[jboss-as7-dev] Management Console JDK Server Example

[Jason T. Greene]

On 1/21/11 8:56 AM, Brian Stansberry wrote:
> On 1/21/11 4:15 AM, Darran Lofthouse wrote:
>> On 01/20/2011 08:32 PM, Brian Stansberry wrote:
>>> These are valid points. Being able to run the console on a process other
>>> than the DC is a plus for users who see the DC as critical
>>> infrastructure where they don't want anything extraneous going on; i.e.
>>> they do a lot of management via scripts and only occasionally run the
>>> console.
>>
>> One question that came up this week was why isn't the DC also running on
>> a minimal AS? I assume this has already been considered but it would
>> bring some additional benefits: -
>>
>> - The DC becomes just another host so any instability in the DC and the
>> host controller is unaffected and can restart it as required.
>> - Whilst minimal services is still desirable services already provided
>> within AS can be used.
>>
>> And also later if there was ever need to implement a more master/slave
>> domain controller architecture this could be achieved with a server
>> group specifically for the domain controller.
>>
>
> What you're describing is running the domain controller functionality as
> a module inside a server instead of inside a HostController.
>
> Some problems:
>
> 1) It's more screw-upable. The process running the DC can now be tasked
> to do anything, whatever a user wants. Many, many more ways to mess up.

-snip-

Ultimately servers are very dynamic things wheras a DC and HC aren't. We 
know exactly what set of services we want running (there aren't many), 
and how they should be used in combination, and how to best represent 
that configuration. We really don't need much more than that.

Complexity is an important aspect because while servers can survive a 
temporary DC failure, we still need it to be robust enough that this a 
rare event, as without a running DC the entire domain is not manageable. 
Ideally it is only updated/patched when necessary (the domain schema is 
modified, a domain service has a bug fix or security update, etc). The 
more components/dependencies that make up the DC, the more likely an 
update will be needed, and the greater chance of failure.

-- 
Jason T. Greene
JBoss, a division of Red Hat