Red Hat Ansible Certified Content Collection 1.2 for Red Hat JBoss Web Server Release Notes
For Use with the Red Hat JBoss Web Server 5.7
Abstract
Preface
The Red Hat Ansible Certified Content Collection for Red Hat JBoss Web Server is a prepackaged Ansible content collection that Red Hat provides. You can use the Red Hat Ansible Certified Content Collection to automate the installation and configuration of the Red Hat JBoss Web Server product. You can also add customized tasks to your playbook to automate the deployment of JBoss Web Server applications either at the same time as the automated product installation or later.
The Red Hat Ansible Certified Content Collection is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.
For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.
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Making open source more inclusive
Red Hat is committed to replacing problematic language in our code, documentation, and web properties. We are beginning with these four terms: master, slave, blacklist, and whitelist. Because of the enormity of this endeavor, these changes will be implemented gradually over several upcoming releases. For more details, see our CTO Chris Wright’s message.
Chapter 1. Red Hat Ansible Certified Content Collection 1.2 for Red Hat JBoss Web Server
Welcome to the Red Hat Ansible Certified Content Collection version 1.2 release for Red Hat JBoss Web Server.
For general information about the Red Hat Ansible Certified Content Collection, see the Ansible Collection - redhat.jws page in the Red Hat Automation Hub. The Ansible Collection - redhat.jws page includes information about the roles that the collection contains. You can click the name of a role to view details about the purpose of this role, any requirements or dependencies, and the list of variables and default settings that the role uses to complete automation tasks.
For more information about Ansible concepts or the benefits of using Ansible, see Ansible concepts and benefits.
The rest of this document refers to the Red Hat Ansible Certified Content Collection for Red Hat JBoss Web Server as the JBoss Web Server collection.
Chapter 2. Installing the JBoss Web Server collection 1.2
As a first step toward automating deployments of Red Hat JBoss Web Server by using Ansible, you must download and install the JBoss Web Server collection from the Red Hat Automation Hub. The JBoss Web Server collection is named redhat.jws in the Red Hat Automation Hub. Before you install the JBoss Web Server collection, you must ensure that your system complies with certain prerequisites. You must install the JBoss Web Server collection on an Ansible control node in your system.
For more information about any prerequisites and installing the collection, see Installing the JBoss Web Server collection.
Chapter 3. Features that are available in this release
This release of the JBoss Web Server collection includes the following features.
3.1. Support for JBoss Web Server 5.7 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
The JBoss Web Server collection 1.2 release supports the automated installation of Red Hat JBoss Web Server 5.7 on target hosts that are running on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 operating system.
3.2. Predefined set of variables for enabling automation tasks
The JBoss Web Server collection provides a comprehensive set of predefined variables and default values that you can manually update to suit your setup requirements. These variable settings provide all the information that the JBoss Web Server collection requires to complete an automated and customized installation of Red Hat JBoss Web Server on your target hosts.
For a full list of variables that the JBoss Web Server collection provides, see the information page for the jws role in the Red Hat Automation Hub. The information page for the jws role lists the names, descriptions, and default values for all the variables that you can define.
3.3. Automated installation of Red Hat JBoss Web Server from archive files
By default, the JBoss Web Server collection supports the automated installation of Red Hat JBoss Web Server from product archive files. Before you use the JBoss Web Server collection to install Red Hat JBoss Web Server, you must obtain and copy the JBoss Web Server archive files to your Ansible control node. If the JBoss Web Server archive files are not already available on your system, you can download the archive files manually from the Red Hat Customer Portal.
After you copy the archive files, you can set a variable to specify the product version that you want to install. If you decide to change the names of the archive files on your Ansible control node, you can also set variables to specify the appropriate file names. After you set installation details for the product archive files, the JBoss Web Server collection automatically extracts these files and installs the product on your target hosts when you subsequently run the playbook.
For more information, see Enabling the automated installation of JBoss Web Server archive files.
3.4. Automated installation of Red Hat JBoss Web Server patch updates
If product patch updates are available for the appropriate JBoss Web Server version, you can also use the JBoss Web Server collection to install the latest cumulative patch updates on your target hosts. You can use the same steps to enable the automated installation of patch updates regardless of whether you want to install the updates at the same time as the 5.7.0 version or later.
