HOWTO: Move Scalix from Tomcat to JBoss!

[jpreston]

Hey everyone,

I thought I'd write up a quick Moving Scalix from Tomcat to JBoss Application Server HOWTO.

So here's my scenario, I'm utilizing Scalix on a somewhat over powered machine. I want to start utilizing the new features in Scalix 11, but more importantly, I want to start integrating my mail system into a full fledged CRM. I know I could use Tomcat, and perhaps move Scalix to a bigger instance, but hey, that's not what I'm about. I want to group all of my Mailing CRM system on one machine. It is after all a Quad-Core Pentium Xeon 3GHz or something sick like that!

Anyhow, I also like some of the features JBoss gives you such as EJB3 support. Talk about making life easier! I'll go into that at some point also, but for now, let's start with the basics. I want to run one instance of an application server, not multiple instances of Tomcat or what have you.

So, here's what I did.

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Moving Scalix from Tomcat to JBoss Application Server
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Disclaimer

I am not, nor do I profess to be any sort of Scalix or JBoss Application Server expert. Furthermore, while the techniques I describe below worked for me, your mileage may vary. To that extent, please be sure to read all documentation available to you as I will not take responsibility for any mistakes or typos made. I have checked this document for its accuracy, but I may have missed something during the process, or your configuration may require additional steps or options not discussed in this HOWTO.

Neither Scalix nor JBoss Application Server have officially supported this setup in any fashion, and they probably do not claim it to be functional and probably will NOT offer any support. If you have any problems, I can assist you with basic help, but you're pretty much on your own. I may offer more detailed instructions as time permits, however, I am mainly writing this as reference for myself in the event I need to do it again. So don't be too critical ;-)

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Links to required software

http://www.scalix.com
http://labs.jboss.com/portal/jbossas/

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Reference Information

http://www.scalix.com/wiki/index.php?title=Technotes/Apache

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Assumptions

For the sake of NOT repeating installation instructions that can be found elsewhere, I will stop here and say that you MUST have a working Scalix installation. You also need a working JBoss Application Server installation. Please do not freak, you only have to have it installed and displaying the welcome page.

When I refer to your JBoss Home Path, I am referring to the base directory the installation sits in. This is commonly one of the following:

* /opt/jboss
* /opt/jboss-4.0.4GA
* /usr/local/jboss
* ~/jboss

When I refer to your Scalix Tomcat Home Path, I am referring to the base directory used for Scalix's Tomcat. This is commonly one of the following:

* /opt/scalix-tomcat
* /usr/local/scalix-tomcat

The reason this is important is so we can get into the nitty gritty, we'll need to know where to copy and paste or copy and make links. I did mention the goal was to make this non-intrusive to the Scalix setup, didn't I? Well, I guess I didn't! One thing this has to do is in the event of a FREAK out, I want to be able to turn JBoss off, and turn Tomcat bundled with Salix turn on. Something breaks? Woops! shutdown, restart. Easy!

--- Ok, done for today, I'd like to see some feedback before I go into this one. Is it going to be useful to anyone else? --jpreston

[dkelly]

Before you go further, I strongly advise that you look at integration with Scalix 11 as the tomcat setup is sufficiently different from Scalix 10.

This isn't something we can actively assist you with as JBoss isn't something that we support or have tested with.

Cheers

Dave