0. Inside Apache Geronimo 1.1 - What makes it special?
Rakesh Midha
IBM Software Labs, Bangalore

1. Goal Show case Geronimo open source story
Where it fits in Industry and Enterprise
How it facilitates easy development and deployment
Understand Geronimo 1.1 additions
Get you hooked with Geronimo

2. Agenda Geronimo - An Introduction Why Geronimo? What makes it Special?
Where does it fit well?
Geronimo Architecture and Components
Geronimo 1.1 – Whats New?
Getting Started
Administration and Configuration
Development Enviornment
Quick Application Development
Getting Involved
Summary, Q&A

3. Geronimo - An Introduction

4. What is Apache Geronimo?
Open source J2EE application server project developed by the Apache Software Foundation.
Benefits from the efforts of collaborative development by an open community of Java developers worldwide.
Apache-licensed open source application server
Highly customizable
Small footprint
Community-driven
Apache Geronimo brings together best-in-breed technologies across the broader open source community to support J2EE specifications, including:
Apache Tomcat and Jetty for Servlets 2.4 and JSP 2.0
OpenEJB for EJB 2.1
ActiveMQ for JMS 1.1
MX4J for JMX 1.2
TranQL for JDBC
Apache Axis for Web Services
HOWL (ObjectWeb) for JTA 1.0
Apache Geronimo is licensed under the Apache License, version 2.0, one of the most flexible licenses available for open source software. This license gives you the freedom
to use the technology however you wish, build derivative works for distribution, and make code contributions of your choice back to the community. Using Apache Geronimo allows you to benefit from the best of open source while participating in the innovation of open source development.
Brings together leading technologies from the broad open source community to support J2EE

5. Apache Geronimo Geronimo
Apache Geronimo an Apache Software Foundation top level project that is aimed at creating a world class, free, application server.
It is made up of over 30 best of breed open source packages (some not under the Apache domain).
The Geronimo kernel provides the common security, deployment, administration, management, and life-cycle services for these components.
Geronimo reached official J2EE 1.4 certification in Milestone 5 in Oct 2005.

6. Geronimo Open Source Packages
Howl
JDBM
JDom
Jetty
Juddi
Junit
Mx4j
OpenEJB
ActiveIO
ActiveMQ
Scout
Antlr
ASM
Axis
Castor
Concurrent
Apache Directory
TranQl
Wsdl4j
Xmlbeans
Xpp3
Xstream
Xfire
Derby
Pluto
Slf4j
Oro
Servicemix
Spring
Stax
Tomcat
Regexp
Commons
Beanutils
Collections
Digester El
Fileupload
I/O
Lang
Modeler
Primitives

7. Geronimo History and Progress
Milestone 3 released
Geronimo passes J2EE Certification Test Suite
Apache Geronimo Project formed
IBM acquires Gluecode Software
Milestone 4 released
V1.0 Released
V1.1 Released
V1.2 Released
Milestone 5 released, full J2EE certification
August 2003
August 2004
May 2005
June 2005
August 2005
Oct 2005
Jan 2006
June 2006
In Plan

8. Why Geronimo?

9. Geronimo – Key Features
J2EE 1.4 Certified
Certification from Sun Microsystems in October last year
Certified on the Sun JDK 1.4.2, works with JDK 1.5 without CORBA
Option for Jetty or Tomcat as a Web Container
Geronimo supports both Jetty as well as Tomcat. Separate package for download, available for Jetty and Tomcat.
Database Support
Comes with Apache Derby database
Also supports JDBC enabled databases using a connector framework from TranQL
Eclipse Web Tools Project support
Integrated development environment for creating, deploying, and debugging directly against Geronimo
Runtime customization
Advanced micro-kernel architecture enables runtime customization to save systems resources and improve performance
Allows for greater flexibility in creating different server personalities in the future
Self Explanatory
Open Source Databases
Cloudscape
Embeddable Jar File – Simple & Easy to embed as part of an application.
Rich Support of SQL language
No Administration
Flexibility to run as Embedded Client or on Server
MySQL
Server based only
Not Java - not invisible, not easily embeddable.
Need DBA
Targeting different market – infrastructure. Classic database server means more cost/complexity
Big footprint
Not ‘true’ open source
Postgres
Server based
Not pure Java
Not silent install, not invisible
Not as small
Not as standards oriented
HSQL (Java)
Very small, less than 1 meg
Best suited for PDAs
Does not have SQL 92 functionality
Not as richly featured
Axion (In Apache)
In Apache, have not developed a community
Small database – less code, less function
Not fully SQL 92 compatible – includes non-standard features
Ingres
Database Server
Been around forever
CA does not have a strategy around Open Source, not likely to build a community
Proprietary
Pointbase (Java)
Need Verification of feature, performance, function vs. Cloud

