Configuring a Connection Timeout Value for the JBoss CLI

Posted: July 31st, 2013 | Author: sabre1041 | Filed under: Technology | Tags: JBoss, Tips, Tricks | 2 Comments »

There are multiple methods for configuring the JBoss Enterprise Application 6 server. These options range from using the Management web interface, the Command Line Interface (CLI) tool, or manually editing the XML configuration file (not recommended, but still available as an option). One of the benefits of using the JBoss CLI tool is that it not only allows for the management of almost every option available in the EAP server remotely (the Management console only exposes a subset), but it allows for tasks to be scripted and run in a repetitive manner. I have used the CLI tool for everything from provisioning the initial configuration of server instances, monitoring platform metrics, to performing nightly deployments as part of a continuous integration environment. One of the issues that I have frequently faced is the CLI tool would time out while connecting to the JBoss Instance. This situation tends to occur more frequently on remote instances or on instances that have their management interface secured with SSL as it takes longer for the handshake exchange process to complete.

The default timeout value for the CLI to connect to a remote JBoss instance is 5000ms (5 seconds). Users can provide their own timeout value along with a number of other configuration options in a file called jboss-cli.xml. The CLI tool will search for this file in three (3) locations:

1. The current directory where CLI tool is invoked from
2. Setting the location of the file in a Java Property called jboss.cli.config
3. Within the bin folder of the JBoss server defined by the JBOSS_HOME environmental variable.

The JBoss server itself provides a jboss-cli.xml file in the <JBOSS_HOME>/bin folder which can be used as a starting point for any custom modifications.  This file is used when invoking either the jboss-cli.bat or jboss-cli.sh script depending on the operating system platform to connect to a local or remote instance. As previously mentioned, I utilize the CLI tool to handle remote deployments of artifacts. This is a centralized server and JBoss is not installed locally on this machine. The JBoss platform provides a client jar to leverage access to the CLI named jboss-cli-client.jar within the <JBOSS_HOME>/bin/client folder. To specify the location of the xml file as a Java Property while invoking the client jar, use the following syntax:

java –Djboss.cli.config=<location_of_xml_file> -jar jboss-client-jar [OPTIONS]

Specifying a timeout value within the jboss-cli.xml file was introduced in JBoss AS 7.2/EAP 6.1 by means of a connection-timeout option. If a timeout value of 10 second is desired, the jboss-cli.xml file can be configured with the following options:

<connection-timeout>10000</connection-timeout>

The full range of configuration options for the jboss-cli.xml file is available within the XML schema file located at <JBOSS_HOME>/docs/schema/jboss-as-cli_1.2.xsd file. The <JBOSS_HOME>/docs/schema directory contains a collection of schemas available for use within the JBoss server.

With the value set in the jboss-cli.xml file, it should resolve any timeout related issues experienced while connecting to remote JBoss servers using the Command Line Interface tool.

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