Installation
Installing JRun 4 on Windows XP and Windows 2000 was an easy experience. I have heard similar tales of the Unix versions, but in all honesty have not tested them myself. JRun 4 will run on Windows 98/ME/NTsp3/2000/XP, Solaris, Linux, IBM AIX, HP-UX, and Compaq Tru64. The main gotchas to look out for are to make sure you disable any script blocking capabilities in anti-virus software and to be sure to have a compatible JVM installed on your machine. A list of compatible JVMs (and other installation prerequisites) can be found here: http://livedocs.macromedia.com/jrun4docs/
Installing_JRun/before3.jsp#1141736.
JRun comes with a built in Web server that works fine for development and even allows for SSL encryption, however, configuring JRun with a Web server is certainly a requisite step. JRun 4 is compatible with Microsoft IIS, Apache, Netscape Enterprise Server, Sun iPlanet and Zeus. I have tested both the IIS and Apache (2.0.43 and 1.3.27) connections and had no problems whatsoever. Included with JRun is the Web Server Configuration Tool that is basically a Swing-based wizard that simplifies the process of creating these connections to remote or local Web servers.
So far, JRun has shown its simplicity, but how does JRun perform? This question is difficult to answer, as performance is tied to so many factors. An application server that performs well on a machine with 2GB RAM and four processors might freeze up on a server with 256MB RAM and a single 200Mhz processor; another might do the opposite. How application servers process different types of code can also vary widely. An application server will generally perform specific tasks quickly and bog on others. So determining how a generic (that is your as-yet-unbuilt) application will perform is almost impossible to predict. In all honesty, a large, all-encompassing enterprise-level application for a company that can afford it might best be handled by BEA WebLogic or IBM WebSphere. IBM and BEA spend a lot of time testing and developing features to offer more services in a robust environment. At the same time, 95% of applications are not large all-encompassing enterprise-level applications and simply don’t need even a fraction of what is included with these larger application server packages. JRun is a compact engine and is considerably less expensive – an entire cluster of JRun servers could be deployed for a smaller investment than a single instance of WebLogic or WebSphere. In my opinion, the large provider’s tools are way more than most developer needs. It’s like fishing from an ocean liner.
That said, Macromedia performed a test (with specifics so that you could replicate it if you were so inclined) comparing JRun to the open-source Tomcat servlet/JSP engine. You could run this test against any other application server you liked to do a side-by-side comparison (if you do, I’d be interested in seeing the results). JRun was able to handle a considerably amount more traffic than Tomcat. The results and testing parameters are available at http://www.macromedia.com/support/jrun/
introduction/performance_overview/.
In addition, JRun 4 provides tools to better help developers locate bottlenecks – this includes using a tracer to time the method calls within an application.
Last Modified
December 27, 2002
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