstCluster to display
the General Information page for clusters.
-
Click the Instances tab to display i1 and i2, the instances that
you created.
-
Click i1 to examine this instance.
-
From the tabs above the General Information heading of the right
pane, click Properties and see the value for HTTP_LISTENER_PORT.
-
Repeat these steps for i2.
Note –
By default, the HTTP ports are 38081 for i1 and 38080 for i2.
If these ports were busy on your machine when you created these clusters,
or if you had already assigned these ports to other instances and clusters,
different port numbers were assigned.
Next Steps
In this section you have created a simple cluster on a single machine.
You can also create clusters spanning multiple machines using the same basic
steps (as long as you have the software installed and a node agent running
on each machine).
You can stop the Quick Start trail here if you do not wish to continue,
or you can go on to the next section.
Deploying an Application
This section, the third of three basic topics, presents the following
steps:
To Deploy the Sample Application
This guide uses the clusterjsp sample application
to demonstrate web path load balancing capabilities. This task shows you how
to deploy that application.
Note –
Ensure that you have enabled cookies in your
browser before you deploy this application.
-
Click the Home button to go to the Common Tasks page, if you are
not there already.
-
On the right pane, under Common Tasks, click Deploy Enterprise
Application.
-
In the File to Upload text box, click Browse, and navigate to install-dir/samples/ee-samples/highavailability/apps/clusterjsp/clusterjsp.ear.
-
Click Next to display the Deploy Enterprise Application page.
-
Scroll down to the Targets section of the page.
-
Select FirstCluster from the Available list, and click Add to
move it to the Selected list.
-
Click OK.
The clusterjsp application
is now deployed to FirstCluster.

To Start the Cluster
-
In the tree on the left pane, click the FirstCluster node under
Clusters.
-
In the right pane, click the General tab if it is not already
active.
-
Click the Start Instances button to start the cluster.
-
Verify that it has started by checking that the Status field,
which indicates what instances are running.
To Verify the Application Deployment
This procedure verifies that the application was deployed properly and
is accessible on each instance in the cluster.
-
Type the following URL in your browser:
http://localhost:port/clusterjsp
Replace the localhost variable
with the name of the system that the Domain Admin Server is running on.
Replace the port variable with the value
of HTTP-LISTENER-PORT for i1. This example uses http://localhost:38081/clusterjsp.
-
Add some session attribute data.
-
Examine the Session and Host information displayed. For example:
-
Executed From Server: localhost
-
Server Port Number: 38081
-
Executed Server IP Address: 198.19.255.255
-
Session Created: Day Mon 05 14:55:34 PDT 2005
-
Add some session data and click the Add to Session button.
-
Repeat this procedure for instance i2 by typing this URL in your
browser:
http://localhost :38080/clusterjsp
In this section you deployed an application
to a cluster and tested that the application is available on all instances
in the cluster.
Congratulations! You have completed the basic
steps in this Quick Start Guide. You can stop the Quick Start trail here if
you do not wish to proceed to the advanced steps.
Setting up Load Balancing
A load balancer is typically deployed in front of a cluster. It:
-
Allows an application or service to be scaled horizontally
across multiple physical (or logical) hosts yet still presents the user with
a single URL
-
Insulates the user from host failures or server crashes, when
it is used with session replication
-
Enhances security by hiding the internal network from the
user
Application Server includes load balancing plug-ins for popular web servers
like Apache, Microsoft Windows IIS, and Sun Java System
Web Server.
This section provides instructions on how to download and set up the
Web Server software to act as a load balancer to the cluster of Application
Servers. To complete this section, you must have sufficient memory to run
a Web Server on your system in addition to the Domain Administration Server
and the two Application Server instances you have created so far in this guide.
A system with 512 Mbytes to 1024 Mbytes of memory is recommended to complete
this section.
This topic presents the following steps:
Installing Web Server Software
If you already have Web Server software installed, and if you can identify
a Web Server instance to serve as the load balancer, note the location of
this instance in the file system and skip to Installing the Load Balancer Plug-in.
To Install the Web Server Using the Java Enterprise
System Installer
If you are using Sun Java Enterprise System software, the Web Server
is selected for installation automatically when you choose to install the
Load Balancer Plug-in. However, you can also install Web Server software using
these steps:
-
Launch the Java Enterprise System installer.
