JBoss AS7 is a major re-write of the JBoss application server with a modular architecture and improved performance. Key features include HornetQ as the default JMS provider, the JBoss module system for classloading, and support for CDI, JSF, RESTEasy and other Java EE 6 specifications. Testing can be simplified using Arquillian which integrates tests directly with the application server container. Migrating from earlier versions of JBoss AS requires changes to configuration, dependencies and tooling.

1. Upgrading to JBoss
AS7
Amit Sharma
AXS USA LLC
amit@axsusa.com
9th Jan 2013

2. Index
O Cover Jboss AS7
O Jboss AS 6.x/5.x comparison
O Features
O The Architecture
O New Components
O Lessons learned
O References

3. JBoss AS7
O 7.0.0.Final – First stable release 12th July
2011
O 7.1.1.Final – released 9th March 2012
O First major shift – common codebase
O Major re-write of the underlying
architecture
O Extensible framework – Immutant
(clojure), torquebox (Jruby)

4. Client History
O A complete JBoss Shop
O JBoss EAP 6.x
O Hibernate 3.3
O Seam 2.x
O JBoss Messaging
O JMX Console
O RestEasy
O Jdk 1.6.0_31

5. Features
JBoss AS7 Website:
O Blazingly fast (<3s startup)
O Lightweight
O Modular core
O Elegant administration
O Domain management
O First class components

6. AS7 Architecture
O Core:
O Jboss Modules (class loading of resources)
O Module Service Container (install/uninstall
or manage services)
O Standalone.xml at the heart of Jboss
O Snapshot folder strategy
O JSR-299 compliant server (Java EE6)
O CDI / Weld supported fully.
O Modules are open source projects

7. AS7 Architecture (standard)
O Hibernate Core (4.0.1.Final) – Default JPA
Provider.
O RestEasy (2.3.1.GA)
O Apache CXF (4.0.1.GA)
O Mojarra (JSF 2.0)
O JBoss Logging (Java Util Logging)
* Jboss/docs/licenses/licenses.xml

8. Folder Structure

9. Modules
AS Bootstrap libs Server libs
4.x JBOSS_HOME/server JBOSS_HOME/server/<server>/lib
5.x – JBOSS_HOME/server JBOSS_HOME/common/lib and
6.x JBOSS_HOME/server/<server>/lib
7.x JBOSS_HOME/jboss- JBOSS_HOME/modules subfolders.
modules.jar

10. Standalone.xml
O Variants of standalone.xml pre-exist.
O <extensions> - shared by all applications
O These are stored in ‘modules’
O <profile> - collection of subsystems.
O One for standalone, multiple for domain.
O <interfaces> - bind addresses.
O <socket-binding-group> - define ports.
O <system-properties>
O Define in xml
O standalone.bat -P=mypropertiesfile.properties

11. Standalone.xml (contd.)
O Adding SMTP support
O Bring the subsystem
<subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:mail:1.0">
<mail-session jndi-name="java:/Mail" debug="true">
<smtp-server outbound-socket-binding-ref="mail-smtp"/>
</mail-session>
</subsystem>
O Add the socket bindings
<outbound-socket-binding name="mail-smtp">
<remote-destination host=“mail.google.com" port="25"/>
</outbound-socket-binding>

12. Standalone.xml (contd.)
O Overiding default scanner path
<subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:deployment-
scanner:1.1">
<deployment-scanner path="C:/myapp/deployments"
scan-interval="5000" auto-deploy-zipped="true" auto-
deploy-exploded="true" deployment-timeout="180"/>
</subsystem>
O Port Offset
standalone.bat -Djboss.socket.binding.port-
offset=10 [All ports are offset by 10]
http://localhost:8090

13. Standalone.xml (contd.)
O Registering a database driver (another subsystem)
O No common/lib or *ds.xml files
<datasources>
<datasource jndi-name="java:jboss/datasources/testDS" pool-
name="testDS" use-java-context="false">
<connection-url>jdbc:oracle:thin:@myserverip/myschema</connection-url>
<driver>oracle</driver>
<security>
<user-name>amit</user-name>
<password>sharma</password>
</security>
</datasource>
<drivers>
<driver name="oracle" module="com.oracle.ojdbc6">
<xa-datasource-class>oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver</xa-datasource-class>
</driver>
</drivers>
</datasources>
JBOSS_HOMEmodulescomoracleojdbc6mainmodule.xml and jar

