Thanks to Byron and Lloyd, GlassFish v3 now has a Restart Button in the Admin GUI. Just download a recent promoted build (I used b55) and go to the Application Server panel in the Admin console; see the Screenshot. One more RFE bites the dust... Added - Byron pointed out that the corresponding CLI command is asadmin restart-domain

The GlassFish developer team is soliciting your feedback for the GFv3 release: • On the Admin GUI, check out the posts by Ken and Anissa. The main discussion is at the DEV@glassfish; there is another (small) thread at USERS@glassfish. • On the AppClient, check the post by Tim, and the corresponding thread at USERS@glassfish.

This week's webinar is on Thursday, Jan 22th, 11:00 am PT. Jane Young (and guests) will provide an overview of ASAdmin, the GlassFish CLI console (v2, v3). Asadmin enables the same functionality in the GUI console but in a format that is often more adequate for automation. Asadmin has bee described as "GlassFish's hidden gem"... Slides and other material will be posted to the Presentation Page; as usual, we encourage your participation through questions before or during the presentation via the companion chat. As usual, recordings of the presentations will be made available later.

Added - Due to technical difficulties I could not host the webinar and it will be rescheduled. It is currently penciled in for Thu, Feb 19th.

GlassFish v3 Prelude (download) is designed for extensibility - at multiple points, including Admin CLI, Monitoring, Deployment, Container, Configuration and Branding. Sreeni's latest note explains how to Extend the CLI using the HK2 services and OSGi.

Also see Ken's presentation from Nov 6th on how to Extend the Admin Console, also using the same facilities.

Another screencast from Anissa. This one shows how to Install GFv3 TP2 including the optional auto-download and install of the Administration console. In addition to a smaller/faster download, this means we could improve the console after shipping the main release!

Note that the screencast shows the Windows experience using the EXE installer. This intaller is already available in the Promoted Folder and will soon be moved to the 'Official' TP2 Folder.

Anissa has created a screencast showing how easy it is to add a plugin to the GlassFish v3 administration console. Check it out here, it is just 3 minutes. If even shows how you can change one of the Java classes, recompile, and just reload the admin page. Imagine the possibilities! You can add functionality as a developer for yourself, for your team or enterprise, or, if you are an ISV now your application can smoothly integrate within the GlassFish Server. BTW, did you know about our partner program? See announcement and page.

PS. The screencast can also be downloaded for offline-viewing from the GF Wiki.

WiseMan, the WS-Management Java implementation has now become a part of Metro (the GlassFish Web Services stack) community. WiseMan provides both client and server side APIs for building Manageable applications. Jean-François Denise is reporting on the road traveled to provide the WS-Man implementation and make fit best into the existing Metro technology. The Web Services Connector for JMX builds on top of WiseMan to provide connection with WS-Man client tools such as Windows Remote Management much like OpenDMK is a window to the SNMP world.

"What's the relationship to GlassFish?" you may ask. Well, by deploying the Web Services Connector for JMX in GlassFish, all the existing MBeans (such as those defined by AMX, by JSR 77, and by you) are automatically exposed as WS-Management resources. Clearly, the key feature of WiseMan is interoperability.

For the Web Services savvy, Jean-François' entry is buzzword compliant and a very good read (WS-Addressing, Push mode, security, etc...). WiseMan's homepage is at wiseman.dev.java.net. Version 1.0 requires Java SE 5+ or above and JAX-WS 2.1.1.

A tip from Kedar: How To Run a Large Batch of Commands

The next GlassFish administration meeting is today (Thu, Aug 23rd) at 8am PT. The agenda includes starting to discuss GlassFish v3; see the Announcement for details.

A separate mail thread asked about using JACL (see JACL website) for V3, so that may come up in the meeting. When looking around I noticed that IBM is deprecating JACL in WebSphere and instead is planning to switch to only Jython - seems a good question to consider.

Alexis has put together a nice summary of the basic concepts needed to use GlassFish v2 in a cluster profile. These include the concepts of domain, cluster, DAS and NA, master password, upgrading profiles, difference between cluster and enterprise profiles and more. Check all of these at Alexis' blog. And here you can find the transcript to Young Frankenstein (the young master).

Documentation is one of the strengths of glassfish but we want to improve it further. We already sped up the content at docs.sun.com and Paul is now soliciting feedback for the Online Help. If you would like to provide feedback or simply read the latest documentation, please use the document comment wiki at the GlassFishDocs page.

Note that the deadline for feedback in time for GlassFish v2 FCS is just next week: July 23, 2007.

The administration console is often cited as one of the strengths of GlassFish. Still, there is always an opportunity to further improve by learning from others. In that spirit, Jason Lee has put together an extensive comparison of the GlassFish and OC4J admin consoles. He has packed it with screen shots showing how various tasks are accomplished in each console. It's definitely worth a read, especially if you're a user who must deal with both platforms or a developer looking for ideas to improve one or the other.

The GlassFish v2 has 3 types of "servers": the domain administration server, the node agent server and the instance server; in development profile you only have the first type, but in a cluster or enterprise profiles you can have the 3 types. Normally you would manage these servers through asadmin commands, but, if necessary, you can also use specific Start and Stop Scripts as shown in Byron's blog. The scripts are now supported (and - unlike previously - not used internally; there are faster ways to start/shutdown).

It is JavaOne week and there will be many posts about the conference (and its preludes at CommunityOne) but I am going to also inject some general posts to balance it out a bit... So, talking about balancing, check out this post by Prashanth on the LoadBalancer Administration in GlassFish v2. Clustering and improved administration are part of the features in the next release, so this is very much apropos.

Now back to finishing my slides for GlassFish Day!

GlassFish Domains are AppServer engines that can be administered separatedly. Kedar (the GF administration lead) has a complete introduction here but Filippo just posted a focused and much shorter Cheatsheet that you may find very useful. Check it out! Filippo is the driver behind the Milano JUG and has been using GlassFish for quite a while as you can see if you do a Search in TheAquarium. Also see his latest repost on GlassFish and Eclipse.