Chapter 1. Introduction

This guide documents the changes required to successfully run and deploy Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6 applications on Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7. It provides information about the new features available in this release, the deprecated and unsupported features, and any application and server configuration updates that might be required to prevent changes in application behavior.

It also provides information about tools that can help with the migration, such as Red Hat Application Migration Toolkit, which simplifies migration of Java applications, and the JBoss Server Migration Tool, which updates the server configuration.

Once the application is successfully deployed and running, plans can be made to upgrade individual components to use the new functions and features of JBoss EAP 7.

If you plan to migrate your JBoss EAP 5 applications directly to JBoss EAP 7, see Migrating from Older Releases of JBoss EAP.

1.1. About Migrations and Upgrades

Major Upgrades

A major upgrade or migration is required when an application is moved from one major release to another, for example, from JBoss EAP 6.4 to JBoss EAP 7.0. If an application follows the Java EE specifications, does not access deprecated APIs, and does not contain proprietary code, it might be possible to run the application in JBoss EAP 7 without any application code changes. However, the server configuration has changed in JBoss EAP 7 and requires migration. This type of migration is addressed in this guide.

Minor Updates

JBoss EAP periodically provides point releases, which are minor updates that include bug fixes, security fixes, and new features. Information about the changes made in a point release are documented in this guide and in the 7.2.0 Release Notes.

You can use the JBoss Server Migration Tool to automatically upgrade from one point release to another, for example from JBoss EAP 7.0 to JBoss EAP 7.1. For information about how to configure and run the tool, see Using the JBoss Server Migration Tool.

If you prefer, you can perform a manual upgrade of the server configuration. Instructions on how to perform a manual upgrade are documented in Upgrading JBoss EAP in the JBoss EAP Patching and Upgrading Guide.

Cumulative Patches

JBoss EAP also periodically provides cumulative patches that contain bug and security fixes. Cumulative patches increment the release by the last digit, for example from 7.1.0 to 7.1.1. Patch installation is addressed in the JBoss EAP Patching and Upgrading Guide.

1.2. About the Use of EAP_HOME in this Document

In this document, the variable EAP_HOME is used to denote the path to the JBoss EAP installation. Replace this variable with the actual path to your JBoss EAP installation.

  • If you installed JBoss EAP using the ZIP install method, the install directory is the jboss-eap-7.2 directory where you extracted the ZIP archive.
  • If you installed JBoss EAP using the RPM install method, the install directory is /opt/rh/eap7/root/usr/share/wildfly/.
  • If you used the installer to install JBoss EAP, the default path for EAP_HOME is ${user.home}/EAP-7.2.0:

    • For Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Solaris: /home/USER_NAME/EAP-7.2.0/
    • For Microsoft Windows: C:\Users\USER_NAME\EAP-7.2.0\
  • If you used the Red Hat CodeReady Studio installer to install and configure the JBoss EAP server, the default path for EAP_HOME is ${user.home}/devstudio/runtimes/jboss-eap:

    • For Red Hat Enterprise Linux: /home/USER_NAME/devstudio/runtimes/jboss-eap/
    • For Microsoft Windows: C:\Users\USER_NAME\devstudio\runtimes\jboss-eap or C:\Documents and Settings\USER_NAME\devstudio\runtimes\jboss-eap\
Note

EAP_HOME is not an environment variable. JBOSS_HOME is the environment variable used in scripts.