Today was the release of SailFin v2 (download, home, wiki) and its companion Sun GlassFish Communications Server 2.0 (download, home). SailFin v2 is a big release; it leverages GlassFish v2.1.1 (more tomorrow) and adds a number of features including high availability, rolling upgrade, flexible network topology, better overload protection, Diameter support, improved diagnosability, Java based DCR files for the load balancer, and more. I can't cover SailFin v2 properly but I'll collect some of the relevant links so you can follow them up.  Start with Binod's overview: SailFin v2 Released! and move from there:

Some of the major changes are:

• A new replica selection algorithm that improves scalability by easing load distribution after failure.
• Enhancements to the Converged Load Balancer to support writing DCR rules in Java.
• The ability to do rolling upgrades leverages session replication; see this example.
• Improved use of multihoming features for more flexible deployments. See Ramesh's writeup.
• Diameter support in Sun's for-fee AddOn; see details in Venu's many posts, including [1] and [2].
• Improved load protection.  See Robert's one pager and Sankar's work on JMX Notification.

As part of the release, the team has posted a number of new entries, including:

• Next is what? (Prasad)
• Subscribing to user state using Sun Diameter Sh API (Venu)
• Setup and Configure Diameter on SailFin (Naman Mehta)
• Diameter Administration on SailFIn 2.0 (Yamini KB)
• SailFin v2 Released (Srikanth Anandal)
• CLB Enhancements in SailFin 2.0 (Kshitiz Saxena)
• Overload Protection in SailFin: What's new in 2.0 (Rampsarathy)
• Tips and Tricks of SailFin HA (Bhavani Shankar)
• Multihoming in SailFin. (Ramesh)

• TA entries tagged SailFin,
• Prasad's earlier roundup: "SailFin 2.0 is Around the Corner!"
• Sreeram's notes on SailFin amazon images.
• How to write Conference App in 15 lines of nicely formatted code!

Finally, a list for PR/Press reports:

• Sun Communications Server Speaks VoIP (The H Open Source)
• Barron's, BusinesWire.

Note - GlassFish v2.1.1 is also available from Sun's Download Center and from the Community Site. More on that release tomorrow. And the OpenMQ 4.4 (and 4.4.1 RC1) are available from here.

Given the asynchronous nature of SIP, debugging issues in a SIP application server could turn out to be a nightmare. Tools like Wireshark are widely used for tracing SIP messages in the network. SailFin v2 implements a new feature that allows users to inspect SIP message flow in the container more effectively. Take a look at Peter's one pager and Sankar's blog on SIP Message Inspection for more details.

This new feature compliments SIP access logging, which is similar to more familiar HTTP access logging.

SailFin is closing on v2.0 which is aligned with GlassFish v2.1.1 (both scheduled for the end of October, see Roadmap) and the team has been highlighting new features in the release: • Prasad Announces HCF, provides an overview and a List of Fixes since SCF. • Shreedhar writes about the Support for SSR (SIP Session Replication). • Ramesh describes the Configuration Options, including DNS failover and Converged LB. • Prateek Announces a new AMIs for SailFin based on OpenSolaris.   (also see EC2 Blog and Full List of Sun's AMIs)

SailFin V2 significantly enhances the availability of the application server from the initial version. Managing the network traffic is very important in creating a highly available service/application execution environment. Ramesh has blogged about traffic separation in SailFin. He explains how the intra-cluster communication (converged load balancer, GMS) can be isolated from the external traffic by utilizing the multiple network interfaces in the server machines.

SailFin V2 is approaching HCF (hard code freeze) next week on the way to final release in October 2009. Take a look at the schedule in the wiki.

Diameter support in SailFin is progressing well. Venu has blogged about steps to use Sh api for updating user profile information in HSS (eg: Open IMS). In another post, he explains using onine charging in SailFin. Also, Sailfin V2 has crossed the SCF (soft code freeze) last week and is progressing towards the release in October 2009. You can download V2 b23 here.

Recently, we have started receiving inquiries about hosting options for SailFin. A few months back SailFin team had setup a demo server in a Go Daddy server. It has worked out quite well so far. Now, Sreeram has written a blog about running SailFin (V2 b20) with Amazon EC2. He gives details such as enabling SIP UDP port, MySQL configuration and using DynDNS to setup the domain name. Try it out!

Sailfin CAFE is a new framework that simplifies the development of Converged Web apps. It can be used with Sailfin v2 and points to Sailfin v3. The project just launched and we want your feedback and participation. Check out Binod's Writeup, Sreeram's Mail Post and the slides from TS-4929 (id:contentbuilder / pw:doc789). Sailfin CAFE is a key step towards yet another "v3" container in the GlassFish family joining GlassFish v3 Server (out in September) and OpenESB v3 - making good progress through Project Fuji. The WebSpace Server is also going v3 but they have not yet started working on their builds.

