This page last changed on Nov 26, 2011 by alitokmen.

As of CARGO 1.0.3, the way CARGO supports remote deployments on the JBoss Application Server has drastically evolved. This document explains how to configure this support.

You can use the quick links to directly fo to the chapter regarding the JBoss version you're targeting:

JBoss 4.0.x and 4.2.x

In JBoss 4.x, the JMX-based remote deployer can accept URLs that point to another machine. For example:

http://10.156.216.147:8080/jmx-console/HtmlAdaptor?action=invokeOpByName&name=jboss.system:service%3DMainDeployer&methodName=deploy&argType=java.net.URL&arg0=http%3A%2F%2F10.156.220.90%3A18080%2Fparuemas-1.0-SNAPSHOT.war

In this case, our JBoss server on 10.156.216.127 will connect to 10.156.220.90 via HTTP and download the paruemas-1.0-SNAPSHOT.war file. Once the file is downloaded, JBoss will automatically deploy it.

The CARGO JBoss container uses this principle to expose your Java EE application to JBoss using an HTTP server that is started on the machine where CARGO is currently running. That HTTP server is controlled using two parameters:

  • JBossPropertySet.REMOTEDEPLOY_HOSTNAME (i.e., cargo.jboss.remotedeploy.hostname): sets the hostname that the JBoss server will attempt to connect to. By default, the CARGO JBoss container will automatically resolve the current machine's network name or IP address and fill this accordingly.
  • JBossPropertySet.REMOTEDEPLOY_PORT (i.e., cargo.jboss.remotedeploy.port): sets the port number on which the HTTP server will be started on the machine running CARGO. By default, that one is set to 1 + the HTTP port for JBoss. For example, if JBoss is running on HTTP port 8080, then the default for JBossPropertySet.REMOTEDEPLOY_PORT will be 18080.

The obvious limitation you should be aware of is that JBoss needs to have direct access to the machine running CARGO.

JBoss 5.0.x, 5.1.x, 6.0.x and 6.1.x

Starting from JBoss 5.x, JBoss has a Deployment Manager that can be used for deploying things on the JBoss server. If you really want to know how it works under the hood, you can read about this feature on the JBoss Website. If you only want to remotely deploy applications using CARGO to your JBoss server, you can of course ignore that document.

To connect to the JBoss Deployment Manager, CARGO uses JBoss' JMX RMI port; and that's what makes things get a bit complicated. For the connection to succeed, the following JARs need to be in the container classpath or in the current Java Thread's context classloader:

  • JBoss deployment manager JARs
  • JBoss remoting client JARs

Here is an example code for the users of the Java API:

List<URL> urls = new ArrayList<URL>();

// Add many libraries from JBOSS_HOME
for (File jar : new File(this.localContainer.getHome(), "lib").listFiles())
{
    if (jar.isFile())
    {
        urls.add(jar.toURI().toURL());
    }
}
for (File jar : new File(this.localContainer.getHome(), "common/lib").listFiles())
{
    if (jar.isFile())
    {
        urls.add(jar.toURI().toURL());
    }
}

// Create a ClassLoader contaning all these JARs
URL[] urlsArray = new URL[urls.size()];
urlsArray = urls.toArray(urlsArray);
URLClassLoader classLoader = new URLClassLoader(urlsArray, this.getClass().getClassLoader());
Thread.currentThread().setContextClassLoader(classLoader);

// Now, create the JBoss Remote container
...

Here is an example Maven2 plugin configuration:

<pluginRepositories>
  <pluginRepository>
     <id>jboss</id>
     <url>http://repository.jboss.org/nexus/content/groups/public/</url>
  </pluginRepository>
</pluginRepositories>

<repositories>
  <repository>
     <id>jboss</id>
     <url>http://repository.jboss.org/nexus/content/groups/public/</url>
  </repository>
</repositories>

...

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.codehaus.cargo</groupId>
  <artifactId>cargo-maven2-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>${cargo.plugin.version}</version>
  <configuration>
    <container>
      <containerId>jboss51x</containerId>
      <type>remote</type>
    </container>
    <configuration>
      <type>runtime</type>
      <properties>
        <cargo.hostname>production27</cargo.hostname>
        <cargo.rmi.port>11099</cargo.rmi.port>
      </properties>
    </configuration>
  </configuration>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.jboss.integration</groupId>
      <artifactId>jboss-profileservice-spi</artifactId>
      <version>5.1.0.GA</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.jboss.jbossas</groupId>
      <artifactId>jboss-as-client</artifactId>
      <version>5.1.0.GA</version>
      <type>pom</type>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</plugin>

Starting from CARGO 1.1.0, it is also possible to remotely deploy to JBoss farms versions 5.x and newer. To do so, use these two properties:

  • cargo.jboss.clustered: if true, deployment is done in the farm directory
  • cargo.jboss.configuration: JBoss profile name, default name is default

JBoss 7.0.x and JBoss 7.1.x

The same instructions for JBoss 5.x, 5.1.x and 6.x also apply for JBoss 7.x, with some differences:

  • The JAR files to include are different
  • JBoss 7.x uses the cargo.jboss.management.port port.

The following examples detail these differences.

