3. New Features

Major revision of the PicketLink component of JBoss EAP that brings:

JBoss EAP 6.3 host controllers can now be configured with a backup IP address for a JBoss EAP domain controller. This capability enables administrators to configure automatic failover of host controllers to a backup domain controller, ensuring the availability of the management domain. However, before failover will occur, administrators will still need to manually promote a backup host controller to act as the new Domain Controller.

JBoss EAP security domains and the JMS subsystem (HornetQ) have been enhanced to support authorization with PKCS11 keystores in addition to the Java Keystore supported in earlier versions.

The patching feature introduced in JBoss EAP 6.2 and exposed through the management APIs in JBoss EAP 6.2, is available in the Web Management Console in JBoss EAP 6.3. The capability to install and roll-back patches, as well as view patch state and patch history are available.

The JBoss EAP Web Management Console now starts with a home page that provides links to the most common administrative functions, easing and speeding navigation through the console.

The Web Management Console now exposes the capability to test datasources, enabling administrators with the proper access rights to ensure that their datasources are connected following creation or before deploying an application.

Top level navigational labels have been unified across both standalone and domain modes.

The new labels are:

The Web Management Console now has the ability to report usage back to Red Hat. Red Hat will use the data to drive usability enhancements in future versions of JBoss EAP. The capability is off by default, and can be enabled in the console setting. Red Hat encourages you to enable the collection of analytical data.

Deployment overlays that offered the ability to virtually replace a deployment descriptor in a deployed application have been enhanced with the ability to override a binary of the deployment. This enhancement expands the ability of a system administrator to modify the behavior of an application without modifying the application archive.

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 has been tested and added to the supported configurations.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 has been tested and added to the supported configurations.

JBoss EAP 6.3.0 has been tested in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 on the PPC64 architecture and is supported in both configurations.

JBoss Web Services has been tested to assure compliance with the WSI-Basic Security 1.1 Profile.

Improved and expanded bytecode enhancement.

The WS-AT/XA transaction bridge functionality has been transitioned from technology preview to full support status. The bridge provides a developer a bi-directional link between the WebServices and Java EE transaction domains.

The org.jboss.as.system-jmx module has been introduced to restore helper classes available in earlier versions of JBoss EAP that assist users in creating MBeans.

JBoss EAP now allows you to enable property substitution in EJBs and MDBs using the @ActivationConfigProperty and @Resource annotations.

Garbage collection logging is enabled by default in standalone mode. This change improves aids diagnostics since log files are available on demand, instead of enabling garbage collection logging, then waiting for the issue to occur again.

Annotated servlet components can be defined in shared modules, which are then picked up by the servlet container and applied to all web deployments with a defined dependency on that module. This reduces the need to define all servlet dependencies in a web.xml file. An annotated web filter or listener, for example, can now be added to a shared module and picked up by all web applications automatically.

It is now possible to configure JBoss EAP so that logging modules are not added to deployments by default.

In addition to Last Resource Commit Optimization (LRCO) support, Commit Markable Resource (CMR) transaction optimization is now available.

It is now possible to configure IOR settings for CORBA relays.

The Java EE subsystem now supports an annotation flag in the global module XML configuration. When set to true, the global module exports its annotation index to all Java EE deployments on the server.

With this release of JBoss EAP 6 it is now possible to configure session draining strategy (session-draining-strategy attribute). Although mod_cluster itself did support this configuration, it was not possible to configure it. It has now been exposed to users.