User guide

19
INSTALLING COLDFUSION 9
Installing the J2EE Configuration
Last updated 1/20/2012
cfusion-ear
META-INF
application.xml
cfusion-war
WEB-INF
web.xml
CFIDE
cfdocs
rds.war
WEB-INF
web.xml
If your J2EE application server supports enterprise applications, install and deploy the EAR file. For more information,
see
“Installing an EAR file or WAR files” on page 20.
Context root
Because the J2EE environment supports multiple, isolated web applications running in a server instance, J2EE web
applications running in a server are each rooted at a unique base URL, called a context root (or context path). The J2EE
application server uses this initial portion of the URL (that is, the portion immediately following http://hostname) to
determine which web application services an incoming request.
For example, if you are running ColdFusion with a context root of cf9, you display the ColdFusion Administrator using
the URL http://localhost/cf9/CFIDE/administrator/index.cfm.
Most J2EE application servers allow one application in each server instance to use a forward slash (/) for the context
root. Setting the context root to / for the ColdFusion application is especially useful when serving CFM pages from the
web server, because it supports the functionality most similar to earlier ColdFusion versions. In addition, the RDS web
application is not required if you use a context root of /.
When you deploy the ColdFusion EAR file, it uses the context root that you specified when you ran the installation
wizard, which copied your specification to the
context-root element of the META-INF/application.xml file. When
you deploy ColdFusion as a WAR file, you use application-server-specific functionality to define the context root.
Note: Each web application running in a server instance must have a unique context root. The JRun default web
application uses / for a context root, so if you want to use / for the ColdFusion context root when you deploy on JRun,
either delete the default-war application or change the default-war context root by editing the default-ear/META-
INF/application.xml file.
Multiple instances
When you use the J2EE configuration, you can define multiple server instances on a single computer, each running
ColdFusion. Running multiple instances of ColdFusion has the following advantages:
Application isolation You deploy an independent application to each server instance. Each server instance has
separate settings, and because each server instance runs in its own instance of the JVM, problems encountered by one
application have no effect on other applications.
Load balancing and failover You deploy the same application to each server instance and add the instances to a
cluster. The web server connector optimizes performance and stability by automatically balancing load and by
switching requests to another server instance when a server instance stops running.
For more information on configuring ColdFusion on multiple server instances, including detailed information for
configuring multiple server instances when running on JRun 4, see the Configuring and Administering ColdFusion
guide. The multiserver configuration provides the instance manager to make configuring ColdFusion on multiple