JBoss Application Administration

Overview

JBoss Application Administration (JB336) focuses on installation and deployment of the JBoss Application Server, as well as configuring and monitoring the server for production usage. This class balances the essential concept-based lectures with the real world task and project oriented labs. It reaches beyond the application programming interface (API) and enforce the applied knowledge of the technology. With the heavy emphasis real-world scenarios, the JBoss Application administrator will be able to better understand, maintain and troubleshoot their environment

Target audience

Systems administrators, build/deployment managers, and quality assurance engineers who want to optimally administer JBoss Application Server deployments.

Prerequisites

• Base experience with system administration on Windows, UNIX, or Linux operating systems
  Understanding of hardware and networking
• No prior knowledge of Java, scripting, or JBoss Developer Studio is required.

Course Outline

Unit 1 – Installation and basic configuration of JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP).
Students learn about the hardware and software required to run JBoss products. Students will also learn how to determine which software versions to use and about the interdependencies of supporting software.
1.Technologies covered: Java, JBoss EAP, JMX
2.Lab: Install JBoss Enterprise Application Platform. Also install JBoss Admin Console as a front-end GUI for management and control.

Unit 2 – Deploying enterprise applications to JBoss EAP.
In this unit, Students learn what defines an enterprise application, how to deploy it to JBoss EAP, and what types of supporting components are needed. Students also learn what deployable packages exist and the structure of package internals.
1.Technologies: JBoss EAP, J2/JEE, deployable packages
2.Lab: Verify that your application is deployed. Use JBoss Admin Console to deploy packages.

Unit 3 – Monitoring and controlling JBoss EAP.
Students will learn what tools are available to monitor JBoss EAP installations, how to configure those tools, and what information they offer. The student will be introduced to the JBoss Admin Console and will experience how it can be used to monitor and manage applications deployed to the application server.
1.Technologies: JBoss EAP, JMX, JConsole, JBoss Admin Console
2.Labs: Monitoring the application server with Jconsole. Using JBoss Admin Console to monitor datasources, Enterprise Java Beans, web servers, and other application components.

Unit 4 – Connecting to JBoss EAP.
In this unit, students learns what connections are available and can provide access to JBoss components. The student will be exposed to web protocols such as HTTP, and secure socket layer (SSL) via HTTP/S. Various services, such as Java Naming and Directory Interface and Java Messaging Service, will be introduced and discussed. The vulnerabilities of these choices will be introduced, with best practices around how to protect the appropriate ports.
1.Technologies: HTTP, SSL, AJP, JNDI, JMS
2.Labs: Protect incoming ports from denial-of-service (DOS) attacks

Unit 5 – Securing applications with JBoss solutions.
Students will gain an understanding of the various forms security takes within an enterprise system and how they are best used. They will learn to slim down their EAP installation to trim away any unnecessary services or applications and about application-level security and how encryption can be implemented. A discussion of the pros and cons of container-managed security is included.
1.Technologies: JAAS, LDAP, HTTP/S, SSL certificates
2.Labs: Secure the system by insuring that no unnecessary connections are possible. Use an LDAP server (Red Hat Data Server) to authentication of user logins.
 
Unit 6 – Troubleshooting applications on JBoss EAP.
In this unit, the student will learn about the tools available to help understand and identify potential application problems as they arise. Best practices in response to such situations will be introduced. Database bottlenecks, memory management issues, garbage collection, and other performance-stealing problems will be covered.
1.Technologies: Java, JBoss EAP, stack traces, profilers, software patches
2.Lab: Identify a performance bottleneck in the installed application and decide how to resolve the performance issue.

Unit 7 – Clustering applications with JBoss EAP.
Students will learn how to deploy a clustered application into a tuned and clustered production environment. The unit asks students to tie together previous learnings to deploy and configure a potentially complex solution.
1.Technologies: JBoss EAP, JBoss Operations Network, JGroups, Apache modules
2.Lab: Verify that the provided applications are fully configured for the production environment (datasources, deployment descriptors, etc.).

Unit 8 – Optimizing applications for JBoss EAP.
In this unit, students will learn how to load-balance the embedded web server in JBoss. They will also learn about best methods for fail-over and session state management in the application server using caching technologies. After configuring an application for deployment to the load-balanced server, the student will learn how to tune request-handling parameters for optimum scalability.
1.Technologies: JBoss Cache, Apache load balancing modules
2.Labs: Cluster a web-based application with JBoss. Start two clustered instances of JBoss, then deploy the application to the cluster, and watch what happens when the serving node crashes.