2. Features introduced with JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5.1.0

JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5.0.x contained many updated and new components. JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5.1.0 adds performance enhancements, JBoss Web Services CXF Stack, and support for JDBC 4, and introduces PicketLink Federation as a Technology Preview. These components are detailed in this section.

2.1. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Support

The ZIP distribution of JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5.1 is fully tested for use with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. The appropriate Native packages are available from http://access.redhat.com.
The RPM distribution of JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5.1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 is not yet available.

2.2. The Native Package

The Native Package has been renamed following the pattern jboss-ep-native-5.1.0*.zip. This new consolidated Native Package can be used with JBoss Enterprise Application Platform or with JBoss Enterprise Web Platform.
The Native package has also been expanded to provide NSAPI for Solaris technology. NSAPI is a connector used to connect Sun Java System Web Server to JBoss Enterprise Application Platform.

2.3. JBoss Web Services

JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5.0 introduced a pluggable architecture to provide choice of Web Services Stack, along with JBoss Web Services Native as the supported Web Services provider. JBoss Enterprise Platform 5.1.0 introduces an alternative Web Services stack, JBoss Web Services CXF.

Note

The choice of Web Services stack used by the Platform must be made at the time of installation. Refer to the Installation Guide for further details.
JBoss Web Services Native

JBoss Web Services Native is the Java EE 5-compliant JBoss implementation of web services standards. It is the only web services stack for versions of JBoss Enterprise Application Platform prior to 5.1, and is the default web services stack in JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5.1.0.

JBoss Web Services CXF

JBoss Web Services CXF provides most of the features available in Apache CXF (including WS-Security, WS-Policy, WS-Addressing, WS-ReliableMessaging, basic WS-Trust, MTOM), plus common JBoss Web Services stack features like endpoint metrics, record management and endpoint address rewrite. JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5.1.0 introduces JBoss Web Services CXF stack as an optional Web Services stack.

2.4. Hibernate

Hibernate now offers full support for Java Database Connectivity 4 (JDBC 4), which enables greater Clob and Blob support, and more sophisticated exception handling.

2.5. PicketLink Federation

PicketLink Federation is a security and identity framework providing support for SAML v2.0 and and WS-Trust. JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5.1.0 introduces PicketLink as a Technology Preview.

2.6. Features introduced in previous releases

2.6.1. Features introduced with JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5.0.1

2.6.1.1. The Native Package
The Native package has been expanded to provide mod_cluster and ISAPI for Windows technologies, in addition to JBoss Native and mod_jk. The added technologies are described as follows:
  • mod_cluster is an httpd-based load balancer. Like mod_jk, it uses a communication channel to forward requests from httpd to an application server node; however it also employs a communications channel from server nodes to the load balancer, providing real-time feedback and enabling more efficient load optimization and request routing. See the mod_cluster documentation available from http://docs.redhat.com/ for further details.
  • ISAPI is a connector used to connect the Microsoft IIS web server to JBoss Enterprise Application Platform.
2.6.1.1.1. Native Solaris SPARC Packages
Native Solaris SPARC packages are provided from this release of JBoss Enterprise Application Platform onward. See the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform Installation Guide for native package installation instructions.

2.6.2. Features introduced with JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5.0

2.6.2.1. JBoss AS
The JBoss AS 5 family represents the state of the art, second generation Microcontainer based enterprise Java run-time and the latest release of the world's most popular application server. In addition to supporting the latest Java EE specification (Java EE 5), it integrates many of the best enterprise class services for advanced messaging, persistence, transactions, caching and high-availability.
2.6.2.2. JBoss Microcontainer
The JBoss Microcontainer is a refactoring of the modular JBoss JMX Microkernel. It is a lightweight kernel that manages the loading, lifecycle and dependencies between POJOs. Used to integrate enterprise services, the JBoss Microcontainer together with Servlet/JSP container, EJB container, deployers and management utilities, provides a standard Java EE 5 profile.
2.6.2.3. JBoss Messaging
JBoss Messaging is the default JMS provider in JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5.1. It is a complete rewrite of JBossMQ, the legacy JBoss JMS provider, which compared to JBossMQ offers improved performance in both single-node and clustered environments.
2.6.2.4. JBoss Cache
JBoss Cache is used to replicate EJB and HTTP session state and supports distributed entity caching for JPA, while continuing to push the performance and scalability envelope with a new and more efficient locking scheme (MVCC – MultiVersion Concurrency Control).
2.6.2.5. JBoss Web Services Native
JBoss Web Services Native is the Java EE 5-compliant JBoss implementation of web services standards. It is the only web services stack for versions of JBoss Enterprise Application Platform prior to 5.1, and is the default web services stack in JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 5.1.
2.6.2.6. The Native Package
The Native package is an optional component for the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform and incorporates JBoss Native and the mod_jk technologies. These technologies are described as follows:
  • JBoss Native consists of the Apache Portable Runtime (APR), OpenSSL and Tomcat Native (TC-native).
    • Apache Portable Runtime (APR) provides superior scalability, performance, and improved integration with native server technologies. The Apache Portable Runtime is a highly portable library that is at the heart of Apache HTTP Server 2.x and contains many uses, including access to advanced IO functionality (for example: sendfile, epoll and OpenSSL), Operating System level functionality (for example: random number generation and system status), and native process handling (shared memory, NT pipes and Unix sockets).
    • OpenSSL implements the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols and includes a basic crytographic library.
    • Tomcat Native (TC-Native) is a Java Native Interface (JNI) that provides much of Tomcats core functionality in native code rather than Java. This allows for an overall increase in the speed of a server.
  • mod_jk is a connector that is used to connect the Tomcat JSP container and different web services such as Apache.

Note

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 distribution of the Native package does not contain OpenSSL or the Apache Portable Runtime since these technologies are already included in the Operating System.