10. Geronimo – Key Features
Centralized configuration and control
Easy to use Web Console
Small Footprint ~60MB
Easy access - downloadable in minutes
Easily embeddable in customer or ISV stack
Liberal product license
Apache open source (ASF) license
Flexible and rapid deployment across multiple configurations
Directory-based hot deployment
Local and remote deployment through command line, console, and IDE
Improved reliability for most commonly deployed applications
Web-tier clustering
Self Explanatory
Open Source Databases
Cloudscape
Embeddable Jar File – Simple & Easy to embed as part of an application.
Rich Support of SQL language
No Administration
Flexibility to run as Embedded Client or on Server
MySQL
Server based only
Not Java - not invisible, not easily embeddable.
Need DBA
Targeting different market – infrastructure. Classic database server means more cost/complexity
Big footprint
Not ‘true’ open source
Postgres
Server based
Not pure Java
Not silent install, not invisible
Not as small
Not as standards oriented
HSQL (Java)
Very small, less than 1 meg
Best suited for PDAs
Does not have SQL 92 functionality
Not as richly featured
Axion (In Apache)
In Apache, have not developed a community
Small database – less code, less function
Not fully SQL 92 compatible – includes non-standard features
Ingres
Database Server
Been around forever
CA does not have a strategy around Open Source, not likely to build a community
Proprietary
Pointbase (Java)
Need Verification of feature, performance, function vs. Cloud

11. What makes it Special?

12. Geronimo – Key Design Principles
Simple
Easiest platform to development on, obtain, use, and service.
Easy to understand, invisible to the customer. Application centric.
Easy to configure and change.
Embedded documentation, service functions, user interfaces, etc.
Default setting will get you running.
Flexible
Can plug-in function while that application server is running.
J2EE function is just one of the personalities that can be plugged in.
Geronimo becomes the platform that partners/customers think when building apps.
Need to be the Eclipse of the tooling world.
Reliable
‘Appliance like’ reliability. Never fails.
Startup and recycle time should be minimal.
Customer never sees or cares about the server… it is about the application.
It is the ‘intel chip’ for your applications.
Administration is available and easy.
‘Tomcat like’ reputation in open source.

13. Geronimo – Technical Advantage
Enchilada of best of breed open source products
GBean Architecture
A pluggable framework
Modular Architecture
Tomcat has web features but it lacks other J2EE features
Low memory and resource requirement
Better web performance as compared to other open source application servers
True open source community driven
Strategic commitment from IBM, Covalent, Chariot and other big players
Very Active community and dev/user list
Optional Support from IBM

14. Geronimo – Still Why? It’s all Free!!! Free Application Server
Free Development, Debugging environment
Free Management tools
Free resources like database, messaging
Free enterprise class documentation
Free Sample applications
Free educational material like articles, tutorials

15. Where does it fit well?

16. Where does this fit in the Enterprise?
Apache Geronimo are excellent positioned as developer runtimes
Integration into Eclipse helps to reduce software licenses
Small footprint
Single User Environments
Low end SMB companies
Quick, frictionless access to application server technology with no up-front costs
Departmental Applications in Enterprises
SMBs and departmental applications are a good target for this technology
Not quite ready to run your 4,000 AppServer farm
Advanced monitoring, integration with commercial / open source monitors not quite there yet.

