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Release Notes -- Apache Geronimo -- Version 2.1


Geronimo URLs
-------------
Home Page:     http://geronimo.apache.org/
Downloads:     http://geronimo.apache.org/downloads.html
Documentation: http://geronimo.apache.org/documentation.html
Mailing Lists: http://geronimo.apache.org/mailing.html
Source Code:   http://geronimo.apache.org/svn.html
Bug Tracking:  http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GERONIMO
Wiki:          http://cwiki.apache.org/geronimo


Updated Information
------Documentation
-------------
Please see http://cwiki.apache.org/GMOxDOC21/release-notes-21txtdocumentation.html for the 
latest informationdocumentation on this release.


System Requirements
-------------------
You need a platform that supports the Sun JDK 5.0+ (J2SE 1.5.0+).  Other Java VMs 
should work as wellor greater.

Most testing has been done on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.


Significant Changes in theGeronimo 2.1 ReleaseEnhancements
-------------------------

Custom server assemblies
- Lightweight server assemblies may be created that contain only the functional 
  components required by your application(s).

Flexible admin console
- The admin console is now component-based to mirror the server capabilities. 
  This allows the admin console to provide flexible administrative capabilities 
  that will mirrors the capabilities of a custom server assembly.

GShell
- GShell is a command-line processing environment that can be used for the execution
  of Geronimo commands. GShell is an extensible environment and includes support
  for editing, command history, and tab completion. 

Clustering Support
- WADI can now be used to support clustering of web applications for Geronimo configurations which
  use the Tomcat Web Container (WADI support for Jetty was in previous releases). 
- Applications can be deployed to administratively------


defined groups of Geronimo servers

Monitoring Console Plugin
- The monitoring console plugin provides monitoring support in the Geronimo admin console. 
  The monitoring console can gather statistics and performance data from multiple Geronimo 
  servers and graphically display this data to users.

Certification Status
--------------------
Apache Geronimo v2.1 havehas passed 100% of SUN's Java Enterprise Edition 5.0 
Certification Test Suite. See "Distributions" for further details.


Distributions
-------------
Apache Geronimo v2.1 is available in five distributions so you can pick the 
one that better fits your environment.

The available distributions are as follows:

Certified distributions:
- Apache Geronimo with Tomcat web container, AXIS2 for Web Services and OpenJPA
  for persistence.
- Apache Geronimo with Jetty web container, CXF for Web Services and OpenJPA 
  for persistence.

Non-Certified distributions:
- Little-G with Tomcat web container, minimal configuration.
- Little-G with Jetty web container, minimal configuration.
- Micro-G, stripped down Geronimo pluggable framework.

Note: Non-Certified distributions do not contain a complete JavaEE5 stack and so 
cannot be certified.  Certified distributions can be reconfigured by the user 
(such as Tomcat web container with CXF for Web Services). 


Supported features
------------------
All programming model elements of the Java EE 5.0 Specification are available.  
Some of the non-specification related elements such as clustering are still 
being worked on.


Building Geronimo
-----------------
See http://cwiki.apache.org/GMOxDEV/building-apache-geronimo.html for information
about building Geronimo from source.


Installing & Starting Geronimo

Known Issues and Limitations
------------------------------

To install, simply unpack the .zip (Windows) or tar.gz (Unix) file containing
Geronimo.

If you wish to modify the default ports that Geronimo will use, edit the file
<geronimo_home>/var/config/config-substitutions.properties

Geronimo now provides a command shell for running some commands. To start and 
stop the server run "gsh" first to call the shell and then run start-server or
stop-server as appropriate for the action you want to perform.
It is necessary to set JAVA_HOME to the copy of your Sun 5 JDK/JRE prior to 
executing the command.

Here is an example to set JAVA_HOME:

export JAVA_HOME=<JDK/JRE_home>

To see the available command options type:

<geronimo_home>/bin/geronimo.sh
or
<geronimo_home>\bin\geronimo.bat

The command will display help text instructing you as to how to start and stop
the Geronimo server.

If you prefer to start the server without a script file you can simply type the 
following command from <geronimo_home> directory:

java -Djava.endorsed.dirs=lib/endorsed -javaagent:bin/jpa.jar -jar bin/server.jar

Once the server has started, you can access the Geronimo Administration Console
at http://localhost:8080/console/ . The default user name is "system" and the
default password is "manager".

Note for Windows platforms:
Windows users keep in mind the directory path length limitation of 255 characters.
Defaulting installation to predefined directories such as "My Documents" or 
"Program Files" may cause the installation or the server start up to fail. Try a 
<geronimo_home> at a root level instead.


Security Configuration
----------------------
The default administration user/password for the Geronimo Administration Console
and command line deployment tool is system/manager.  You can change these defaults
directly from the Geronimo Administration Console by accessing Security -> Console
Realm and change the user name and password from the Console Realm Users portlet.

