Hello Marq,
Implementation background:
1. Our Client has close to 20 different applications running on different platforms (Siebel, Java/JEE, DataBase applications etc ), of which there are a few applications that depend on others for data. So we had both synchronous transactions (i.e. one that started from System A then flows through ESB and goes to System B and Back to System A via ESB) and Asynchronous transactions ( where the ESB had the responsibility to do a guaranteed delivery of the data).
2. We used to have a third part EAI VITRIA servicing these needs. It had a pretty hefty licensing cost. So we planned to migrate the system or re engineer it with a Open Source EAI. Jboss ESB was our choice though we had considered using Mule. But we went for JBOSS ESB with a view to utilize the good things of JBOSS AS Server.
Application Background:
1. Heavily Data intensive (Millions of records inserted/read during Batch Job Run, Tens of thousands of online transactions).
2. Lot of Concurrent users (close to a thousand)
Versions Used
JBOSS AS 5.1.0 (2 instances) , JBOSS ESB 4.9, Java 1.6X, Oracle 10g , Red Hat Linux Server 5.0.
Applications that rely on the EAI(JBOSS ESB)
1. Java- SAP Connectivity
2. Java - Java Connectivity
3. Java - Oracle Connectivity
4. Java - Siebel Connectivity
Implementation Strategy:
1. Replace all RMI with Webservices(SOAP/ HTTP).
2. Replace all Direct DB Connections to Source applications with WebServices(SOAP/HTTP) - Batch Processing.
The gateway to the ESB Service is a Webservice end point. Each of the applications have a different end point (Different .esb files were created to cater to each of the applications' request).
Services of JBOSS ESB Used (Strictly uses most of the patterns defined in http://www.eaipatterns.com/toc.html)
1. JMS Router (Heavily depends on this for all the asynchronous processing)
2. Redelivery Mechanism. (Again Heavily reliable for guaranteed delivery)
3. SOAP Client (For routing request to Webservice providers) (Advantage over SOAP Proxy is that the WSDL binding does not happen at deployment time itself , so gives you the flexibility to dynamically configure services)
4. Content Based router based on XPATH (Has a few performance issues rather a tad slower when you have say 5MB+ object)
5. JMX (I really loved this part. The way it allows you to use its admin console for you to define operations when we configure an JMX MBean)
6. Mbean (again too good from JBOSS to have something like this. Works as a Strat up class in weblogic)
and So many more...
Data Flow through the application every day
1. A million Online transactions from Java to SAP.(ESB takes care of Mediation and auditing requests as well).
2. 8 to 10 million Batch Records within a span of say 4 to 6 hours.
Yet With all this the performance has always been better than that of VITRIA. the Most proud part for me and my team being " :) No support at all has been needed from us after a few weeks(initial hiccups and once settled goes on just like that) after deployment into production. Has been working like charm and has never needed our attention :) "
Hope this gives a little bit of a background. I would also suggest to get a copy of this fine book http://www.packtpub.com/jboss-esb-beginners-guide/book . I really missed something like this during our development back in 2010. I am currently reviewing this book from Packt publications. Its a great one for a head start to JBOSS ESB.
Happy development. I hope this helps. Do let me know if you have any clarifications.
Regards,
Raghav Viswanathan