JBoss EAP to Azure VMs

Introduction

This guide explains how to transfer enterprise Java applications running if your cloud plan is to "Lift and Shift" Java apps as-is, you may move them from a conventional Azure Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Virtual Machines (VM) and virtual machine scale sets from an on-premises server.

To "Lift and Optimise," you may also put your Java app code directly onto a JBoss EAP on Azure App Service instance, transfer your containerized apps to Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO), and use JBoss EAP images from the Red Hat Gallery.

Best Practice starting with Azure Marketplace Offers and Quickstarts

Red Hat and Microsoft's cooperation has resulted in the availability of a set of JBoss EAP on the Azure Marketplace, offering a reliable entry point for moving to Azure. Choose the offer or plan that most closely matches your current deployment by consulting the documentation for a list of available options. View the JBoss EAP article on Azure Best Practices.

Suppose none of the current solutions serves as a decent place to start. In that case, you may manually recreate the deployment using an Azure VM and additional resources if they are readily accessible.

Azure Marketplace offers

Red Hat and Microsoft have made the following products available in Azure Marketplace in cooperation. These offerings are public through the Azure site or the Azure Marketplace. For additional information, see the post on how to Use the Azure Marketplace Offer to Deploy Red Hat JBoss EAP on Azure VM and Virtual Machine Scale Sets.

The JBoss EAP and RHEL versions included in this Marketplace offer provide flexible support subscription structures. Bring-Your-Own-Subscription (BYOS) is an option for JBoss EAP, although RHEL offers the possibility of BYOS or Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG). The Azure Marketplace provides stand-alone, clustered, and clustered virtual machine scale sets for JBoss EAP on RHEL. The six plans consist of:

JBoss EAP 7.3 in a standalone VM running RHEL 8.3 (PAYG)
JBoss EAP 7.3 in a standalone VM running RHEL 8.3 (BYOS)
Clustered VM running JBoss EAP 7.3 on RHEL 8.3 (PAYG)
Clustered VM running JBoss EAP 7.3 on RHEL 8.3 (BYOS)
Scale settings for clustered virtual machines with JBoss EAP 7.3 and RHEL 8.3 (PAYG)
Scale settings for clustered virtual machines with JBoss EAP 7.3 and RHEL 8.3 (BYOS)

Azure quickstart templates

You may test drive EAP on Azure using Quickstart templates in addition to what the Azure Marketplace has to offer. The pre-built ARM templates and scripts used by these Quickstarts are used to install JBoss EAP on Azure in various configurations and version combinations. An example of a solution architecture is

On RHEL Stand-Alone, JBoss EAP VM
JBoss EAP on VM clusters running RHEL
Scale settings for clustered virtual machines running on RHEL and JBoss

Prerequisites

An Azure account with a current subscription - If you don't already have an Azure subscription, you may sign up for one for free or activate your Visual Studio Subscription subscriber perks.
Installation of JBoss EAP requires that you have a Red Hat Account with Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM) entitlement. You can use this entitlement to download the JBoss EAP version that has been reviewed and approved by Red Hat. You can join up for a free developer membership through the Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals if you don't have EAP authorization. The Red Hat Customer Portal is where you can find the required credentials (Pool IDs) after registering.
RHEL choices - Choose between Bring-Your-Own-Subscription and Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) (BYOS). When using BYOS, you must first deploy the Marketplace offer with solutions template before activating your Red Hat Cloud Access RHEL Gold Image. Adheres to these guidelines to allow RHEL Gold images for use on Microsoft Azure.
Command-Line Interface for Azure (CLI).
Java source code and a Java application based on JBoss EAP 7.2 or 7.3 with the latest Java Development Kit (JDK) version.

Choose either PAYG or BYOS from the RHEL alternatives. You must activate your Red Hat Cloud Access RHEL Gold Image to use the Azure Marketplace offer for BYOS. Offers for BYOS will be visible on the Azure portal's Private Offer area.

Migration flow and architecture

This section lists free solutions for moving conventional on-premise servers to Microsoft Azure's cloud environment and moving JBoss EAP apps from another application server to operate on JBoss EAP.

Red Hat migration toolkit for applications (MTA)

You should start your planning cycle with the Red Hat MTA for Java application migration before starting any EAP-related migration projects. The MTA is a collection of technologies that supports the modernization and migration of massive Java application deployments over various transformations and use cases. It facilitates effort estimate, speeds up code migration, and aids in moving applications to the cloud and containers. It also accelerates application code analysis.

Pre-migration

Before you begin, perform the evaluation and inventory activities outlined in the following sections to ensure a successful migration.

Validate the Compatibility

Before making any migration plans, it is advised that you verify your current deployment model and version. If your current version isn't supported, you might need to make significant adjustments to your program.