By default, the JBoss Web Server collection is configured to install JBoss Web Server patch updates from product archive files. First, you must obtain and copy the archive files for the latest patch updates to your Ansible control node. If the archive files for the latest patch updates are not already available on your system, you can download the archive files manually from the Red Hat Customer Portal.
After you copy the archive files, you can set a variable to enable the automated installation of patch updates. The JBoss Web Server collection then automatically extracts these files and installs the updates on your target hosts when you subsequently run the playbook.
For more information, see Enabling the automated installation of JBoss Web Server patch updates.
3.5. Automated installation of Red Hat OpenJDK
By default, the JBoss Web Server collection does not install a JDK automatically on your target hosts, based on the assumption that you have already installed a supported JDK on these hosts. However, for the sake of convenience, you can optionally set a variable to enable the automated installation of a supported version of Red Hat OpenJDK. In this situation, the JBoss Web Server collection automatically installs the specified OpenJDK version on each target host when you subsequently run the playbook.
The JBoss Web Server collection supports the automated installation of Red Hat OpenJDK only. If you want to use a supported version of IBM JDK or Oracle JDK, you must install the JDK manually on each target host or you can automate this process by using your playbook. For more information about manually installing a version of IBM JDK or Oracle JDK, see the Red Hat JBoss Web Server Installation Guide.
For more information, see Ensuring that a JDK is installed on the target hosts.
3.6. Automated creation of product user account and group
By default, the JBoss Web Server collection creates a tomcat user account and a tomcat group automatically on each target host. However, if you want the JBoss Web Server collection to create a different user account and group, you can set variables to modify the behavior of the JBoss Web Server collection to suit your setup requirements. In this situation, the JBoss Web Server collection automatically creates the specified user account and group name on each target host when you subsequently run the playbook.
For more information, see Ensuring that a product user and group are created on the target hosts.
3.7. Automated integration of Red Hat JBoss Web Server with systemd
By default, the JBoss Web Server collection is not configured to set up Red Hat JBoss Web Server as a service that a system daemon can manage. However, if you want the JBoss Web Server collection to integrate Red Hat JBoss Web Server with a system daemon, you can set a variable to modify the behavior of the JBoss Web Server collection to suit your setup requirements.
If you enable this feature, the JBoss Web Server collection sets up Red Hat JBoss Web Server as a jws5‑tomcat service automatically on each target host. However, if you want to use a different service name, you can also set a variable to instruct the JBoss Web Server collection to create a different service name.
The default system daemon is systemd.
For more information, see Enabling the automated integration of JBoss Web Server with systemd.
3.8. Automated configuration of Red Hat JBoss Web Server product features
The JBoss Web Server collection provides a comprehensive set of variables to enable the automated configuration of a Red Hat JBoss Web Server installation. By default, the JBoss Web Server collection configures Red Hat JBoss Web Server to listen for nonsecure HTTP connections on port 8080.
Other product features such as the following are disabled by default:
- Support for secure HTTPS connections
-
Mod_clustersupport for load-balancing HTTP server requests to the JBoss Web Server back end - The password vault for storing sensitive data in an encrypted Java keystore
- Support for SELinux policies
- Support for Apache JServ Protocol (AJP) traffic between JBoss Web Server and the Apache HTTP Server
To enable a wider set of product features, you can set variables to modify the behavior of the JBoss Web Server collection to suit your setup requirements.
For more information, see Enablement of automated JBoss Web Server configuration tasks.
3.9. Automated deployment of JBoss Web Server applications
You can also automate the deployment of web applications on your target hosts by adding customized tasks to the playbook. If you want to deploy a new or updated application when Red Hat JBoss Web Server is already running, the JBoss Web Server collection provides a handler to restart the web server when the application is deployed.
For more information, see Enabling the automated deloyment of JBoss Web Server applications on your target hosts.
Chapter 4. Resolved issues
There are no resolved issues for this initial release of the JBoss Web Server collection.
Chapter 5. Known issues
The following issues are known to affect this release: