Blog::Log

I had to install GlassFish on an Debian Etch machine and here is how I did it (the purpose of these instructions is as a reminder to myself so I know what I did in case I have to do it again).

Install Java 5

First thing needed is Java 5. To be able to get Java 5 and other stuff, add contrib and non-free to each repository in /etc/apt/sources.list .

It should look something like this:

deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib non-free

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian etch main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian etch main contrib non-free

Then simply run:
apt-get install sun-java5-jdk

Download GlassFish

Check the GlassFish website for the latest version and download it (URL may be different depending on version):

wget http://java.net/download/javaee5/v2ur2/promoted/Linux/glassfish-installer-v2ur2-b04-linux.jar

Install GlassFish

Install GlassFish by running:
java -jar -mx256M glassfish-installer-v2-b09.jar

For convenience it might be nice to move GlassFish to a version independent directory name and make symlink (will make future upgrades easier as well):

mv glassfish /opt/glassfish-v2ur2-b09
ln -s /opt/glassfish-v2ur2-b09 /opt/glassfish

Now setup GlassFish:

cd /opt/glassfish
/opt/glassfish/lib/ant/bin/ant -f setup.xml

If you get an permission error, make sure ANT is executable (note that this is just a standard ANT, if you already have ANT you may use that one instead):

chmod u+x /opt/glassfish/lib/ant/bin/ant

Start the application server by running:

/opt/glassfish/bin/asadmin start-domain


Verify that you may reach http://localhost:8080 and http://localhost:4848 (replace localhost if server is somewhere else).

Finally it might be a good idea to change the default admin password:

/opt/glassfish/bin/asadmin change-admin-password --user admin


Create init script

Based on the /etc/init.d/skeleton I created the following init-script:

#! /bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          glassfish
# Required-Start:    $local_fs $remote_fs
# Required-Stop:     $local_fs $remote_fs
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: glassfish initscript
# Description:       Simple initscript for GlassFish App server
### END INIT INFO

# Do NOT "set -e"

# PATH should only include /usr/* if it runs after the mountnfs.sh script
PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/opt/glassfish/bin
DESC="GlassFish Java EE5 App server"
NAME=glassfish
ASADMIN=asadmin
PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
SCRIPTNAME=/etc/init.d/$NAME

# Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
. /lib/init/vars.sh

# Define LSB log_* functions.
# Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.0-6) to ensure that this file is present.
. /lib/lsb/init-functions

#
# Function that starts the daemon/service
#
do_start()
{
        $ASADMIN start-domain \
                || return 1
}

#
# Function that stops the daemon/service
#
do_stop()
{
        $ASADMIN stop-domain \
                || return 1
}

case "$1" in
  start)
        [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
        do_start
        case "$?" in
                0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
                2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
        esac
        ;;
  stop)
        [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
        do_stop
        case "$?" in
                0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
                2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
        esac
        ;;
  restart|force-reload)
        log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
        do_stop
        sleep 10
        case "$?" in
          0|1)
                do_start
                case "$?" in
                        0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
                        1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
                        *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
                esac
                ;;
          *)
                # Failed to stop
                log_end_msg 1
                ;;
        esac
        ;;
  *)
        echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|restart|force-reload}" >&2
        exit 3
        ;;
esac

:

Save it as glassfish, then run:

cd /etc/init.d
update-rc.d glassfish defaults

Set executable permission on init script with chmod a+x glassfish .

That’s it!

These instructions are very much based on similar posts by Jasper Kalkers Installing Glassfish 2 on ubuntu 7.10 and Cay Horstmann Installing GlassFish and PostgreSQL on Ubuntu Server Edition.