The MTA enables upgrades to the most recent JBoss EAP release and migrations from other enterprise application servers, such as Oracle WebLogic Server, to JBoss EAP.

Validate Operating Mode

Oracle Solaris, Windows Server, and RHEL are all supported by JBoss EAP. JBoss EAP can manage discrete instances in standalone server mode or group instances from a single control point in managed domain mode.

Microsoft Azure does not support JBoss EAP-managed domains. Only instances of the standalone JBoss EAP server are supported. Be aware that the Azure Marketplace offer creates your clustered VMs or virtual machine scale sets by creating JBoss EAP clusters using standalone JBoss EAP servers.

Inventory Server Capacity

Record the current production server(hardware )'s specifications (memory, CPU, disc, etc.), average and maximum request counts, and resource use. No matter whatever migration route you take, you'll need this information.

Inventory all Secrets

There wasn't a clear definition of "secrets" before developing "configuration as a service" technologies like Azure Key Vault or Azure App Configuration. Instead, you had a confusing array of setup options that served as what we now refer to as "secrets." These secrets are spread over several configuration files and configuration stores on app servers like JBoss EAP. Search all properties and configuration files on the production server(s) for any secrets or passwords. Make sure to look in your WAR files for jboss-web.xml. Your program may also contain configuration files with passwords or other login information.

Inventory JNDI Resources

Tally up all the JNDI (Java Naming and Directory Interface) resources. Certain ones, such as brokers for the Java Message Service (JMS), would need to be relocated or reconfigured.

Migration

Perform the migration

There are tools available to help in migration:

To evaluate applications for migration, use the Red Hat Application Migration Toolkit.
Server configurations may be moved using the JBoss Server Migration Tool.

You may use the JBoss Server Migration Tool or the management CLI's migrate function to manually move your server configuration from the older JBoss EAP version to the more recent JBoss EAP version.

Run Red Hat Application Migration Toolkit

The JBoss Server Migration Tool may be used in interactive mode. The JBoss Server Migration Tool operates interactively by default. You may select the server settings you wish to transfer in this manner.

The JBoss Server Migration Tool may also be used in non-interactive mode. It can operate in this mode without any instructions.

Review the result of JBoss server migration toolkit execution

Review the transferred server configuration files in the EAP HOME/standalone/configuration/ and EAP HOME/domain/configuration/ folders after the migration is finished. Visit Reviewing the Results of JBoss Server Migration Tool Execution for additional details.

Expose the application

Depending on your environment, you can expose the application using one of the techniques listed below.

Create a public IP to access the server and the application.
To reach the server, create a Jump VM in the same virtual network (VNet) but a different subnet (new subnet). The program may be exposed using this Jump VM.
You may reach the server and expose the application by creating a Jump VM with VNet Peering in another Virtual Network.
Use an Application Gateway to make the application visible.
Use an external load balancer to make the application visible (ELB).

Post-migration

Perform end-to-end acceptance testing once you've accomplished the migration objectives you set out in the pre-migration process to ensure everything functions as it should. Following are a few examples of post-migration improvements. However, this list is by no means exhaustive:

We are serving static information mounted to the VMs from Azure Storage.
Utilizing Azure DevOps, deploy your apps to the migrated JBoss cluster. Visit the Azure DevOps getting started manual for additional details.
Think about using Application Gateway.
Improve the topology of your network by using cutting-edge load balancing services. Visit Using load-balancing services in Azure for additional details.
Utilize Azure Managed Identities to manage secrets and give Azure resources Role-Based Access Control (RBAC).

Frequently Asked Questions

Is JBoss supported on Azure?

Since June 2021, JBoss EAP has been a supported runtime for Azure virtual machines (via the Azure Marketplace) and Azure App Service.

What is the difference between JBoss and JBoss EAP?

Red Hat creates and supports the Java EE application server known as JBoss EAP. The most recent version currently uses Java EE 6 is version 6. You may test the community project known as JBoss AS/WildFly. JBoss EAP will eventually be created from this community initiative.

What is JBoss EAP used for?

Enterprise Java applications may be built, operated, deployed, and managed with JBoss EAP in various settings, including on-premises, virtual environments, private, public, and hybrid clouds.

Can I use JBoss EAP for free?

Although Red Hat charges for a maintenance subscription for JBoss Enterprise Middleware, JBoss itself is free and open-source. Red Hat permits the use of JBoss EAP for development. However, modifications are not supported, and a support subscription is necessary to receive support for use in production.

Is JBoss EAP the same as WildFly?

Just a commercial build of the Wildfly project, JBoss EAP. JBoss and Wildfly are pretty similar to one another, especially when looking at the source code. James Falkner, technical product manager for Red Hat Runtimes, stated that Wildfly is the upstream project on which JBoss EAP is based.

Conclusion

So that's the end of the article. JBoss EAP to Azure VMs

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