Chapter 7. Deployment

Deploying applications on JBoss Enterprise Application Platform is achieved by copying the application into the <JBOSS_HOME>/server/<PROFILE>/deploy directory. Replace default with different server profiles such as all or minimal (server profiles are covered later in this guide). The JBoss Enterprise Application Platform constantly scans the deploy directory to pick up new applications or any changes to existing applications. This enables hot deployment of applications on the fly, while JBoss Enterprise Application Platform is still running.

7.1. Deployable Application Types

With JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 4.x, a deployer existed to handle a specified deployment type and that was the only deployer that processed the deployment. In JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5, multiple deployers transform the metadata associated with a deployment until it is processed by a deployer that creates a runtime component from the metadata.
Deployment has to contain a descriptor that causes the component metadata to be added to the deployment. The types of deployments for which deployers exists by default in the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform include:
WAR
The WAR application archive (e.g., myapp.war) packages Java EE web applications in a JAR file. It contains servlet classes, view pages, libraries, and deployment descriptors in WEB-INF such as web.xml, faces-config.xml, and jboss-web.xml etc..
EAR
The EAR application archive (e.g., myapp.ear) packages a Java EE enterprise application in a JAR file. It typically contains a WAR file for the web module, JAR files for EJB modules, as well as META-INF deployment descriptors such as application.xml and jboss-app.xml etc.

Note

According to EJB3 specification, deployment of a persistence unit into an EAR should fail when the unit is outside of the EAR file and the bean attempting to inject the persistence unit is within the EAR. To follow the specification, you need to deploy the persistence unit packaged within the EAR file.
However, JBoss Enterprise Application Platform persistence units can exist outside of their EARs. To allow this behavior, modify the bean class of the PersistenceUnitDependencyResolver bean in the file deployers/ejb3.deployer/META-INF/jpa-deployer-jboss-beans.xml under the respective JBoss Enterprise Application Platform server profile: 
<!--
Can be DefaultPersistenceUnitDependencyResolver for spec compliant resolving,
InterApplicationPersistenceUnitDependencyResolver for resolving beyond EARs,
or DynamicPersistencePersistenceUnitDependencyResolver which allows configuration via JMX.
-->
<bean name="PersistenceUnitDependencyResolver" class="org.jboss.jpa.resolvers.DynamicPersistenceUnitDependencyResolver"/>
The bean default value is DynamicPersistenceUnitDependencyResolver. This resolver allows you to specify the specification-compliant behavior, which can be additionally monitored through an MBean in the JMX Console. To use the spec-noncompliant JBoss variant, set the bean to InterApplicationPersistenceUnitDependencyResolver.
JBoss Microcontainer
The JBoss Microcontainer (MC) beans archive (typical suffixes include, .beans, .deployer) packages a POJO deployment in a JAR file with a META-INF/jboss-beans.xml descriptor. This format is commonly used by the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform component deployers.
You can deploy *-jboss-beans.xml files with MC beans definitions. If you have the appropriate JAR files available in the deploy or lib directories, the MC beans can be deployed using such a standalone XML file.
SAR
The SAR application archive (e.g., myservice.sar) packages a JBoss service in a JAR file. It is mostly used by JBoss Enterprise Application Platform internal services that have not been updated to support MC beans style deployments.
You can deploy *-service.xml files with MBean service definitions. If you have the appropriate JAR files available in the deploy or lib directories, the MBeans specified in the XML files will be started. This is the way you deploy many JBoss Enterprise Application Platform internal services that have not been updated to support POJO style deployment, such as the JMS queues.
DataSource
The *-ds.xml file defines connections to external databases. The data source can then be reused by all applications and services in JBoss Enterprise Application Platform via the internal JNDI.
HAR
The HAR file defines Hibernate objects for an application. It resembles a SAR file but it contains the Hibernate class and mapping files, and a *-hibernate.xml deployment descriptor in its META-INF directory.

Note

The *-hibernate.xml takes the same form as jboss-service.xml.

Example 7.1. A Hibernate deployment descriptor (*-hibernate.xml)

<hibernate-configuration xmlns="urn:jboss:hibernate-deployer:1.0">
  <session-factory name="java:/hibernate/SessionFactory"
    bean="jboss.test.har:service=Hibernate,testcase=TimersUnitTestCase">
    <property name="datasourceName">OracleDS</property>
    <property name="dialect">org.hibernate.dialect.OracleDialect</property>
    <depends>jboss:service=Naming</depends>
    <depends>jboss:service=TransactionManager</depends>
  </session-factory>
</hibernate-configuration>
*AR
You can also deploy JAR files containing EJBs or other service objects directly in JBoss Enterprise Application Platform. The list of suffixes that are recognized as JAR files is specified in the conf/bootstrap/deployers.xml JARStructure bean constructor set.

7.1.1. Exploded Deployment

The WAR, EAR, MC beans and SAR deployment packages are JAR files with special XML deployment descriptors in directories like META-INF and WEB-INF. JBoss Enterprise Application Platform allows you to deploy the archives also as expanded directories instead of JAR files. This is called exploded deployment and allows you to make application changes on the fly, that is without re-deploying the entire application. If you need to re-deploy an exploded directory without restart the server, just touch the deployment descriptors (that is the WEB-INF/web.xml in a WAR and the META-INF/application.xml in an EAR) to update their timestamps.