Which Java EE server should I use?

Question

OK, this is a little unusual, because ANY Java EE container can do the simple things I want to do (XML processing, JPA, Hibernate, SOAP/REST web services, etc). This is for personal use, more to gain skills than to accomplish essential functionality. I have my own Linux server (Ubuntu Jaunty x86_64) with business class internet, so I can install pretty much anything.

I use Tomcat a lot now, however, I ran into a few situations lately job hunting where they were looking for experience in a specific Java EE container (which defeats the whole purpose of having a standard), and of course not the same one each time.

So what I'm looking for is a Java EE server that:

1. Is in demand in the marketplace right now
2. Is free (or
3. Is not too horrendous (disk space, time) to install and to deploy applications on
4. Runs on Ubuntu x86_64

I've been able to glean some information via Indeed's keyword search , and that tells me to stay away from Jetty/Glassfish, even though they fit "lightweight" and "free". I also see from this SO post that WebSphere is a steaming pantload of bloatware that's hard to deploy/configure, but I don't know if that's accurate or current. I like Tomcat (completely FOSS, smallish, easy to deploy, plenty of docs/users), but it's less in demand than some of the bigger boys.

So what would you recommend I install? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

My personal recommendation is JBoss . Not only is this a solid server, but there are other JBoss Platforms and Frameworks that easily integrate into JBoss. One example is JBoss ESB.

Answer 2

Far too often, I've seen servers like JBoss and WebSphere (I've worked with them for the last 5 years now) rush to market with broken implementations. Unfortunantely, the part that is broken might be very small, but it will be just what you will be breaking your head on.

Oracle Weblogic just kicked the hell out of me with a broken implementation of MDBs (annotations).

If you want a server that is the most Java EE 5 compliant, will give you the least heartache and pretty much production-worthy, go for Glassfish and yes... use Netbeans as your dev IDE.

Answer 3

+1 on JBoss, that is mainly what I use for personal use and work. I have also used OC4J, and find that it is harder to use, and more finicky with it's class loading mechanism, maybe I'm just used to JBoss. But there is definitely more and easier to find community support for JBoss. So that is reason enough if you are doing this for personal use and are not going to get a support license, there will be many more users willing to help out if/when you encounter issues.

Answer 4

I've only used Tomcat myself, professionally. I've been using it for the better part of my (so far) three year career and I havn't experienced many problems with configuring or deploying applications to it. I use Eclipse WTP for Java EE developers 3.4 (Europa) at work, and mostly develop JSF applications utilizing ICEFaces. We deploy using the Tomcat web manager for most of our smaller projects, and through Hudson for some of our broader applications.

Please bear in mind some caveats, however:

• We host about 20 seperate web applications, mostly JSF with a few older JSP apps.
• The web applications served by my office have a very, very narrow scale. Our department currently supports about 20 unique users, so most of our applications do not receive a lot of heavy traffic.
• Most of our web applications are very processor intensive (ie here's a 2GB CSV file...write a program to calculate the total number of people that reside within homes that have 3 or more children...) that only usually perform one-off runs either weekly or daily (or even yearly...). In other words, "Give me all your resources for 2 hours...then I'm going to lunch".
• Our primary web server is a Solaris 10 box with a Dual core sparc processor (I believe clocked at 1.8 GHz if memory serves correctly), with 2GB of RAM (don't recall if it is DDR or DDR2).

That being said, I've definitely noticed performance problems over time with regards to our application environment that probably have more to do with our application code as opposed to Tomcat itself. I'm willing to bet that the problems have to do with poor memory management within our processing logic and data allocation than anything. The reason I believe this is because on a fresh restart of Tomcat our applications usually execute in an incredibly responsive fashion, yet over the course of even just one or two days the user experience is degraded.

Take it for what you will. We've probably got some problems to deal with on our end, but Tomcat itself seems to be pretty performant in a localized environment.

Answer 5

I ran into a few situations lately job hunting where they were looking for experience in a specific J2EE container (which defeats the whole purpose of having a standard), and of course not the same one each time.

Well, I think you have (half) answered the question yourself! If your primary aim is to help you find a job, you need to look at what Java EE container the recruiters in your geographical area are asking for. Go to your favourite recruiting websites, pull up the Java / Java EE jobs for your area for the last couple of months, and count for each kind of web container. (And also count the jobs that don't specify a particular web container.)

If the results of your research say that you need to learn WebSphere, you have my sympathy :-)

Don't forget that a "mandatory" requirement may not actually be mandatory if you are you are good enough in other areas. It all depends on what other candidates the recruiter can find. Don't be afraid to say "you asked for X, but I have Y and Z which demonstrates that I have broader experience with this technology".

Answer 6

Oracle officially ceased to support Glassfish. All bugs found there (and there are quite a lot of them) will never be fixed.

Payara is now the best option, as this is a clone of Glassfish, but is continued to be developed by the Java community.