Telco Application servers such as SailFin require a more deterministic GC model with predictable pause time, and also that scales well on multiple processors. Waiting for a long time to connect a telephone call is clearly unacceptable. Performance team at Sun spent a lot of time tuning GC while testing SailFin for high work loads. Bharath has written a series of blog entries (here and here) explaining his experience. Take a look.

More resources on SailFin V1 is available now. Prasad has written a Tech Tip on Converged Java EE applications. He explains how different SIP Servlet artifacts can be used from Java EE components like EJBs. Also, Varun has posted couple of entries on Getting Started with SailFin clustering (I,II). A test application, sipp scenario files for testing, etc are attached to the blog. Take a look!

STUN (Simple Traversal of User Datagram Protocol Through Network Address Translators) defined in RFC 3489 (and RFC 5389) is one mechanism for NAT traversal. It assists SIP clients behind a NAT firewall or router with their packet routing. SailFin V2 now has a basic STUN server, which SIP clients can use. Checkout Ramesh's blog to find all details.

SailFin is the Open Source Communications Server that is based on the GlassFish Server. We launched the effort with Ericsson back in May '07 with first builds in June '07 (see all SailFin-tagged entries) and we are nearing the first release.

A Communication Server requires new functionality like SIP-support but also has strong requirements on availability and quality of service. Some of this functionality is done in SailFin and some in the underlying GlassFish v2.1; both releases will be available in a few weeks so expect an increased coverage. Binod published several in early December ([1], [2]) and Sreeram published a couple of entries on SailFin just before the Holiday break.

Sreeram's first entry is an Short Summary of news including a pointer to the Eclipse-based Ericsson Service Development Studio, and the IPTV trials at Sonaecom. Sreeram's second post is a substantial Technical Overview covering its core architecture and administration, its subsystems, the development and deployment model, and the new SIP and Carrier-Grade features.

Finally, pencil-in Jan 29th, 2009 for a SailFin Webinar where we will provide some background to SIP and these new converged web applications in addition to a presentation on SailFin and demos.

RFC 3261 defines the basic set of requirements of a SIP implementation. Some parts of the RFC need fine tuning so that it works for all corner cases. I have blogged about how Record Routing proxies can be buggy when the implementation is strictly compliant with RFC 3261. SailFin uses sun deployment descriptor to handle such corner cases. Venu continues sharing information on SailFin security. This time, it is about configuring Nonce Manager. Another good entry is from Sankar about handling Parameterable headers.

Venu has blogged about RFC 4474 support in SailFin. This feature introduces a mechanism for securely identifying originators of SIP messages. A lot more information about this feature is available here and here. It is also worthwhile to look at the following blogs to know more about security in SailFin.  1. Authentication of SIP Servlet Resources (I, II, III)  2. RunAS and P-Asserted-Identity

Next week, I will post an entry on how SailFin handles some of the spec related issues in RFC 3261 and JSR 289.

SIP technology, the basis of Project SailFin, is consolidating its position as the leading standard for setting up and tearing down converged multimedia communication sessions. Communication Service Providers are investing in Service Delivery Platforms (SDP) to leverage the opportunity presented by the network convergence. The Service Execution Environment is a key layer of any SDP, and the application servers and databases are the key components of this layer.

A new white paper about Creating a Carrier Grade Service Execution Environment with MySQL Cluster and the Sun GlassFish Communications Server is available now. Take a look. You need a MySQL account to access the white paper.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be posting a series of entries to take a closer look at SailFin, specifically the SIP container. If you havent tried SailFin so far, give it a whirl.

The Diameter protocol is designed to provide an Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) framework for applications. The Diameter base protocol is defined by RFC 3588. The 3GPP standards body has adopted Diameter as the primary signaling protocol for AAA and mobility management in the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS).

In an IMS architecture, an application server like SailFin will use Diameter to communicate with HSS (Home Subscriber Server). HSS is a central subscriber database that performs AAA and helps in locating the user. Traffix systems announced that it will officially join the GlassFish Partner Program and Traffix’s OpenBloX(TM) Diameter will become a preferred Diameter platform for Project SailFin. OpenBloX Diameter integration with SailFin will be facilitated by a J2EE Connector 1.5 resource adapter and a Diameter java library.

MS6 of SailFin is available for download. Please download and give it a try. And previous entries on Sailfin at TheAquarium are here.