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Installing on WildFly

Installing on WildFly requires installing the DXP WAR, installing dependencies, configuring WildFly, and deploying DXP on WildFly. You must also configure your database and mail server connections.

Prerequisites

Liferay DXP requires Java JDK 8 or 11. See the compatibility matrix for further information.

Download these files from the Help Center (subscription) or from Liferay Community Downloads. Administrators must download the following:

  • DXP WAR file
  • OSGi Dependencies ZIP file
  • Dependencies ZIP file (DXP 7.3 and earlier)

The installation steps use these terms:

[Liferay Home]: The folder containing the WildFly server folder (referred to as $WILDFLY_HOME). After installing and deploying DXP, it generates data, deploy, and logs folders.

$WILDFLY_HOME: The WildFly server folder. It is usually named wildfly-[version].

Installing the DXP WAR

  1. If you’re starting with a clean Wildfly installation and a $WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/deployments/ROOT.war folder exists, delete all of its subfolders and files.
  2. Unzip the DXP WAR file into the $WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/deployments/ROOT.war folder (create this folder if it doesn’t exist).

Installing Dependencies

  1. Unzip the OSGi Dependencies ZIP file into the [Liferay Home]/osgi folder (create this folder if it doesn’t exist). Liferay’s OSGi runtime depends on these modules.

  2. The DXP 7.4+ WAR file includes drivers for MariaDB and PostgreSQL. Earlier WARs don’t have them. If the 7.4+ WAR doesn’t have the driver for the supported database you’re using, download your database vendor’s JDBC JAR file and place it in the $WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/deployments/ROOT.war/WEB-INF/shielded-container-lib folder.

    Please see the compatibility matrix for a list of supported databases.

note

A Hypersonic database is bundled with DXP and is useful for testing purposes. Do not use HSQL for production DXP instances.

Installing Dependencies for Earlier Versions

For DXP 7.3 and earlier, follow these additional steps:

  1. Unzip the Dependencies ZIP file to a folder called $WILDFLY_HOME/modules/com/liferay/portal/main (create this folder if it doesn’t exist).

  2. Create a file called module.xml in the $WILDFLY_HOME/modules/com/liferay/portal/main folder. In the file, declare resource-root elements with paths set to your database vendor’s JAR file, the portal module, sand all of its required resources and dependencies:

    <?xml version="1.0"?>
    
    <module xmlns="urn:jboss:module:1.0" name="com.liferay.portal">
        <resources>
            <resource-root path="[place your database vendor's JAR file name here]" />
            <resource-root path="[place a Liferay dependencies ZIP JAR file name here]" />
            <!-- Add a resource-root element for each Liferay dependencies ZIP JAR -->
        </resources>
        <dependencies>
            <module name="javax.api" />
            <module name="javax.mail.api" />
            <module name="javax.servlet.api" />
            <module name="javax.servlet.jsp.api" />
            <module name="javax.transaction.api" />
        </dependencies>
    </module>
    

    Replace [place your database vendor's JAR file name here] with the driver JAR for your database.

    For each JAR in the Dependencies ZIP, add a resource-root element with its path attribute set to the JAR name. For example, add a resource-root element like this for the com.liferay.petra.concurrent.jar file:

    <resource-root path="com.liferay.petra.concurrent.jar" />
    

Checkpoint:

  1. The OSGi dependencies have been unzipped in the [Liferay Home]/osgi folder.
  2. Your database vendor’s JDBC driver is installed.
  3. The module.xml has listed all JARs in the <resource-root> elements.

Running DXP on WildFly in Standalone Mode vs. Domain Mode

WildFly can be launched in either standalone mode or domain mode. Domain mode allows multiple application server instances to be managed from a single control point. A collection of such application servers is known as a domain. For more information on standalone mode vs. domain mode, please refer to the section on this topic in the WildFly Admin Guide. DXP fully supports WildFly in standalone mode but not in domain mode.

DXP supports WildFly when it runs in standalone mode but not when it runs in domain mode. DXP’s auto-deploy does not work with a managed deployment, since WildFly manages the content of a managed deployment by copying files (exploded or non-exploded). This prevents JSP hooks and Ext plugins from working as intended. For example, JSP hooks don’t work on WildFly running in managed domain mode, since DXP’s JSP override mechanism relies on the application server. Since JSP hooks and Ext plugins are deprecated, however, you may not be using them.

