Chapter 2. Features that are available in this release This release of the JBoss Web Server collection includes the following features. 2.1. New or changed features in the latest release The latest release of the JBoss Web Server collection provides the following new or changed features. 2.1.1. Support for ansible-core package version 2.16 or later The 2.1 release of the JBoss Web Server collection requires that you have installed the ansible-core package version 2.16 or later on a control node in your system. You can install the ansible-core package by installing Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2. x . For more information, see the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Installation Guide . 2.1.2. Automated installation of native archive file enabled by default From the 2.1 release onward, the JBoss Web Server collection is also configured to install the native archive file for the specified product version by default. The jws_native variable is now set to True by default. This supersedes the behavior in earlier releases where the jws_native variable was set to False by default. In this situation, unless you explicitly changed the jws_native variable setting to True , the JBoss Web Server collection did not install the native archive file. Note If you set the jws_native variable to False , the JBoss Web Server collection cannot install the native archive, which causes issues for features such as SELinux policies that require the installation of a native archive file. 2.1.3. Preconfigured become: true directives in redhat.jws.jws role From the 2.1 release onward, the redhat.jws.jws role is already preconfigured with become: true directives, which activate user privilege escalation for performing any automated tasks that require root privileges on your target hosts. 2.1.4. Requirement for become: true directive in playbook removed From the 2.1 release onward, because the redhat.jws.jws role is preconfigured with become: true directives, you no longer need to specify a become: true directive in your playbook. This supersedes the behavior in earlier releases where the JBoss Web Server collection required that you specify a become: true directive in your playbook to activate user privilege escalation at the play level. 2.2. New or changed features in earlier releases The JBoss Web Server collection includes the following features that were introduced in earlier releases. 2.2.1. Full Red Hat support From the 2.0 release onward, the JBoss Web Server collection is a fully supported feature from Red Hat. Before the 2.0 release, the JBoss Web Server collection was a Technology Preview feature only. 2.2.2. Support for automated installations of JBoss Web Server on RHEL 8 or RHEL 9 The JBoss Web Server collection supports the automated installation of Red Hat JBoss Web Server on target hosts that are running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) version 8 or 9. 2.2.3. Predefined set of variables for enabling automation tasks The JBoss Web Server collection provides a comprehensive set of predefined variables and default values that you can manually update to match your setup requirements. These variable settings provide all the information that the JBoss Web Server collection requires to complete an automated and customized installation of Red Hat JBoss Web Server on your target hosts. For a full list of variables that the JBoss Web Server collection provides, see the redhat.jws.jws role in Ansible automation hub . The information page for the redhat.jws.jws role lists the names, descriptions, and default values for all the variables that you can define. 2.2.4. Automated installation of a Red Hat JBoss Web Server base release from archive files By default, the JBoss Web Server collection supports the automated installation of Red Hat JBoss Web Server from product archive files. You can enable the JBoss Web Server collection to install the base release of a specified JBoss Web Server version from archive files. A base release is the initial release of a specific product version (for example, 6.0.0 is the base release of version 6.0 ). The JBoss Web Server collection requires that local copies of the appropriate archive files are available on your Ansible control node. If copies of the archive files are not already on your system, you can set variables to permit automatic file downloads from the Red Hat Customer Portal. For more information, see Support for automatic download of archive files . Alternatively, you can download the archive files manually. This feature also includes variables to support the following automation setup tasks: You can specify the base release of the product version that you want to install. If you have changed the names of the archive files on your Ansible control node, you can specify the appropriate file names. After you set the appropriate variables, the JBoss Web Server collection automatically extracts the archive files and installs the product on your target hosts when you subsequently run the playbook. For more information, see Enabling the automated installation of a JBoss Web Server base release . 2.2.5. Automated installation of Red Hat JBoss Web Server patch updates from archive files If product patch updates are available for the JBoss Web Server version that is being installed, you can also enable the JBoss Web Server collection to install these patch updates from archive files. This feature is disabled by default. You can use the same steps to enable the automated installation of patch updates regardless of whether you want to install these updates at the same time as the base release or later. The JBoss Web Server collection requires that local copies of the appropriate archive files are available on your Ansible control node. If copies of the archive files are not already on your system, you can set variables to permit automatic file downloads from the Red Hat Customer Portal. For more information, see Support for automatic download of archive files . Alternatively, you can download the archive files manually. This feature also includes variables to support the following automation setup tasks: You can enable the automated installation of patch updates. If you want to install a specified patch release rather than the latest available patch update, you can specify the appropriate patch release. If you want to prevent the JBoss Web Server collection from contacting the Red Hat Customer Portal for file downloads, you can enable a fully offline installation. For more information, see Support for fully offline installations from archive files . After you set the appropriate variables, the JBoss Web Server collection automatically extracts the archive files and installs the patch updates on your target hosts when you subsequently run the playbook. For more information, see Enabling the automated installation of JBoss Web Server patch updates . 