As an alternative, you can make the same changes by editing the
<geronimo_home>/var/security/users.properties and
<geronimo_home>/var/security/groups.properties files.

Access to the var/security directory should be appropriately secured on systems where
you install Geronimo.

Passwords in users.properties are encrypted by the server. Passwords can be changed 
using the Geronimo Administration Console. They can also be changed using a text
editor. While the server is stopped, simply edit the users.properties file. The 
password(s) will be encrypted the next time the server is started. 

To prevent potential security exposures, we strongly recommend you update the 
default user names and passwords on your system.


Deploying Applications
----------------------
Geronimo comes with deploy scripts and batch files to deploy J2EE modules or
applications. You can use the scripts or simply invoke the executable jar by
running the following command (note that you need to start Geronimo first):

<geronimo_home>/bin/java -jar deployer.jar deploy my-web-app.war [deploy plan]

You will need to use the username "system" and password "manager" unless you
customized those as described above.  The deployment plan argument is
optional -- you can pack a deployment plan into the application module, provide
it on the command line, or in some cases omit it entirely.

You can also use the "Login" command to avoid entering a user name and password
every time you use the deploy tool

For more information on the commands and options supported by the deploy tool,
run from within the Geronimo directory <geronimo_home>/bin:

java -jar deployer.jar help [command]

You can also graphically deploy applications and resources via the Geronimo
Administration Console available at http://localhost:8080/console/


Other Deployment Options
------------------------
As an alternative to the command-line deployer, you can copy application 
modules into the <geronimo_home>/deploy/ directory and the hot deployer service
will deploy them automatically.  The command-line deployer has some advantages, 
as it will output any deployment errors to its own console rather than just the
server log.

Additionally, Geronimo provides a Maven plugin that can deploy applications to
Geronimo as part of a Maven build.


Configuration
-------------
Most configuration attributes can be updated in the
<geronimo_home>/var/config/config.xml file.  The attributes most likely to be
changed are already included in the supplied config.xml file, while others may
need to be added manually.


Known Issues and Limitations
----------------------------** Bug
    * [GERONIMO-2246] - Why resource-env-ref:admin-object-module?
    * [GERONIMO-2340] - Network Listener state not persisted across server startups
    * [GERONIMO-2622] - Implement PolicyContextHandlerSOAPMessage
    * [GERONIMO-3124] - Reminder:  Switch Axis2 stack back to axis2-saaj from Sun SAAJ Impl
    * [GERONIMO-3243] - ActiveMQ violates System Properties
    * [GERONIMO-3354] - Exception thrown by MDB involved in XA transaction
    * [GERONIMO-3392] - CA Helper App - Unable to find HTTPS Connector configured for ClientAuth
    * [GERONIMO-3440] - DB2-XA: when trace file is not specified, it caused error when running the sample
    * [GERONIMO-3442] - Tomcat exception reports reference non-existent log files
    * [GERONIMO-3483] - Redeploy should start any dependent configurations it stops.
    * [GERONIMO-3503] - DBPool wizzard creates plans only for local-transactions
    * [GERONIMO-3685] - Monitoring Console should display TimeStatistics and BoundedRangeStatistics correctly
    * [GERONIMO-3687] - classloader deadlock during server startup
    * [GERONIMO-3700] - alias command fails
    * [GERONIMO-3719] - Monitoring agent uses sun classes
    * [GERONIMO-3762] - Web Applications displayed during server startup include "system" console plugins
    * [GERONIMO-3768] - deployment failure is not logged in either geronimo.log or deployer.log
    * [GERONIMO-3781] - Plugin Installer, CRSF issue when attempting to install a new plugin
    * [GERONIMO-3815] - ContextManager.getCurrentContext() throws NullPointerException
    * [GERONIMO-3831] - Incomplete classpath fed to wsgen

** Improvement
    * [GERONIMO-3399] - Need JSR88 DConfigBeans for GerSecurityType
    * [GERONIMO-3408] - Clean up deployer login code in ServerConnection
    * [GERONIMO-3545] - Upgrade Apache Derby to 10.3.1.4
    * [GERONIMO-3651] - gshell should make it dead simple to run geronimo with remote debugging
    * [GERONIMO-3661] - Optimize GShell libs for G server assemblies
    * [GERONIMO-3759] - Geronimo Tomcat Clustering - No GBeans for adding Static Members
    * [GERONIMO-3796] - Upgrade to 3.3 version of xbean-finder, xbean-naming, and xbean-reflect
    * [GERONIMO-3798] - Upgrade Geronimo to newly released geronimo-transaction 2.1 and geronimo-connector 2.1 components
    * [GERONIMO-3802] - In plugin installer, assembling a server, add a page at the end to confirm or deny the assembly of a server package.

** New Feature
    * [GERONIMO-3432] - Admin Console Wizard to auto generate openejb-jar.xml
    * [GERONIMO-3433] - Admin Console Wizard to auto generate geronimo-application.xml