Sun Java System Application Server 9.1

# Quick Start for Basic Features

Welcome to the Quick Start Guide. This guide describes basic steps for using Application Server.

Note - For the latest version of this document, see the Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 Quick Start Guide posted at docs.sun.com. The posted version of this document contains additional instructions for advanced features, such as clusters and load balancing.

Before using the procedures in this document you must have already installed the Application Server software.

The steps are presented in the order that you should complete them. This section contains the following topics:

- Application Server Administration Tools

- Variable Names and Default Paths

- Starting the Server and Node Agent

- Where to Go Next

## Application Server Administration Tools

To enable administrators to manage server instances and clusters running on multiple hosts, Application Server provides these tools:

- The Admin Console, a browser-based graphical user interface (GUI)

- The asadmin utility, a command-line tool. For a list of all command-line tools available with the Application Server, see Table 1-1 in the Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 Quick Start Guide.

- Programmatic Java™ Management Extensions (JMX) APIs

These tools connect to a server called the Domain Administration Server, a specially designated Application Server instance that intermediates in all administrative tasks. The Domain Administration Server (DAS) provides a single secure interface for validating and executing administrative commands regardless of which interface is used.

A domain is a collection of configuration data, deployed applications, and machines with a designated administrator. The domain definition describes and can control the operation of several applications, stand-alone application server instances, and clusters, potentially spread over multiple machines. When the DAS is installed, a default domain called domain1 is always installed. You work with the default domain in this guide.

## Variable Names and Default Paths

The following table describes what the variable names and default paths are for the directories used in this guide. Variable names are in the first column, and default paths are in the second column.

Variable Name | Description and Path
--- | ---
install-dir | By default, the Application Server installation directory is located here: Solaris Java Enterprise System installations: `/opt/SUNWappserver/appserver` Linux Java Enterprise System installations: `/opt/sun/appserver/` Windows Java Enterprise System installations: SystemDrive`:\Sun\ApplicationServer` Solaris and Linux stand-alone Application Server installations, non-root user: user_home_directory`/SUNWappserver` Solaris and Linux stand-alone Application Server installations, root user: `/opt/SUNWappserver` Windows stand-alone installations: SystemDrive`:\Sun\AppServer`
domain_root_dir | By default, the directory containing all domains is located here: Solaris Java Enterprise System installations: `/var/opt/SUNWappserver/domains/` Linux Java Enterprise System installations: `/var/opt/sun/appserver/domains/` All other installations: install-dir`/domains/`
domain_dir | By default, domain directories are located here: domain_root_dir `/`domain_dir

## Starting the Server and Node Agent

This topic provides instructions for the following basic tasks: starting the Domain Administration Server (DAS), logging into the Admin Console, examining the log files, and starting the node agent. The steps are presented in the order that you should complete them.

### To Start the Domain on Solaris and Linux

To start the Domain Administration Server, start the default domain, `domain1`.

1. Add the install-dir`/bin/` directory to the `PATH` environment variable.

2. Set the `AS_ADMIN_USER` environment variable so that you do not need to type it for every command.

   Set the value of `AS_ADMIN_USER` to the admin user you specified when you installed the Application Server.

3. Start the server by entering this command:

   `asadmin start-domain domain1`

   When you are prompted for the admin password and the master password, enter the passwords that you provided during installation.

   When the start up process has completed, the following message appears:

   `Domain domain1 started`

   Each domain has a corresponding profile: enterprise, cluster, or developer. `domain1` is created with the default profile, which is defined in the `AS_ADMIN_PROFILE` variable defined in the `asadminenv.conf` file. For more information on the three profiles see the Usage Profile section in Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 Administration Guide. If `domain1` was created with developer profile, when you log in to the Admin Console, you cannot use features such as clustering and node agents. To use clusters and server instances, use the `create-domain` command to create a domain with cluster profile. For information on creating domains, type `asadmin create-domain` `––help` or see the Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 Reference Manual.

### To Start the Domain on Windows

To start the Domain Administration Server, start the default domain, `domain 1`.

1. From the Explorer window or desktop, right click My Computer.

2. Choose Properties to display the System Properties dialog.

3. Click the Advanced tab.

4. Click Environment Variables.

5. In the User variables section:

   - If a `PATH` variable exists, verify that install-dir`\bin` exists in the path: install-dir`\bin;`other_entries. If install-dir`\bin` does not exit in the PATH variable, add it.

   - If a `PATH` variable is not present, click New. In Variable Name, type `PATH`. In Variable Value, type the path to the server's `bin` directory: install-dir`\bin`. Click OK to commit the change.

6. Add a new environment variable `AS_ADMIN_USER` and set it to the Administrative User Name that you assigned during installation.

7. Click OK to commit the change and close the remaining open windows.

8. Start the Application Server by clicking the Start Admin Server option within the Programs menu.

9. When a command prompt window opens to prompt you for the admin password and the master password, enter the passwords that you provided during installation.

   A window appears with a message telling that you the server is starting:

   `Starting Domain domain1, please wait. Log redirected to domain_dir\domain1\logs\server.log...`

   When the startup process has completed, you see an additional message:

   `Domain domain1 started.Press any key to continue ...`

   Each domain has a corresponding profile: enterprise, cluster, or developer. `domain1` is created with the default profile, which is defined in the `AS_ADMIN_PROFILE` variable defined in the `asadminenv.conf` file. For more information on the three profiles, see the Usage Profile section in the Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 Administration Guide. If `domain1` was created with developer profile, when you log in to the Admin Console, you cannot use features such as clustering and node agents. To use clusters and server instances, use the `create-domain` command to create a domain with cluster profile. For information on creating domains, type `asadmin create-domain` `––help` or see the Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 Reference Manual.

