Chapter 15. Java Connector Architecture (JCA) Management
15.1. About the Java Connector Architecture (JCA)
The Java EE Connector Architecture (JCA) defines a standard architecture for Java EE systems to external heterogeneous Enterprise Information Systems (EIS). Examples of EISs include Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, mainframe transaction processing (TP), databases, and messaging systems. A resource adapter is a component that implements the Java EE Connector API architecture.
JCA 1.7 provides features for managing:
- connections
- transactions
- security
- life-cycle
- work instances
- transaction inflow
- message inflow
JCA 1.7 was developed under the Java Community Process as JSR-322.
15.2. About Resource Adapters
A resource adapter is a deployable Java EE component that provides communication between a Java EE application and an Enterprise Information System (EIS) using the Java Connector Architecture (JCA) specification. A resource adapter is often provided by EIS vendors to allow easy integration of their products with Java EE applications.
An Enterprise Information System can be any other software system within an organization. Examples include Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, database systems, e-mail servers and proprietary messaging systems.
A resource adapter is packaged in a Resource Adapter Archive (RAR) file which can be deployed to JBoss EAP. A RAR file may also be included in an Enterprise Archive (EAR) deployment.
The resource adapter itself is defined within the resource-adapters
subsystem, which is provided by the IronJacamar project.
15.3. Configuring the JCA Subsystem
The jca
subsystem controls the general settings for the JCA container and resource adapter deployments. You can configure the jca
subsystem using the management console or the management CLI.
The main JCA elements to configure are:
- Configure JCA settings from the management console
The
jca
subsystem can be configured from the management console by navigating to ConfigurationSubsystems JCA. Then, select the appropriate tab: - Common Config - Contains settings for the cached connection manager, archive validation, and bean validation. Each of these is contained in their own tab as well. Modify these settings by opening the appropriate tab and clicking the Edit button.
- Bootstrap Contexts - Contains the list of configured bootstrap contexts. New bootstrap context objects can be added, removed, and configured. Each bootstrap context must be assigned a work manager.
Work Manager - Contains the list of configured work managers. New work managers can be added, removed, and their thread pools configured here. Each work manager can have one short-running thread pool and an optional long-running thread pool.
The thread pool attributes can be configured by clicking View on the selected work manager.
- Configure JCA settings from the management CLI
-
The
jca
subsystem can be configured from the management CLI from the/subsystem=jca
address. In a managed domain, you must precede the command with/profile=PROFILE_NAME
.
Attribute names in the tables in the following sections are listed as they appear in the management model, for example, when using the management CLI. See the schema definition file located at EAP_HOME/docs/schema/wildfly-jca_5_0.xsd
to view the elements as they appear in the XML, as there may be differences from the management model.
Archive Validation
This determines whether archive validation will be performed on the deployment units. The following table describes the attributes you can set for archive validation.
Attribute | Default Value | Description |
---|---|---|
enabled | true | Specifies whether archive validation is enabled. |
fail-on-error | true | Specifies whether an archive validation error report fails the deployment. |
fail-on-warn | false | Specifies whether an archive validation warning report fails the deployment. |
If an archive does not implement the JCA specification correctly and archive validation is enabled, an error message will display during deployment describing the problem. For example:
Severity: ERROR Section: 19.4.2 Description: A ResourceAdapter must implement a "public int hashCode()" method. Code: com.mycompany.myproject.ResourceAdapterImpl Severity: ERROR Section: 19.4.2 Description: A ResourceAdapter must implement a "public boolean equals(Object)" method. Code: com.mycompany.myproject.ResourceAdapterImpl
If archive validation is not specified, it is considered present and the enabled
attribute defaults to true
.
Bean Validation
This setting determines whether bean validation, defined in JSR-303, will be performed on the deployment units. The following table describes the attributes you can set for bean validation.
Attribute | Default Value | Description |
---|---|---|
enabled | true | Specifies whether bean validation is enabled. |
If bean validation is not specified, it is considered present and the enabled
attribute defaults to true
.
Work Managers
There are two types of work managers:
- Default work manager
- The default work manager and its thread pools.
- Custom work manager
- A custom work manager definition and its thread pools.
The following table describes the attributes you can set for work managers.
Attribute | Description |
---|---|
name | Specifies the name of the work manager. |
elytron-enabled |
This attribute enables Elytron security for the |
A work manager also has the following child elements.