17. Today – With Tomcat plus ‘other stuff’ you do yourself
Your developers have a job to do – write your killer app!
They chose Apache Tomcat because it helps them build apps quickly
But Tomcat doesn’t have web services support, a security framework, or messaging; so your developers added those components and integrated them into the stack
Then your rock star developer wrote some app-specific service and integrated that into the stack
Turns out your app needs clustering too, so they throw that into the stack
…but the web services component they got doesn’t do clustering; luckily there’s a newer version of that out now, so they get the new version and integrate THAT into the stack
Now your staff is maintaining your killer app, Apache Tomcat, the web services component, messaging, security, clustering, AND your custom components
build apps quickly…?
What happened to building apps quickly??
Developers maintain all this!
Your Killer App
JMS Messaging
Other services you need/write
SOAP/Web Services (Axis)
SOAP/Web Services (Axis)
Security / Authentication
Web Tier Clustering
Custom Integration
Custom Integration
Apache Tomcat

18. Now, just much easier (oh, and future-proof)!
What if you could start with Tomcat
Extend Tomcat with pre-integrated features & services you need most (read: someone other than you did the tedious work)
Welcome to a little secret we like to call Tomcat+, use Apache Geronimo
It’s fully extensible, and it’s built on the innovative open-source Apache Geronimo kernel
Plus all the same Apache Tomcat you’re already using
Plus the leading components you want to use pre-integrated and tested (and the ability to turn off what you aren’t using)
Plus the support you need from IBM
Your Killer App
Apache Tomcat
SOAP/Web Services (Axis)
JMS Messaging
Security / Authentication
Web Tier Clustering
Other Optional Plug-ins for EJBs, Transactions, etc.
Geronimo Plug-In Kernel
Fully Integrated & Extensible Kernel Services
Apache Geronimo

19. Geronimo Architecture and Components

20. Geronimo Architecture - GBean
The Geronimo framework provides a set of cooperating classes, called GBeans, for combining an arbitrary set of components into a system
Everything in Geronimo framework is GBean
Lightweight kernel provides central integration based on Inversion of control pattern.
Manageable at runtime using JMX, JSR-77
Example:
An EJB container
Web Module
It must be aware of every EJB in the system.
It registers a dependency on any EJB GBean
An EJBs are added to the system
The Geronimo kernel recognizes the relationship and injects information from the EJB GBean into the EJB container GBean where it updates its configuration state.
This action is called dependency injection.
A J2EE web module that contains servlets and uses EJB
It depends on the web container and the EJB container
When its GBean is started, the Geronimo kernel recognizes the dependency and starts the web container and the EJB container first
Kernel – runtime for GBeans
Life Cycle management – Gbean Life cycle Configuration Mgmt – Configurations of GBeans Dependency – Dependency among plans ( config ids ) , Repository – store that contains jars
Remoting – JMX

21. Geronimo Kernel Kernel Geronimo Beans Core of the component model
Provides central integration point
Binds all the subsystems
Based on Inversion of Control /Injection Pattern
Geronimo Beans
GBean is a manageable unit in the Geronimo framework
To add new component to the server, you deploy the collection of GBeans
A deployment plan is an XML document that provides server specific attribute values
GBeans can hold states and can define relationships amongst them
GBean life cycle is managed by the kernel.
A java class can be wrapped to become a GBean
GBeans are used to tie all the open source projects in Geronimo ( Derby, Tomcat, Axis, OPenEJB …. )
GBean can notify events.

22. Geronimo components Specification required for J2EE certification
Area of coverage
Project or code used by Geronimo
Servlets 2.4 JavaServer Pages (JSP) 2.0
Web tier container with support for JSPs and servlets
Jetty and Tomcat
Enterprise Java Beans (EJB) 2.1
EJB container
OpenEJB
Java Message Service (JMS) 1.1
Messaging service
ActiveMQ
Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) 1.2.1
Directory service/naming API
Custom code implementation
Java Transaction API (JTA) 1.0
Transactions
Custom manager with High-speed ObjectWeb Logger (HOWL) for transaction logging, XA supported, evolving to Java Open Transaction Manager (JOTM)
JavaMail 1.3
Mail
Custom coding
JavaBeans Activation Framework (JAF) 1.0
Activation -- handling html/text/gif/jpg MIME types, primarily for JavaMail attachments
JSR J2EE Management 1.0
Manageability
Custom coding with MX4J
JSR J2EE Deployment 1.1
Deployment and configuration -- cross-vendor server deployability
Custom Code
JMX 1.2
MX4J

