Upgrading Apache JServ

This document should help describe some of the changes that one will need to be aware of while upgrading Apache JServ from an older version to a newer version. The official ChangeLog has a more complete and in depth revision history of the changes.
From 1.0 to 1.1
Unix configure changes:

Apache configure related: --activate-module=src/modules/jserv/libjserv.a Use this to configure Apache now instead of src/modules/jserv/mod_jserv.c.

Apache 1.2.x support completely removed We have removed all support for Apache 1.2.x. Apache 1.3.x has been out for quite some time now and we feel that it is best that you upgrade to the latest version. We also had several bugs as a result of bugs in Apache 1.2.x that have been resolved in Apache 1.3.x.

READ the INSTALL document The INSTALL document has been re-written to reflect the changes below. It is a good idea to read over this document again.

--with-apache-install is deprecated in favor of having a working APXS installation. You should now use --with-apxs instead.

--with-jsdk Please use --with-JSDK now instead of --with-jsdk

--with-JSDK You must specify this parameter if the JSDK 2.0 is not installed in /usr/local/JSDK2.0. Having it in your CLASSPATH will not work anymore.

--with-javac It is now possible to use a different java compiler such as IBM's Jikes compiler

--enable-apache-config This option will attempt to configure Apache for use with Apache JServ during the Apache JServ configure process by running Apache's config.status script. By default it is on for static and will turn itself off for DSO compilation.

make install Be sure to verify that the jserv.properties is properly pointing to the new ApacheJServ.jar file that is installed by 'make install' and not the old one.

Copied vs. Symlinked The C files for Apache JServ are now copied to the apache_src/modules/jserv/ directory instead of being symlinked. Not particularly important, but something to note.

Windows installer changes:
TBD

jserv.conf:

ApJServDefaultProtocol is now ajpv12. Please only use this and not ajpv11. If you are having problems with the upgrade, this is the FIRST place to look since our error messages are probably not very helpful in this case.

ApJServMount The sample configuration files now have an entry for /servlets and /servlet.

ApJServVMTimeout The sample configuration files now have an entry for this setting. It is the amount of time to give the VM to start up as well as the amount of time between pings. If it takes longer than N number of seconds to get a response from the JVM, then restart it. Busy or slow servers should increase this setting.

jserv.properties:

wrapper.protocol is now ajpv12. Please only use this and not ajpv11. If you are having problems with the upgrade, this is the FIRST place to look since our error messages are probably not very helpful in this case.

bindaddress This is a new feature that allows you to bind an instance of the Java portion of Apache JServ to a single IP address and port. By default this is "localhost" which resolves to 127.0.0.1.

Thread Pool There is now an implementation of a thread pool. Since this has not been a heavily tested feature, it is off by default. If you choose to turn it on, your feedback on it would be most appreciated. The result of using a thread pool should be increased performance. The default configuration files from the distribution have example settings.

Logging The logging features of Apache JServ are now tuned a bit better to provide logging information only when needed. Please update your configuration files to reflect the changes in the default configuration files from the distribution.

zone.properties:

session.useCookies This is a new feature which allows one to configure whether or not to use cookies for session tracking. If this is set to false, then cookies will never be used and response.encodeUrl() will always encode the session information into the URL.