Install JBoss 7.1 on CentOS 6

This post will cover installing JBoss 7.1.1 on CentOS 6.x.

We'll also set up JBoss to run as a service, as well as set up access to the management console

Finally, we will look at how run JBoss on port 80 or, alternatively, placing JBoss behind Apache.

In this post, we will set up the JBoss 7.1.1 in Standalone mode. In a subsequent post we will look at setting up JBoss 7.1.1 in Domain mode.
Step 1: Install the Java 6 or 7


Firstly, we will need to install Java.

JBoss 7.1.1 will work with JDK 6 or JDK 7.

I'm using JDK 7, update 5.

You can download the JDK here: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html

The instructions below will also work with JDK 6, you just need to change the file names accordingly.


Start by creating a directory /usr/java.


[root@dev2 ~]# mkdir /usr/java


Download jdk-7u5-linux-x64.tar.gz (or latest) and save to /usr/java directory you created above.


[root@dev2 java]# ls
jdk-7u5-linux-x64.tar.gz


Extract it:


[root@dev2 java]# tar -zxf  jdk-7u5-linux-x64.tar.gz


This will create the directory, /usr/java/jdk1.7.0_05, this will be our JAVA_HOME.


[root@dev2 java]# ls
jdk1.7.0_05  jdk-7u5-linux-x64.tar.gz
[root@dev2 java]# cd jdk1.7.0_05
[root@dev2 jdk1.7.0_05]# pwd
/usr/java/jdk1.7.0_05


Note: If you decided to use JDK 6 rather than 7 as we did above, simply save the JDK 6 bin file to /opt (or another location), then navigate to /usr/java and issue: 'sh /opt/jdk-6u33-linux-x64.bin' as shown below (substitute whichever version you downloaded). This will create a JAVA Home of /usr/java/jdk1.6.0.33


[root@dev2 ~]#cd /usr/java
[root@dev2 java]# sh /opt/jdk-6u33-linux-x64.bin



Step 2: Download and Install JBoss 7.1.1 Application Server


Change to the /usr/share directory:


[root@dev2 jdk1.7.0_05]# cd /usr/share


Download jboss-as-7.1.1.Final.zip at http://www.jboss.org/jbossas/downloads and save it to /usr/share. Or, use wget:


[root@dev2 share]# wget http://download.jboss.org/jbossas/7.1/jboss-as-7.1.1.Final/jboss-as-7.1.1.Final.zip


Unzip the file:


[root@dev2 share]# unzip -q jboss-as-7.1.1.Final.zip


Rename jboss-as-7.1.1.Final to jboss-as. This isn't strictly necessary, but it will save you the bother of changing the start up script later.


[root@dev2 share]# mv jboss-as-7.1.1.Final jboss-as


Our JBOSS_HOME is '/usr/share/jboss-as'.


[root@dev2 share]# cd jboss-as
[root@dev2 jboss-as]# pwd
/usr/share/jboss-as


Step 3: Create the user jboss, who will own and run JBoss


Since we will want to run JBoss as a non-root user with minimal privileges, we'll create a user, jboss, who will own the JBoss files and JBoss will run under his account.

To do this, do the following.

Create a new group, jboss, and then create the user jboss and add the user to the jboss group.


[root@dev2 share]# groupadd jboss
[root@dev2 share]# useradd -s /bin/bash -g jboss jboss


Change ownership of the JBoss home directory, /usr/share/jboss-as so all files are owned by the user jboss we created.


[root@dev2 share]# chown -Rf jboss.jboss /usr/share/jboss-as/


Step 4: Put Java into the path of jboss


Now, we need to put Java into the path of the user jboss (as well as any other users you like)

The JAVA_HOME is where we installed the JDK above: /usr/java/jdk1.7.0_05

Add the following to the .bash_profile of the user jboss:


JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.7.0_05
export JAVA_HOME
PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
export PATH


Switch to the user jboss and issue 'java -version' to verify that Java is now in the users path.


[root@dev2 ~]# su - jboss
[jboss@dev2 ~]$ java -version
java version "1.7.0_05"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_05-b06)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.1-b03, mixed mode)
[jboss@dev2 ~]$


Step 5: Create a start/stop/restart script for JBoss.