23. Geronimo components - cont
Java Data Access API (JDBC) 3.0, 2.1
Database
Code from TranQL
Java API for XML Processing (JAXP) 1.2
SAX, DOM APIs; third-party SAX, DOM, XSLT engine pluggability
JDK support where applicable, and Apache Xerces
J2EE Connector Architecture (J2CA) 1.5
Connector
Custom coding. Includes JMS resources and JDBC pools.
JSR Implementing Enterprise Web Services 1.1
Web services
Apache Axis
Java API for XML-based RPC (JAX-RPC)
SOAP with Attachments API for Java (SAAJ) 1.2
Java API for XML Registries (JAXR) 1.0
Apache Scout
JSR 115: Java Authorization Contract for Containers (JACC)
Security -- authorization and authentication
Custom development using JDK's JAAS support
Internal database
Derby
Persistence mechanism
Unified substrate for CMP and Beans/POJO oriented schemes over TranQL
Interoperability
TCP/IP, HTTP1.1, SSL3.0, TLS 1.0, SOAP 1.1, WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 CORBA - IIOP, RMI-IIOP, EJB Interop, CORBA Interop Naming Service, JRMP
JDK support (that is, ORB and JRMP), support from other packages, and custom code

24. Deployment Framework Each Component has a GBean and deployment plan.
Plan is an xml file containing properties of GBean
Server is built using j2ee-server-plan.xml
<gbean name="JettyWebConnector" class="org.apache.geronimo.jetty.connector.HTTPConnector">
<attribute name="host">localhost"</attribute>
<attribute name="port">8080</attribute>
<reference name="JettyContainer"><name>WebContainer</name></reference>
<attribute name="maxThreads">50</attribute>
<attribute name="minThreads">10</attribute>
</gbean>
Can also deploy plan to running server using deployer
For modules you need specific file as deployment plan
Web Application (WAR) - WEB-INF/geronimo-web.xml
Enterprise Application (EAR) META-INF/geronimo-application.xml
Enterprise Java Beans (JAR) META-INF/openejb-jar.xml
J2EE Connectors (RA) META-INF/geronimo-ra.xml
Client Application META-INF/geronimo-application-client.xml

25. Geronimo 1.1 – Whats New?

26. Geronimo 1.1 Updated deployment plan
Running with JDK 1.5 without CORBA support
Improved scalability, portability and overall organization
Enhanced Web Console
Memory utilization graphics, Live console graph
Thread Pools statistics
Remote HTTPd configuration wizard and plugins
JMS resource wizard
Keystore manger
Improved Hot deployment
Application storage in repository
Enhanced SMTP support
Little-G
Plugin architecture
In-place deployment
* Geronimo also supports in-place deployments. This means an archive or a directory can be deployed without being copied into the Geronimo directory structure.

27. Geronimo 1.1-Little-G
Lightweight distribution of geronimo available for both jetty and tomcat
Small space requirement ~20MB and smaller memory footprint
It includes a WebContainer, Transaction Manager and some other essential elements of Geronimo.
Not J2EE compliant
Can be upgraged for specific requirement like JMS, J2EE etc using plugins.