Child Element | Description |
---|---|
short-running-threads | Thread pool for standard Work instances. Each work manager has one short-running thread pool. |
long-running-threads |
Thread pool for JCA 1.7 Work instances that set the |
The following table describes the attributes you can set for work manager thread pools.
Attribute | Description |
---|---|
allow-core-timeout |
Boolean setting that determines whether core threads may time out. The default value is |
core-threads | The core thread pool size. This must be equal to or smaller than the maximum thread pool size. |
handoff-executor | An executor to delegate tasks to in the event that a task cannot be accepted. If not specified, tasks that cannot be accepted will be silently discarded. |
keepalive-time | Specifies the amount of time that pool threads should be kept after doing work. |
max-threads | The maximum thread pool size. |
name | Specifies the name of the thread pool. |
queue-length | The maximum queue length. |
thread-factory | Reference to the thread factory. |
Distributed Work Managers
A distributed work manager is a work manager instance that is able to reschedule work execution on another work manager instance.
The following example management CLI commands configure a distributed work manager. Note that you must use a configuration that provides high availability capabilities, such as the standalone-ha.xml
or standalone-full-ha.xml
configuration file for a standalone server.
Example: Configure a Distributed Work Manager
batch /subsystem=jca/distributed-workmanager=myDistWorkMgr:add(name=myDistWorkMgr) /subsystem=jca/distributed-workmanager=myDistWorkMgr/short-running-threads=myDistWorkMgr:add(queue-length=10,max-threads=10) /subsystem=jca/bootstrap-context=myCustomContext:add(name=myCustomContext,workmanager=myDistWorkMgr) run-batch
The name of the short-running-threads
element must be the same as the name of the distributed-workmanager
element.
The following table describes the attributes you can configure for distributed work managers.
Attribute | Description |
---|---|
elytron-enabled | Enables Elytron security for the work manager. |
name | The name of the distributed work manager. |
policy | The policy decides when to redistribute a work instance. Allowed values are:
|
policy-options |
List of the policy’s key/value pair options. If you use the /subsystem=jca/distributed-workmanager=myDistWorkMgr:write-attribute(name=policy-options,value={watermark=3}) |
selector | The selector decides to which nodes in the network to redistribute the work instance. Allowed values are:
|
selector-options | List of the selector’s key/value pair options. |
A distributed work manager also has the following child elements.
Child Element | Description |
---|---|
long-running-threads |
The thread pool for work instances that set the |
short-running-threads | The thread pool for standard work instances. Each distributed work manager must have a short-running thread pool. |
Bootstrap Contexts
This is used to define custom bootstrap contexts. The following table describes the attributes you can set for bootstrap contexts.
Attribute | Description |
---|---|
name | Specifies the name of the bootstrap context. |
workmanager | Specifies the name of the work manager to use for this context. |
Cached Connection Manager
This is used for debugging connections and supporting lazy enlistment of a connection in a transaction, tracking whether they are used and released properly by the application. The following table describes the attributes you can set for the cached connection manager.
Attribute | Default Value | Description |
---|---|---|
debug | false | Outputs warning on failure to explicitly close connections. |
error | false | Throws exception on failure to explicitly close connections. |
ignore-unknown-connections | false | Specifies that unknown connections will not be cached. |
install | false | Enable or disable the cached connection manager valve and interceptor. |
15.4. Configuring Resource Adapters
15.4.1. Deploy a Resource Adapter
Resource adapters can be deployed just like other deployments using the management CLI or the management console. When running a standalone server, you can also copy the archive to the deployments directory to be picked up by the deployment scanner.
Deploy a Resource Adapter using the Management CLI
To deploy the resource adapter to a standalone server, enter the following management CLI command.
deploy /path/to/resource-adapter.rar
To deploy the resource adapter to all server groups in a managed domain, enter the following management CLI command.
deploy /path/to/resource-adapter.rar --all-server-groups
Deploy a Resource Adapter using the Management Console
- Log in to the management console and click on the Deployments tab.
- Click Add. In a managed domain, you will first need to select Content Repository.
- Choose the Upload a new deployment option and click Next.
- Browse to the resource adapter archive and click Next.
- Verify the upload, then click Finish.
- In a managed domain, assign the deployment to the appropriate server groups and enable the deployment.
Deploy a Resource Adapter Using the Deployment Scanner
To deploy a resource adapter manually to a standalone server, copy the resource adapter archive to the server deployments directory, for example, EAP_HOME/standalone/deployments/
. This will be picked up and deployed by the deployment scanner.
