Just enough Web Space Server

I was poking around with the Just enough Operation System (JeOS) delivery form of OpenSolaris, when I found the Web Space Server project built on top of that platform. The Web Space Server project is based on the Liferay Portal and it has been packaged up nicely into a variety of virtual machines for both VirtualBox and VMware.

For this example I grabbed the OVF (Open Virtualization Format) which is designed for packaging up such appliances and was a snap to import into VirtualBox (File > Import Appliance):

When the import is complete, go ahead and start the WebSpaceServer. As this is a "just enough" distribution of OpenSolaris, there is no GUI. When the machine boots up, it will give you the HTTP address of the server, which in my case is 10.0.1.14:

Note, the machine takes anywhere from 5-10 minutes to complete service startup. To monitor its progress, you can log in using template / template.

One thing you probably want to do right off bat is enable ssh so you can log into the server remotely:

svcadm enable ssh

Then, from another host:

bleonard@opensolaris:~$ ssh template@10.0.1.14
The authenticity of host '10.0.1.14 (10.0.1.14)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 7c:6d:df:62:e2:ec:1f:a5:d7:2a:5f:3f:72:9a:ac:45.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added '10.0.1.14' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
Password: 
Last login: Tue Jun 30 03:55:15 2009

Welcome to a Sun GlassFish Web Space Server and OpenSolaris virtual 
machine image.

Use of this virtual machine image is subject to the license terms found 
in /etc/notices.

template@webspace:~$

You need to wait for the GlassFish server to finish starting up. You can check the domain2 SMF service:

template@webspace:~$ svcs -l domain2
fmri         svc:/application/SUNWappserver/domain2:default
name         Appserver Domain Administration Server
enabled      true
state        offline
next_state   online
state_time   Tue Jun 30 04:35:59 2009
logfile      /var/svc/log/application-SUNWappserver-domain2:default.log
restarter    svc:/system/svc/restarter:default
contract_id  46 
dependency   require_all/none svc:/milestone/network:default (online)
dependency   require_all/none svc:/system/filesystem/local:default (online)

Here you can see its current state is offline, but it's transitioning to online. You can tail the server log file to track its progress:

tail -f /opt/webspace/glassfish2/domains/domain2/logs/server

Ultimately, you'll see a line like the following:

[#|2009-06-30T11:44:37.899+0000|INFO|sun-appserver2.1|javax.enterprise.system.core|_ThreadID=10;_ThreadName=main;|Application server startup complete.|#

Once that is complete, you can then browse to the server. It has a professional home page with links to try the Web Space Server and a Quick Start Tour. Webmin is also included for managing MySQL and OpenSolaris.