Friday, May 2, 2008

Install jManage Application Management Platform as a service

Overview

jManage 2.0 is an open source application management platform, which provides a centralized console for managing application clusters and distributed-application environments. jManage platform provides advanced features like Dashboards, Alerts, Graphs, Connectors, Security, SNMP support and more.

jManage is a web based application and is used for managing applications in Development, QA, Staging and Production environments. It has a single point, web-based access to all your resources. It is possible to access any server or other 'managed' application in your network, make adjustments or invoke actions, all from single point web based console.

More details about jManage is available at jManage's web site.

Install jManage as a Service

Out of the box, jManage comes with an embedded jetty servlet engine। When the application is started using the available batch commands in Windows environment, it starts in a console mode.

I will add detailed steps here to enable jManage as a service in Windows and Unix/Linux environments. Make sure you should have JDK 1.5 to run jManage 2.0

Windows Environment:

1. Download jManage Application from jManage web site and unzip it into a folder of your choice.
2. Download the tarfile to a temp directory and untar the contents. Please click here to download the tar file

Tar File Contents:


1. jmanage (Unix/Linux based .sh file)
2. libwrapper.so
3. wrapper.conf
4. wrapper.dll
5. wrapper.exe
6. wrapper.jar
7. JManage.bat
8. InstallJManage-NT.bat
9. UninstallJManage-NT.bat
10.wrapper


Where to place the above mentioned Files?


  1. Place jmanage (.sh file), JManage.bat, InstallJManage-NT.bat, UninstallJManage-NT.bat and wrapper.exe and wrapper in the bin directory of JManage installation.
  2. Place wrapper.conf in the config folder of JManage installation
  3. Place wrapper.dll, libwrapper.so and wrapper.jar in the lib folder of
    JManage installation
Thats it.



Instructions to Install and Running in Windows NT based Environment:

The JManage.bat will help run the application in console mode. You can
test the app using this batch file. You may use InstallJManage-NT.bat to
install it as a service in Windows NT based environment.

The UninstallJManage-NT.bat can be used to uninstall the service.

To see the application listed as service, please use Control Panel> Administrative Tools > Services option and locate JManage application in the list. Right click and then start the
application. The application is configured in such a way that it will start automatically when the operating system boots up.

Instructions to Install and start the application in UNIX/Linux environment:

In UNIX/Linux Environments, you will be using the .sh file we placed in the bin directory of JManage installation. The file name is JManage without the .sh extension.

e.g. Assuming JManage is installed in /usr/app

CONSOLE MODE:

/usr/app/JManage/bin/JManage console

The above command will run the application in console mode.

The application can be terminated by hitting CTRL-C in the command window. This will cause the Wrapper to shut down the application cleanly. This is same in Windows environment as well.

DAEMON PROCESS:

The application can be run as a detatched daemon process by executing the script using the start command.

/usr/app/JManage/bin/JManage start
Running My Application...

To Stop
/usr/app/JManage/bin/JManage stop
Stopping JManage Application...
Stopped JManage Application.

However, there is one caveat to this approach. jManage out of the box requires the users to supply a password when the application starts up. I have to hard code this password as one of the parameters in the wrapper.conf file.

Please note the following lines in wrapper.conf file

wrapper.app.parameter.3=123456
wrapper.app.parameter.7=123456

If you are planning to generate a new password and if you want to use a new password, then you will have to modify the above said line to reflect the new password.