Chapter 2 About Application Server Platform Edition 8.2

The Sun Java^TM System Application Server Platform 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.

This chapter includes:

• What’s New in the 8.2 Release

• Hardware and Software Requirements

• Bugs Fixed in the 8.2 Release

• J2EE Support

• Switching to Another Supported J2SE Version

What’s New in the 8.2 Release

The Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 8.2 implements many new features:

• J2EE 1.4 compatible.

• (Improved) Outstanding developer experience with NetBeans 5 and improved deployment speed, runtime footprint and server start up time. NetBeans 5.0 includes Application Server 8.2 as a default J2EE runtime.

• (New) Superior throughput performance and better scalability supporting multi core/multi threaded architecture.

• (New) Fast Infoset support improves web services performance multiple folds.

• (New) Application Server 8.2 adds support for Red Hat 4 and My SQL 5. See Hardware and Software Requirements, later in these notes, for a complete list of supported operating systems and database drivers.

• (New) Application Server 8.2 bundles deployment-ready Derby database, making it possible to develop and deploy end-to-end J2EE applications.

• (New) Built-in JMS resource adapter makes connectivity with backend systems even easier. Application Server 8.2 supports connectivity to IBM MQ Series and Sun's MQ Server.

• (Updated) Enhanced J2EE 1.4 blueprints including demonstration of using Web 2.0 technologies like AJAX with Application Server 8.2.

• JavaServer Faces Support — Developers can quickly build web applications by assembling reusable UI components in a page, connecting these components to a data source, and wiring client-generated events to server-side event handlers.

• Improved Administration Console — The Application Server 8.2 Administration Console adds new look and feel with capabilities like JNDI namespace browser, JDBC Connection Validation, Deployment Descriptor Viewer, Error log viewer and improved monitoring.

• Web Services Security: Container message security mechanisms implementing message-level authentication (e.g. XML digital signature and encryption) of SOAP web services invocations using the X509 and username/password profiles of the OASIS WS-Security standard.

• JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library 1.1 Support: the library encapsulates core functionality common to many JSP applications.

• (Updated) Bundled J2SE 5.0_06.

The Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition is free for development, deployment and redistribution. Customers interested in redistribution should contact Sun OEM sales for a redistribution license. Sun provides support at additional cost. If you would like to be contacted about licensing the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition, fill out this form.

Hardware and Software Requirements

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

• Platform Requirements

• System Virtualization Support

• Important Patch Information

• JDBC Drivers and Databases

• Using the Bundled Derby Database

• Browsers

• Upgrading the Sun Java System Application Server

• Other Requirements

Platform Requirements

The following table lists the operating systems that are supported for Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 8.2 product.

Table 2–1 Supported Operating Systems

Operating System	Minimum Memory	Recommended Memory	Minimum Disk Space	Recommended Disk Space	JVM
Sun Solaris 9, 10 (SPARC)  Solaris 9, 10(x86)	512 MB	512 MB	250 MB free	500 MB free	J2SE 1.4.2_10, J2SE 5_06
Sun Java Desktop System	512 MB	1 GB	250 MB free	500 MB free	J2SE 1.4.2_10, J2SE 5_06
Redhat Enterprise Linux 3.0 U1, 4.0	512 MB	1 GB	250 MB free	500 MB free	J2SE 1.4.2_10, J2SE 5_06
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 1.4.2_10, J2SE 5_06

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

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Note –

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

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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

For the current list of required patches for Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 8.2 go to http://sunsolve.sun.com and select either “Patches” or “Patch Portal.” Follow the Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 8.2 links. As operating system patch requirements change and patches to Java Enterprise System components become available, updates will be made available on SunSolve, initially in the form of recommended patch clusters.

Solaris Patch Requirements

It is recommended that Solaris 8, 9, 10 (x86, SPARC) users have the “Sun recommended patch cluster” installed. This patch cluster is available under “Recommended and Security Patches” on the SunSolve web site.

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. This 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 Platform Edition 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+
Derby	Type 4	Apache Derby 10.1.2.1
PointBase	Type 4	PointBase Network Server 5.2
MySQL	Type 4	5.x
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+
Oracle	Type 4, Type 2	Oracle (R) 9.2.0.3+, 10.1.x, 10.2.x

Using the Bundled Derby Database

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

• Starting and Stopping the Derby Database

• Derby Utility Scripts

• Exporting Tables from Pointbase to Derby

Starting and Stopping the Derby Database

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

• The start-database command can be used to start an instance of the Derby network server:

  start-database [--dbhost 0.0.0.0] [--dbport 1527] [--dbhome path/derby]

  The default value for the host is 0.0.0.0, which allows for Derby to listen on localhost as well as the IP/hostname interfaces. The value for the dbhome property represents the location of where the Derby databases reside. The default path is <appserver_install_dir>/derby.

• The asadmin stop-database command is used to shut down an instance of the Derby network server that is running:

  stop-database [--dbhost 0.0.0.0] [--dbport 1527]

Derby Utility Scripts

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

• startNetworkServer.ksh/bat — Script to start the network server

• stopNetworkServer.ksh/bat — Script to stop the network server

• ij.ksh/bat — interactive JDBC scripting tool

• dblook.ksh/bat — Script to view all or part of the DDL for a database

• sysinfo.ksh/bat — Script to display versioning info regarding the derby environment

• NetworkServerControl.ksh/bat — Script which provides a means of executing commands on the NetworkServerControl API

To Configure Your Environment to Run the Derby 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 Derby

This example shows how to capture the DDL for a table in Pointbase and create the same table in Derby 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:

• Removed the phrase Organization Heap from the end of all CREATE Table statements

• Removed the COMMIT command

• Changed the Boolean datatype to be smallint

• Removed all of the INSERT statements and associated data

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:

• Make all changes as described above for the sample database

• Remove the create user commands

• Remove the SET PATH commands

• Change the Decimal precision from 38 to max of 31

• Change the float precision from 64 to max of 52

• The SPECIFIC keyword for CREATE PROCEDURE is not currently supported

• Removed the GRANT commands

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

Browsers

This section lists the browsers that are supported with the Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 8.2 administration console and Quick Start Guide. The browsers supported when running applications on the Application Server depend on the applications being run.

