Chapter 1. Introduction

This Installation Guide includes procedures for the installation, minor upgrade, and basic configuration of the Tomcat servers from JBoss Web Server on supported operating systems. The installation and configuration instructions for the Apache HTTP Server are available in the JBoss Core Services Documentation.

1.1. About Red Hat JBoss Web Server

Red Hat JBoss Web Server is a fully integrated and certified set of components for hosting Java web applications. It consists of the following components:

  • a web server (Apache HTTP Server),
  • an application server (Apache Tomcat Servlet container),
  • load balancers (mod_jk and mod_cluster),
  • Tomcat Native Library

1.1.1. Full List of Components

Red Hat JBoss Web Server contains the following components:

ComponentVersion

Apache CXF

3.2.7

Apache Tomcat 9

9.0.21

ECJ

4.12.0

Hibernate

5.3.10

JBoss logging

3.3.2

libapr

1.6.3

mod_cluster

1.4.1.Final

OpenSSL

1.1.1c

Tomcat-Native

1.2.21

Tomcat-Vault

1.1.8.Final

Important

Apache Tomcat is also provided by the RHEL platform subscription as part of RHEL 6 and RHEL 7, but NOT RHEL 8. In the future releases, Tomcat will be available as a part of the Middleware Runtimes subscription. There are some differences in the Tomcat provided by RHEL and Tomcat provided by the Runtimes JWS subscription. RHEL 6 has Tomcat 6 and RHEL 7 has Tomcat 7. JWS version 3.1 provides Tomcat 7 and 8 and JWS version 5.x provides Tomcat 9. As RHEL 6 is currently in maintenance and not fully supported, any Tomcat issues would need to apply to the JWS entitled versions only (Tomcat 7, 8, and 9). Additionally, both projects provide RPM packages, but only JWS provides .ZIP archives.

The description for some key components are:

  • Apache tomcat: a servlet container in accordance with the Java Servlet Specification. JBoss Web Server contains Apache Tomcat 9.
  • Apache tomcat native library: a Tomcat library that improves Tomcat scalability, performance, and integration with native server technologies.
  • tomcat-vault: an extension for the JBoss Web Server used for securely storing passwords and other sensitive information used by a JBoss Web Server.
  • mod_cluster library: a library that allows communication between Apache Tomcat and the mod_proxy_cluster module of Apache HTTP Server. This enables you to use the Apache HTTP Server as a load balancer for JBoss Web Server. For more information about the configuration of mod_cluster, or for information about the installation and configuration of the alternative load balancers mod_jk and mod_proxy, see the HTTP Connectors and Load Balancing Guide.

  • Apache portable runtime (APR): A runtime that provides superior scalability, performance, and improved integration with native server technologies. APR is a highly portable library that is at the heart of Apache HTTP Server 2.x. It enables access to:

    • Advanced IO functionality - For example, sendfile, epoll and OpenSSL
    • Operating system level functionality - For example, random number generation and system status
    • Native process handling - For example, shared memory, NT pipes and Unix sockets
  • OpenSSL: A software library that implements the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols and includes a basic cryptographic library.
Note
  • If you need clustering or session replication support for Java applications, Red Hat recommends that you use Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (JBoss EAP).

1.2. Supported Operating Systems and Configurations

Red Hat JBoss Web Server supports the following operating systems and configurations:

Operating SystemChipset ArchitectureJava Virtual Machine

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

x86_64

Red Hat OpenJDK 1.8.x, Red Hat OpenJDK 11, OracleJDK 11

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

x86_64

Red Hat OpenJDK 1.8.x, Red Hat OpenJDK 11, Oracle JDK 1.8.x, Oracle JDK 11, IBM JDK 1.8.x

Red Hat Enterpries Linux 6

x86_64, x86

Red Hat OpenJDK 1.8.x, Oracle JDK 1.8.x, Oracle JDK 11(x86_64 Only), IBM JDK 1.8.x

Microsoft Windows 2016 Server

x86_64

Red Hat OpenJDK 1.8.x, Red Hat OpenJDK 11, Oracle JDK 1.8.x, Oracle JDK 11

Microsoft Windows 2012 Server R2

x86_64

Red Hat OpenJDK 1.8.x, Red Hat OpenJDK 11, Oracle JDK 1.8.x, Oracle JDK 11

1.3. Methods to install Red Hat JBoss Web Server

You can install JBoss Web Server on supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Microsoft Windows systems using archive installation files available for each platform. You can also install JBoss Web Server on supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems using RPM packages.

The following components are included in the archive installation files. These components are the core parts of a JBoss Web Server installation.

  • jws-5.3.0-application-server.zip

    • Tomcat 9
    • mod_cluster
    • tomcat-vault

  • jws-5.3.0-application-server-<platform>-<architecture>.zip

    • Platform-specific utilities

1.4. Component documentation bundle

JBoss Web Server includes an additional documentation bundle that includes the original vendor documentation for each component. This documentation bundle, jws-docs-5.3.0.zip, is available at the Red Hat Customer Portal, and contains additional documentation for the following components:

  • tomcat
  • tomcat-native
  • tomcat-vault