Video Review: JBoss EAP Configuration, Deployment, and Administration

Packt Publishing released the video JBoss EAP Configuration, Deployment, and Administration by Red Hat employee Jason Shepherd in October 2013. This post is my review of this training video on configuring, deploying, and administrating the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform.

Like HTML5 Game Development which I recently reviewed, JBoss EAP Configuration, Deployment, and Administration is actually a series of short videos (1 to 5 minutes each and grouped with related videos in sections/chapters) that run in the Packt Video Player within a web browser.

Section 1: Standalone versus Domain Mode

The first section (or chapter) covers download and installation of JBoss along with coverage of the basics of setting up standalone instances and domain instances of the application server. Two approaches (command line copying of WAR file into appropriate directory and use of web-based Management Console at http://localhost:9990 with newly created user) for standalone deployment are demonstrated. The first section then moves onto coverage of using command line (emphasizing JBoss AS7's Command Line Interface) tool and web-based Management Console to deploy to multiple instances in domain mode.

Section 2: Adding and Configuring Databases and Message Queues and Using Them from Your Application

The second section of JBoss EAP Configuration, Deployment, and Administration contains short videos related to using database and JMS with JBoss. The first video in this section demonstrates using the browser-based Management Console to associate a JDBC driver with the application server using JBoss's JCA support. A MySQL database is used in this example. The second video also shows association of a datasource with the JBoss instance, but uses the Command Line Interface this time. It introduces and demonstrates use of the commands deployment-info and data-source. The third video of Section 2 indicates a third way of configuring a datasource to be used by JBoss Application Server: directly editing the configuration file. The narrator explains why this must be done when the application server is not running and demonstrates changing the configuration file by changing the datasource to be an XA datasource.

The fourth video of Section 2 is simply titled "Connecting to a Database," but demonstrates far more than that. In this video, the author demonstrates use of the JBoss Tools plugin for Eclipse IDE. The demonstration shows use of a sample application included with JBoss Tools that uses Java Persistence API to connect to the database (note that installation of the JBoss Tools plugin for Eclipse is demonstrated in the first video of Section 7). The fifth video of Section 2 demonstrates use of the Management Console to configure database connection pooling and demonstrates how to use files provided with the JBoss distribution to learn about more potential settings to adjust.

The final two videos of Section 2 demonstrate setting configuring a JMS Queue in JBoss using the Management Console and then interacting with that JMS Queue with simple examples written in Java and displayed in the video in the Eclipse IDE.

Section 3: Configuring the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) for Troubleshooting and Diagnostics

The third section of JBoss EAP Configuration, Deployment, and Administration looks at troubleshooting and diagnosing performance and memory related issues with JBoss. The majority of the information provided in these videos in this section are not JBoss-specific, but rather cover use of the standard tools provided by the Oracle JDK (and OpenJDK) and by Linux. For example, demonstrated tools include jps, jstack, top (including a useful script for running it periodically), and so forth. There are some JBoss-specific aspects to the videos in Section 3 such as how to specify the garbage collector to use, enabling logging of garbage collection events, and specifying JVM heap sizes that JBoss instances should use. The videos provide introductory detail on analyzing output of these tools (garbage collection logging, thread dumps, and heap dumps) and what common symptoms of the output indicate about potential issues. Useful tools for helping with this analysis are also briefly mentioned: GCViewer (garbage collection), Samurai (thread dumps), and Eclipse Memory Analyzer (heap dumps).

Section 4: Clustering and Load Balancing for Web Applications

After the highly general Section 3 with few JBoss-specific details, Section 4 returns to a heavy JBoss focus with its coverage of clustering and load balancing. This section of videos uses Linux command line options heavily and most of the work is done and verified with Linux commands and viewing output.