If you use domain mode deployment, use the command line interface.

note

This does not prevent DXP from running in a clustered environment on multiple WildFly servers. You can set up a cluster of DXP instances running on WildFly servers running in standalone mode. Please refer to the clustering articles for more information.

Configuring WildFly

Configuring WildFly to run DXP includes these things:

  • Setting environment variables
  • Setting properties and descriptors
  • Removing unnecessary configurations

Make the following modifications to $WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone.xml:

  1. Configure the servlet container to use Java 8 VM compatibility with JSPs. Locate the default servlet container <servlet-container name="default"> in the <subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:undertow:12.0" ... element. In the servlet container’s <jsp-config> element, set development, source-vm, and target-vm attributes like this:

    <jsp-config development="true" source-vm="1.8" target-vm="1.8" />
    
  2. Locate the closing </extensions> tag in the <server>s. Directly beneath that closing tag, insert the following system properties, if they don’t already exist:

    <system-properties>
        <property name="org.apache.catalina.connector.URI_ENCODING" value="UTF-8" />
        <property name="org.apache.catalina.connector.USE_BODY_ENCODING_FOR_QUERY_STRING" value="true" />
    </system-properties>
    
  3. Filter out WFLYSRV0059 and WFLYEE0007 messages from the log. In the <subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:logging:8.0"> element’s <console-handler> tag, add the following <filter-spec> tag directly below the <level name="INFO"/> tag.

    <filter-spec value="not(any(match(&quot;WFLYSRV0059&quot;),match(&quot;WFLYEE0007&quot;)))" />
    
  4. Add a deployment scanner timeout by adding a deployment-timeout="600" setting to the <deployment-scanner> tag in the <subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:deployment-scanner:2.0"> element. For example,

    <deployment-scanner deployment-timeout="600" path="deployments" relative-to="jboss.server.base.dir" scan-interval="5000" runtime-failure-causes-rollback="${jboss.deployment.scanner.rollback.on.failure:false}"/>
    
  5. Add Liferay’s JAAS security domain to the <subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:security:2.0">’s <security-domains> element. Here is the domain code to add:

    <security-domain name="PortalRealm">
        <authentication>
            <login-module code="com.liferay.portal.security.jaas.PortalLoginModule" flag="required" />
        </authentication>
    </security-domain>
    
  6. Comment out the welcome content elements from the <subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:undertow:12.0" ...> element. For example,

    <!--<location name="/" handler="welcome-content"/>-->
    

    and

    <handlers>
        <!--<file name="welcome-content" path="${jboss.home.dir}/welcome-content"/>-->
    </handlers>
    

Checkpoint:

Before continuing, verify the following properties have been set in the standalone.xml file:

  1. The new <system-property> is added.
  2. The new <filter-spec> is added.
  3. The <deployment-timeout> is set to 600.
  4. The new <security-domain> is created.
  5. Welcome content is disabled.

Next, configure the JVM and startup scripts:

In the $WILDFLY_HOME/bin/ folder, open the standalone domain’s configuration script file standalone.conf:

  • Set the file encoding to UTF-8
  • Set the user time zone to GMT
  • Set the preferred protocol stack
  • Increase the default amount of memory available.
important

DXP requires the application server JVM to use the GMT time zone and UTF-8 file encoding.

Make the following edits to your standalone.conf script.

  1. Below the if [ "x$JAVA_OPTS" = "x" ]; statement, remove the JVM sizing options from the JAVA_OPTS assignment. For example, replace this

    JAVA_OPTS="-Xms64m -Xmx512m -XX:MetaspaceSize=96M -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=256m -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true"
    

    with this:

    JAVA_OPTS="-Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true"
    
  2. Add this Java options setting at the end of the file:

    JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -Djava.locale.providers=JRE,COMPAT,CLDR -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true -Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true -Duser.timezone=GMT -Xms2560m -Xmx2560m -XX:MaxNewSize=1536m -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=768m -XX:MetaspaceSize=768m -XX:NewSize=1536m -XX:SurvivorRatio=7"
    

The Java options and memory arguments are explained below.

JVM Options Explained

Option Explanation
-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 DXP requires UTF-8 file encoding.
-Djava.locale.providers=JRE,COMPAT,CLDR This is required for displaying four-digit dates on JDK 11.
-Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true Prefers an IPv4 stack over IPv6.
-Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true Resolves a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability. See LPS-143663 for details.
-Duser.timezone=GMT DXP requires the application server JVM to use the GMT time zone.

