Start JBoss on boot with Debian 3.1

This is a short and easy HOW-TO guide. It describes in a few steps how to start JBoss on boot with Debian 3.1. This is not the only way to accomplish this task, but this is the way I take. I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you and your system (but it should with some tweaking).

System Details

The system used in this how-to guide has the following installed:

Operating System: Debian Sarge (3.1) – the base system.
JDK: Sun JDK 5 (see: Install Sun JDK 5)
JBoss: JBoss 4.0.3SP1 (see: Install JBoss)

HOW-TO GUIDE

• Change to /etc/init.d and switch to root user.

  > cd /etc/init.d
  > su
  Password:
  

  
  
• Create a file named jboss

  > touch jboss	 
  

  
  
• Open the newly created file, add the following

  #! /bin/sh
  #  /etc/init.d/jboss: Start and stop JBoss AS
  ECHO=/bin/echo
  TEST=/usr/bin/test
  JBOSS_START_SCRIPT=/usr/local/jboss-4.0.3SP1/bin/run.sh
  JBOSS_STOP_SCRIPT=/usr/local/jboss-4.0.3SP1/bin/shutdown.sh
  
  $TEST –x $JBOSS_START_SCRIPT || exit 0
  $TEST –x $JBOSS_STOP_SCRIPT || exit 0
  
  start() {
        $ECHO –n "Starting JBoss"
        su – jboss –c "$JBOSS_START_SCRIPT > /dev/null 2> /dev/null &"
        $ECHO "."
  }
  
  stop() {
        $ECHO –n "Stopping JBoss"
        su – jboss – c "$JBOSS_STOP_SCRIPT –S > /dev/null &"
        $ECHO "."
  }
  
  case "$1" in
        start)
              start
              ;;
        stop)
              stop
              ;;
        restart)
              stop
              sleep 30
              start
              ;;
        *)
              $ECHO "Usage: jboss {start|stop|restart}"
              exit 1
  esac
  
  exit 0	 
  

  Save and close the file
  
  
• Change the permissions on the file by executing the following command

  > chmod 755 jboss	 
  

  
  
• Test your script by executing the following commands

  > ./jboss
  Usage: jboss {start|stop|restart}
  > ./jboss start
  Starting JBoss.	 
  

  
  
• Make sure that JBoss is running by executing the following command

  > ps –A|grep java
  1164 pts/0    00:00:00 java
  1165 pts/0    00:00:00 java
  1166 pts/0    00:00:01 java
  …
  

  You should see a lot of java processes running.
  
  
• Stop JBoss by executing the following command

  > ./jboss stop
  Stopping JBoss.	 
  

  
  
• Check that JBoss really was stopped by executing the same command as above for checking that JBoss was running. Now you shouldn’t see any java processes running

  > ps –A|grep java
  > 	 
  

  
  
• Update the run level so this script will be executed at start up by executing the following command

   
  > update-rc.d jboss defaults
  Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/jboss ...
     /etc/rc0.d/K20jboss -> ../init.d/jboss
     /etc/rc1.d/K20jboss -> ../init.d/jboss
     /etc/rc6.d/K20jboss -> ../init.d/jboss
     /etc/rc2.d/S20jboss -> ../init.d/jboss
     /etc/rc3.d/S20jboss -> ../init.d/jboss
     /etc/rc4.d/S20jboss -> ../init.d/jboss
     /etc/rc5.d/S20jboss -> ../init.d/jboss
  

  
  
• Restart your system

  > /sbin/reboot	 
  

  
  
• When the system is up again, make sure JBoss was started

  > ps –A|grep java
  944 pts/0    00:00:00 java
  945 pts/0    00:00:00 java
  946 pts/0    00:00:01 java
  …