Section 5: Classloading with JBoss Modules

Section 5 is on JBoss Modules. The author explains that while developers may have run into issues with classes using by the application server being available and even erroneously used by the applications in some previous versions of the application server, JBoss AS7 (JBoss EAP 6) provides special class loading support to help avoid this issue. This section discusses this and also talks about the implicit module dependencies in JBoss. The videos show how to exclude certain implicitly provided modules and how to explicitly declare dependencies on different modules. The videos demonstrate using and changing jboss-deployment-structure.xml files to control JBoss classloading. The final video in this section uses JBoss AS 7: Configuration, Deployment, and Administration to show in writing how JBoss classloading precedence rules work.

Section 6: Deploying Applications

Although the title of Section 6 is "Deploying Applications," this is not the first section in which deployment to a JBoss application server instance is covered. Instead, this section focuses on more specific capabilities that can be enabled in JBoss at deployment time for performance improvements and for greater security. The first video in this section emphasizes using Java EE 6 Servlet 3.0 asynchronous servlets and shows how use of these improves ability to serve frequently repeated requests sent in as tests using JMeter.

The second video of Section 6 is on using SSL with JBoss. This video showed key portions of the "JBoss community document" Using SSL with JBoss using JSSE and moves back and forth between describing concepts covered on that page and video illustrations of how to apply those concepts.

The third video of Section 6 uses the servlet-security example of the JBoss AS Quick Starts to demonstrate integrating Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) support into a JBoss application. I noted that the comments in the referenced servlet-security example were perhaps the first references in these videos to "JBoss Enterprise Application Platform." These comments stated that the example applies to "JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6 or JBoss Application Server 7."

The final video in Section 6 demonstrates how to secure JBoss passwords (encrypt them rather than storing them in plain text) using the JBoss Vault. As with the second video in this same section, the narrator moves back and forth between online documentation (JBoss AS7 Securing Passwords) and video illustration of applying the concepts in the documentation.

Section 7: Building and Testing Application with Maven and JBoss Tools

Although JBoss Tools for Eclipse was mentioned in a previous video, the first video of Section 7 demonstrates configuration of JBoss Tools in Eclipse. The second video of this section revisits JBoss AS QuickStarts to demonstrate use of Maven (jboss-javaee-6.0-with-tools BOM and jboss-as-maven-plugin) to build and deploy JBoss applications.

JBoss Tools in Eclipse is the featured tool of the third video of Section 7. In this video, deployment of a JBoss-hosted application via JBoss Tools for Eclipse is demonstrated. Arquillian is the main tool covered in the final two videos of Section 7. The first of these demonstrates running test suites in JBoss with Arquillian and the second video features use of Arquillian with Shrinkwrap to run init tests against a JBoss instance.

Section 8: Configuring the Application Server Logging

The final section of JBoss EAP Configuration, Deployment, and Administration focuses on logging in JBoss. The first video briefly references the JBoss Command Line Interface Recipe called Toggle root logger level during runtime with out bouncing the server before demonstrating changing the log level by changing the XML configuration file directly (requires stopping the server) and by using CLI both in standalone mode and in domain mode. This demonstration shows how to set the logging appenders so that different levels of logs go to the console than to log files. The second video of Section 8 looks at setting log levels at category levels rather than at more general system-wide levels. It demonstrates doing this both by editing the file directly and by using CLI.

The final three videos of Section 8 look at making JBoss logging more efficient. Techniques demonstrated include using async-handler for asynchronous logging, rolling the generated server.log file based on specified maximum size, and overriding JBoss's default logging configuration with application-specific logging configuration.