Memory Arguments Explained

Memory Arguments Explanation
-Xms Initial space for the heap.
-Xmx Maximum space for the heap.
-XX:NewSize Initial new space. Setting the new size to half of the total heap typically provides better performance than using a smaller new size.
-XX:MaxNewSize Maximum new space.
-XX:MetaspaceSize Initial space for static content.
-XX:MaxMetaspaceSize Maximum space for static content.
-XX:SurvivorRatio Ratio of the new space to the survivor space. The survivor space holds young generation objects before being promoted to old generation space.
note

After installing DXP, these configurations (including these JVM options) can be further tuned for improved performance. Please see Tuning Liferay and Tuning Your JVM for more information.

Checkpoint:

  1. The file encoding, user time-zone, and preferred protocol stack have been set in the JAVA_OPTS in the standalone.conf.sh script.
  2. The default amount of memory available has been increased.

The prescribed script modifications are now complete for the DXP installation on WildFly.

Using the IBM JDK

If you’re using the IBM JDK with the WildFly server, complete these additional steps:

  1. For DXP 7.3 and earlier, navigate to the $WILDFLY_HOME/modules/com/liferay/portal/main/module.xml file and insert this dependency within the <dependencies> element:

    <module name="ibm.jdk" />

  2. Navigate to the $WILDFLY_HOME/modules/system/layers/base/sun/jdk/main/module.xml file and insert these paths inside the <paths>...</paths> element:

    <path name="com/sun/crypto" />
    <path name="com/sun/crypto/provider" />
    <path name="com/sun/image/codec/jpeg" />
    <path name="com/sun/org/apache/xml/internal/resolver" />
    <path name="com/sun/org/apache/xml/internal/resolver/tools" />
    

The added paths resolve issues with deployment exceptions and image uploading problems.

Data Source Configuration in Liferay

DXP contains a built-in Hypersonic database which is great for demonstration purposes but should not be used in production. For production, use a full-featured, supported RDBMS. See Configure a Database to set up your database.

Liferay DXP can connect with your database using DXP’s built-in data source (recommended) or using a data source you create on your app server.

You can configure DXP’s built-in data source with your database the first time you run DXP by using the Setup Wizard. Or you can configure the data source in a portal-ext.properties file based on the Database Template for your database.

Data Source Configuration in Wildfly

If using WildFly to manage the data source, follow these steps:

  1. Get the JDBC JAR from your DXP WAR (7.4+) or from the database vendor and copy it to the $WILDFLY_HOME/modules/com/liferay/portal/main folder.

  2. Create a file called module.xml in the $WILDFLY_HOME/modules/com/liferay/portal/main folder. In the file, declare the portal module and the JDBC JAR.

    <?xml version="1.0"?>
    
    <module xmlns="urn:jboss:module:1.0" name="com.liferay.portal">
        <resources>
            <resource-root path="[place your database vendor's JAR file name here]" />
        </resources>
        <dependencies>
            <module name="javax.api" />
            <module name="javax.mail.api" />
            <module name="javax.servlet.api" />
            <module name="javax.servlet.jsp.api" />
            <module name="javax.transaction.api" />
        </dependencies>
    </module>
    
  3. Add the data source inside the $WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone.xml file’s <datasources> element:

    <datasource jndi-name="java:jboss/datasources/ExampleDS" pool-name="ExampleDS" enabled="true" jta="true" use-java-context="true" use-ccm="true">
        <connection-url>[place the URL to your database here]</connection-url>
        <driver>[place your driver name here]</driver>
        <security>
            <user-name>[place your user name here]</user-name>
            <password>[place your password here]</password>
        </security>
    </datasource>
    

    Make sure to replace the database URL, user name, and password with the appropriate values.

    note

    If the data source jndi-name must be changed, edit the datasource element in the <default-bindings> tag.

