Every module that you install in Geronimo, whether it is a service, application, resource, etc., can be configured via a deployment plan. These deployment plans are XML files based on XML Schemas containing the configuration details for a specific application module or component. The Java EE 5 specification defines standard deployment descriptors such as web.xml, application.xml, etc. In some cases, the deployment descriptor is all that is required to install a module into a Geronimo server. However, in many cases, server-specific configuration is required when modules are installed. This server-specific configuration is accomplished by using Geronimo deployment plans.

Geronimo deployment plans can be packaged along with the application or specified externally at deployment time. If provided during deployment, this plan will overwrite any other Geronimo specific deployment plan provided with the application.

To package the deployment plans in you application you have to follow some naming conventions and place the file in a specific directory within your packaged application. For example, in a web application you would include the geronimo-web.xml under the /WEB-INF directory, same place where you are also providing the web.xml descriptor, all within the WAR. For an enterprise application you would include the geronimo-application.xml under the /META-INF directory, same place where you are also providing the application.xml descriptor, all within the WAR.

The Java EE 5 specification also let's you use Annotations where you add resource references, dependencies, etc. directly in the code. Geronimo provides a Deployment plan wizard that automatically generates the necessary deployment plans based on the standard deployment descriptors and annotations.

This document is organized in the following sections:

XML Schemas - Java EE Deployment Plans

XML Schemas - Common Elements & Configuration

Configurations

The examples provided in this section are independent of any application. Most of these configurations can be generated and deployed through the Geronimo Administration Console as well.

Connection pools

For the most part, deployment plans for database connection pool will be very similar from each other. However, depending on the database the pool will be connecting to, you may need to specify some additional parameters.

Embedded Derdy DB

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<connector xmlns="http://geronimo.apache.org/xml/ns/j2ee/connector-1.2">
    <dep:environment xmlns:dep="http://geronimo.apache.org/xml/ns/deployment-1.2">
        <dep:moduleId>
            <dep:groupId>console.dbpool</dep:groupId>
            <dep:artifactId>TimeReportPool</dep:artifactId>
            <dep:version>1.0</dep:version>
            <dep:type>rar</dep:type>
        </dep:moduleId>
        <dep:dependencies>
            <dep:dependency>
                <dep:groupId>org.apache.geronimo.configs</dep:groupId>
                <dep:artifactId>system-database</dep:artifactId>
            </dep:dependency>
        </dep:dependencies>
    </dep:environment>
    <resourceadapter>
        <outbound-resourceadapter>
            <connection-definition>
                <connectionfactory-interface>javax.sql.DataSource</connectionfactory-interface>
                <connectiondefinition-instance>
                    <name>TimeReportPool</name>
                    <config-property-setting name="Driver">org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver</config-property-setting>
                    <config-property-setting name="ConnectionURL">jdbc:derby:TimeReportDB</config-property-setting>
                    <connectionmanager>
                        <local-transaction/>
                        <single-pool>
                            <max-size>10</max-size>
                            <min-size>0</min-size>
                            <match-one/>
                        </single-pool>
                    </connectionmanager>
                </connectiondefinition-instance>
            </connection-definition>
        </outbound-resourceadapter>
    </resourceadapter>
</connector>

Security

A Java EE application may consist of several components that can be deployed on to different containers such as WEB container, EJB container, WebServices container in a JEE5 server. This kind of deployment allows multi-tier applications that interact with one another to perform a given user task. Multi-tier JEE5 applications can be secured by properly selecting authenticating mechanisms and designing authorization levels or roles. If the application components use declarative security management, the authentication and authorization aspects are declared in corresponding JEE5 deployment descriptors. The declared security roles or levels are mapped to real security roles or levels in the Geronimo deployment plans through Security realms. In Apache Geronimo, the security realms abstract away authentication and authorization aspects of the application components. Authentication and Authorization together enable access control for the various components of the application.

