If you are in a hurry to have Apache Geronimo up and running right away, this article will provide you with some basic steps for downloading, building (when needed) and run the server in no time.

All you need is 5 to 10 minutes and to follow these basic steps.

Getting the software

There are currently two way to get the released software. You can either retrieve it from the Apache SVN repository or fhe fastest and easiest way is to get the binary directly from the Apache Geronimo site. Since this article is intended to help you to have Apache Geronimo up and running in the fastest possible way, only the binary download will be covered at this time.

Prerequisites

Although this installation path is the fastest one, still you will need to install some software before installing Geronimo.

Java SE 5

Apache Geronimo v2.1 is Java EE 5 Certified using the Sun 1.5.0 JDK. Refer to the following URL for details on how to download and install the latest Java SE 5 JRE or JDK (only required for wsgen tools):
http://java.sun.com

Download binaries

Depending on the platform you plan to install and run Apache Geronimo you will select the appropriate installation image. Open a Web browser and access the following URL, there you will find the available packages for download (binaries and source code).

http://geronimo.apache.org/downloads.html

Geronimo v2.1 is available in three assembly configurations:

• Java EE 5 : full Java EE 5 functionality
• Minimal (Little-G) : Web Container, Transaction, and Connector capabilities
• Framework : Geronimo kernel core functionality

Java EE 5 and Little-G assemblies are provided with Jetty or Tomcat Web Containers. You can find more information about the Jetty project here. More information on the Tomcat project is available here. Both are excellent Web Containers that are compliant with the Servlet 2.5 and JSP 2.1 specifications. Your choice may be driven by your past experience and particular functionality requirements.

Framework assembly offers just a framework for you to build up your own custom Geronimo server based on the available plugins. Unlike Little-G, this distribution does not include a web container, it only provides the bare minimum support for installing plugins.

Select the file compression format compatible with your system (zip, tar, gz) by clicking directly on the link, download it and expand the binary to your hard drive in a new directory. For example in z:/geronimo, from now on this directory will be referenced as <geronimo_home>.

The installation of Apache Geronimo is as simple as uncompressing the .zip or .tar.gz files. The next step is to start the server.

Start the server

With Apache Geronimo already installed, open a command line console and change directory to <geronimo_home>/bin and run one of the following commands:

geronimo run
start-server
gsh geronimo/start-server

This will start the server within the existing terminal, instead of as a background process. Once the server is started you should see a screen similar to this one.

Using GERONIMO_BASE:   D:\geronimo-tomcat6-javaee5-2.1
Using GERONIMO_HOME:   D:\geronimo-tomcat6-javaee5-2.1
Using GERONIMO_TMPDIR: var\temp
Using JRE_HOME:        C:\Java\jdk1.5.0_06\jre
Booting Geronimo Kernel (in Java 1.5.0_06)...
Starting Geronimo Application Server v2.1
[****************************************] 100%  46s Startup complete
  Listening on Ports:
       0 0.0.0.0   Derby Connector
    1050 127.0.0.1 CORBA Naming Service
    1099 0.0.0.0   RMI Naming
    2001 127.0.0.1 OpenEJB ORB Adapter
    4201 0.0.0.0   OpenEJB Daemon
    6882 127.0.0.1 OpenEJB ORB Adapter
    8009 0.0.0.0   Tomcat Connector AJP AJP
    8080 0.0.0.0   Tomcat Connector HTTP BIO HTTP
    8443 0.0.0.0   Tomcat Connector HTTPS BIO HTTPS
    9999 0.0.0.0   JMX Remoting Connector
   61613 0.0.0.0   ActiveMQ Transport Connector
   61616 0.0.0.0   ActiveMQ Transport Connector