28. Geronimo 1.1-Plugins
A Geronimo plugin is a new packaging mechnism for geronimo modules
Geronimo applications, server features, and integrated products can be distributed as Geronimo plugins.
Plugins are easy to install, automatically download any dependencies, and do not require server restarts.
Using the plugin infrastructure, applications or modules can be copied from one Geronimo installation to another
Developer to Developer
Development environment to production environment
Plugin stays in Maven 2 repository and automatically downloads dependencies from other repositories
Web console can be used to create plugins

29. Plugin web console

30. Getting Started

31. Quick Start
Available for download from
Linux, windows and MacOS installation in tar/zip format with jetty and tomcat available
System Requirements
Redhat Enterprise Linux 3.0 or 4.0, Suse Linux Enterprise .9
Microsoft XP with SP2
120MB Disk Space
128MB RAM (256MB Preferred, depends upon deployed Applications)
Installation
Windows
Install JDK, set JAVA_HOME and simply unpack geronimo-*-j2ee-1.1.zip
Linux
Install JDK, export JAVA_HOME and simply unpack geronimo-*-j2ee-1.1.tar.gz

32. Server Administration
Starting a Server
From application launcher, execute startup.bat or startup.sh, or run java – jar bin\server.jar
The server will display the TCP/IP ports where it is listening for requests
You can confirm readiness of server by navigating to welcome page and in browser
When Prompted enter System/Manager as userid/password
Startup options : -quite, -v, -vv
Stopping a Server
From Application Launcher, Execute shutdown.bat or shutdown.sh, or run java –jar shutdown.jar
Stop server using Web Console
Press Ctrl-C at the Server Started window

33. Tools and Commands Deploy command - deploy.bat and deploy.sh
java -jar deployer.jar [general_options] <command> [command_options]
deploy [general_options] <command> [command_options]
Commands available
1. Common Commands
deploy
redeploy
start
stop
undeploy
2. Other Commands
distribute
list-modules
list-targets
3. Configuration jar
install-plugin
search-plugin
General options
--uri --host --port --driver --user
--password --syserr --verbose --offline

34. Administration and Configuration

35. Web Console
The administration console provides a convenient, user friendly way to administer many aspects of the Geronimo Server.
Can be viewed in a browser at
Default password is system/manager
It can be used for server management, and viewing/editing following information:
Server/JVM usage statistics
Server logs
Control server functionalities
Web Server configuration
Database, JMS Resource configurations
Thread pool, database pool, J2EE connectors management
Apache HTTP, Derby maintenance
Application/ Modules/ Plugin management
Security realms management

36. Web Console view

37. Deploying JDBC and JMS resources
Database Pool is deployed as a connector in Geronimo
Database Connection pool can be configured at the server level, application level or part of single application module, as default
Configuring Database pool
Create Database Pool deployment plan containing configId, parentId, dependency, uri, connectionfactory-interface, name and configurable properties like Driver, user, passwd etc
Deploy pool as connector
Server wide
java -jar bin/deployer.jar deploy database-pool.xml \ repository/tranql/rars/tranql-connector-1.0.rar
Application Scoped
Create application.xml with
Create geronimo-application.xml
jar -tf my-app.ear my-web-app.war my-ejbs.jar tranql-connector-1.1.rar database-pool.xml META-INF/application.xml META-INF/geronimo-application.xml
Client Module Scoped
A module scoped connection pool is declared in the geronimo deployment plan for the module
Pool Type
Multiple Appl.
Multiple Modules
Client Module
Server-wide
Yes No
Application-scoped
Client Module-scoped
Module Scoped
A module scoped connection pool is declared in the geronimo deployment plan for the module that should have access to the pool. The plan will have an additional resource element containing pool defination.

38. Deploying JDBC and JMS resources - Cont
JDBC Resources
In Modules Deployment descriptor ie web.xml Add resource ref
<resource-ref>
<res-ref-name>jdbc/DataSource</res-ref-name>
<res-type>javax.sql.DataSource</res-type>
<res-auth>Container</res-auth>
<res-sharing-scope>Shareable</res-sharing-scope>
</resource-ref>
For external references deployment plan is required with following info:
<naming:resource-ref>
<naming:ref-name>jdbc/DataSource</naming:ref-name>
<naming:resource-link>SystemDatasource</naming:resource-link>
</naming:resource-ref>
In Application code lookup datasource and use it.
InitialContext ctx = new InitialContext();
DataSource ds = ctx.lookup("java:comp/env/jdbc/DataSource");
Connection con = ds.getConnection();
JMS Resources
The default Geronimo server starts with ActiveMQ as messaging server
JMS Server must be running and its GBean is created and deployed
JMS application resources like connection factories, topics, and queues are deployed using J2EE connector, which can be used like JDBC resource.