To create our JBoss script, we will copy the jboss-as-standalone.sh script located under /usr/share/jboss-as/bin/init.d

As root, copy jboss-as-standalone.sh to /etc/init.d and rename it jboss

.

[root@dev2 ~]# cd /usr/share/jboss-as/bin/init.d
[root@dev2 bin]# cp jboss-as-standalone.sh /etc/init.d/jboss


The only change I needed to make two changes to the script

The first was to change line #5 below from it's original '# chkconfig: - 80 20' to '# chkconfig: 234 80 20' The second was to set the JBOSS_USER.

To set the JBOSS_USER, add the following lines to script:

JBOSS_USER=jboss
export JBOSS_USER

You can add the lines just under 'export JAVA_HOME' on line 18 or so below. So the beginning of your script will look like this:


#!/bin/sh
#
# JBoss standalone control script
#
# chkconfig: 234 80 20
# description: JBoss AS Standalone
# processname: standalone
# pidfile: /var/run/jboss-as/jboss-as-standalone.pid
# config: /etc/jboss-as/jboss-as.conf

# Source function library.
. /etc/init.d/functions

# Load Java configuration.
[ -r /etc/java/java.conf ] && . /etc/java/java.conf
export JAVA_HOME
 
JBOSS_USER=jboss
export JBOSS_USER

# Load JBoss AS init.d configuration.
if [ -z "$JBOSS_CONF" ]; then
  JBOSS_CONF="/etc/jboss-as/jboss-as.conf"
fi
 
[ -r "$JBOSS_CONF" ] && . "${JBOSS_CONF}"

# Set defaults.
 
if [ -z "$JBOSS_HOME" ]; then
  JBOSS_HOME=/usr/share/jboss-as
fi
export JBOSS_HOME


Step 6: Run JBoss as a Service.


To run JBoss as a service and enable start up at boot, make the script we created above executable and add it to our chkconfig so it starts at boot.


[root@dev2 init.d]# chmod 755 jboss
[root@dev2 init.d]# chkconfig --add jboss
[root@dev2 init.d]# chkconfig --level 234 jboss on


We should now be able to Start, Stop, and Restart JBoss as a service.

Start JBoss (JBoss can take some time to start, but it is faster than JBoss 6).:


[root@dev2 init.d]# service jboss start
Starting jboss-as:                                         [  OK  ]
[root@dev2 init.d]#  


Stop JBoss:

[root@dev2 init.d]# service jboss stop
Stopping jboss-as: *** JBossAS process (25794) received TERM signal ***
                                                           [  OK  ]


Step 7: Change bind address to make JBoss accessible.


By default, JBoss 7.1.1 is bound to the loopback IP of 127.0.0.1, so if we want to make it available on the web, we need to change this.

Locate standalone.xml under /usr/share/jboss-as/standalone/configuration/.

Open standalone.xml in vi or a text editor and look for the public interfaces node as shown below.

<interface name="public">
<inet-address value="${jboss.bind.address:127.0.0.1}"/>
</interface>

To make JBoss publicly accessible, change 127.0.0.1 to either 0.0.0.0 to allow access on all interfaces or to your public IP.

So, for example, if your public IP is 173.194.35.177, you would change it as so:


<interfaces>
        <interface name="management">
            <inet-address value="${jboss.bind.address.management:127.0.0.1}"/>
        </interface>
        <interface name="public">
            <inet-address value="${jboss.bind.address:173.194.35.177}"/>
        </interface>
        <!-- TODO - only show this if the jacorb subsystem is added  -->
        <interface name="unsecure">
            <!--
              ~  Used for IIOP sockets in the standard configuration.
              ~                  To secure JacORB you need to setup SSL  
              -->
            <inet-address value="${jboss.bind.address.unsecure:127.0.0.1}"/>
        </interface>
    </interfaces>


Again, if you wish to have JBoss publicly accessible on all interfaces, use 0.0.0.0 in place of your IP above.

Save your changes, start up JBoss, and check it is publicly accessible via http://yourIP:8080


[root@dev2 init.d]# service jboss start
Starting jboss-as:                                         [  OK  ]