This option is not available for managed domains. You must use either the management console or the management CLI to deploy the resource adapter to server groups.
15.4.2. Configure a Resource Adapter
You can configure resource adapters using the management interfaces. The below example shows how to configure a resource adapter using the management CLI. See your resource adapter vendor’s documentation for supported properties and other important information.
Add the Resource Adapter Configuration
Add the resource adapter configuration.
/subsystem=resource-adapters/resource-adapter=eis.rar:add(archive=eis.rar, transaction-support=XATransaction)
Configure the Resource Adapter Settings
Configure any of the following settings as necessary.
Configure
config-properties
.Add the
server
configuration property./subsystem=resource-adapters/resource-adapter=eis.rar/config-properties=server:add(value=localhost)
Add the
port
configuration property./subsystem=resource-adapters/resource-adapter=eis.rar/config-properties=port:add(value=9000)
Configure
admin-objects
.Add an admin object.
/subsystem=resource-adapters/resource-adapter=eis.rar/admin-objects=aoName:add(class-name=com.acme.eis.ra.EISAdminObjectImpl, jndi-name=java:/eis/AcmeAdminObject)
Configure an admin object configuration property.
/subsystem=resource-adapters/resource-adapter=eis.rar/admin-objects=aoName/config-properties=threshold:add(value=10)
Configure
connection-definitions
.Add a connection definition for a managed connection factory.
/subsystem=resource-adapters/resource-adapter=eis.rar/connection-definitions=cfName:add(class-name=com.acme.eis.ra.EISManagedConnectionFactory, jndi-name=java:/eis/AcmeConnectionFactory)
Configure a managed connection factory configuration property.
/subsystem=resource-adapters/resource-adapter=eis.rar/connection-definitions=cfName/config-properties=name:add(value=Acme Inc)
Configure whether to record the enlistment trace. You can enable the recording of enlistment traces by setting the
enlistment-trace
attribute totrue
./subsystem=resource-adapters/resource-adapter=eis.rar/connection-definitions=cfName:write-attribute(name=enlistment-trace,value=true)
WarningEnabling enlistment tracing makes tracking down errors during transaction enlistment easier, but comes with a performance impact.
See Resource Adapter Attributes for all available configuration options for resource adapters.
Activate the Resource Adapter
Activate the resource adapter.
/subsystem=resource-adapters/resource-adapter=eis.rar:activate
You can also define capacity policies for resource adapters. For more details, see the Capacity Policies section.
15.4.3. Configure Resource Adapters to Use the Elytron Subsystem
Two types of communications occur between the server and the resource adapter in IronJacamar.
One of them is when the server opens a resource adapter connection. As defined by the specifications, this can be secured by container-managed sign-on, which requires propagation of a JAAS subject with principal and credentials to the resource adapter when opening the connection. This sign-on can be delegated to Elytron.
IronJacamar supports security inflow. This mechanism enables a resource adapter to establish security information when submitting a work to the work manager, and when delivering messages to endpoints residing in the same JBoss EAP instance.
Container-managed Sign-On
In order to achieve container-managed sign-on with Elytron, the elytron-enabled
attribute needs to be set to true
. This will result in all connections to the resource adapter to be secured by Elytron.
/subsystem=resource-adapters/resource-adapter=RAR_NAME/connection-definitions=FACTORY_NAME:write-attribute(name=elytron-enabled,value=true)
The elytron-enabled
attribute can be configured using the management CLI by setting the elytron-enabled
attribute, in the resource-adapters
subsystems, to true
. By default this attribute is set to false
.
The authentication-context
attribute defines the name of the Elytron authentication context that will be used for performing sign-on.
An Elytron authentication-context
attribute can contain one or more authentication-configuration
elements, which in turn contains the credentials you want to use.
If the authentication-context
attribute is not set, JBoss EAP will use the current authentication-context
, which is the authentication-context
used by the caller code that is opening the connection.
Example: Creating an authentication-configuration
/subsystem=elytron/authentication-configuration=exampleAuthConfig:add(authentication-name=sa,credential-reference={clear-text=sa})
Example: Creating the authentication-context
Using the above Configuration
/subsystem=elytron/authentication-context=exampleAuthContext:add(match-rules=[{authentication-configuration=exampleAuthConfig}])
Security Inflow
It is also possible for the resource manager to inflow security credentials when submitting the work which is to be executed by the work manager. Security inflow allows the work to authenticate itself before execution. If authentication succeeds, the submitted work will be executed under the resulting authentication context. If it fails, the work execution will be rejected.
