Easing the task of Java server deployment

• By Scott Adams
• September 9, 2002

[PROGRAMMERS REPORT -Sept 10, 2002] - Enterprise developers know that the days are gone when you might safely throw applications over the proverbial wall to a crew of configurators. But few developers happily embrace new work that is heaped on after an application -- particularly a Java application -- is, for all intents and purposes, done. With the advent of Java components and containers, the job of creating descriptors for deployment can bog down a project just when the end is in sight.

App server vendor and toolmaker Sybase Inc. is touting its facilities for Java app server deployment these days. The lineage of the firm's software (from the earliest days of Java, the company endeavored to support multichannel deployment), once something of a drawback, is now something of an asset, as the means Sybase put in place for diverse Java deployments are proving useful.

Count user TRW as a user impressed with Sybase's EAServer developer-oriented tools that allow scripted, automated deployment and configuration. The ability to quickly code and run service components to cache tremendous amounts of data during server startup is also an EAServer deployment benefit, said Bob Glass, senior analyst at TRW.

With the EAServer GUI, 'it is very easy to do anything dynamic in terms of generating stubs or skeletons or configuring EJB properties,' said Glass. 'We have finer control over deployment and runtime settings.'

An important attribute of EAServer deployment tools is an 'application rollback' facility, said Omkar Bhongir, Sybase's director of product marketing for EAServer. This allows you to roll back to a known, good server personality when unexpected events coincide with an application rollout.

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