Review of a video lesson, about JBoss EAP / WildFly

JBoss EAP Configuration, Deployment, and Administration [Video] from Packt Publishing

I have reviewed the learning video, about JBoss AS and WildFly : JBoss EAP Configuration, Deployment, and Administration [Video] from Packt Publishing.

It is a very interesting video, and a good way to learn the administration of JBoss AS7, WildFly and EAP.

It smoothly introduce you to the use of JBoss, for beginners as well as for the one that already knows the former versions of JBoss AS (version 4, 5,...).

It describes in a simple way how to start with JBoss WildFly, and introduces you to the major concepts and tools. The chapter one explains how to start the server in standalone and domain mode, and where are the configuration files, etc...

In chapter 2, the DataSources and the JMS Messaging Queues are well explained. The focus is on simple things, that allows a good way to see how things are done with JBoss AS, for these main base things of many applications.

The chapter 3 is a nice way to learn basic management of the Java Virtual Machine, applied to JBoss servers, and how to diagnostics troubles with the Garbage Collector, the Java Threads, the Java Heap Memory, and how to capture and use the Java Thread Dumps, and Java Heap Dump. It shows few things when using tools such as java JStack, JPS, or other tools such as Samurai for Thread Dump analysis, or Eclipse MAT (Memory Analyzer) for analysing Java Heap Dumps.

The chapter 4 explains the clustering and Mod_Cluster startup. It is a getting started of the clustering configurations and startup of servers.

The chapter 5 is a well round tour on the module and classloading matters, with JBoss. It is simple and shows well these important change in JBoss since version 7 and WildFly. It is a very nice introduction to this matter, before to go further, with deeper aspect for specific application needs.

In the chapter 6, some review of nice and complementary features of JBoss, such as the asynchroneous servlet, that comes with J2EE 6, and SSL connection to JBoss in case we need this instead of the use of SSL with some front Apache Httpd server, the security using JAAS, etc... An interesting this is how to secure the passwords in JBoss, that is not to let passwords in clear in the configuration files, but instead to use a Vault. These kind of usual things are very good to set, for an industrial and professional use of JBoss servers.

The chapter 7 is about tools, such as the JBoss Tools plugin for Eclipse. It shows how to use Eclipse and Maven. These tools have greatly improved, during the past 3 years, and are now mature and runs smoothly. This chapter show things you may need, if you are not familiar, yet, to use Eclipse and Maven with JBoss Tools, to build your J2EE applications. There is also an quick presentation on how to run a test suite in Arquillian.

Chapter 8 is about logs. A few things are new, with JBoss AS7, but nothing tremendous in this chapter. It is just a chapter that "has to be there". Something interesting is how to change the log levels with the CLI, in domain mode. This is usefull for production administration as well as solving problems on a prod running plateform. There is also a introduction about the Asynchroneous Handler (ASync Handler) and an example where the performances of the server are much better with the ASync Handler for logs.

The only defect in this video is that, in my humble opinion, the first chapter should have more schema of the servers, for the domain mode : the master and slaves hosts, the controler server and the servers groups, etc... should be explained with some quick view, or animated cartoons, instead of just "talking about them". But still, this is a very minor defect, and that can easily overstepped.

Globally, the video covers all the chapters and things that is usefull to manage some JBoss servers.

The video format instead of the text and images reading ?

The video makes the whole learning process much more easy.
It is more easy to understand what is explain, and to understand because you see the result running in front of you. Showing the result is not possible with a book !

The drawback, because there is always one : the video always shows less details.
As an example, a video won't show the exhaustive list of all the options or parameters of a feature. The video will more skim over the subject, than provide a full learning of the details.

But the video is very pleasant, and is a very good way to introduce to the JBoss EAP Configuration, Deployment, and Administration.
It is always time, after, to go deeper into details, with the JBoss Admin and Reference Guide.

Globally, these video are well done, and provide a very good overview and introduction to the use of JBoss EAP.
It saves time when starting or updating your knowledge about JBoss EAP, and it is a good way, instead of starting with the Administration and Reference Guide, which is not the easy way.