To enable Elytron security inflow, set the wm-elytron-security-domain
attribute when configuring the resource adapter work manager. Elytron will perform the authentication based on the specified domain.
When the resource adapter work manager is configured to use the Elytron security domain, wm-elytron-security-domain
, the referenced work manager should have the elytron-enabled
attribute set to true
.
/subsystem=jca/workmanager=customWM:add(name=customWM, elytron-enabled=true)
If instead of wm-elytron-security-domain
the wm-security-domain
attribute is used, the security inflow will be performed by the legacy security
subsystem.
In the example configuration of jca
subsystem below, we can see the configuration of a resource adapter called ra-with-elytron-security-domain
. This resource adapter configures work manager security to use the Elytron security domain’s wm-realm
.
<subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:jca:5.0"> <archive-validation enabled="true" fail-on-error="true" fail-on-warn="false"/> <bean-validation enabled="true"/> <default-workmanager> <short-running-threads> <core-threads count="50"/> <queue-length count="50"/> <max-threads count="50"/> <keepalive-time time="10" unit="seconds"/> </short-running-threads> <long-running-threads> <core-threads count="50"/> <queue-length count="50"/> <max-threads count="50"/> <keepalive-time time="10" unit="seconds"/> </long-running-threads> </default-workmanager> <workmanager name="customWM"> <elytron-enabled>true</elytron-enabled> <short-running-threads> <core-threads count="20"/> <queue-length count="20"/> <max-threads count="20"/> </short-running-threads> </workmanager> <bootstrap-contexts> <bootstrap-context name="customContext" workmanager="customWM"/> </bootstrap-contexts> <cached-connection-manager/> </subsystem>
The work manager is then referenced using the boostrap context from the resource-adapter
subsystem.
<subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:resource-adapters:5.0"> <resource-adapters> <resource-adapter id="ra-with-elytron-security-domain"> <archive> ra-with-elytron-security-domain.rar </archive> <bootstrap-context>customContext</bootstrap-context> <transaction-support>NoTransaction</transaction-support> <workmanager> <security> <elytron-security-domain>wm-realm</elytron-security-domain> <default-principal>wm-default-principal</default-principal> <default-groups> <group> wm-default-group </group> </default-groups> </security> </workmanager> </resource-adapter> </resource-adapters> </subsystem>
Example: Configuration of the Security Domain
/subsystem=elytron/properties-realm=wm-properties-realm:add(users-properties={path=/security-dir/users.properties, plain-text=true}, groups-properties={path=/security-dir/groups.properties}) /subsystem=elytron/simple-role-decoder=wm-role-decoder:add(attribute=groups) /subsystem=elytron/constant-permission-mapper=wm-permission-mapper:add(permissions=[{class-name="org.wildfly.security.auth.permission.LoginPermission"}]) /subsystem=elytron/security-domain=wm-realm:add(default-realm=wm-properties-realm, permission-mapper=wm-permission-mapper, realms=[{role-decoder=wm-role-decoder, realm=wm-properties-realm}])
The Work
class is responsible for providing the credentials for Elytron’s authentication under the specified domain. For that, it must implement javax.resource.spi.work.WorkContextProvider
.
public interface WorkContextProvider { /** * Gets an instance of <code>WorkContexts</code> that needs to be used * by the <code>WorkManager</code> to set up the execution context while * executing a <code>Work</code> instance. * * @return an <code>List</code> of <code>WorkContext</code> instances. */ List<WorkContext> getWorkContexts(); }
This interface allows the Work
class to use the WorkContext
to configure some aspects of the context in which the work will be executed. One of those aspects is the security inflow. For that, the List<WorkContext> getWorkContexts
method must provide a javax.resource.spi.work.SecurityContext
. This context will use javax.security.auth.callback.Callback
objects as defined in the JSR-196 specification to provide the credentials.