  4. Add the driver class name to the standalone.xml file’s <drivers> element also found within the <datasources> element.

    <drivers>
        <driver name="[name of database driver]" module="com.liferay.portal">
            <driver-class>[JDBC driver class]</driver-class>
        </driver>
    </drivers>
    

    A final data sources subsystem that uses MySQL should look like this:

    <subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:datasources:1.0">
        <datasources>
            <datasource jndi-name="java:jboss/datasources/ExampleDS" pool-name="ExampleDS" enabled="true" jta="true" use-java-context="true" use-ccm="true">
                <connection-url>jdbc:mysql://localhost/lportal</connection-url>
                <driver>mysql</driver>
                <security>
                    <user-name>root</user-name>
                    <password>root</password>
                </security>
            </datasource>
            <drivers>
                <driver name="mysql" module="com.liferay.portal">
                    <driver-class>com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver</driver-class>
                </driver>
            </drivers>
        </datasources>
    </subsystem>
    
  5. In a portal-ext.properties file in the Liferay Home folder, specify the JNDi data source. For example,

    jdbc.default.jndi.name=java:jboss/datasources/ExampleDS
    

The data source is now configured and ready to go.

Connect to a Mail Server

As with database configuration, the easiest way to configure mail is to let DXP handle the mail session. If you want to use DXP’s built-in mail session, skip this section and configure the mail session in the Control Panel.

If you want to manage your mail session with WildFly, follow these steps:

  1. Specify your mail subsystem in the $WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/configuration/standalone.xml file like this:

    <subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:mail:3.0">
        <mail-session jndi-name="java:jboss/mail/MailSession" name="mail-smtp">
            <smtp-server ssl="true" outbound-socket-binding-ref="mail-smtp" username="USERNAME" password="PASSWORD"/>
       </mail-session>
    </subsystem>
    ...
    <socket-binding-group name="standard-sockets" default-interface="public" port-offset="${jboss.socket.binding.port-offset:0}">
    ...
    <outbound-socket-binding name="mail-smtp">
            <remote-destination host="[place SMTP host here]" port="[place SMTP port here]"/>
        </outbound-socket-binding>
    </socket-binding-group>
    
  2. In the portal-ext.properties file in Liferay Home, reference the mail session. For example,

    mail.session.jndi.name=java:jboss/mail/MailSession
    

Deploying DXP

  1. To trigger deploying ROOT.war, create an empty file called ROOT.war.dodeploy in the $WILDFLY_HOME/standalone/deployments/ folder.
  2. Start the WildFly application server by navigating to $WILDFLY_HOME/bin and running standalone.sh. WildFly detects the ROOT.war.dodeploy file and deploys the web application matching the file prefix (i.e., ROOT.war).

After deploying DXP, you may see excessive warnings and log messages such as the ones below, involving PhaseOptimizer. These are benign and can be ignored. You can turn off these messages by adjusting the app server’s logging level or log filters.

May 02, 2018 9:12:27 PM com.google.javascript.jscomp.PhaseOptimizer$NamedPass process
WARNING: Skipping pass gatherExternProperties
May 02, 2018 9:12:27 PM com.google.javascript.jscomp.PhaseOptimizer$NamedPass process
WARNING: Skipping pass checkControlFlow
May 02, 2018 9:12:27 PM com.google.javascript.jscomp.PhaseOptimizer$NamedPass process
INFO: pass supports: [ES3 keywords as identifiers, getters, reserved words as properties, setters, string continuation, trailing comma, array pattern rest, arrow function, binary literal, block-scoped function declaration, class, computed property, const declaration, default parameter, destructuring, extended object literal, for-of loop, generator, let declaration, member declaration, new.target, octal literal, RegExp flag 'u', RegExp flag 'y', rest parameter, spread expression, super, template literal, modules, exponent operator (**), async function, trailing comma in param list]
current AST contains: [ES3 keywords as identifiers, getters, reserved words as properties, setters, string continuation, trailing comma, array pattern rest, arrow function, binary literal, block-scoped function declaration, class, computed property, const declaration, default parameter, destructuring, extended object literal, for-of loop, generator, let declaration, member declaration, new.target, octal literal, RegExp flag 'u', RegExp flag 'y', rest parameter, spread expression, super, template literal, exponent operator (**), async function, trailing comma in param list, object literals with spread, object pattern rest

If you have a Liferay DXP Enterprise subscription, DXP requests your activation key. See Activating Liferay DXP for more information.

Congratulations! You’re running DXP on WildFly.

Next Steps

You can sign in as your administrator user and start building a solution on DXP. Or you can explore additional Liferay DXP setup topics:

Deployment Approach: