Saturday December 06, 2008

As we add features to GlassFish over time, one characteristic we do not want to compromise is ease-of-use. With this screencast I wanted to show how easy it is to set up a GlassFish high availability cluster.  While other clustering screencasts exist, I wanted to take a different approach. How long would it take, from download to deploying an app, to get a GlassFish high availability cluster up and running? This screencast does just that. While I could have gone faster - faster connection, eliminate narration, etc - I wanted to make it more typical and meaningful for viewers. Here's a summary of the timing:

• Download: 2 minutes and 30 seconds. I cover this time by describing bringing up a slide and describing the clustering architecture
• Installation and cluster setup: 4 minutes, 30 seconds.
• Verifying and testing cluster by deploying a sample application: 3 minutes

Note, the embedded video is via the Sun Learning Exchange. This video is also posted to YouTube.

Update: You can play these video's in full screen. On YouTube there is a "Watch in High Quality" link just under the video (to the right) as well.

Monday September 17, 2007

There is a good reason for the rather long pause at The Clingan Zone. As mentioned previously, I moved out of the field and into corporate as the GlassFish Group Product Manager. In that role, I have been working in the background doing my part to help move GlassFish V2 towards the goal line. As of today, we've crossed that line. GlassFish V2 is formally released!!

GlassFish V1, the first Java EE 5 application server available, focused on developers with Java EE 5 ease-of-development features, low resource consumption, dynamic resource configuration, etc.  GlassFish V2 adds out-of-the-box enterprise features. In particular:

• Clustering - Cluster for scalability high-availability. New to GlassFish V2 is in-memory session replication for high availability; robust and easy to set up. For 5 9's of availability Sun continues to offer HADB.
  
• Advanced administration - From a centralized GUI console (or  CLI) users can manage and monitor the clusters and applications. Clusters can be created and grown dynamically to meet user demand.
  
• Best-in-class performance - GlassFish V2 offers great performance and is the fastest open source application server available. In fact, GlassFish V2 is 10% faster than BEA WebLogic 9.x on the same hardware (compare here and here).
  
• Microsoft .NET 3.0 Web services Interoperability - At it's core,  Project Metro offers industry-leading web services performance with JAX-WS. In addition, Sun (through Project Metro) and Microsoft have worked together to ensure secure, reliable, transactional and high performance web services interoperability between Java EE and Microsoft .NET 3.0.
  

Enterprise features do not compromise ease-of-use. To date the feedback we have received on ease-of-use has been overwhelmingly positive, especially for clustered deployments. Ease-of-use will be a top-level theme for GlassFish V3 (more on that in a later post).

Sun's commercially available counterpart to GlassFish V2, the Sun Java System Application Server 9.1, is offered with new annual subscriptions for support, including live transfer for issues impacting production availability. In fact, we have dropped prices by up to 75% to be in line with other open source offerings. Yep, you can buy online. Note, GlassFish V2 is at feature parity with the Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 - we're not penalizing the open source community for committing to open source bits.  However, if production support is required to reduce the impact of production issues, we have your back. With great out-of-the-box enterprise features and cost-efficient pricing, the Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 offer a great value proposition whether you are an enterprise looking to drive down costs or a startup looking for a low barrier to entry.

Download GlassFish V2 or Sun's commercialized counterpart, the Sun Java System Application Server 9.1. Take it for a spin. Have questions? Check the documentation or the FAQ on how to get help.
 

Saturday April 21, 2007

I flew up to the Santa Clara campus Monday - Friday to meet my fellow Glassfish peers, as well as some in management and the field (sales). It was a whirlwind of a time as I spent 95% of my time in meetings, with the remaing 5% scheduling more meetings via email. These meetings were both necessary and productive, so don't get me wrong. I learned a heck of a lot in a short period of time and met a lot of new faces. Email is efficient and all, but relationships are stronger and build more quickly with some face-to-face time.

What impressed me the most during the visit was not a "can do" attitude but a "will do" attitude exuded by the folks I met. Seriously.  While everyone has their formal responsibilities, many accept informal responsibilities when things just need to get done. There is quite a bit of passion behind Glassfish at Sun, and it shows. Geez, it is infectious. It's one of the reasons I took on the role of Glassfish Product Manager. Yikes! That reminds me, time to get new business cards. "Field Geek" doesn't cut it anymore.

All metrics I see show Glassfish is moving in the right direction. Vibrant and growing community. 3 Million downloads a year.  Growing distribution channel.  It's simply hard to not take a look at Glassfish nowadays. Free for development and deployment. Improved performance.  Dynamic Clustering. Stay current with the Glassfish Update Center, just like you stay current with NetBeans via the Netbeans Update Center today. I can't leave out that Glassfish runs well in Solaris Zones (this is the Clingan Zone after all). You'll have the opportunity to hear more about Glassfish at JavaOne. If you get a chance, stop by the Glassfish booth  and say hi. I'll be spending part of my time doing booth duty.

If you would like hook up at JavaOne, drop me a note.