Wildfly getting started

Introduction

Wildfly is an application server authored by Red Hat. It is written in Java, and implements the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) specification. It runs on multiple platforms.

Wildfly versions earlier than 8.0.0 are available under the name of JBoss Application Server. Indeed in November 2014, JBoss Application Server was renamed WildFly.

WildFly is free and open-source software, subject to the requirements of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), version 2.1.

Installing Wildfly

In this page you can download all wildfly versions. Unzip (or untar) in a folder (that show you how to WILDFLY_HOME). Wildfly requires the Java SE 8 or later.  Now add in $WILDFLY_HOME/bin/standalone.conf your java settings, for example:

 export JAVA_HOME=/opt/jdk/1.8.0_91
 export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin
 export CLASSPATH=$JAVA_HOME/lib 

So now you can starting your wildfly

 cd $WILDFLY_FOLDER/bin
 ./standalone.sh

if you want the wildfly process in background and active after your logut from the server so use the following command:

 nohup $WILDFLY_HOME/bin/standalone.sh > $WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/log/nohup.out &

Finally for stop you can kill the java process.

Wildfly Configuration

Memory Configuration

If the wildfly shows the following error during starting:

 Unrecognized VM option 'MetaspaceSize=96M'
 Could not create the Java virtual machine.

so it's needs an update of memory size, in $WILDFLY_HOME/bin/standalone.conf the default memory size is:

JAVA_OPTS="-Xms64m -Xmx512m -XX:MetaspaceSize=96M -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=256m -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true"

you increase the memory according your needs, for example:

 JAVA_OPTS="-Xms2048m -Xmx2048m -XX:MetaspaceSize=256M -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=512m -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true" 

Enable the remote Access

The Wildfly default configuration in $WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone.xml file about the interfaces is the following:

<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:127.0.0.1}"/>
        </interface>
</interfaces>

If you want provides the remote access of your Wildfly you need the following replace the configuration in standalone.xml as below:

<interfaces> 
        <interface name="management">
            <inet-address value="${jboss.bind.address.management:0.0.0.0}"/>
        </interface>
        <interface name="public">
            <inet-address value="${jboss.bind.address:0.0.0.0}"/>
        </interface>
        <interface name="unsecure">
            <inet-address value="${jboss.bind.address.unsecure:0.0.0.0}"/>
        </interface>
</interfaces>

After the Wildfly restart, it will be accessible from remote hosts.

Oracle Data Source 

Follow the steps below to install the oracle data source:

1. Download the ojdbc driver from Oracle. 
2. Create a subfolder $WILDFLY_HOME/modules/system/layers/base/com/oracle/db/main.
3. Copy the driver (downloaded in step 1) in folder created in step 2.
4. Always in this folder, create a file with name module.xml. 
5. Edit module.xml as the example below. Note: replace <version> according the driver downloaded in step 1.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<module xmlns="urn:jboss:module:1.1" name="com.oracle.db">
    <resources>
        <resource-root path="ojdbc<version>.jar"/>
        <!-- Insert resources here -->
    </resources>
    <dependencies>
        <module name="javax.api"/>
        <module  name="javax.transaction.api"/>
    </dependencies>
</module>

6. Add the oracle driver editing $WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone.xml, xml tag with name <drivers>. 

<driver name="oracle" module="com.oracle.db">
        <driver-class>oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver</driver-class>
</driver>

7. Always in this file, add the datasource in <datasources>. Replace the highlighted params: 

8. <datasource jndi-name="java:/[name]" pool-name="[pool-name]" enabled="true" use-java-context="true">
        <connection-url>jdbc:oracle:thin:@[hostname]:1521:[sid]</connection-url>
        <driver>oracle</driver>
        <security>
             <user-name>[your_user]</user-name>
             <password>[password]</password>
        </security>
   </datasource>

   Always in this file, add in <subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:ee:4.0">
   

   <global-modules>
        <module name="com.oracle.db" slot="main"/>
   </global-modules>

Enable the CXF logger

Add in $WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone.xml file (in system-properties xml tag, if the tag is not exist, you can add it as child node of server xml tag) the following system property:

 <system-properties>  
  ....  
  <property name="org.apache.cxf.logging.enabled" value="true"/>  
  ....  
 </system-properties>  

Alternatively you can use the following setting value="pretty" for nicely formatted xml output.

 <system-properties>  
  ....  
  <property name="org.apache.cxf.logging.enabled" value="pretty"/>  
  ....  
 </system-properties>  

Also in this case it is necessary to restart.

GZip

gzip (GNU zip) is a compression utility designed to be a replacement for compress. To improve the performance of a web application you can take advantage of gzip to compress web contents as js, css, etc ...
Add in $WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone.xml file (in system-properties xml tag, if the tag is not exist, you can add it as child node of server xml tag)  the following system properties:

<system-properties>
        .......
        <property name="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol.COMPRESSION" value="on"/>
        <property name="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol.COMPRESSION_MIME_TYPES" value="text/javascript,text/css,text/html"/>
        .......
</system-properties>

Deployment Scanner configuration

The deployment scanner is only used in standalone mode. To enable the hot deploy the deployment-scanner subsystem must be to set the auto-deploy-exploded to "true" in $WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone.xml.

<subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:deployment-scanner:1.0">
    <deployment-scanner 
        scan-interval="5000"
        relative-to="jboss.server.base.dir" 
        path="deployments"
        auto-deploy-exploded="true" />
</subsystem>

Now copy the package (war, ear, rar, etc..) in $WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/deployments folder and create an empty file with <package_name>.dodeploy:

 cp my-app.war $WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/deployments
 touch my-app.war.dodeploy

When the deployment is done with success,  Wildfly will automatically create the following file:

 my-app.war.deployed

Instead for undeploy, remove the file with suffix ".deployed" and create the file with suffix .skipdeploy, if we want undeploy the package of previus example:

 rm my-app.war.deployed
 touch my-app.war.skipdeploy

When the undeployment is done with success, Wildfly will automatically create the following file:

 my-app.war.undeployed

For previous versions with name JBoss, the undeploy is different. Indeed, you mast create a file with suffix .undeploy. Example:

 rm my-app.war.deployed
touch my-app.war.undeploy

When the undeployment is done with success,  JBoss AS will automatically create the following file:

 my-app.war.undeployed

External Links

1. Wildfly official page
2. Wildfly download page
3. Oracle Drive - Download Page