Administering the Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) Service

The Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) API is used for accessing different kinds of naming and directory services. Jakarta EE components locate objects by invoking the JNDI lookup method.

Instructions for accomplishing the tasks in this chapter by using the Administration Console are contained in the Administration Console online help.

About JNDI

By making calls to the JNDI API, applications locate resources and other program objects. A resource is a program object that provides connections to systems, such as database servers and messaging systems. A JDBC resource is sometimes referred to as a data source. Each resource object is identified by a unique, people-friendly name, called the JNDI name. A resource object and its JNDI name are bound together by the naming and directory service, which is included with the Payara Server.

When a new name-object binding is entered into the JNDI, a new resource is created.

Jakarta EE Naming Environment

JNDI names are bound to their objects by the naming and directory service that is provided by a Jakarta EE server. Because Jakarta EE components access this service through the JNDI API, the object usually uses its JNDI name. For example, the JNDI name of the H2 database is jdbc/_default. At startup, the Payara Server reads information from the configuration file and automatically adds JNDI database names to the name space, one of which is jdbc/_default.

Jakarta EE application clients, enterprise beans, and web components must have access to a JNDI naming environment.

The application component’s naming environment is the mechanism that allows customization of the application component’s business logic during deployment or assembly. This environment allows you to customize the application component without needing to access or change the source code off the component. A Jakarta EE container implements the provides the environment to the application component instance as a JNDI naming context.

How the Naming Environment and the Container Work Together

The application component’s environment is used as follows:

The application component’s business methods access the environment using the JNDI interfaces. In the deployment descriptor, the application component provider declares all the environment entries that the application component expects to be provided in its environment at runtime.
The container provides an implementation of the JNDI naming context that stores the application component environment. The container also provides the tools that allow the deployer to create and manage the environment of each application component.
A deployer uses the tools provided by the container to initialize the environment entries that are declared in the application component’s deployment descriptor. The deployer sets and modifies the values of the environment entries.
The container makes the JNDI context available to the application component instances at runtime. These instances use the JNDI interfaces to obtain the values of the environment entries.

Each application component defines its own set of environment entries. All instances of an application component within the same container share the same environment entries. Application component instances are not allowed to modify the environment at runtime.

Naming References and Binding Information

A resource reference is an element in a deployment descriptor that identifies the component’s coded name for the resource. For example, jdbc/SavingsAccountDB. More specifically, the coded name references a connection factory for the resource.

The JNDI name of a resource and the resource reference name are not the same. This approach to naming requires that you map the two names before deployment, but it also decouples components from resources. Because of this decoupling, if at a later time the component needs to access a different resource, the name does not need to change. This flexibility makes it easier for you to assemble Jakarta EE applications from preexisting components.

The following table lists JNDI lookups and their associated resource references for the Jakarta EE resources used by the Payara Server.

Table 1. Table 18-1 JNDI Lookup Names and Their Associated References
JNDI Lookup Name	Associated Resource Reference	`java:comp/env`	Application environment entries
`java:comp/env/jdbc`	JDBC DataSource resource manager connection factories	`java:comp/env/ejb`	EJB References
`java:comp/UserTransaction`	UserTransaction references	`java:comp/env/mail`	JavaMail Session Connection Factories
`java:comp/env/url`	URL Connection Factories	`java:comp/env/jms`	JMS Connection Factories and Destinations

Administering JNDI Resources

Within Payara Server, you can configure your environment for custom and external JNDI resources. A custom resource accesses a local JNDI repository; an external resource accesses an external JNDI repository. Both types of resources need user-specified factory class elements, JNDI name attributes, and so on.

Administering Custom JNDI Resources
Administering External JNDI Resources

Administering Custom JNDI Resources

A custom resource specifies a custom server-wide resource object factory that implements the javax.naming.spi.ObjectFactory interface.

To Create a Custom JNDI Resource

Use the create-custom-resource subcommand in remote mode to create a custom resource.

Ensure that the server is running. Remote subcommands require a running server.
Create a custom resource by using the create-custom-resource subcommand.
Information on properties for the subcommand is contained in this help page. Restart Payara Server. See To Restart a Domain.

Example 18-1 Creating a Custom Resource

asadmin> create-custom-resource --restype topic --factoryclass com.imq.topic
sample_custom_resource
Command create-custom-resource executed successfully.

This example creates a custom resource named sample-custom-resource.

To List Custom JNDI Resources

Use the list-custom-resources subcommand in remote mode to list the existing custom resources.

Ensure that the server is running. Remote subcommands require a running server.
List the custom resources by using the list-custom-resources subcommand.

Example 18-2 Listing Custom Resources

asadmin> list-custom-resources
sample_custom_resource01
sample_custom_resource02
Command list-custom-resources executed successfully

This example lists the existing custom resources.

To Update a Custom JNDI Resource

List the custom resources by using the list-custom-resources subcommand.
Use the set subcommand to modify a custom JNDI resource.

Example 18-3 Updating a Custom JNDI Resource

asadmin> set server.resources.custom-resource.custom
/my-custom-resource.property.value=2010server.resources.custom-resource.custom
/my-custom-resource.property.value=2010

This example modifies a custom resource.

To Delete a Custom JNDI Resource

Use the delete-custom-resource subcommand in remote mode to delete a custom resource.

Ensure that the server is running. Remote subcommands require a running server.
List the custom resources by using the list-custom-resources subcommand.
Delete a custom resource by using the delete-custom-resource subcommand.