Example: Creation of Callbacks Using Context
public class ExampleWork implements Work, WorkContextProvider { private final String username; private final String role; public MyWork(TestBean bean, String username, String role) { this.principals = null; this.roles = null; this.bean = bean; this.username = username; this.role = role; } public List<WorkContext> getWorkContexts() { List<WorkContext> l = new ArrayList<>(1); l.add(new MySecurityContext(username, role)); return l; } public void run() { ... } public void release() { ... } public class ExampleSecurityContext extends SecurityContext { public void setupSecurityContext(CallbackHandler handler, Subject executionSubject, Subject serviceSubject) { try { List<javax.security.auth.callback.Callback> cbs = new ArrayList<>(); cbs.add(new CallerPrincipalCallback(executionSubject, new SimplePrincipal(username))); cbs.add(new GroupPrincipalCallback(executionSubject, new String[]{role})); handler.handle(cbs.toArray(new javax.security.auth.callback.Callback[cbs.size()])); } catch (Throwable t) { throw new RuntimeException(t); } } }
In the above example, ExampleWork
implements the WorkContextProvider
interface to provide ExampleSecurityContext
. That context will create the callbacks necessary to provide the security information that will be authenticated by Elytron upon work execution.
15.4.4. Deploy and Configure the Websphere MQ Resource Adapter
You can find the instructions for deploying the Websphere MQ resource adapter in Configuring Messaging for JBoss EAP.
15.4.5. Deploy and Configure the Generic JMS Resource Adapter
You can find the instructions for configuring the generic JMS resource adapter in Configuring Messaging for JBoss EAP.
15.5. Configure Managed Connection Pools
JBoss EAP provides three implementations of the ManagedConnectionPool
interface.
org.jboss.jca.core.connectionmanager.pool.mcp.SemaphoreConcurrentLinkedQueueManagedConnectionPool
- This is the default connection pool in JBoss EAP 7 and provides the best out-of-the-box performance.
org.jboss.jca.core.connectionmanager.pool.mcp.SemaphoreArrayListManagedConnectionPool
- This was the default connection pool in previous JBoss EAP versions.
org.jboss.jca.core.connectionmanager.pool.mcp.LeakDumperManagedConnectionPool
- This connection pool is used for debugging purposes only and will report any leaks upon shutdown or when the pool is flushed.
You can set the managed connection pool implementation for a datasource using the following management CLI command.
/subsystem=datasources/data-source=DATA_SOURCE:write-attribute(name=mcp,value=MCP_CLASS)
You can set the managed connection pool implementation for a resource adapter using the following management CLI command.
/subsystem=resource-adapters/resource-adapter=RESOURCE_ADAPTER/connection-definitions=CONNECTION_DEFINITION:write-attribute(name=mcp,value=MCP_CLASS)
You can set the managed connection pool implementation for a messaging server using the following management CLI command.
/subsystem=messaging-activemq/server=SERVER/pooled-connection-factory=CONNECTION_FACTORY:write-attribute(name=managed-connection-pool,value=MCP_CLASS)
15.6. View Connection Statistics
You can read statistics for a defined connection from the /deployment=NAME.rar
subtree. This is so that you can access statistics for any RAR, even if it not defined in a standalone.xml
or domain.xml
configuration.
/deployment=NAME.rar/subsystem=resource-adapters/statistics=statistics/connection-definitions=java\:\/testMe:read-resource(include-runtime=true)
Be sure to specify the include-runtime=true
argument, as all statistics are runtime-only information.
See Resource Adapter Statistics for information on the available statistics.
15.7. Flushing Resource Adapter Connections
You can flush resource adapter connections using the following management CLI commands.
In a managed domain, you must precede these commands with /host=HOST_NAME/server=SERVER_NAME
.
Flush all connections in the pool.
/subsystem=resource-adapters/resource-adapter=RESOURCE_ADAPTER/connection-definitions=CONNECTION_DEFINITION:flush-all-connection-in-pool
Gracefully flush all connections in the pool.
/subsystem=resource-adapters/resource-adapter=RESOURCE_ADAPTER/connection-definitions=CONNECTION_DEFINITION:flush-gracefully-connection-in-pool
The server will wait until connections become idle before flushing them.
Flush all idle connections in the pool.
/subsystem=resource-adapters/resource-adapter=RESOURCE_ADAPTER/connection-definitions=CONNECTION_DEFINITION:flush-idle-connection-in-pool
Flush all invalid connections in the pool.
/subsystem=resource-adapters/resource-adapter=RESOURCE_ADAPTER/connection-definitions=CONNECTION_DEFINITION:flush-invalid-connection-in-pool
The server will flush all connections that it determines to be invalid.
15.8. Tuning the Resource Adapters Subsystem
For tips on monitoring and optimizing performance for the resource-adapters
subsystem, see the Datasource and Resource Adapter Tuning section of the Performance Tuning Guide.