Sunday 18 August 2013

Running JBoss AS7 on Raspberry Pi

Running JBoss

Choose a Mode

The JBoss installation on our Pi offers a couple of different configurations out of the box.
The first choice to be taken is whether to start JBoss in standalone or domain mode. 
Doman mode is a special management mode which we might inspect later. For now we will set off in standalone mode. This just means we will have to configure each instance individually. We can still cluster our standalone instances and even go for high availability in standalone mode.

Choose a Configuration

All the scripts for starting JBoss are located in JBOSS_HOME/bin.
JBoss is started in standalone mode by running standalone.sh:
standalone.sh
Without any parameters, standalone.sh will use the configuration defined in standalone.xml, located in JBOSS_HOME/standalone/configuration directory.
You can choose another configuration by specifying it on the command line:
standalone.sh –server-config=standalone-full.xml

My approach is to backup standlone.xml and to edit the original according to my needs. I’m going for standalone.xml to have a small footprint to start with. Additional features can be included later, either by editing standalone.xml or by using the management console or the command line interface CLI.

JBoss and Java

Standalone.sh inspects first JAVA then JAVA_HOME environment variable for a hint, where java is installed. If both variables are not set, JAVA is simply set to java which means the PATH variable determines if and where Java will be found.
And it will be found like this:
  • We find /usr/bin in our classpath (verify by typing $PATH on a Pi console)
  • /usr/bin contains “java”
  • Java is a softlink into alternatives  (/etc/alternatives/java)
  • Following this link, we find: java -> /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-armel/jre/bin/java
And that is what we get when we run Java on the Pi.
Everything depends on soft links and the alternatives concept. This makes it very easy to switch to another Java installation in the future.
To make a long story short, leave everything as it is.

Making JBoss available within Your Network

All my Pis have static IP addresses within my private network. This can be configured within your router.
If you want to be able to reach a JBoss instance running on a Pi, you have to configure JBoss’ “Public Interface”.
This configuration is done standalone.xml located in /JBOSS_HOME/standalone/configuration.
Find the interfaces section and edit the public and the management interface like this:
<interfaces>
        <interface name="management">
            <inet-address value="xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"/>
        </interface>
        <interface name="public">
            <inet-address value="xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"/>
        </interface>
</interfaces>
Where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP you configured in your rooter for this specific Pi.

Save the changes.

Create JBoss Users

In order to access JBoss’ admin console, we need to create a management-realm user.
This is done by running the add-user.sh script located in /JBOSS_HOME/bin directory.
Be sure to select management realm.







For later use, we create an application-realm user.
For now, assign the guest role to this user.







Starting JBoss

Let’s give JBoss a test run.
Switch to /JBOSS_HOME/bin and run standalone.sh in a Pi terminal window:
sh standalone.sh











When JBoss is up, you can access the web-server from any client within your network.
If you assigned a name to your Pi within your router, you can use this name to access the Pi. If not, use the Pi’s IP address.

 From here, you should be able to access the management console. As credentials, enter the admin-user you just created using add-user script.













Stopping JBoss

The best way to stop JBoss is by using the CLI.
Open another terminal session on the Pi and switch to /JBOSS_HOME/bin.
Run
jboss-cli.sh
The CLI starts in “disconnected” mode, so you have to connect.
Type connect xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (IP address of your Pi)
When connected successfully, enter
:shutdown
JBoss will shut down and you can exit the terminal session.











Summary

Now we have Java and JBoss installed on our Pi(s).
JBoss is now accessible from anywhere within our network.
We created a management-user and an application-user.
We can start and stop JBoss on the Pi and have access to its management console.
In the next post we will develop our first JEE application and deploy it to the Pi.
See you then…

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