-
Select the Sun Java System Web Server component in the Component
Selection page.
-
Choose “Configure Now” to be prompted for Web Server
Configuration during installation.
-
When you are prompted, define a default Web Server instance.
Tip –
Remember the port number you choose for this default Web Server instance. This guide
assumes that port 38000 is selected as the HTTP port for default instance.
To Install the Web Server for Stand-Alone Application Server Installations
If you are using a stand-alone Application Server, or if you do not have
access to the Sun Java Enterprise System installer, install Web Server software
using these steps:
-
Go to http://www.sun.com/downloads.
Scroll down to the Web & Proxy Servers heading and click Web Servers.
-
Download Web Server 6.1 Service Pack 2 or higher for the locale
and platform of your choice.
To download, you must log in with
username and password registered with MySunSM, Sun StoreSM, SunSolveSM, or
the Online Support Center. If you do not have a login account, you can register
online.
-
Follow the instructions to install Web Server software. You must:
-
Extract the software from the compressed archive.
-
Run the setup program. If you need additional information, see
the Web Server installation instructions at http://docs.sun.com.
-
The Web Server installation process configures the Administration
Server for Web Server and prompts you to define a default Web Server instance.
Tip –
Remember the port number you choose for this default web server
instance. This guide assumes that port 38000 is selected as the HTTP port
for default instance.
Installing the Load Balancer Plug-in
The section describes installing the load balancer plug-in for either
a Sun Java Enterprise System distribution or a stand-alone Application Server distribution.
To Install the Load Balancer Plug-in
-
Run the installer for the software distribution you are using—Sun
Java Enterprise System software or the stand-alone Sun Java System Application
Server software.
-
When you are asked which components you want to install, select
Load Balancing Plug-in.
On the Sun Java Enterprise System installer,
you must expand the Application Server item to see the Load Balancing Plug-in.
It is not selected for installation by default.
Creating a Load Balancer Configuration
Now return to interacting with the Application Server’s Domain
Admin Server. You need a shell execution environment for this section.
To Create an HTTP Load Balancer Configuration
-
Create a load balancer configuration called MyLbConfig targeted
to the cluster FirstCluster:
asadmin create-http-lb-config
--target FirstCluster MyLbConfig
-
Enable the FirstCluster cluster and the clusterjsp application
deployed in it for HTTP load balancing:
asadmin enable-http-lb-server
FirstCluster
asadmin enable-http-lb-application
--name clusterjsp FirstCluster
-
Create a health checker for the load balancer, which signals when
an instance that goes down recovers.
asadmin create-http-health-checker
--interval 10 --config MyLbConfig FirstCluster
The interval
is the number of seconds the health checker waits between checks of an unhealthy
instance.
-
Export the configuration to a file loadbalancer.xml.
asadmin export-http-lb-config --config MyLbConfig loadbalancer.xml
-
Copy loadbalancer.xml to:
web_server_install_dir/https-hostname/config/loadbalancer.xml
Starting Load Balancing
Start load balancing by starting or restarting the Web Server.
-
If the Web Server instance serving as load balancer is not
already running, start the Web Server software by executing the start program in the following directory:
web_server_install_dir/https-hostname
-
If the Web Server instance serving as load balancer is already
running, stop the server
and start it using the start and stop programs in the following directory:
web_server_install_dir/https-hostname
Verifying Load Balancing
Once the application is deployed and the load balancer is running, verify
that the load balancing is working.
To Verify Load Balancing
-
To display the first page of the clusterjsp application, type
this URL in your browser:
http://localhost:web_server_port/clusterjsp
Replace the localhost variable
with the name of the system that the Web Server is running on.
Replace
the web_server_port variable with the value of
the port attribute of the LS element in web_server_install_dir/https-hostname/config/server.xml. For this example, port 38000 is used.
A
page similar to what you saw in To Verify the Application Deployment. appears.
-
Examine the Session and Host information displayed. For example:
-
Executed From Server: localhost
-
Server Port Number: 38000
-
Executed Server IP Address: 192.18.145.133
-
Session Created: Day Mon 05 14:55:34 PDT 2005
-
The Server Port Number is 38000, the Web Server’s port.
The load balancer has forwarded the request on the two instances in the cluster.
