Java J2EE Server
I'm thinking in the following solution for a (full) J2EE webserver:
Fedora->Apache->JBoss AS(has tomcat)-> J2EE SDK. which is full compliant with J2EE specification.
But I'm also considering a Sun solution:
Solaris->Java Web Server-> Sun Java System Application Server or a combination of both.
I'm almost sure I should go for the first solution, but in order to avoid any future regrets, I would appreciate if
you could help me with the following simple questions.
1 - I heard that Tomcat (which belongs to JBoss) can run standalone, without Apache.
What are disavantages and advantages of having Apache?
2 - Since both JBoss and Sun Java System Application Server, fully implement J2EE specification, I only use one right?
(if so, since J2EE SDK has J2SE SDK and Java App Server, I should only install J2SE SDK right?)
3 - I read that minimum requirements for JBoss AS is (among other things) 512 MB of RAM. And Java App Server only 256.
Does this mean Java App Server has best performance and scales better than JBoss with the same Hardware?
If so, the difference of what order of magnitude? (to know if it's balanced and acceptable by advantages of the JBoss
Solution). May this be because JBoss is interpreted not compiled to machine-specific-code?
4 - Despite I won't run my server on my laptop, I would like to develop there, with the end server environment.
Can I use JBoss with only 256 MB of memory, for development and testing purposes? Or it won't suffice, so I must buy
more?
5 - Suppose my company site becomes so popular that I have thousands of concurrent users and need a very secure, reliable
fast website, distributed over different CPU's.
Does the "Sun Solution", or a mixed solution with sun parts, keeps free or it will require non-free versions of
the parts? (regarding the first solution, if I'm not mistaken, it keeps free even to a high demanding enterprise site)
(please ignore diferences in wages expenses due to avaibility of developers)
6 - Since free solutions obviously don't have official support. And programming always has lots of debugging and
implementation hard to solve problems, a large online community is very important. I already reduced that very much when
I chose Java over PHP.
Choosing the Sun Solution or a mixed solution with some of its parts can cause me lot's of problems because of the
reduced number of people in the same context? Or the solutions are so analogous and similar that the problems have the
same causes and solutions? If the former, due to what parts of the sun solution?
(I think this point my old a great advantage for the first solution)
7 - Will I loose much if I choose JBoss and therefore don't have Java Apps Server Tools? namely:
Admin Console, asadmin, asant, appclient, capture-schema, deploytool, package-appclient, verifier, wscompile, wsdeploy.
Or there are similar tools for JBoss with the same easiness of use?
8 - What do I need to support Java Server Faces (JSF) and Java Standard Tag Library (JSTL) on JBoss? That supports is
easy to install and set up or my hold disavantages compared with Java App Server out of the box support?
9 - As far as I know, MVC is like a design "pattern" for separating Input Logic, Presentation Logic, and Business/Internal
Logic. Therefore I associate it with a way of structuring and developing a program, and not with development or
server software. Is this interpretation correct? What is the role of Struts here?
10 - I haven't aborded seriously the database issue yet because the wide use of MySQL makes me think is the best option.
Is this correct regarding performance, price, online community, integration with mid-thier?
What is hibernate and its relationship to J2EE/JDBC?
11 - I keep seeing everywhere J2EE and other sun technologies is made for Red Hat Enterprise Server. Since it's paid.
Should I choose Fedora Core, CentOs, Red Hat 9? Are there advantages/disavantages of each?
12 - There are differences in SSL support over the different solutions?
Thank you very much for your support,
Pedro Vaz
