JBoss: Changing Default Port Numbers

It is not uncommon to have multiple containers running on the same server in a production environment. I recently needed to deploy a JBoss Application Server instance onto a set of hosts that were already running a production tomcat application and development wanted separate containers. The production tomcat-hosted application was already listening on ports 8009 and 8080, so jboss was not going to be able to listen on those ports unless I assigned a second IP to the servers. If you are load-balancing multiple app servers, setting dedicated IP addresses for second instances of an application container can feel a bit wasteful. Keep in mind a couple things here though.

First off, the JBoss Wiki implies that the preferred mechanism for doing this actually does involve setting a second IP address on the box and executing your new instances run.sh|bat script with the -b switch. This binds that IP address to the second instance and uses all the default ports. In contrast though with what the wiki recommends, and in my world at least, changing the ports involves less people and less time. Less explaining as well to the LAN guys to justify getting those IPs, no tickets requesting DNS entries, etc.

Instructions for changing port assignments in JBoss depends upon the version you are running. Articles detailing changes for JBoss Application Server 4.x and for JBoss Application Server 5.0 are included on this site.

Buy the Book: JBoss in Action: Configuring the JBoss Application Server