JB336 JBoss for Administrators

Course Outline

The following is an outline of the skills and knowledge represented in the training elements of the JB336 JBoss for Administrators Course.

Note: Technical content subject to change without notice. Significant changes in course content will generally be available in posted outlines at least two months prior to being implemented in scheduled courses, to allow enrolled students adequate prep time. Reload this page regularly to insure up-to-date information.

1. JBoss Business Overview We are introduced to the history of the Application Server and the company itself to provide context in which to understand the design of JBoss AS. We will also see the practical difference between the Application Server (.org) and the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform or JEAP (.com) versions as well as why these differences exist.
2. JBoss Application Server Overview Present the concept of an application server as well as the standards that comprise the J2EE specification. We will discuss Servlets, EJBs, JMX and a host of other services and what they mean to the administrator. We discuss the unique JMX Microkernel architecture of JEAP and how this simplifies administration. Additionally we will dig into a use case to tie all the components together.
3. Installation The Administrator is exposed to the working JBoss Enterprise Application Platform. The directory structure will be discussed such that Administrators will know where to look to change configurations, create whole new server instances. We will review various deployment topologies and the impact these decisions have upon the network and the deployed application(s).
4. Deployment Deploying applications is a crucial task which can become complicated. We will discuss everything from simple deployments to those requiring fine tuning the services required and the deployment order to guarantee that all dependencies are met prior to their being needed by other packages. Students will configure Deployment Scanners and learn about different forms of hot deployment (including farmed deployment).
5. Configuration We will understand the 'Minimal', 'Default', 'All' and 'Production' server configurations as well as how to use them. The student will see how to take advantage of the tremendous flexibility provided by the Microkernel architecture. We will look at the configuration of Datasources, JMS destinations, JNDI and more.
6. Security Participants will secure their Enterprise Application Platform at a variety of levels including the Console, the Datasource and Invoker level. A lab activity will step through adding SSL encryption to secure the lie-level protocol of the Invoker.
7. Troubleshooting Students will be introduced to performance and trouble-shooting issues throughout the course. Time will be spent on common exceptions encountered, monitoring capabilities available and how understand the needs of both the JVM and the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform itself such that it will be possible to performance tune your application.
8. Failover and Fault Tolerance Failover and fault tolerance are two distinct capabilities offered by the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform. We will discuss the difference between them and how to determine what is necessary for your environment. The underlying network communications and their impacts will be presented along with discussion of caching and the impact it can have on your environment. Finally, we will delve into load balancing and the various options available in this area as well as demonstrate all of the above concepts with JEAP and Apache with mod_jk.
9. Installation of JBoss ON This module introduces the student to JBoss Operations Network. Students will learn how JBoss ON enables administration and monitoring of several JEMS deployments across an enterprise and how deployed services across multiple servers and nodes can be managed from a single interface. JBoss ON architecture overview is covered in this section along with installation instructions and troubleshooting.
10. JBoss ON User Interface Introduction to both the graphical, web-based user interface of JBoss ON, and the command-line tools to configure and monitor JEMS product instances and deployed services through via JBoss Operations Network. Monitoring with JBoss ON. In this section the students are familiarized with detailed instructions how to monitor specific server products via JBoss Operations Network. We will cover in detail how to monitor and manage JBoss AS instances, stand-alone Tomcat server instances and Apache HTTPD server instances.