Deploying WildFly on IBM i (using GitBucket as a sample application)

This simple guide is intended to help you deploy your first application in WildFly standalone mode. For this exercise, we use GitBucket as a sample application. You can similarly deploy any .war file using these steps

Prerequisite setup

As with any open source software, it is recommended that you use an SSH terminal session to perform these tasks. QSH or other 5250 interfaces may work, but can be problematic.

Run bash and set appropriate environment variables

These steps assume you are running with SSH and using bash as your default shell.

If you’re not running bash, you can run it explicitly:

exec /QOpenSys/pkgs/bin/bash

If you haven’t already customized your PATH to include open source, you can do that temporarily:

export PATH=/QOpenSys/pkgs/bin:$PATH

Choose installation and download directories

Save your installation and download directory in environment variables (these are only used for convenience during the steps in this guide):

export DOWNLOAD=/opt/download
export WILDFLY=/opt/wildfly

The aboves assumes the following directories:

  • WildFly installation directory: /opt/wildfly

  • Download directory (when downloading WildFly and GitBucket): /opt/download

You may choose to download files or deploy WildFly anywhere on the filesystem. Just change these values accordingly.

(subsequent steps assume you are using this same SSH session)

Create installation directory and download directory

mkdir -p $DOWNLOAD
mkdir -p $WILDFLY

Step 1: Install Required Software

yum install wget tar-gnu gzip nano openjdk-11

Alternatively, use Access Client Solutions to install these packages.

Step 2: Download WildFly

Technique 1: Using wget

(change the version number, if needed, to the version you would like to install)

cd $DOWNLOAD
wget https://github.com/wildfly/wildfly/releases/download/26.0.0.Final/wildfly-26.0.0.Final.tar.gz

Technique 2: Manual download

Just navigate to the WildFly website and access the downloads. Download the latest version in .tar.gz format. Once downloaded, place in the download directory chosen earlier. image

Step 3: Install WildFly

(change the version number in the filename, if needed, to the proper version)

cd $DOWNLOAD
tar --strip-components=1 -C $WILDFLY -xzvf wildfly-26.0.0.Final.tar.gz

Step 4: Configure WildFly to use Java of choice

Open the standalone.conf file located in the /bin directory of the WildFly installation directory. For this, you can use the editor of your choice (assuming you have a drive mapped with sshfs or NetServer), or you can use a terminal-based editor like nano:

cd $WILDFLY/bin
nano standalone.conf

The default standalone.conf file has a commented-out line with a JAVA_HOME value. Uncomment the line and insert the appropriate JAVA_HOME value. You can choose between OpenJDK or JV1 versions of Java.

For OpenJDK:

JAVA_HOME="/QOpenSys/pkgs/lib/jvm/openjdk-11"

For JV1:

JAVA_HOME="/QOpenSys/QIBM/ProdData/JavaVM/jdk11/64bit"

Step 5 : Configure server address (optional)

This step is recommended so that WildFly’s default behavior is to bind to the correct addresses. If you do not do this step, you will need to specify the addresses on the command line later when you start WildFly.

Open the standalone.xml file in the standalone/configuration directory of the WildFly installation directory. For this, you can use the editor of your choice (assuming you have a drive mapped with sshfs or NetServer), or you can use a terminal-based editor like nano:

cd $WILDFLY/standalone/configuration/
nano standalone.xml

Search for the <interfaces> tag (in nano, this can be done with ctrl+W). You will find a section that defines the management and public interfaces. Note that there are other tags that mention “interfaces” but here you only need to find the specific <interfaces> section.

    <interfaces>
        <interface name="management">
            <inet-address value="${jboss.bind.address.management:127.0.0.1}"/>
        </interface>
        <interface name="public">
            <inet-address value="${jboss.bind.address:127.0.0.1}"/>
        </interface>

Change these values to something appropriate for your deployment. For instance, the following configures the management interfaces to use 0.0.0.0 (listens on any address), and it configures the public interface (used for web applications) to the IP address of the IBM i system. In the default configuration, these interfaces are only accessible from the local system.

    <interfaces>
        <interface name="management">
            <inet-address value="${jboss.bind.address.management:0.0.0.0}"/>
        </interface>
        <interface name="public">
            <inet-address value="${jboss.bind.address:171.20.0.10}"/>
        </interface>

Step 6: Create a management user

First, set JAVA_HOME to the value you configured in standalone.conf:

export JAVA_HOME=/QOpenSys/pkgs/lib/jvm/openjdk-11

or….

export JAVA_HOME=/QOpenSys/QIBM/ProdData/JavaVM/jdk11/64bit

Then run the add-user.sh script

cd $WILDFLY/bin
./add-user.sh

Follow these steps:

  • When it asks, “What type of user do you wish to add?”, enter “a” for management user

  • For “Username”, enter admin

  • Enter a to choose “a) Update the existing user password and roles”

  • Follow the remaining prompts to choose a password. Just press [enter] to accept the defaults for all other questions.

Step 7: (optional) Deploy GitBucket by downloading and placing in deployments directory

If you skip this step, you can deploy GitBucket through WildFly’s management interface later

cd $DOWNLOAD
wget https://github.com/gitbucket/gitbucket/releases/download/4.37.1/gitbucket.war
cp gitbucket.war $WILDFLY/standalone/deployments

Alternatively, manually download the latest gitbucket.war and place in the standalone/deployments directory.

Now, the GitBucket application will be deployed when WildFly is started.

Step 8: Start WildFly

If you configured the server addresses in step 5, you can now start WildFly in standalone mode by doing the following:

cd $WILDFLY/bin
./standalone.sh

If you did not configure the server addresses, you may specify them on the command-line invocation of standalone.sh using the -b and -bmanagement arguments, for instance:

cd $WILDFLY/bin
./standalone.sh -b 171.20.0.10 -bmanagement 0.0.0.0

You’re done!! At this point:

  • The management interface will be running at http://<your_server>:9990/ (log in with admin and the password you created earlier)

  • If you deployed GitBucket in Step 7, it will be running at http://<your_server>:8080/gitbucket

If you didn’t deploy GitBucket, you can do so through the management interface by doing the following steps:

  • Download the latest release of GitBucket from their releases page on GitHub (in the form of gitbucket.war) to your PC

  • Open your browser to http://<your_server>:9990/ (log in with admin and the password you created earlier)

  • Click the “Deployments” tab or the “Deployments” link on the homepage image

  • Click the action button in the left sidebar and choose “Upload Deployment” image

  • Follow the prompts to upload gitbucket.war from your PC and specify application names image

  • On success, it should show upload complete image

  • Once deployed, it will show up in deployments and you can manage through the management console image

You should now be running GitBucket with WildFly!

image

Managing with Service Commander (optional)

You can elect to manage your WildFly instance with Service Commander. If you are unfamiliar with Service Commander, you can read more here. The steps to leverage this tool include:

  • Install the service-commander package:

yum install service-commander

  • cd into your installation’s bin/ directory:

cd $WILDFLY/bin

  • Run the scinit command to create a service definition for the standalone.sh command. Proceed to answer the questions as in the following screenshot. If you configured the server addresses in step 5:

scinit ./standalone.sh

If you did not configure the server addresses, you may specify them on the command-line invocation using the -b and -bmanagement arguments, for instance:

scinit ./standalone.sh -b 171.20.0.10 -bmanagement 0.0.0.0

image It should also print information about where it stored the service definition image

Now, you can use the sc command to start, stop, or check on your WildFly instance. Examples: image