Depending on the selected authenticating system, a JAAS login module is selected and configured in a Security Realm. JAAS login modules connect to corresponding user/group repositories and perform authentication and retrieve authorization information. Geronimo provides login modules that connect to different types of user/group repositories. These are PropertiesFileLoginModule, LDAPLoginModule, SQLLoginModule and CertificatePropertiesFileLoginModule.

For example, Geronimo uses "geronimo-admin" security realm to authenticate users when they login to the Geronimo Administration Console. The deployment plan of the security realm is follows.

<module xmlns="http://geronimo.apache.org/xml/ns/deployment-1.2"> 
    <environment> 
        <moduleId> 
            <groupId>console.realm</groupId> 
            <artifactId>geronimo-admin</artifactId> 
            <version>1.0</version> 
            <type>car</type> 
        </moduleId> 
        <dependencies> 
            <dependency> 
                <groupId>org.apache.geronimo.framework</groupId> 
                <artifactId>j2ee-security</artifactId> 
                <type>car</type> 
            </dependency> 
        </dependencies> 
    </environment> 
    <gbean name="geronimo-admin" class="org.apache.geronimo.security.realm.GenericSecurityRealm" 
        xsi:type="dep:gbeanType" xmlns:dep="http://geronimo.apache.org/xml/ns/deployment-1.2" 
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> 
        <attribute name="realmName">geronimo-admin</attribute> 
        <reference name="ServerInfo"> 
            <name>ServerInfo</name> 
        </reference> 
        <xml-reference name="LoginModuleConfiguration"> 
            <log:login-config xmlns:log="http://geronimo.apache.org/xml/ns/loginconfig-2.0"> 
                <log:login-module control-flag="REQUIRED" wrap-principals="false"> 
                    <log:login-domain-name>geronimo-admin</log:login-domain-name> 
                    <log:login-module-class>org.apache.geronimo.security.realm.providers.PropertiesFileLoginModule</log:login-module-class> 
                    <log:option name="groupsURI">var/security/groups.properties</log:option> 
                    <log:option name="usersURI">var/security/users.properties</log:option> 
                </log:login-module> 
            </log:login-config> 
        </xml-reference> 
    </gbean> 
</module>

The above security realm is deployed over two property files var/security/users.properties and var/security/groups.properties that contain user/group information using "org.apache.geronimo.security.realm.providers.PropertiesFileLoginModule". The Administration Console is a web application that uses the above security realm for user authentication.

Security realm deployment plan is an XML file that uses "http://geronimo.apache.org/xml/ns/deployment-1.2" Geronimo schema for ModuleId, dependency and security realm GBean configurations. The XML file uses "http://geronimo.apache.org/xml/ns/loginconfig-2.0" Geronimo schema for login module configuration.

The following table provides the summary of user/group repositories and corresponding login modules in Apache Geronimo

Depending on the type of the login module, the options for configuration changes. Geronimo Administration Console enables users to create and deploy security realms using all the above mentioned login modules.

Once a security realm is deployed, it's available for any JEE5 application deployed in Apache Geronimo to map declared roles to actual users/groups through a Geronimo deployment plan.

Resources

Applications

An enterprise application archive (EAR) can consist of several application modules. The application modules can be Web Application Archives (WAR) , EJB modules (JAR), application client modules (JAR) or Resource Archive modules (RAR). User can either deploy these modules individually or bundle them into a single EAR file and deploy the EAR file.

When deployed individually, each application module should accompany a Geronimo deployment plan to map declared resources names, ejb names, security roles, JMS roles to corresponding actual entities deployed in the server. The Geronimo deployment plans also contain any Geronimo specific settings and configurations. When deployed as a single bundle (EAR), user can create a single Geronimo deployment plan to accomplish all the mappings, settings and configurations.

The following table summarizes different JEE5 modules and corresponding Geronimo deployment plans accompany them.

• geronimo-web.xml
• geronimo-application.xml
• geronimo-ra.xml
• geronimo-application-client.xml
• openejb-jar.xml