  Started Application Modules:
    EAR: org.apache.geronimo.configs/uddi-tomcat/2.1/car
    EAR: org.apache.geronimo.plugins/agent/2.1/car
    EAR: org.apache.geronimo.plugins/console-tomcat/2.1/car
    EAR: org.apache.geronimo.plugins/mconsole-tomcat/2.1/car
    JAR: org.apache.geronimo.configs/mejb/2.1/car
    RAR: org.apache.geronimo.configs/activemq-ra/2.1/car
    RAR: org.apache.geronimo.configs/system-database/2.1/car
    RAR: org.apache.geronimo.plugins/agent-ds/2.1/car
    RAR: org.apache.geronimo.plugins/mconsole-ds/2.1/car
    WAR: org.apache.geronimo.configs/ca-helper-tomcat/2.1/car
    WAR: org.apache.geronimo.configs/dojo-legacy-tomcat/2.1/car
    WAR: org.apache.geronimo.configs/dojo-tomcat/2.1/car
    WAR: org.apache.geronimo.configs/remote-deploy-tomcat/2.1/car
    WAR: org.apache.geronimo.configs/welcome-tomcat/2.1/car
    WAR: org.apache.geronimo.plugins/activemq-console-tomcat/2.1/car
    WAR: org.apache.geronimo.plugins/debugviews-console-tomcat/2.1/car
    WAR: org.apache.geronimo.plugins/plancreator-console-tomcat/2.1/car
    WAR: org.apache.geronimo.plugins/plugin-console-tomcat/2.1/car
    WAR: org.apache.geronimo.plugins/sysdb-console-tomcat/2.1/car

  Web Applications:
    /
    /CAHelper
    /activemq
    /console
    /console-base
    /debug-views
    /dojo
    /dojo/0.4
    /juddi
    /monitoring
    /plan-creator
    /plugin
    /remote-deploy
    /system-database

Geronimo Application Server started

To test the Apache Geronimo server you can just point your Web browser to the following URL to test the Geronimo Console. The Geronimo Administration Console is the first application you can test, and the good thing is, it is already deployed in the standard, full J2EE certified distribution.

http://localhost:8080/console

When prompted enter system as the user name and manager as the password.

The following figure illustrates the Web based console.

At this point you have Apache Geronimo up and running and the time spent has been minimal. The following section offers a very basic sample JSP and shows you how to deploy and run that sample application.

Create and deploy a sample application

A HelloWorld like JSP is almost a default for these basic testing and everybody is already familiar with it. Create a new directory to hold all the application related files. From now on this directory will be referred as <app_home>.

Create a plain text file in the <app_home> directory named HelloWorld.jsp and copy the content of the following example.

We will now create a Geronimo specific deployment plan so you would get a first glimpse of the deployment plans. Create a directory named WEB-INF inside the <app_home> directory.

Create a plain text file in the <app_home>/WEB-INF directory named geronimo-web.xml and copy the content of the following example.

Create a plain text file in the <app_home>/WEB-INF directory named web.xml and copy the content of the following example.

Deploy and test the application

For this example we will not invest time in packaging the application, we will just use the --inPlace feature of the deployer tool which allows us to deploy an application from any directory.

Change directory to <geronimo_home>/bin and run the following command:

deploy --user system --password manager deploy --inPlace <app_home>

Once the application is successfully deployed you should see the following message:

D:\geronimo-tomcat6-javaee5-2.1\bin>deploy --user system --password manager deploy --inPlace \HelloWorld
Using GERONIMO_BASE:   D:\geronimo-tomcat6-javaee5-2.1
Using GERONIMO_HOME:   D:\geronimo-tomcat6-javaee5-2.1
Using GERONIMO_TMPDIR: var\temp
Using JRE_HOME:        C:\Java\jdk1.5.0_06\jre
    Deployed sample.applications/HelloWorldApp/2.1/war @ /hello

Test the application by pointing a Web browser to the following URL:

http://localhost:8080/hello

Stop the server

In the terminal used to start the server, press CTRL+C initiate a server shutdown.

Summary

This article showed you how simple is to have Apache Geronimo up and running. The overall time for getting the server running should be less than five minutes if you have the prerequisites already installed. Additionally, this article also showed you how to create, deploy and test a very simple JSP in less than five minutes.