General Observations

• I liked that JBoss EAP Configuration, Deployment, and Administration generally illustrated these tasks with both the web browser-based Management Console and with the Command Line Interface tool. I find myself using both approaches when working with application servers that support both approaches. I generally lean toward use of the web interface when first learning and then gradually move to the command-line as I start to script steps I am tired of doing manually. It is nice to see how to do things with both approaches.
• Verbal cues in the narration and examples showing the command-line, Management Console, and Eclipse plugin indicate that it is JBoss 7.1.1 being used in these videos. To the best of my understanding, this implies that it is JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6 being demonstrated. I don't recall any verbal mention and only a few written mentions of "JBoss Enterprise Platform" in this video, but "JBoss Application Server" was mentioned numerous times in text and verbally. Perhaps my biggest negative observation regarding this video tutorial is that its title might have been better as "JBoss AS7 Configuration, Deployment, and Administration" (which probably was not done because there is a book already with this title).
• It is not a fault of this video, but a more general challenge is the difficulty differentiating JBoss Application Server, JBoss Enterprise Application Platform, and Wildfly. According to jboss.org community documentation, JBoss Application Server "allows innovation at a faster pace" while JBoss Enterprise Application Platform is described as "a rigorously tested, stable, supported platform for developing and deploying mission critical Java applications and services." The JBoss Application Server 7 FAQ states that "JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) is the productized version of JBoss Application Server (AS)." The "community edition" JBoss Application Server was renamed Wildfly and the post JBoss EAP and WildFly - a Symbiotic Relationship describes the relationship between JBoss Enterprise Application Platform and newly named Wildfly.
• The best way I've found to get my head around which version of JBoss Enterprise Application Platform corresponds to a particular version of JBoss Application Server/Wildfly version is to cite the JBoss Downloads page. As of this writing, that page indicates that JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6.x versions are "built from" AS 7.x versions. Therefore, I can conclude that the videos I am reviewing here are demonstrating configuration, deployment, and administration of JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6 when I see JBoss Application Server 7 references in the tools and command-line output shown in the videos.
• JBoss EAP Configuration, Deployment, and Administration should probably not be a person's initial and only exposure to JBoss Application Server or Enterprise Application Platform. A viewer of these video snippets would be better served to have at least rudimentary awareness of how an application server works conceptually and preferably would have at least some awareness of JBoss specific concepts. Although the videos start by showing how to download JBoss, I doubt that someone entirely new to application servers would be able to keep up with the videos for very long.
• Demonstration of configuration, deployment, and administration of JBoss EAP are done in Linux. It will be easier for the viewer to understand the points the video makes if the viewer understands basic Linux because commands such as ls, grep, less, diff, scp, connect, ip addr show, and ifconfig, are used and Linux tools such as vim and top are used.
• The videos in JBoss EAP Configuration, Deployment, and Administration will be useful to anyone wanting to learn how to configure, deploy, and administrate JBoss Application Server 7/JBoss Enterprise Platform 6. However, they will be slightly more approachable to those using Eclipse IDE and Linux because that operating system and IDE are used for demonstrations.
• Although Section 3 had very few JBoss-specific details, this is the type of information that I believe all intermediate or advanced Java developers should know. The author's mixing of Oracle JDK tools, Linux tools, and other available tools provides a good overview of the basics of using these tools to improve performance of any (not just JBoss-based) Java-based application.
• JBoss EAP Configuration, Deployment, and Administration references written documentation in several of the videos. I like that the author shows the actual page (so it will look familiar when I pull it up in my own browser) and emphasizes the URL so that I can make note of it for later reference. An advantage of this is that a viewer can not only learn the concept being illustrated, but can learn where to go for more details or to refresh one's memory.
• The best fit for this video tutorial is probably someone with general Java EE/application server experience, but with relatively little JBoss AS7 administration experience. The videos don't waste anytime getting into the core subject and are probably not best suited for someone totally new to Java EE. However, a person familiar with configuring other Java EE application servers should be able to pick up JBoss specifics shown in these short videos without significant trouble.
• The videos I have reviewed here provide much information in quick fashion, making it easy to quickly see the overall approaches one can use. In some cases, it would probably be helpful for the viewer to have access to online or other "print" details to reference in case small details outside the videos' scope are desired.
• The audio is clear on all of the videos and the videos was clear on my laptop screen as long as I ran the video in full-screen mode.

