A Look at JBoss Core Services Collections

Middleware itself is a collection of services that enables developers to create applications and then those applications to run in an effective way. These services consist of things that are near-universal and applicable to any architecture or environment -- things like messaging, transactions, logging, even management APIs.

That leads us to Red Hat JBoss Core Services Collection, which is a slightly newer (and easier) way of delivering some of the services that our customers require. Like the name says, this is a collection of common services that are critical for application developers, making it easier to design secure applications that are deployed in heterogeneous environments.

As of today, there are five services included with a JBoss Core Services Collection subscription:

• JBoss Operations Network, a monitoring and management server which is designed to manage JBoss middleware and Java applications.
• An integrated single sign-on server which supports SAML-based authentication, OAuth, and other open protocols for simplified authentication management
• The ever-popular Apache HTTP server
• The Apache Commons Jsvc daemon, which optimizes Java performance on Unix-based systems
• Connectors for other web servers, such as Microsoft IIS and Oracle iPlanet

So, What’s the Deal?

To reiterate the purpose of middleware: Modern application development requires security, flexibility, and the ability to integrate with other applications and services.

Individually, these services are either already well known projects (like Apache HTTP), are based on well-known protocols (Keycloak’s single sign-on), or are solid integration tools for external servers (JBoss Operations Network and the connectors). These are tools that developers are already using; putting them in a collection makes them easier to find and access.

And since JBoss Core Services are an implicit part of other middleware subscriptions (more on that below), there’s no additional outlay or expense for these services. Your developers can get  them right now.

Availability

JBoss Core Services Collection is a subscription which grants access to a changing set of services. The collection subscription is already included if you have any subscriptions for any of these other JBoss products (and the number of Core Services Collections subscriptions matches the quantity of JBoss subscriptions):

• Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform
• Red Hat JBoss Data Grid
• Red Hat Fuse
• Red Hat JBoss A-MQ
• Red Hat JBoss BRMS
• Red Hat JBoss BPM Suite

Releases and Versions

There isn’t a single “Core Services” product or package, so there is no real version to Core Services. It is simply an entitlement to access any given number of services.

Each service has its own release and life cycle,  as the projects themselves release new versions. New services may be added to the collection, and existing services may be updated.

More Information

• Datasheet
• Core Services FAQ
• Supported Configurations