Happy new year! Almost. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas... I've recently started using the Apache group's mod_jserv and the Sun/Apache Tomcat release. I've been pulled into using this because our new EJB server (Sapphire/Web) doesn't support built-in services such as HTTP (well, not as a full-blown web server) like our other EJB server (WebLogic) does. So, I'm a little new to this environment and have a few general questions... First, vaguely about the future of JSP via the Sun/Apache aliance, then more technical regarding how to load balance JSPs and keep the Sapphire/Web EJB server in the loop... Tomcat? It seems that Tomcat and Apache are going to "merge." Does anyone know if this is true? And furthermore, according to the Tomcat pages, it's going to be the reference implementation of JSP/servlets. Sounds great... so, based on this, I should be using Tomcat with Apache if I want to be heading in the right direction. Is this all the right assumption? Also regarding Tomcat: While I don't have any solid performance figures yet (relative to WebLogic) it seems that our new environment (Apache/JSP/servlets/Tomcat) is not performing as well as the all-in-one solution of WebLogic. Does anyone have any comments on this? Performance is a huge concern for us--just slightly below "cross-platform multi-server support," so naturally I want to tackle this problem the best possible way. What I've done thus far... At this point, and keeping in mind that performance is a critical concern, I've configured Apache as our web server and am taking advantage of its various features in this regard. In addition, the Tomcat JSP/servlet engine has been installed (into Apache) so that it can handle servlets and JSP pages. Works great, so far. The next hurdle is "properly" getting Sapphire/Web integrated. This leaves me with a few high-level questions: 1. Will Apache/Tomcat perform better as the servlet runner, JSP compiler? [I think so, but don't have much evidence for this]. 2. Is there any problem having Apache/Tomcat do this, yet invoking EJB objects and other Sapphire/Web services? [I hope not, but this is very vague configuration territory to me...] 3. To keep performance up, I want to avoid Sapphire's SaCGI.cgi generic load balance broker, which is the driving force behind this: know I can use a Sapphire servlet rather than invoking the SaCGI.cgi script every time I start a servlet. This, at least, should be a significant performance gain... but is there a better way? [This is Apache on Linux, by the way; NT is not an option]. OK, now the more technical questions: Again, the concern is performance. My feeling is that using the Tomcat JSP engine is going to be more powerful (and current, with servlet 2.2 and JSP 1.1 compliance) than using Sapphire/Web's JSP engine. So, what I'm embarking on setting up is an environment where Apache/Tomcat compiles JSP pages. BUT, I still need to forward some servlets to Sapphire/Web. This is where I'm getting a bit confused: 1. Is there any problem having Apache/Tomcat do all of the servlet running and JSP compiling, but still use EJBs and other server-oriented embedded objects? Sapphire/Web is (I believe) a compliant EJB server, but does this mean I have to hand all servlets to it for execution? 2. Assuming that I do have to hand some servlets to Sapphire/Web, how can I configure Apache/Tomcat to do this? I have a vague idea of setting up a handler for a specific type of file (such as *.sjsp or something), then sending those EJB-oriented JSPs off to Sapphire for handling. But this seems redundant and inelegant... so I think it's the wrong thing to do. 3. But, even if I can seamlessly use Apache/Tomcat for all servlet running, there is one thing I need to hand off to Sapphire/Web: Load balancing. So, how can I configure Apache/Tomcat to run certain load-balanced content in Sapphire, yet run other servlets internally? Here, I'm guessing that I simply set up an alias to the load balance broker servlet (from Sapphire)... this seems straightforward, but I'm hoping someone out there is doing something similar to this... 4. And finally, the biggest question that I have no clue on: Will there be any problem using the Apache/Tomcat engine (servlets 2.2 and JSP 1.1) with Sapphire/Web's 6.2 release, which (again, I believe) is trailing behind by a revision or two? Or can I mix and match with impunity? Anyone's experience in regard to the above would be very interesting readinf or me. Thanks for any input... your help is appreciated! -- Zacharias J. Beckman - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - (U.S.) 305-281-8701 Creative Sun Inc., Publishing for the Internet - http://www.creativesun.com Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. -- Theodore Roosevelt
begin:vcard n:Beckman;Zacharias J. tel;cell:305-281-8701 tel;fax:305-447-9984 tel;work:305-281-8701 x-mozilla-html:TRUE url:http://www.creativesun.com org:Creative Sun, Inc. adr:;;P. O. Box 14-3542;Coral Gables;FL;33114-3542;U.S.A. version:2.1 email;internet:[EMAIL PROTECTED] title:Director of Technology note;quoted-printable:Creative Sun, Inc., is a world leader in Internet-based publishing=0D=0Asolutions. Its experience arising from large-scale database=0D=0Aimplementations have established Creative Sun as a leading=0D=0Aauthority on multi-user distributed solutions such as Author! Author!,=0D=0Ait's flagship product. note:"Something should be done. In general." x-mozilla-cpt:;-14768 fn:Zacharias J. Beckman end:vcard