Conclusion

I found JBoss EAP Configuration, Deployment, and Administration to be engaging and informative. These videos provide a mechanism for a person to easily and quickly understand how to work with configuration, deployment, and administration features in JBoss Application Server 7/JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6/Wildfly.

Book Review: JBoss AS 7: Configuration, Deployment, and Administration

I eagerly accepted Packt Publishing's invitation to review JBoss AS 7: Configuration, Deployment, and Administration because it has been several years since I last used JBoss and I was curious to learn more about JBoss AS 7. I have already written about my First Impressions of Book 'JBoss AS 7 Configuration, Deployment and Administration' and in this post I review the book in greater detail while attempting to minimize how much I repeat from that post. My review is based on an electronic (PDF) copy of JBoss AS 7: Configuration, Deployment, and Administration.

General Features

JBoss AS 7: Configuration, Deployment, and Administration highlights particularly important notes and warnings within boxing that makes them obvious and with an icon representing a pencil and paper. Similarly, tips and tricks also attract special attention with similar boxing and with a light bulb icon. It is helpful to have the most important notes and tips and tricks highlighted like this.

It didn't take much reading of this book to realize how significantly new JBoss AS 7's architecture is. One of the strengths of JBoss AS 7: Configuration, Deployment, and Administration is its comparisons of previous versions of JBoss AS to JBoss AS 7. These comparisons help to understand how changed JBoss AS 7 is and should be especially helpful to anyone migrating to JBoss AS 7 from a previous version.

This book provides several tables of various configuration options and their descriptions. These tables provide easy reference for various configuration options. Although I mostly just skimmed these as I read this book, I noted their existence for future reference when configuring various parts of JBoss AS 7.

Command line interfaces and script-based configuration and administration are emphasized throughout the book. I appreciate this because I tend to use command line approaches far more frequently than I use graphical tools, but some books focus almost exclusively on the graphical tools.

Perhaps the greatest strength of JBoss AS 7: Configuration, Deployment, and Administration is its focus on what its title promises: configuration, deployment, and administration. Although this book does provide brief introductory details about Java EE, the book assumes that the reader will look to focused books or tutorials for detailed information on Java EE. This allows the book to focus on administration and configuration of and deployment to JBoss AS 7.

Although examples in the book specifically use Eclipse, MySQL, and Windows, the descriptions and explanations are broad enough to cover other choices of IDE, database, and operating system respectively. The illustrations assuming one of these are relatively rare and most of the discussion is more general to JBoss AS 7 rather than to any of these supporting products. In many of these cases, alternatives (and how to use those alternatives) are mentioned. The final chapter (cloud computing with OpenShift) and the Appendix (common commands and operations) provide Linux-based examples.

There is a small number of typos and a few instances of questionable sentence structure, but the author's writing style generally flows easily and is easy to follow. There are numerous drawings, tables, and screen snapshots to illustrate points and highlight the more important details. I like the significant white space and the call outs for special notes and observations.

Chapter 1: Installing JBoss AS 7

Because I have not used JBoss for several years, I needed to install JBoss AS 7 and this chapter provides an easy guide to doing that. The chapter begins with brief coverage of the usefulness of Java EE application servers and of JBoss AS 7's high-level design. It then moves into the practical steps necessary for installing JBoss AS 7. The author recommends in one of the "important notes" that readers download and use the Java 6 SDK, but does acknowledge that Java SE 7 SDK is available and should work fine with JBoss AS 7. The chapter discusses installation on Windows and Linux/Unix and even includes a "tip/trick" highlighting of installation on Windows Vista. The chapter goes beyond basic installation (which amounts to uncompressing archive files) to discuss starting and stopping JBoss AS 7 and using Command Line Interface (CLI) to connect to it locally and remotely.

The initial chapter also discusses installation of Eclipse ("the development environment used in this book"). Besides downloading and installing Eclipse (Indigo), the chapter also discusses installation of the JBoss AS plugins (part of JBoss Tools) for Eclipse.

