Programming Managed Server to Server Communication

Question

Hi
We have a start up class that sets system properties used by our EJB's. We would like to be able to call a class that reloads these properties at any time without having to restart the server.
We tried using JMX, but we had problems with the MBean calling down to classes in our EAR. Since they were loaded by different classloaders. We also would try like to keep the system classpath clean as possible.
Currently we have a solution using a Stateless Session Bean, but this will only set the properties on the Manager Server that it is running on. So I was wondering if it is possible to communicate from one Managed Server to another as I would like to be able to call the same Bean on any other Managed Server that is running.
Declan O'Reilly
PS: If there is a better way to solve to problem in general, I would be delighted to hear.

Answer 1

hi,
One solution here could be to deploy the modifying component ( see below for details ) on the admin server. Set the properties that should be configurable in the JNDI tree, ensure that these properties are set in a replicated context. The settings will then be replicated in the cluster to all the managed servers participating in the cluster.
As for the modifying component, you could go for MBeans, JSPs or web-services. For this kind of configuration I would choose between mbeans or JSPs depending on the type of usage this modifying component will have.
For details on JMX see
http://e-docs.bea.com/wls/docs81/jmx/
For details on JNDI and replication see
http://e-docs.bea.com/wls/docs81/jndi/index.html
- Anders M.