I can't setup my jndi.properties to access remote EJBs on Jboss 5

Question

I'm trying to setup the Jboss server "client" (version 5.1.0) to use remote EJBs from another Jboss server (10.90.0.91), but I can't do this using a jndi.properties file on the Jboss client.

I can get the remote EJB using this simple code on my client:

        InitialContext ctx = null;
        try {
            Hashtable<String, String> jndiProps = new Hashtable<String, String>();
            jndiProps.put(InitialContext.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY, "org.jnp.interfaces.NamingContextFactory");
            jndiProps.put(InitialContext.PROVIDER_URL, "jnp://10.90.0.91:1099");
            ctx = new InitialContext(jndiProps);
            return ctx.lookup(jndiName);
        } catch (NamingException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }

This works fine.

Now I would like to setup the Jboss client with this properties. But if I edit the existent jndi.properties file localized on server/{application}/conf/ from:

# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING
#
java.naming.factory.initial=org.jboss.iiop.naming.ORBInitialContextFactory
java.naming.factory.url.pkgs=org.jboss.naming:org.jnp.interfaces

To:

# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING
#
java.naming.factory.initial=org.jnp.interfaces.NamingContextFactory
java.naming.provider.url=jnp://10.90.0.91:1099

I receive some errors when I start the Jboss client (apparently, I don't know what I'm doing :)):

2016-08-19 10:17:41,645 ERROR [org.jboss.kernel.plugins.dependency.AbstractKernelController] (main) Error installing to Start: name=HASessionStateService state=Create
javax.naming.NameAlreadyBoundException: Default
    at org.jnp.server.NamingServer.bind(NamingServer.java:209)
    at org.jnp.server.NamingServer.bind(NamingServer.java:167)
[...]

2016-08-19 10:17:42,767 ERROR [org.jboss.kernel.plugins.dependency.AbstractKernelController] (main) Error installing to Start: name=ProfileServiceProxyFactory state=Create
javax.naming.NameAlreadyBoundException: ProfileService
    at org.jnp.server.NamingServer.bind(NamingServer.java:209)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
[...]

2016-08-19 10:17:44,778 ERROR [org.jboss.kernel.plugins.dependency.AbstractKernelController] (main) Error installing to Start: name=jboss:service=ClientUserTransaction state=Create mode=Manual requiredState=Installed
javax.naming.NameAlreadyBoundException: UserTransaction
    at org.jnp.server.NamingServer.bind(NamingServer.java:209)
    at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor487.invoke(Unknown Source)
[...]

And in the final:

2016-08-19 10:17:51,993 ERROR [org.jboss.system.server.profileservice.ProfileServiceBootstrap] (main) Failed to load profile: Summary of incomplete deployments (SEE PREVIOUS ERRORS FOR DETAILS):

DEPLOYMENTS MISSING DEPENDENCIES:
  Deployment "ProfileServiceInvocationHandler" is missing the following dependencies:
    Dependency "ProfileServiceProxyFactory" (should be in state "Configured", but is actually in state "**ERROR**")
    Dependency "ProfileServiceProxyFactory" (should be in state "Configured", but is actually in state "**ERROR**")

DEPLOYMENTS IN ERROR:
  Deployment "jboss:service=ClientUserTransaction" is in error due to the following reason(s): javax.naming.NameAlreadyBoundException: UserTransaction
  Deployment "HASessionStateService" is in error due to the following reason(s): javax.naming.NameAlreadyBoundException: Default
  Deployment "ProfileServiceProxyFactory" is in error due to the following reason(s): javax.naming.NameAlreadyBoundException: ProfileService, **ERROR**

So, I think I can't touch in already existent JNDI properties on that file.

If the jndi.properties file can't be changed because it is being used by JBoss itself, in which location can I set my JNDI lookup settings to the remote EJBs within the Jboss 5? How can I configure a jndi.properties file to be available in the application classpath without put the jndi.properties file inside of my WAR file?

Thanks!

Eaglet

You mentioned jboss client but I think you mean jboss server. So you want server1 to be a client of server2, where server2 provides the EJBs. If that's true then I don't think you can change jndi.properties since that is for server1 configuration. Within your war running on server1 you would need something similar to the sample client code. Those properties in your sample client code could be in its own config file. – Wooded

Hi! Yes, it's a jboss server "client". Some documents about Jboss said that the configuration of this properties is possible in the jndi.properties of the Jboss: docs.jboss.org/jbossas/docs/Server_Configuration_Guide/4/html/… – Eaglet

Are both servers running JBoss AS 5.x? – Thordis

@SteveC, yes, both servers – Eaglet

Answer 1

An alternative way to do this is to configure a org.jboss.naming.ExternalContext MBean in your jboss-service.xml file:

<mbean code="org.jboss.naming.ExternalContext" 
       name="jboss.jndi:service=ExternalContext,jndiName=external/server2">
    <attribute name="JndiName">external/server2</attribute>
    <attribute name="Properties">
        java.naming.factory.initial=org.jnp.interfaces.NamingContextFactory
        java.naming.provider.url=jnp://10.90.0.91:1099
        <!-- other properties as needed -->
    </attribute>
    <attribute name="InitialContext"> javax.naming.IntialContext </attribute>
    <attribute name="RemoteAccess">false</attribute>
</mbean>

Your java code to perform the lookup then becomes:

 Context initialContext = new InitialContext();
 return initialContext.lookup("external/server2/" + jndiName);

You can even navigate the remote JNDI tree using JNDIView in the local management console when you set this up.

More information can be found in org.jboss.naming.ExternalContext MBean.

Thordis

Answer 2

Well, I found another solution.

I created a new file called jndi-remote.properties on the configuration directory from Jboss:

{jboss_home}/server/default/conf/jndi-remote.properties

And I access the file in Jboss config directory (System.getProperty("jboss.server.config.url")) from Java:

String fileName = System.getProperty("jboss.server.config.url") + "/" + "jndi-remote.properties";

Properties properties = null;
try {
    URL url = new URL(fileName);
    if(new File(url.toURI()).exists()) { 
        properties = new Properties();
        properties.load(url.openStream());
        LOGGER.info("The file " + "jndi-remote.properties" + " was loaded from " + fileName);
    }
} catch (MalformedURLException e) {
    //throw
} catch (URISyntaxException e) {
    //throw
} catch (IOException e) {
    //throw
} 

And initialize my InitialContext:

if (properties != null) {
    ctx = new InitialContext(properties);
}

Works :).

Eaglet