One of my favorite parts of this initial chapter is its coverage of the application server's directory structure and differentiation of JBoss AS 7's "standalone servers and domain servers." This was an important distinction for me coming back to JBoss after such a long period of time, but was an easy one to grasp because of my familiarity with GlassFish. After differentiating between the types of servers supported in JBoss AS 7, the section concludes with coverage of several significant directories/folders in the JBoss AS 7 installation.

Chapter 2: Configuring the Application Server

With JBoss AS 7 and tools (Eclipse) installed, it is natural to move onto configuring the JBoss AS 7 instance. This chapter had some surprises for me, including starting with this: "The application configuration has also been renewed, moving from a large set of XML files to a single monolithic file." The chapter discusses this single file and covers its default names (depending on server configuration). It goes through the configuration file one major section at a time, detailing how to configure the server in each area. There is quite a bit in this chapter on configuring logging. Another thing I learned here that has changed in JBoss in recent years is default use of its own logging framework.

Chapter 3: Configuring Enterprise Services

The third chapter is on configuring enterprise services. This chapter specifically focuses on configuring database connectivity, EJB container, messaging service, and transaction service.

The section of Chapter 3 on configuring database connectivity mentions that JBoss AS 7 comes with the H2 open source database server built in, but then uses MySQL for its examples. I liked how this chapter compared and contrasted how database configuration was performed in previous versions of JBoss AS to how it is now done in JBoss AS 7. The chapter demonstrates XML-based configuration of a data source (and how it was similar to that used in previous versions of the JBoss application server), but then also shows how to use the Java EE 6 annotation @DataSourceDefinition to programmatically configure the data source in conjunction with an EJB 3.1 Singleton EJB.

Chapter 3's section on configuring the EJB container starts by introducing the basics of EJBs with specific introductory focus on the "new EJB 3.1 variants introduced by Java EE 6": Singleton EJB, No-Interface EJB, and Asynchronous EJB. The chapter discusses in detail how to configure the different types of EJBs. It also points out the built-in JMS support in JBoss AS 7 provided by HornetQ. It also covers configuration related to JBoss AS 7's/HornetQ's use of Netty.

The section of Chapter 3 on configuring transactions introduces the Java Transaction API. It then explains how to configure the JTA support for timeouts and statistics gathering.

Chapter 4: JBoss Web Server Configuration

The focus of the fourth chapter of JBoss AS 7: Configuration, Deployment, and Administration is on configuration of the JBoss web server (JBoss Web), which is based on a fork of Tomcat 7. The chapter discusses HTTP connectors, including JBoss Web's built-in Coyote HTTP 1.1 connector and the Apache Portable Runtime (APR) connector. The chapter shows how to separately download and use the ARP connector with JBoss AS 7.

The chapter of JBoss Web server covers configuration of static (HTML/images) and dynamic (JSP) resources and then moves onto discussion of deploying JavaServer Faces (JSF)-based applications on JBoss AS 7. The author points out: "Currently, JBoss AS 7 supports the JSF release 2.1 using the Mojarra implementation, although there are plans for supporting MyFaces implementation too." The chapter then demonstrates using Eclipse to create a JSF project and adding an EJB layer to that application. The chapter also demonstrates adding JPA-based persistence (including how to switch the JPA provider from default Hibernate 4), setting a custom web context, and deploying the web application.

Chapter 5: Configuring a JBoss AS Domain

The fifth chapter concludes the chapters on configuration by providing a more detailed look at configuring JBoss AS 7 domains. Of particular interest to me is the sections on configuring the JVM and providing JVM options. I also found the author's use of VisualVM to be helpful. This detailed chapter introduces domain terminology, explains what a domain is, and explains why a domain does not provide the same functionality or purpose as node clustering. It provides thorough detail on configuring domains.

Chapter 6: Deploying Applications on JBoss AS 7

Deployment to JBoss AS 7 is the focus of Chapter 6. The chapter begins with an introduction to JAR, WAR, EAR, RAR, and SAR files and then goes onto more detailed (but still thankfully brief) coverage of the first three types of archive files.

