Chapter 1. Installing and Building the JBoss Server

• Getting the Binary Files

• Installing the Binary Package

• Basic Installation Testing

• Booting from a Network Server

• Building the Server from Source Code

JBoss, a free J2EE 1.4certified application server, is the most widely used open-source application server on the market. The highly flexible and easy-to-use server architecture has made JBoss the ideal choice for users just starting out with J2EE, as well as senior architects looking for a customizable middleware platform. The server binary and source code distributions are available from the SourceForge repository. (http://sourceforge.net/projects/jboss). The ready availability of the source code allows you to debug the server, learn its inner workings, and create customized versions for your personal or business use.

This chapter is a step-by-step tutorial that will show you how to install and configure JBoss 4.0. Specifically, you will learn how to do the following:

• Obtain updated binaries from the JBoss SourceForge project site

• Install the JBoss binary

• Test the installation

You will also learn about the following:

• The installation directory structure

• Key configuration files an administrator may want to use to customize the JBoss installation

• How to obtain the source code for JBoss 4.0 from the SourceForge Concurrent Versions System (CVS) repository

• How to build the server distribution