14. JBoss CLI
O Example:
<system-properties>
<property name="hibernate.default_schema“ value="AMIT"/>
</system-properties>
O Read System properties
[standalone@localhost:9999 /] /system-
property=hibernate.default_schema:read-resource
{
"outcome" => "success",
"result" => {"value" => "AMIT"}
}

15. JBoss CLI (contd.)
O Command Line Interface. GUI available as well.
O /subsystem=datasources/data-source=ExampleDS/
c:jboss-as-7.1.1.Finalbin>jboss-cli.bat –gui
O Command line
[standalone@localhost:9999 /]
/subsystem=datasources/data-source=ExampleDS:read-
attribute(name=connection-url)
{
"outcome" => "success",
"result" => "jdbc:h2:mem:test;DB_CLOSE_DELAY=-1"
}

16. Deployment
O Mechanisms:
O Deployments Directory
(/standalone/deployments)
O CLI (undeploy and then .dodeploy)
O Marker files
O .deployed or .undeployed markers
O .failed
O .isdeploying
O .isundeploying
O Management Console
O Eclipse Plugin

17. What’s new
O HornetQ – default JMS Provider (2.2.11)
O Jgroups API Implementation for communication
between nodes - UDP and multicast. (3.1.0.GA)
O IronJacamar - Java Connector Architecture 1.6
Implementation. (1.0.7.Final)
O Infinispan – JSR-107 compatible cache
O Handles cluster consistency
O Jolokia - JMX-HTTP bridge (JMX with JSON over
http)
O Arquillian support.
O Mod_cluster support. (mod_jk and mod_proxy still
works)

18. HornetQ
O HornetQ is an open source project to build a
multi-protocol, embeddable, very high
performance, clustered, asynchronous
messaging system.
O High performance journal mechanism for
message persistence (No database
persistence)
O Provides fully functional JMS capabilities.
O Supports JMS 1.1 API. (No code changes)
O Provides its own Messaging API.
O STOMP and REST support

19. HornetQ (contd.)
O MDB example
O No Java Impact to MDBs
@MessageDriven(name = "MDBExample",
activationConfig =
{
@ActivationConfigProperty(propertyName =
"destinationType", propertyValue = "javax.jms.Queue"),
@ActivationConfigProperty(propertyName =
"destination", propertyValue = "queue/testQueue")
})
public class MDBExample implements MessageListener
{
public void onMessage(Message message)...
}

20. HornetQ (contd.)
O Wildcards on Addresses rather than specific queue.
O filter for the destination - jms.queue.#
O Standalone-full-ha.xml
<jms-destinations>
<jms-queue name="testQueue">
<entry name="queue/test"/>
<entry name="java:jboss/exported/jms/queue/test"/>
</jms-queue>
<jms-topic name="testTopic">
<entry name="topic/test"/>
<entry name="java:jboss/exported/jms/topic/test"/>
</jms-topic>
</jms-destinations>

21. HornetQ (contd.)
O Integration with any JEE App Server must
happen via JCA (Java Connector
Architecture) Adaptor
O A JCA Adapter basically controls the inflow
of messages to Message-Driven Beans
(MDBs) and the outflow of messages sent
from other JEE components, e.g. EJBs and
Servlets.
O Anti-pattern defined. (See Image)

22. HornetQ (contd.)
O Anti-Pattern

23. JBoss CLI - HornetQ
O See a Queue
O /subsystem=messaging/hornetq-
server=default/:read-children-
resources(child-type=jms-queue)
O Read a broadcast-group
O /subsystem=messaging/hornetq-
server=default/:read-children-names(child-
type=broadcast-group)
O Test a connection
data-source test-connection-in-pool --name=testDS

24. Jolokia
O WAR-Agent (access to your JMX beans)
O Query:
http://localhost:8080/jolokia-war-
1.0.6/read/jboss.as:subsystem=datasources,data-
source=ExampleDS/connectionUrl?ignoreErrors=true
O Result:
{"timestamp":1357502024,"status":200,"request":{"m
bean":"jboss.as:data-
source=ExampleDS,subsystem=datasources","attrib
ute":"connectionUrl","type":"read"},"value":"jdbc:h2:m
em:test;DB_CLOSE_DELAY=-1"}