After covering JAR, WAR, and EAR, the chapter moves onto coverage of manual and automatic deployments to JBoss AS 7. I was happy to see coverage of using CLI to deploy from the command line, but fans of deploying via web page will be happy to know that there is also coverage of deploying from the web administration console. The chapter also demonstrates deploying from the Eclipse IDE.

The most significant bane of my Java development experience has probably been classloaders, which become tricky when application servers, IDEs, and frameworks like Spring are involved. With this in mind, I was happy to see a section in the sixth chapter called "JBoss AS 7 classloading explained." Several pages are devoted to using JBoss's provided mechanism for appropriately dealing with classes used by the application server as well as the deployed applications. The chapter also talks about using Java EE's standard approach of specifying Class-Path in the MANIFEST.MF file.

Chapter 7: Managing the Application Server

The seventh chapter focuses on managing JBoss AS 7 via the command line-based CLI tool and the web-based Web admin console. Differentiation is made between CLI commands and CLI operations. I find the sections "Executing CLI scripts in batch" and "Executing scripts in a file" to be particularly interesting from a CLI perspective. The first section talks about CLI support for a group of commands as an atomic unit and the second section talks about writing file-based administration scripts. The book further peaks my interest in CLI by explaining how to take snapshots in CLI and how to display CLI history.

Although I find that I use command line-based tools for configuration, administration, and deployment of an application server in the long-run, web-based or other graphically-oriented tools are often nice when first using an application server or when trying to figure new things out. In other words, I prefer command line scripting for routine tasks and prefer graphically-oriented administrative tools for new or unusual tasks. The second half of Chapter 7 covers using "The new Web admin console."

Chapter 7's coverage of the history of JBoss's web administrative consoles is a good example of how the overall book does a nice job of comparing and contrasting different versions of JBoss tools. The chapter points out the advantages and limitations of the jmx-console approach (versions of JBoss up to JBoss 4.x) and the Seam-based Web admin console (JBoss 5.x and 6.x) before covering JBoss AS 7's GWT-based Web admin console. As one would expect, the section on Web admin console is filled with screen snapshots demonstrating the Web admin console in action.

Chapter 8: Clustering

One of the things many of us want from our application server is clustering functionality, which is the theme of Chapter 8 (load balancing of web applications is covered in the next chapter). The chapter points out several facets of clustering that have changed in JBoss AS 7. It also covers how JGroups and Infinispan are used to implement JBoss clustering. This is an information--packed chapter that I will be sure to read again before using JBoss AS 7 clustering.

Chapter 9: Load-balancing Web Applications

Chapter 9 covers load-balancing of web applications. The chapter only briefly covers installation of Tomcat's mod_jk and Apache's mod_proxy to connect the Apache web server to JBoss AS 7 because "the installation of either mod_jk or mod_proxy does not differ from earlier AS releases." The remainder of the chapter focused on load balancing covers mod_cluster (new to JBoss AS 7). The chapter concludes by returning to discussion of clustering. The author references the JBoss AS 7.1 High Availability Guide for continuing developments related to JBoss AS 7's clustering support.

Chapter 10: Securing JBoss AS 7

Chapter 10 of JBoss AS 7: Configuration, Deployment, and Administration is focused on security, an increasingly popular topic. Reading about security is often my best cure for insomnia, but there were some interesting nuggets in this chapter that kept my attention.

The chapter introduces PicketBox (formerly known as JBoss Security), the security framework upon which JBoss AS 7's security is built. It then provides a basic overview of Java's security API and provide definitions of key security terms in a Java EE context. This thorough chapter covers a wide range of security-related topics as they pertain to JBoss AS 7.

