The Management Console is a Web-based graphical user interface that provides administration facilities for EAServer, including support for deployment and runtime monitoring of applications.
For detailed instructions on running the Management Console, see the EAServer System Administration Guide.
PowerBuilder has been integrated with EAServer. This allows you to develop, deploy, and debug EAServer components entirely within the development environment. You can also generate the proxies required for client application development. For more information, see the Application Techniques manual in the PowerBuilder documentation.
Application developers using other tools can use the Management Console to view the method definitions for any installed component in EAServer. You can view and edit method definitions graphically, or you can directly edit the IDL datatype and interface definitions with the Management Console IDL editor. You can import interface definitions from existing Java classes or from standard CORBA IDL files. See “Defining Component Interfaces” in the EAServer CORBA Components Guide for more information.
Stubs are generated automatically and compiled when first used, and regenerated and recompiled if a component’s remote interface changes.
To simplify application deployment, the Management Console defines the following basic, middle-tier application units:
Clusters A cluster represents a set of servers that share configuration information and run the same set of components. For applications with thousands of clients, clusters provide support for load balancing and high availability. When you create a cluster, two export configurations are created automatically, one that allows you to replicate component files and configuration information from a primary server to other servers in the cluster, and another that allows you to replicate security information.
Servers A server represents one EAServer runtime process. Each server has its own network addresses for client session connections and for HTTP (HTML) connections. All servers on one host machine share the same configuration repository. For administration purposes, you can connect to any server on the host machine to configure other servers on the same host.
Customized deployment You can create export configurations to bundle a set of files, Java classes, and entities (application clients, applications, connectors, EJBs, and Web applications) into a single unit for easy deployment between servers.
Applications Applications allow you to group packages (groups of related components) and Web applications (bundled static Web content, servlets, and JSPs) into a single unit for easy deployment between servers.
Packages A package organizes components into cohesive, secure units that can be easily deployed on another EAServer installation.
Roles attached to packages control access to components in a package. For more information about roles and package security, see the EAServer Security Administration and Programming Guide.
Components A component definition consists of the component’s method signatures and other properties, such as component type, transaction support, threading model, and the name of the Java class or executable library that implements the component.
Web applications Web applications allow you to group static Web content, servlets, and JSPs into a single unit for easy deployment and configuration.
Web components You can install servlets and JSPs in a Web application as Web components. This allows you to configure request path mappings and other useful settings within the Web application properties.
Before a client application can execute a component, the component must installed in the server to which the client connects.
The Management Console includes an option that allows you to refresh components, packages, and servers. This enables you to test and debug component implementation changes without restarting the server.
EAServer includes a threshold monitor feature that can help to prevent degradation of server performance under extreme load conditions. You can configure the threshold monitor settings to heuristically govern the processing requests to prevent performance degradation due to overuse of available resources. For details, see “Threshold monitor settings” in Chapter 2, “Server Tuning,” in the EAServer Performance and Tuning Guide.
The Management Console allows you to remotely view server log files and to monitor statistics for component execution, transactions, data sources, and thread activity.
You can use the Management Console to connect to EAServer and view the contents of:
EAServer log file, which records errors related to component execution.
HTTP request log, which records successful and unsuccessful file requests.
RMI-IIOP log, which traces remote method invocations over IIOP.
JMS log, which traces Java Message Service (JMS) operations in the server. All public and protected JMS provider methods are traced.
SQL log, which traces JDBC driver activity in the server, including JDBC prepared statement operations, parameter and result information for container-managed persistence operations (queries and updates), and transaction commit/rollback operations.
Runtime monitoring allows you to view statistics on component and network activity. You can view counts of active client sessions, components, and transactions.
See the EAServer System Administration Guide for more information.
The Management Console enables you to manage the server and user certificates that are required for SSL-protocol support, allowing you to:
Install server certificates Server certificates are required to establish secure IIOP and HTTP ports. The certificate is presented to the client application as proof that the application has connected to the server that the user intends to interact with.
Install certification authority (CA) certificates CA certificates, also called signing certificates, are attached to client and server certificates to validate the origin of the certificate. For example, if you obtain a certificate from VeriSign, your certificate includes a copy of the VeriSign CA certificate. Using the Certificates folder, you can install CA certificates into EAServer and indicate which CAs are trusted. When client applications present certificates to EAServer, the signing certificate must be present in the list of trusted CAs or the connection fails.
Issue certificates for testing purposes The command line tool keytool allows you to manage key pairs and certificates for EAServer, for use in testing your applications. To deploy Internet applications, you must obtain server certificates from a well-known CA such as VeriSign or Thawte.
See the EAServer Security Administration and Programming Guide for more information on SSL certificates.
EAServer includes built-in Ant support and uses Ant build files to perform many administrative and deployment tasks. You can run Ant configuration scripts to define and configure entities such as EJB modules, Web applications, data sources, servers, and so forth.
EAServer generates Ant configuration scripts when you deploy J2EE archives. The generated script applies settings from the archive’s deployment descriptor to the new EAServer entities. You can also embed a user configuration file in J2EE archives to configure settings beyond those that can be specified by the deployment descriptor.
Entity types that are not deployed in J2EE archives can also be created or managed with configuration scripts. For example, you can create data sources, restart servers, and manage security roles and domains.
For more information, see Chapter 2, “Ant-Based Configuration,” in the Automated Configuration Guide.
jagtool is a command line interface that allows you to automate some EAServer development and deployment tasks. jagant lets you run jagtool commands from Jakarta Ant build files.
Ant is similar to make, but is platform-independent, and allows you to incorporate jagtool commands into build files. This powerful feature allows you to write build files that automate many development and deployment tasks. See Chapter 6, “Using jagtool and jagant,” in the Automated Configuration Guide.
Command line tools allow you to perform many administrative tasks in a command window; for example, starting and stopping a server, setting passwords, configuring and compiling components, and deploying EJB modules. See Chapter 12, “Command Line Tools,” in the EAServer System Administration Guide.