2.2.6. Support for automatic download of archive files The JBoss Web Server collection is configured to support the automatic download of archive files by default. However, this feature also requires that you set variables to specify the client identifier (ID) and secret that are associated with your Red Hat service account. Note Service accounts enable you to securely and automatically connect and authenticate services or applications without requiring end-user credentials or direct interaction. To create a service account, you can log in to the Service Accounts page in the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console, and click Create service account . For more information, see Enabling the automated installation of a JBoss Web Server base release and Enabling the automated installation of JBoss Web Server patch updates . 2.2.7. Support for fully offline archive file installations By default, the JBoss Web Server collection is configured to contact the Red Hat Customer Portal to check if new patch updates are available. However, you can optionally set a variable to enforce a fully offline installation and prevent the collection from contacting the Red Hat Customer Portal, This feature is useful if your Ansible control node does not have internet access and you want the collection to avoid contacting the Red Hat Customer Portal for file downloads. Note If you enable this feature, you must also set a variable to specify the patch release that you want to install. You must also ensure that copies of the appropriate archive files already exist on your Ansible control node. For more information, see Enabling the automated installation of JBoss Web Server patch updates . 2.2.8. Automated installation of Red Hat JBoss Web Server from RPM packages You can enable the JBoss Web Server collection to install Red Hat JBoss Web Server from RPM packages. This feature is disabled by default. When you enable the RPM installation method, the JBoss Web Server collection installs the latest RPM packages for a specified major version of the product, including any minor version and patch updates. The collection obtains the RPM packages directly from Red Hat. This feature includes variables to support the following automation setup tasks: You can specify the product version that you want to install. You can enable the RPM installation method. After you set the appropriate variables, the JBoss Web Server collection automatically obtains the latest RPM packages and installs these packages on your target hosts when you subsequently run the playbook. For more information, see Enabling the automated installation of JBoss Web Server from RPM packages . 2.2.9. Automated installation of Red Hat build of OpenJDK By default, the JBoss Web Server collection does not install a JDK automatically on your target hosts, based on the assumption that you have already installed a supported JDK on these hosts. However, for the sake of convenience, you can optionally set a variable to enable the automated installation of a supported version of Red Hat build of OpenJDK. In this situation, the JBoss Web Server collection automatically installs the specified OpenJDK version on each target host when you subsequently run the playbook. Note The JBoss Web Server collection supports the automated installation of Red Hat build of OpenJDK only. If you want to use a supported version of IBM JDK or Oracle JDK, you must install the JDK manually on each target host or you can automate this process by using your playbook. For more information about manually installing a version of IBM JDK or Oracle JDK, see the Red Hat JBoss Web Server Installation Guide . For more information, see Ensuring that a JDK is installed on the target hosts . 2.2.10. Automated creation of product user account and group By default, the JBoss Web Server collection creates a tomcat user account and a tomcat group automatically on each target host. However, if you want the JBoss Web Server collection to create a different user account and group, you can set variables to modify the behavior of the JBoss Web Server collection to match your setup requirements. In this situation, the JBoss Web Server collection automatically creates the specified user account and group name on each target host when you subsequently run the playbook. For more information, see Ensuring that a product user and group are created on the target hosts . 2.2.11. Automated integration of Red Hat JBoss Web Server with systemd By default, the JBoss Web Server collection is not configured to set up Red Hat JBoss Web Server as a service that a system daemon can manage. However, if you want the JBoss Web Server collection to integrate Red Hat JBoss Web Server with a system daemon, you can set a variable to modify the behavior of the JBoss Web Server collection to match your setup requirements. If you enable this feature, the JBoss Web Server collection sets up Red Hat JBoss Web Server as a jws6‐tomcat service automatically on each target host. However, if you want to use a different service name, you can also set a variable to instruct the JBoss Web Server collection to create a different service name. Note The JBoss Web Server service is managed by systemd . If you have not enabled an automated installation of Red Hat build of OpenJDK, you must also set a variable to specify the location of the JDK that is installed on your target hosts. This step is required to ensure successful integration with systemd . For more information, see Enabling the automated integration of JBoss Web Server with systemd . 2.2.12. Automated configuration of Red Hat JBoss Web Server product features The JBoss Web Server collection provides a comprehensive set of variables to enable the automated configuration of a Red Hat JBoss Web Server installation. By default, the JBoss Web Server collection configures Red Hat JBoss Web Server to listen for nonsecure HTTP connections on port 8080 . Other product features such as the following are disabled by default: Support for secure HTTPS connections Mod_cluster support for load-balancing HTTP server requests to the JBoss Web Server back end The password vault for storing sensitive data in an encrypted Java keystore Support for Apache JServ Protocol (AJP) traffic between JBoss Web Server and the Apache HTTP Server To enable a wider set of product features, you can set variables to modify the behavior of the JBoss Web Server collection to match your setup requirements. For more information, see Enablement of automated JBoss Web Server configuration tasks . 2.2.13. Automated deployment of JBoss Web Server applications You can also automate the deployment of web applications on your target hosts by adding customized tasks to the playbook. If you want to deploy a new or updated application when Red Hat JBoss Web Server is already running, the JBoss Web Server collection provides a handler to restart the web server when the application is deployed. For more information, see Enabling the automated deployment of JBoss Web Server applications on your target hosts .

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