10. Press a key to close the message window.

### To Log In to the Admin Console

The Admin Console is a browser interface that simplifies a variety of administration and configuration tasks. It is commonly used to:

- Deploy and undeploy applications

- Enable, disable, and manage applications

- Configure resources and other server settings

- Configure clusters and node agents

- Manage server instances and clusters

- Select and view log files

- Configure load balancers

For further information about using the Admin Console, consult the Application Server online help.

1. Type this URL in your browser:

   `http://` localhost`:4848
   `

   If the browser is on a different system than the server, replace the localhost variable with the name of the system that the Domain Admin Server is running on.

   `4848` is the Admin Console's default port number. If you changed the port number during the installation, use that number instead.
   If you have installed the cluster profile, the admin port is secure, by default. For cluster profile, the URL for Admin Console is `https://` localhost`:4848`.

   Note - If a popup window appears with a message such as `Website Certified by an Unknown Authority`, click OK.

   This message appears because your browser does not recognize the self-signed certificate that the Domain Administration Server uses to service the Admin Console over the secure transmission protocol.

2. When the log in window appears, enter the admin user name and password.

3. Click Login.

   In the left pane, select what you want to manage from the tree provided. In the right pane, various administrative tasks are listed under the Common Tasks heading.

### To View the Domain Administration Server Log File

Application Server instances and the Domain Administration Server produce annotated logs on the file system. By default, all errors, warnings or useful informative messages are logged.

1. From the Common Tasks list in the right pane, click Search Log Files to launch a new browser window for Log Viewer.

2. In the Log Viewer window, select "server" from the Instance Name drop-down list and click Search.

   The Domain Administration Server's recent log file entries are displayed.

3. Scan the messages and look for any `WARNING` or `SEVERE` messages indicating that problems were encountered during server startup.

   You can close Log Viewer at any time. After you create clusters and deploy applications, examine log files if any of the operations failed. Use Log Viewer to view the log files of any running Application Server instance in the domain.

   For more information about the log file, see the Configuring Logging chapter in Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 Administration Guide.

### To Start the Node Agent

A node agent is a lightweight process running on each machine that participates in an Application Server administrative domain. The node agent is responsible for starting and stopping server instances on the host. It also communicates with the Domain Administration Server to create new Application Server instances.

Note - You can use node agents only on domains with the cluster or enterprise profile. If you are running only a developer domain, you need to create a domain with cluster profile before you can create and use node agents. For information on creating domains, type `asadmin create-domain` `--help` or see the Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 Reference Manual

One node agent is needed on a machine for each Application Server administrative domain that the machine belongs to. If you chose the Node Agent Component during installation, a default node agent called hostname was created.

1. In a terminal window, type this command:

   `asadmin start-node-agent` hostname

   Replace the variable hostname with the name of the host where the Application Server is running.

2. When you are prompted, provide the master password.

   The node agent starts and connects with the Domain Administration Server.

   Ensure that the Domain Administration Server is running before you start the node agent. Check the `server.log` file of a cluster instance to identify problems related to starting node agents or cluster instances.

   If you have problems while starting a node agent or a cluster on Windows, see the Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 Release Notes for possible solutions to the problem.

After the node agent has executed once, you can view it in the Admin Console. You can create node agents by using the `asadmin create-node-agent` command. For information on creating node agents, type `asadmin create-node-agent` `--help`, see the Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 Reference Manual.

##### Next Steps

In this section you started the Domain Administration Server and confirmed that it is running. You also logged in to the Admin Console and used the Log Viewer. You started the node agent. You can stop the Quick Start trail here if you do not wish to continue, or you can go on to the next section.

## Where to Go Next

The next steps of the Quick Start Guide are available in the following chapters.

These chapters are available only in the Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 Quick Start Guide posted on docs.sun.com.

- Chapter 2: Setting Up a Cluster
  Steps for creating a cluster.

- Chapter 3: Deploying An Application
  Deploy a sample application to a cluster.

- Chapter 4: Setting Up Load Balancing
  Steps for creating and using a load balancer. Requires installation of the load balancer plug-in and the Web Server.
- Chapter 5: Setting Up High Availability Failover
  Steps for setting high availability failover.

Other resources for learning about and using Application Server are available. They include:

- Product details at install-dir`/docs/about.html`.

  See this document for the latest information on what is new, and pointers to tutorials and other educational services.

- Sample applications at install-dir`/samples`

  See the sample applications for Application Server examples and documentation for them.

- Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 Release Notes

  See this document for late-breaking information regarding this release.

- Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 Administration Guide

  See this document for information on performing administrative functions using the Admin Console.

- The Utility Reference (man pages)

  See this document for reference information on Application Server's command-line utilities, such as `asadmin`.

- Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 High Availability Administration Guide

  See this document for information on the Sun Java System Application Server's high availability features.

- The Java EE 5 Tutorial

  See this document for a tutorial that covers the process for building and deploying Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) applications.

- Java BluePrints guidelines for the Enterprise

  See this document for a comprehensive set of examples that demonstrate operations of the Application Server software and that can be used as application templates.

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