Red Hat Training

A Red Hat training course is available for Red Hat JBoss Web Server

Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1. About Red Hat JBoss Web Server

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

  • Apache Tomcat: a servlet container in accordance with the Java Servlet Specification. JBoss Web Server contains Apache Tomcat 9.
  • The Apache Tomcat Native Library: a Tomcat library, which improves Tomcat scalability, performance, and integration with native server technologies.
  • The tomcat-vault: an extension for the JBoss Web Server used for securely storing passwords and other sensitive information used by a JBoss Web Server.
  • The mod_cluster library: a library that allows communication between Apache Tomcat and the Apache HTTP Server’s mod_proxy_cluster module. This allows the Apache HTTP Server to be used as a load balancer for JBoss Web Server. For information on the configuration of mod_cluster, or for information on the installation and configuration of the alternative load balancers mod_jk and mod_proxy, see the HTTP Connectors and Load Balancing Guide.
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).
  • For a detailed list of component versions included in JBoss Web Server 5.0, see https://access.redhat.com/articles/111723.

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. Installation and configuration instructions for the Apache HTTP Server are covered in the JBoss Core Services Documentation.

1.2. Supported Operating Systems and Configurations

For information on supported operating systems and configurations for JBoss Web Server, see https://access.redhat.com/articles/3497401/.

1.3. Installation Methods

JBoss Web Server can be installed on supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Solaris systems using ZIP installation files available for each platform. JBoss Web Server can also be installed on supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems using RPM packages.

For ZIP installations, below is a summary of the components that are included in the ZIP files which form the core part of a JBoss Web Server installation.

  • jws-application-server-5.0.0.zip

    • Tomcat 9
    • mod_cluster
    • tomcat-vault

  • jws-application-server-5.0.0-<platform>-<architecture>.zip

    • Platform-specific utilities

1.4. Upgrading JBoss Web Server

Note

The JBoss Web Server 5.0 can run on the same system as previous releases, however, this is not supported.

For systems using the JBoss Web Server 3.1, the recommended procedure for upgrading to the JBoss Web Server 5.0 is:

  1. Shutdown any running instances of JBoss Web Server 3.1.
  2. Backup the JBoss Web Server 3.1 installation and configuration files.
  3. Change the ports used by the JBoss Web Server 3.1 connectors if the ports used are 8080 or 8443.

  4. Install JBoss Web Server 5.0 using one of the following guides:

  5. Migrate your configuration from the JBoss Web Server 3.1

    Note

    The JBoss Web Server configuration files may have changed since the JBoss Web Server 3.1 release. It is recommended that you update the 5.0 version configuration files, rather than overwrite them with the configuration files from a different version (such as JBoss Web Server 3.1).

  6. Remove the JBoss Web Server 3.1:

    • For systems where JBoss Web Server 3.1 was installed from RPM packages, uninstall using: 

      yum group remove jws3
    • For systems where JBoss Web Server 3.1 was installed from .zip archives, uninstall by deleting the JBoss Web Server 3.1 root directory.

1.5. 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-5.0.0.zip, is available at the Red Hat Customer Portal, and contains additional documentation for the following:

  • tomcat
  • tomcat-native
  • tomcat-vault