2.5. 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.