25. Arquillian
O No more mocks and No more container lifecycle
and deployment
@RunWith(Arquillian.class)
public class GreeterTest {
@Deployment
public static JavaArchive createDeployment() {
return ShrinkWrap.create(JavaArchive.class)
.addClass(Greeter.class)
.addAsManifestResource(EmptyAsset.INSTANCE, "beans.xml");
}
@Inject
Greeter greeter;
@Test
public void should_create_greeting() {
assertEquals("Hello, Earthling!", greeter.greet("Earthling"));
}
}

26. Arquillian (contd.)
O src/test/resources/arquillian.xml
<arquillian xmlns="http://jboss.org/schema/arquillian"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://jboss.org/schema/arquillian
http://jboss.org/schema/arquillian/arquillian_1_0.xsd">
<container qualifier="jbossas-managed" default="true">
<configuration>
<property name="jbossHome">target/jboss-as-
7.1.1.Final</property>
</configuration>
</container>
</arquillian>

27. What’s missing?
O JMX Console
O JBoss Messaging 1.0
O JBoss Logging (old implementation)
O VFS – Virtual File System
O Farm deployment (vs Domain settings)
O Same folder structure
O Extensive configuration 
O Clear Documentation 

28. Lessons Learned
O Seam 2.x (hibernate dependency)
O Hibernate Validators (JPA-2 compliance)
O Apache CXF collision
O Seam Tests failure (Arquillian upgrade)
O JMX console obsolete (jolokia war)
O JSF 1.2 support
O HornetQ learning curve and dns issues.
O MDB and Seam race condition issues.
[@DependsOn does not work]
O Jboss Logging

29. Lessons Learned (contd.)
O Hibernate 3.x (JPA 2) support
O META-INF/persistence.xml
<property name="jboss.as.jpa.providerModule"
value="hibernate3-bundled" />
O Enable AJP Connector binding
O <connector name="AJP"
protocol="AJP/1.3" socket-binding="ajp" />
O <socket-binding name="ajp" port="8009"/>
O HornetQ clustering (disabled by default)
O <clustered>true</clustered>

30. Lessons Learned (contd.)
O Declare dependencies
META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
Dependencies: org.apache.log4j
OR
WEB-INF/jboss-deployment-structure.xml
<jboss-deployment-structure xmlns="urn:jboss:deployment-structure:1.0">
<deployment>
<exclusions>
<module name="javax.faces.api" slot="main"/>
<module name="com.sun.jsf-impl" slot="main"/>
</exclusions>
<dependencies>
<module name="javax.faces.api" slot="1.2" export="true"/>
<module name="com.sun.jsf-impl" slot="1.2" export="true"/>
</dependencies>
</deployment>
</jboss-deployment-structure>

31. Lessons Learned (contd.)
O Jboss-web.xml (still defines the context)
<jboss-web>
<context-root>myapp</context-root>
</jboss-web>
O HornetQ - DNS entries must exist for IP addresses
defined for messaging (multicast or otherwise)
O HornetQ – multicast configuration is enabled by default.
O HornetQ - Round Robin Load Balancing configuration.
<connection-load-balancing-policy-class-name>
org.hornetq.api.core.client.loadbalance.RoundRobinConnectionLo
adBalancingPolicy</connection-load-balancing-policy-class-name>

32. Lessons Learned (contd.)
O JBoss - You can load your own xml by :
standalone.bat --server-config standalone-
full-ha.xml
O JBOSS_HOME/docs/schema has
dtds/xsds defined for validations
O Arquillian – TestSuite still in works.

33. References
O JBoss AS 7 Configuration, Deployment and Administration.
Marchioni, Francesco
O Credits: Isaac Christoffersen (Vizuri), Aslak Knutsen (Red
Hat) and Catherine Robson (Red Hat)
O Links:
http://www.jboss.org/as7
https://docs.jboss.org/author/display/AS71/Documentation
http://Jolokia.org
http://www.jboss.org/ironjacamar
http://java.net/projects/mojarra/
http://jboss.org/hornetq
http://www.jgroups.org/
http://arqullian.org
http://www.jboss.org/resteasy
http://www.jboss.org/infinispan