39. Geronimo Classloader Bootstrap, Extensions – JVM Classes
System – Geronimo System
Server – Critical classes and services for J2EE
EAR – EAR Classloader
Dependency loaded as part of EAR Classloader.
OSCGi –
Spring –
SCA -

40. Troubleshooting Logging
Administration Console provide 4 portlets for configuration and viewing the server’s log
Log Manager to specify log configuration file, Log Level, file size and Refresh Period
Server Log Viewer to view server log and set filters for refining results displayed
Derby Log Viewer to view Derby server logs
Web Access Log Viewer to view web server logs for both tomcat and jetty
Detailed log4j configuration settings can be done directly in server-log4j.properties, deployer-log4j.properties and client-log4j.properties file

41. Security
Security
In Geronimo you can define and activate multiple security realms build around JAAS
Each realm can authenticate user, provide set of principles to authorize user
Each realm is a deployed as a component via GBean
Default plan in doc/plan/j2ee-security-plan.xml
In order to enable https access to web applications, Geronimo requires keystore.

42. Development Enviornment

43. Development Environment
Development Tools
Eclipse plug-in for creating, deploying, and debugging Geronimo applications
Plug-in provides integration between Eclipse Web Tools Platform and Geronimo
Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) project extends the Eclipse platform with tools for developing J2EE Web applications
Plugin available for download from geronimo website
Integrated test environment
Eclipse plug-in provides integrated test environment for Geronimo
More information on IBM’s initial contribution to the WTP Project here:
(internal)

44. Development Environment views

45. Quick Application Development

46. Quick first web application
Create HelloWorld.jsp
Create a plain text file in the <app_home> directory named HelloWorld.jap and copy the content
Create Standard J2EE complaint deployment descriptor web.xml in <app_home>/WEB-INF directory
page contentType="text/html;charset=UTF-8" language="java" %>
<html> <head>
<jsp:useBean id="datetime" class="java.util.Date" />
<title>Hello IBM Geronimo Version 1.1</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Welcome to Geronimo Version 1.1</h2>
<p>Congratulations on running this simple application on ${datetime}.</p>
</body> </html>
<web-app version=“1.0" xmlns="
<welcome-file-list>
<welcome-file>HelloWorld.jsp</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>
</web-app>

47. Quick first web application– cont.
Create Geronimo plan
Although this sample application does not require it, you can still create Geronimo deployment plan to get first view.
Create geronimo-web.xml in WEB-INF directory
Package the application
From command prompt, go to <app_home> directory and execute
jar –cvf HelloWorld.war *
Deploy the application
You can use Geronimo web console to deploy and run application
From command line your can use the deployer.jar to deploy application using
java -jar bin\deployer. jar --user system --password manager deploy sample\HelloWorld.war
Test the application
Test the application by pointing a Web browser to the following URL:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<web-app xmlns="
xmlns:naming="
configId="HelloWorld">
<context-root>/hello</context-root>
</web-app>

48. Getting Involved

49. What more? Geronimo 1.2
The next version of Geronimo is focused on several areas, including:
Enhance the performance and usability of the server.
Improve cross-platform compatibility.
Improve integration with third-party development tools and server products.
Enhance configuration, administration and management tools.
Improve clustering support for web containers and EJBs.
J2EE 1.5 – EJB 3, Web 2.5
Portal Server plugin
Full clustering with respect to EJB/JNDI/Distributed cache.
It *does* have full clustering with session replication and fail-over for the Tomcat web component which fits 90% of clustering use cases. Uses Tomcat Clustering GBeans.

50. Getting Involved Geronimo home page http://geronimo.apache.org/
Future road map
Jira Bug tracking
Subversion source code
Mailing lists
IRC
Irc.freenode.net - #geronimo
Wiki
Documentation

51. Summary Q&A