Table 2–3 Browsers Supported

Browser	Version
Mozilla	1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7.x
Netscape Navigator	6.2, 7.0
Internet Explorer	5.5 Service Pack 2, 6.0
Firefox	1.x

Upgrading the Sun Java System Application Server

Refer to the Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 8.2 Installation Guide for complete instructions for upgrading from a previous version of the Application Server to the Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 8.2.

Other Requirements

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

• Free space — Your temporary directory must have a minimum of 200 MB free for Sun Java System Application Server installation, and 250 MB of free space for the SDK installation.

• Using the uninstall program– If you need to remove the Application Server from your system, it is important to use the uninstall program that is included with the software. If you attempt to use another method, problems will arise when you try to reinstall the same version, or when you install a new version.

• Free ports– You must have seven unused ports available.

  • The installation program automatically detects ports in use and suggests currently unused ports for the default settings. By default, the initial default ports are 8080 for HTTP, 8181 for HTTPS, and 4848 for the Administration Server.

  • The installation program will detect used ports and assign two others for you: Sun JavaTM System Message Queue (by default, 7676), and IIOP (by default, 3700 for IIOP and 3820 and 3890 for IIOP/SSL). If these default port numbers are in use, the installation program will assign a random port number from the dynamic port range (note that this may not be the next available port number).

  Starting previously-installed servers (UNIX) – Unless you are replacing the previously installed server, you should start it before you begin the Sun Java System Application Server 8.2 installation process. This allows the installation program to detect ports that are in use and avoid assigning them for other uses.

• Replacing previously-installed servers (UNIX) – If you have an older version on the Sun Java System Application Server installed that you wish to replace with the current Application Server, you should stop it before installing the new server.

• Shutting down firewall (Microsoft Windows) – You must stop any firewall software before installing the Sun Java System Application Server software, because some of this software disables all ports by default. The installation program must be able to accurately determine which ports are available.

  For further compatibility information, see the Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 8.2 Upgrade and Migration Guide.

Bugs Fixed in the 8.2 Release

6184864

An EJBQL query may not contain all matching results if the where clause contains an OR operator and a single-valued cmr navigation.

6198981

Broken panels in the New Web Service Wizard.

6207862

The - asadmin create-domain --help command produces incorrect usage and an invalid option is documented (--admin.jmxport).

6155080

Specifying target message by java-method does not work in client-side message-security-binding elements.

6173248

Using the AMX API, removing a J2EE application reference from a server removes the application, but the application is still accessible.

6360646

AS 8.2 PE/EE: Use the PlatformMBeanServer if available.

6295215

DOCS:java.sql.statement.getConnection() does not meet javadoc specification for pooling connections.

6290666

Port 8080 is not released by domain even after stopping and deleting.

6286688

Cannot save transaction support value when JMS connection factory was created for the first time.

6298257

For Application Server 8.1 UR2 PE, asant cannot be run on Windows 2000 at all; command too long error is returned.

6320008

Rich client RMI-IIOP failover testing fails.

6347544

Bundle Grizzly ARA supports in 8.2.

6275566

Application Server 8.1 Virtual Server access log location not updating.

6351023

Generic RA for JMS need to be integrated with AS 8.2.

6288752

Disk I/O for XA transaction logs too high.

6356910

Make Application Server 8.x native launcher Bourne shell-friendly by disassociating from controlling TTY.

6307510

S1AS 7.0/SJAS7.1 : EJBC/RMIC generates STUB/Skel with NOT fully Qualified Package Name.

6286783

Server has to reject requests with double Content-Length header

6207862

asadmin create-domain --help produces some CVS merge characters and is garbled.

6377830

setAutoCommit to false gets propagated when the same connection is used by the next user.

6317857

Undeploy: Error unregistering mbean.

6284124

Servlet container UTF-8 URI mapping issue.

6276218

Deploytool does not work with spaces in the install path

6211979

Deploy command fails on file based non-root installation.

6354545

Deployment hangs in Windows.

6283805

Deployed applications cannot be accessed after upgrade.

6327037

Deployment performance improvement needed.

6270387

Redeploy sometimes fails with Error while running ejbc -- Fatal Error from EJB Compiler.

6258619

Undeployment does not release all files.

6276021

Redeployment of WAR file (remote deployment for Creator) fails.

6330332

AS8102 memory leaks on deploy/undeploy scenario (SubCR from 6324399 EJBClassLoader.

J2EE Support

The Sun Java System Application Server 8.2 supports the J2EE 1.4 and Java EE 5 platforms. The following table describes the enhanced APIs available on the J2EE 1.4 platform.

Table 2–4 Major API changes 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 J2SE Version

Sun Java System Application Server 8.2 supports both J2SE 1.4.2 and J2SE 5.0 as the underlying JVM. If you want to switch from one J2SE version to another, perform the following general steps. (Windows and Unix)

To switch to another supported J2SE version

1. Download the J2SE SDK (not the JRE) and install it on your system, if you have not already done so.

   The J2SE 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

Next Steps

If you are upgrading from a JDK version earlier than the bundled version (JDK 1.4.2_06), then you cannot upgrade to J2SE 5.0 or later using just the steps above. Specifically, in addition to the above steps, you must delete any existing domains and recreate them.