Example 18-4 Deleting a Custom Resource

asadmin> delete-custom-resource sample_custom_resource
Command delete-custom-resource executed successfully.

This example deletes a custom resource named sample-custom-resource.

Administering External JNDI Resources

Applications running on Payara Server often require access to resources stored in an external JNDI repository. For example, generic Java objects might be stored in an LDAP server according to the Java schema. External JNDI resource elements let you configure such external resource repositories.

To Register an External JNDI Resource

Use the create-jndi-resource subcommand in remote mode to register an external JNDI resource.

Before You Begin

The external JNDI factory must implement the javax.naming.spi.InitialContextFactory interface.

Ensure that the server is running. Remote subcommands require a running server.
Register an external JNDI resource by using the create-jndi-resource subcommand.
Information on properties for the subcommand is contained in this help page.
Restart Payara Server.
See To Restart a Domain.

Example 18-5 Registering an External JNDI Resource

asadmin> create-jndi-resource --jndilookupname sample_jndi
--restype queue --factoryclass sampleClass --description "this is a sample jndi
resource" sample_jndi_resource
Command create-jndi-resource executed successfully

In This example sample_jndi_resource is registered.

To List External JNDI Resources

Use the list-jndi-resources subcommand in remote mode to list all existing JNDI resources.

Ensure that the server is running. Remote subcommands require a running server.
List the existing JNDI resources by using the list-jndi-resources subcommand.

Example 18-6 Listing JNDI Resources

asadmin> list-jndi-resources
jndi_resource1
jndi_resource2
jndi_resource3
Command list-jndi-resources executed successfully

This example lists the JNDI resources.

To List External JNDI Entries

Use the list-jndi-entries subcommand in remote mode to browse and list the entries in the JNDI tree. You can either list all entries, or you can specify the JNDI context or subcontext to list specific entries.

Ensure that the server is running. Remote subcommands require a running server.
List the JNDI entries for a configuration by using the list-jndi-entries subcommand.

Example 18-7 Listing JNDI Entries

asadmin> list-jndi-entries
jndi_entry03
jndi_entry72
jndi_entry76
Command list-jndi-resources executed successfully

This example lists all the JNDI entries for the naming service.

To Update an External JNDI Resource

List the existing JNDI resources by using the list-jndi-resources subcommand.
Use the set subcommand to modify an external JNDI resource.

Example 18-8 Updating an External JNDI Resource

asadmin> set server.resources.external-jndi-resource.my-jndi-resource.
jndi-lookup-name=bar server.resources.external-jndi-resource.my-jndi-resource.jndi-lookup-name=bar

This example modifies an external resource.

To Delete an External JNDI Resource

Use the delete-jndi-resource subcommand in remote mode to remove a JNDI resource.

Ensure that the server is running. Remote subcommands require a running server.
Remove an external JNDI entry by using the delete-jndi-resource subcommand.

Example 18-9 Deleting an External JNDI Resource

asadmin> delete-jndi-resource jndi_resource2
Command delete-jndi-resource executed successfully.

This example deletes an external JNDI resource:

Example of Using an External JNDI Resource

<resources>
 <!-- external-jndi-resource element specifies how to access Jakarta EE
 - resources stored in an external JNDI repository. This example
 - illustrates how to access a java object stored in LDAP.
 - factory-class element specifies the JNDI InitialContext factory that
 - needs to be used to access the resource factory. property element
 - corresponds to the environment applicable to the external JNDI context
 - and jndi-lookup-name refers to the JNDI name to lookup to fetch the
 - designated (in this case the java) object.
 -->
  <external-jndi-resource jndi-name="test/myBean"
      jndi-lookup-name="cn=myBean"
      res-type="test.myBean"
      factory-class="com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory">
    <property name="PROVIDER-URL" value="ldap://ldapserver:389/o=myObjects" />
    <property name="SECURITY_AUTHENTICATION" value="simple" />
    <property name="SECURITY_PRINCIPAL" value="cn=joeSmith, o=Engineering" />
    <property name="SECURITY_CREDENTIALS" value="changeit" />
  </external-jndi-resource>
</resources>

To Disable payara Server v2 Vendor-Specific JNDI Names

The EJB 3.1 specification supported by Payara Server 5.0 defines portable EJB JNDI names. Because of this, there is less need to continue to use older vendor-specific JNDI names.

By default, Payara Server v2-specific JNDI names are applied automatically by Payara Server 5.0 for backward compatibility. However, this can lead to some ease-of-use issues. For example, deploying two different applications containing a Remote EJB component that exposes the same remote interface causes a conflict between the default JNDI names.

The default handling of v2-specific JNDI names in Payara Server can be managed with the asadmin command or with the disable-nonportable-jndi-names boolean property for the ejb-container element in glassfish-ejb-jar.xml.

Use the asadmin command or directly modify the glassfish-ejb-jar.xml file to set the disable-nonportable-jndi-names property.

Using the asadmin command:

asadmin> set server.ejb-container.property.disable-nonportable-jndi-names="true"

Directly modifying the glassfish-ejb-jar.xml file.
1. Add the disable-nonportable-jndi-names property to the ejb-container element in glassfish-ejb-jar.xml.
2. Set the value of the disable-nonportable-jndi-names boolean, as desired.
  false - Enables the automatic use of Payara Server v2-specific JNDI names. This is the default setting.
  true - Disables the automatic use of v2-specific JNDI names. In all cases, 5.0-compatible JNDI names will be used.
3. Save the glassfish-ejb-jar.xml file and restart the Payara Server domain. This setting applies to all EJBs deployed to the server.