-
Using different browser software, or a browser on a different
machine, create a new session. Requests from the same browser are “sticky”
and go to the same instance.
These sessions should be distributed
to the two instances in the cluster. You can verify this by looking at the
server access log files located here:
-
Solaris Java Enterprise System installation:
/var/opt/SUNWappserver/nodeagents/nodeagent_name/i1/logs/access/server_access_log
/var/opt/SUNWappserver/nodeagents/nodeagent_name/i2/logs/access/server_access_log
-
Linux Java Enterprise System installation:
/var/opt/sun/appserver/nodeagents/nodeagent_name/i1/logs/access/server_access_log
/var/opt/sun/appserver/nodeagents/nodeagent_name/i2/logs/access/server_access_log
-
Windows Java Enterprise System installation:
install-dir\nodeagents\nodeagent_name\i1\logs\access\server_access_log
install-dir\nodeagents\nodeagent_name\i2\logs\access\server_access_log
-
Stand-alone Application Server installations:
install-dir/nodeagents/nodeagent_name/i1/logs/access/server_access_log
install-dir/nodeagents/nodeagent_name/i2/logs/access/server_access_log
-
Add a name and value pair (Name=Name Value=Duke)
for storing in HttpSession.
-
Click the “Add to Session Data” button.
-
Verify that the session data was added
Next Steps
In this section you created an instance to use as a load balancer and
set up a load balancing configuration. You also verified load balancing.
To configure and verify HTTP session failover, continue to Chapter 2, Quick Start for Setting Up High Availability Failover. Otherwise continue on to Cleaning Up.
Cleaning Up
To clean up, you can uninstall the Application Server installation by completing
the steps in To Uninstall Completely, or
you can simply delete the sample cluster you have just created by completing
the steps in To Remove the Sample Cluster Only.

Caution –
If you plan to complete Chapter 2, Quick Start for Setting Up High Availability Failover do not use these
clean-up procedures. Instead, go to Chapter 2, Quick Start for Setting Up High Availability Failover now and when
you are done use the procedures you’ll find there to clean up.
To Uninstall Completely
To completely uninstall Application Server and also uninstall the Web Server,
use the following procedure.
-
Stop the Application Server processes using these commands:
asadmin stop-cluster FirstCluster
asadmin
stop-node-agent hostname
asadmin stop-domain
domain1
At this point all processes related to Application
Server are stopped.
-
Uninstall the Application Server.
In a Solaris or
Linux Java Enterprise System installation, run var/sadm/prod/entsys/uninstall and follow the steps in the uninstallation wizard.
In
a Windows Java Enterprise System installation, use the Control Panel's Add/Remove
Programs item. Choose Sun Java Enterprise Systems and click Change/Remove.
In a Solaris or Linux stand-alone
Application Server installation, run install-dir/uninstall and
follow the steps in the uninstallation wizard.
In a Windows stand-alone
installation, from the Start menu, choose Programs ⇒ Sun Microsystems ⇒
Application Server EE ⇒ Uninstall.
-
If you installed Web Server for this exercise, stop the web server
instance acting as load balancer and uninstall the Web Server product. You
can stop the instance by
executing the stop program in the following directory:
web_server_install_dir/https-hostname
-
If you want to unsinstall the Web Server product, run the uninstall
program from the web_server_install_dir.
To Remove the Sample Cluster Only
To remove only the FirstCluster (the sample highly available cluster)
and the sample application used during this exercise, but retain the installed Application Server and
Web Server, use the following procedure.
-
Stop the Application Server processes and clean up configuration:
asadmin stop-cluster FirstCluster
asadmin
disable-http-lb-server FirstCluster
asadmin
delete-http-lb-ref --config MyLbConfig FirstCluster
asadmin delete-http-lb-config MyLbConfig
asadmin
delete-instance i1
asadmin delete-instance
i2
asadmin delete-cluster FirstCluster
asadmin undeploy clusterjsp
-
Stop the web server instance acting as load balancer by running the stop program in the following
directory:
web_server_install_dir/https-hostname
-
Rename the loadbalancer.xml file in web_server_install_dir/https-hostname /config to loadbalancer.xml.sav
Where to Go Next
Other resources for learning about and using Application Server are available.
They include: