MyGrid Notification Service

This might allow us to use asynchronous notification for "vanilla" Web Services, without needing to use OGSI/WSRF. I'll use this page to document my progress with installing and using the service on our systems.

Obtaining the software

I downloaded the latest available version (notification-src-0.4.2.tar.gz) from http://cvs.mygrid.org.uk/notification-stable/downloads/.

Installing the software

(Note that I am attempting to install the software on a Linux-based system (Red Hat 9.0) with the Sun Java SDK 1.4.2. Linux has apparently not yet been tested so this should be interesting!)

1. I extracted the .tar.gz archive to a new directory (in $HOME/docs. From now on, the directory $HOME/docs/mygrid/notification will be known as mygrid-install-dir).
2. Printed out mygrid-install-dir/doc/quickstart.doc. I'm using this as my guide from now on.
3. (see section 3.3.1 of quickstart.doc). Installed Tomcat 4.1.24 by extracting the .tar.gz file into /home/jdb/programs (on my local hard drive).
   • N.B. I tried the latest Tomcat (5.0.19) but got errors when validating the Axis installation with happyaxis.jsp. It seems that the activation.jar file is missing in 5.0.19.
4. Installed Apache Axis 1.0 into the Tomcat installation by copying the $AXIS_ROOT/webapps/axis directory into /home/jdb/programs/jakarta-tomcat-4.1.24/webapps.
   • Set the environment variable $CATALINA_HOME to /home/jdb/programs/jakarta-tomcat-4.1.24 and added $CATALINA_HOME/bin to my $PATH.
   • Tested the Tomcat/Axis installation by running startup.sh and going to http://localhost:8080/axis/happyaxis.jsp. The configuration looked OK, except that an optional component (xmlsec.jar) couldn't be found (will be installed next).
   • N.B. I used Axis 1.0 and not 1.1 because I've found that some of the changes in 1.1 have caused me problems in the past. I'll upgrade later if all goes well.
5. Downloaded xml-security-bin-2_0.jar from http://ftp.plig.net/pub/apache/dist/xml/security/java-library. Extracted the .jar archive and copied xmlsec.jar to $CATALINA_HOME/webapps/axis/WEB-INF/lib.
   • Restarted Tomcat (shutdown.sh; startup.sh) and opened http://localhost:8080/axis/happyaxis.jsp again. This confirmed that xmlsec.jar had been found.
   • Note that, despite the claim in quickstart.doc, I didn't find this library in the mygrid-install-dir/mygrid/notification/add directory (indeed, there were no libraries in this directory).
6. Downloaded Xerces-J-bin.1.4.4.zip from http://xml.apache.org/dist/xerces-j/, extracted the archive and copied xerces.jar into $CATALINA_HOME/webapps/axis/WEB-INF/lib.
   • There is a newer version (2.5.0) which I might install later if all goes well
   • Is this the right place for it? quickstart.doc doesn't say. I guess it's fine if it's in the CLASSPATH.
7. MySQL has already been installed on another machine
   • We have version 3.23.54
8. Downloaded openjms-0.7.6.tar.gz from http://openjms.sourceforge.net/downloads.html. Extracted the .tar.gz file to /usr/local.
9. Didn't find JDBC 2.0 driver for mySQL in the mygrid install directory. MM-MySQL has changed to MySQL connector. I already have Connector version 3.0.8. Copied mysql-connector-java-3.0.8-stable-bin.jar to $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/ext to install it.
10. Already have JUnit 3.8.1 in /usr/local/junit3.8.1.
11. Already have Apache Ant versions 1.5.3-1 and 1.6.0 (some things changed between the versions so I'm not sure whether 1.6.0 will be suitable. I'll use 1.6.0 for the moment and see how I get on)
12. Downloaded Antmerge version 1.1.0 from http://www.russet.org.uk/download/java/antmerge/ and installed in /usr/local/antmerge-1.1.0.

Settings

1. rt.jar and junit.jar are already in the CLASSPATH.
2. Added Antmerge bin directory ( /usr/local/antmerge-1.1.0.bin ) to PATH. (Ant and Java were already in my PATH).
3. set the environment variables $TOMCAT_HOME and $OPENJMS_HOME ( $JAVA_HOME is already set).
4. Modified mygrid-install-dir/config/tcp_jms_jdbc.xml to use correct MySQL driver and database location.
5. Renamed $ANTMERGE_HOME/bin/antmerge.sh to antmerge.

Building software

1. Copied the required jar files to $HOME/docs/mygrid/notification/ext (this is in place of doing ant gather):

axis-ant.jar, jaxrpc.jar, servlet.jar, axis.jar, jms-1.0.2a.jar, wsdl4j.jar, castor-0.9.5.jar, log4j-1.2.4.jar, xerces.jar, commons-discovery.jar, mysql-connector-java-3.0.8-stable-bin.jar, xml-apis.jar, commons-logging.jar, openjms-0.7.6.jar, xmlParserAPIs.jar, exolabcore-0.3.7.jar, saaj.jar, xmlsec.jar

1. Made small changes to the build.xml file to reflect this (mainly updates in version numbers of jar files). New version of build.xml is attached to this page: build.xml.
2. From $HOME/docs/mygrid/notification, ran:

ant (Build successful)
ant jarsamples (Build successful)
ant jartests (Build successful)

The $HOME/docs/mygrid/notification/lib directory now contains the files notification.jar, notification-samples.jar, notification-test.jar and notification.war

Creating repositories

1. Created a MySQL database called mygridnotification and granted access to the openjms user:

mysql -h <hostname> -u <username> -p
(entered password)
create database mygridnotification;
use mygridnotification;
grant all privileges on mygridnotification.* to openjms identified by 'password' with grant option;

1. Made changes to $HOME/docs/mygrid/notification/bin/create_jms_db.sh and create_mgns_db.sh to reflect location of database and different mysql driver and location of the creation script (which is $OPENJMS_HOME/config/db/create_mysql.sql).
2. Changed to $HOME/docs/mygrid/notification/bin and ran create_jms_db.sh. Now have 7 tables in the mygridnotification database
3. Ran create_mgns_db.sh. Now have 13 extra tables, all starting "mgns_" (quickstart.doc only lists 9 of these tables).

Configuration

OpenJMS messaging server

1. Copied $HOME/docs/mygrid/notification/ext/mysql-connector-java-3.0.8-stable-bin.jar to $OPENSJMS_HOME/lib.
2. Copied $HOME/docs/mygrid/notification/add/setenv.sh and startup.sh to $OPENSJMS_HOME/bin.
3. Edited $OPENSJMS_HOME/bin/setenv.sh to reflect new name of MySQL driver jar file.
4. Copied $HOME/docs/mygrid/notification/config/tcp_jms_jdbc.xml to $OPENSJMS_HOME/config.

Tomcat

1. Created a Tomcat user with the manager role by adding to $CATALINA_HOME/conf/tomcat-users.xml a user like this: <user username="craigmcc" password="secret" roles="tomcat,manager,admin" /> and the roles admin and manager.
2. Edited $HOME/docs/mygrid/notification/init.properties to reflect current installation (version numbers of dependencies, directory of .jar files, WEBINF_CLASS_DIR, password for Tomcat Manager)

Deployment

1. MySQL is already started.
2. Started OpenJMS with $OPENJMS_HOME/bin/startup.sh &.
3. Tomcat already started.
4. From $HOME/docs/mygrid/notification, ran ant deploy.
   • Had to add $CATALINA_HOME/server/lib/catalina-ant.jar to classpath of "deploy" target in build.xml: see the build.xml that's attached to this page.)
   • Got "build successful" - apparently it's deployed...

Testing

1. Edited $HOME/docs/mygrid/notification/bin/testfirst.sh to include junit.jar and servlet.jar in the classpath (I found servlet.jar in $CATALINA_HOME/common/lib).
   • Got a load of Axis errors "The AXIS engine could not find a target service to invoke!" Perhaps the services haven't been deployed properly?

-- JonBlower - 24 Feb 2004