Here is an example code for the users of the Java API:

/**
 * Add all JARs in a folder in the list of files (recursive).
 * @param folder Folder to recursively scan.
 * @param files List containing all files.
 */
public static void addAllJars(File folder, List<URL> files) throws Exception
{
    if (folder.isDirectory())
    {
        for (File file : folder.listFiles())
        {
            if (file.isFile() && file.getName().endsWith(".jar"))
            {
                files.add(file.toURI().toURL());
            }
            else if (file.isDirectory())
            {
                addAllJars(file, files);
            }
        }
    }
}
List<URL> urls = new ArrayList<URL>();

// Add many libraries from JBOSS_HOME/modules
addAllJars(new File(this.localContainer.getHome(), "modules"), urls);

// Create a ClassLoader contaning all these JARs
URL[] urlsArray = new URL[urls.size()];
urlsArray = urls.toArray(urlsArray);
URLClassLoader classLoader = new URLClassLoader(urlsArray, this.getClass().getClassLoader());
Thread.currentThread().setContextClassLoader(classLoader);

// Now, create the JBoss Remote container
...

Here is an example Maven2 plugin configuration:

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.codehaus.cargo</groupId>
  <artifactId>cargo-maven2-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>${cargo.plugin.version}</version>
  <configuration>
    <container>
      <containerId>jboss7x</containerId>
      <type>remote</type>
    </container>
    <configuration>
      <type>runtime</type>
      <properties>
        <cargo.hostname>production27</cargo.hostname>
        <cargo.jboss.management.port>19999</cargo.jboss.management.port>
      </properties>
    </configuration>
  </configuration>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.jboss.as</groupId>
      <artifactId>jboss-as-controller-client</artifactId>
      <version>7.0.2.Final</version>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</plugin>
JBoss socket connection bugs
On some Linux distributions, remote deployment may fail with an exception like:
Caused by: java.io.IOException: Can not get connection to server.
           Problem establishing socket connection for InvokerLocator
           [socket://host:32342/]

That is a known bug, documented in http://community.jboss.org/wiki/WhydoIgetasocketconnectionerrorwhenusingremoteJBossAS and the solution presented on that document is to use a cron job as the root user to fix the file when it gets broken.

First, create the correct version of /etc/hosts and save it somewhere, such as /etc/hosts.fixed, and populate it with the following contents (replace myhost with the hostname of your computer, as reported by the hostname command, and the correct IP assignment, as reported by ipconfig):

/etc/hosts.fixed
127.0.0.1 myhost localhost localhost.localdomain
::1 myhost localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6
127.0.1.1 myhost
## (optional entry); update if assigned a new address from DHCP
192.168.1.5 myhost

## The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1     ip6-localhost  ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

Important: If possible, enter your hostname with both the "basic" hostname and the fully-qualified domain name.

Next, create a script named /etc/restore-etc-hosts.sh to replace the /etc/hosts file if Network Manager breaks it:

/etc/restore-etc-hosts.sh
#!/bin/sh

if [ `grep -c NetworkManager /etc/hosts` -eq 1 ]; then
   cp /etc/hosts.fixed /etc/hosts
fi

Finally, setup a cron job to run this script as often as you like. We recommend every couple of minutes.

*/3 * * * * /etc/restore-etc-hosts.sh

Once the /etc/hosts file is corrected, restart JBoss AS and run the tests again. Your socket connection error should be gone!

JBoss Maven2 repositories
JBoss has decided to deprecate one of the repositories used in some releases of the Cargo JBoss remote deployer POMs and/or in some of its embedded dependencies. This problem should be solved as JBoss finishes moving its dependencies to the Maven central; but as long as that move is not finished JBoss' repository deprecation makes Maven fail with messages like:
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.codehaus.cargo:cargo-maven2-plugin:1.1.1:undeploy (redeploy) on project helloservice:
        Execution redeploy of goal org.codehaus.cargo:cargo-maven2-plugin:1.1.1:undeploy failed:
        Plugin org.codehaus.cargo:cargo-maven2-plugin:1.1.1 or one of its dependencies could not be resolved:
        Failed to collect dependencies for org.codehaus.cargo:cargo-maven2-plugin:jar:1.1.1 ():
        Failed to read artifact descriptor for trove:trove:jar:2.1.1:
        Could not transfer artifact trove:trove:pom:2.1.1 from/to repository.jboss.org (http://repository.jboss.org/maven2/):
        Access denied to: http://repository.jboss.org/maven2/trove/trove/2.1.1/trove-2.1.1.pom -> [Help 1]

In this case, please define override the JBoss repository by using a mirrorOf declaration in your settings.xml. Example:

<settings>
  ...
  <mirrors>
    <mirror>
      <id>nexus.repository.jboss.org</id>
      <name>JBoss Nexus repository</name>
      <url>http://repository.jboss.org/nexus/content/repositories/deprecated/</url>
      <mirrorOf>repository.jboss.org</mirrorOf>
    </mirror>
  </mirrors>
  ...
</settings>

Please feel free to complain to JBoss if you feel like this is a bad behaviour: https://issues.jboss.org/browse/JBBUILD-682

Document generated by Confluence on Dec 03, 2011 14:37