Chapter 11: Taking JBoss AS 7 in the Cloud

The final chapter is devoted to the trendiest topic of them all: cloud computing. The central focus of this chapter is Red Hat's OpenShift (PaaS). The author does as good a job as I have seen of describing cloud computing and I particularly liked the contrasting of cloud computing to grid computing. The majority of the chapter discusses starting with OpenShift Express and then transitioning to OpenShift Flex.

Appendix

The Appendix is six pages of "common commands and operations" that provides an easy access reference. Although the shown commands use Linux script jboss-admin.sh, the alternative for Windows (jboss-admin.bat) is shown at the beginning of the appendix. The subsections of the appendix are Startup Options, General Commands, Domain Mode, JMS, Data sources, mod_cluster, Batch, and Snapshots.

Conclusion

JBoss AS 7: Configuration, Deployment, and Administration delivers what it's title promises: an introduction and in-depth coverage of configuring and administrating and deploying to JBoss AS 7. Along the way, the book manages to provide differences in JBoss AS 7 from previous versions and to provide introductory details about aspects of Java EE supported in JBoss AS 7. This is not the book one would learn how to write JavaServer Pages, JavaServer Faces applications, EJBs, or other Java EE code from. However, it is the book one would learn how to deploy a Java EE application to JBoss AS 7 and how to maintain and configure JBoss AS 7 to most efficiently support Java EE applications.

Other Reviews

Other reviews of JBoss AS 7: Configuration, Deployment, and Administration are available. These include Markus Eisele's Review: "JBoss AS7 Configuration, Deployment and Administration" by Francesco Marchioni, Rick Wagner's Book Review for "JBoss AS 7 Configuration Deployment and Administration" (unfinished version of the book), Maksim Sorokin's [PACKT] JBoss AS 7 Configuration, Deployment and Administration (announcing review coming), and David Salter's Forthcoming Book Review (announcing review coming).

First Impressions of Book 'JBoss AS 7 Configuration, Deployment and Administration'

Packt Publishing recently invited me to review the book JBoss AS 7 Configuration, Deployment and Administration. I readily accepted because I have not used or even read about JBoss in several years and welcomed the opportunity to read about its latest features. In this post, I provide a very brief first impression of the PDF version of this book similar to the brief preliminary review I previously provided of the Packt book Java EE 6 Development with NetBeans 7. I intend to provide a more thorough review of JBoss AS 7 Configuration, Deployment and Administration in a future post with a level of detail similar to that I provided for Java EE 6 Development with NetBeans 7.

The subtitle of author Francesco Marchioni's book JBoss AS 7 Configuration, Deployment and Administration is: "Build a fully-functional, efficient application server using JBoss AS." The "About the Author" section of the book states that Marchioni runs the site http://www.mastertheboss.com/, which has a main page with the subtitle "JBoss and Java EE tutorials." Two links currently shown on that main page are to posts about publication of JBoss AS 7 Configuration, Deployment and Administration and about winning a free copy of JBoss AS 7 Configuration, Deployment and Administration. Marchioni has also written the books JBoss AS 5 Development and JBoss AS 5 Performance Tuning.

The Packt Publishing page for JBoss AS 7 Configuration, Deployment and Administration provides a look at the book's Table of Contents, provides a free sample chapter, and provides more details on what the book covers.

Perusing the Table of Contents of JBoss AS 7 Configuration, Deployment and Administration leads me to believe that the 11 chapters will provide broad coverage of administrating and developing with JBoss AS 7. The chapters include the titles Installing JBoss AS 7, Configuring the Application Server, Configuring Enterprise Services, JBoss Web Server Configuration, Configuring a JBoss AS Domain, Deploying Applications on JBoss AS 7, Managing the Application Server, Clustering, Load-balancing Web Applications, Securing JBoss AS 7, and the particular trendy title Taking JBoss AS 7 in the Cloud. The Appendix looks useful with sections summarizing options and commands for JBoss 7 Command Line Interface (CLI).

I look forward to reading JBoss AS 7 Configuration, Deployment and Administration and learning more about JBoss AS 7. I will post a lengthier review based on my experience reading it.