Undeploying apps in JBoss Application Server from the command line - jboss

Question

Are there any simple ways to see what wars have been deployed in Jboss AS and undeploy some of them? I want to do this from the command line.
I tried using jmx but I keep getting exception saying "org.jboss.util.NestedRuntimeException: jmx not bound;" I'd prefer to do it in a way where I don't have to stop and start the application server.

Answer 1

You can approach this in three ways in JBoss Application Server 7:
Management Console
Management CLI
Deployment folder
Management Console
Being a GUI, the Management Console is the most visual of the three, and you can see the list of deployed applications under the Deployment window. You have the option to Disable and Remove the deployed applications listed here. This screenshot is from AS7.0.2, and some windows have and will change with the addition of tabs, but the general functionality remains the same.
Management CLI
The Management Command Line Interface is a new addition to AS7. The CLI exposes a lot of low-level functionality, and is a powerful tool once you get familiar with the commands and operations. As you might expect, you can run help to show the commands, or run <commandname> --help for more information on a specific command. Two useful commands are deploy and undeploy, so let's look at their help information. I'll give Linux examples, but you can insert your flavour of OS as required.
Here's deploy:
[standalone#localhost:9999 /] deploy --help
SYNOPSIS
deploy (file_path [--name=deployment_name] [--runtime_name=deployment_runtime_name] [--force] | --name=deployment_name) [--server-groups=group_name (,group_name)* | --all-server-groups]
DESCRIPTION
Deploys the application designated by the file_path or enables an already existing
but disabled in the repository deployment designated by the name argument.
If executed w/o arguments, will list all the existing deployments.
ARGUMENTS
file_path - the path to the application to deploy. Required in case the deployment
doesn't exist in the repository.
The path can be either absolute or relative to the current directory.
--name - the unique name of the deployment. If the file path argument is specified
the name argument is optional with the file name been the default value.
If the file path argument isn't specified then the command is supposed to
enable an already existing but disabled deployment, and in this case the
name argument is required.
--runtime_name - optional, the runtime name for the deployment.
--force - if the deployment with the specified name already exists, by default,
deploy will be aborted and the corresponding message will printed.
Switch --force (or -f) will force the replacement of the existing deployment
with the one specified in the command arguments.
--server-groups - comma separated list of server group names the deploy command should apply to.
Either server-groups or all-server-groups is required in the domain mode.
This argument is not applicable in the standalone mode.
--all-server-groups - indicates that deploy should apply to all the available server groups.
Either server-groups or all-server-groups is required in domain mode.
This argument is not applicable in the standalone mode.
-l - in case none of the required arguments is specified the command will
print all of the existing deployments in the repository. The presence of the -l switch
will make the existing deployments printed one deployment per line, instead of
in columns (the default).
And here's undeploy:
[standalone#localhost:9999 /] undeploy --help
SYNOPSIS
undeploy name [--server-groups=group_name (,group_name)* | --all-relevant-server-groups] [--keep-content]
DESCRIPTION
Undeploys the deployment with the given name and, depending on the arguments, removes
its content from the repository.
If the deployment name isn't specified, prints the list of all the existing deployments.
ARGUMENTS
name - the name of the deployment to undeploy.
--server-groups - comma separated list of server group names the undeploy command should apply to.
Either server-groups or all-relevant-server-groups is required in the domain mode.
This argument is not applicable in the standalone mode.
--all-relevant-server-groups - indicates that undeploy should apply to all the server groups
in which the deployment is enabled.
Either server-groups or all-relevant-server-groups is required in domain mode.
This argument is not applicable in the standalone mode.
--keep-content - by default undeploy, besides disabling the deployment, also removes its
content from the repository. The presence of --keep-content will only disable
the deployment w/o removing its content from the repository.
This argument can be used in both standalone and domain modes.
-l - in case the deployment name isn't specified, the presence of the -l switch
will make the existing deployments printed one deployment per line, instead of
in columns (the default).
The CLI In Action
Running the deploy or undeploy command without any arguments will list all the applications available. So your workflow to log in to the CLI and undeploy an application would be like this (simplified):
Change directory from EAP_HOME to the bin folder:
[user#home EAP_HOME]$ cd bin
Run the CLI logon script:
[user#host bin]$ ./jboss-admin.sh
You are disconnected at the moment. Type 'connect' to connect to the server or 'help' for the list of supported commands.
Instruct the API to connect (this can also be passed at runtime as ./jboss-admin.sh --connect).
[disconnected /] connect
Connected to standalone controller at localhost:9999
Run the undeploy command to display available applications.
[standalone#localhost:9999 /] undeploy
test.ear
Run the undeploy command to undeploy the application. In this case, the test.ear.
[standalone#localhost:9999 /] undeploy test.ear
Successfully undeployed test.ear.
Deployment Folder
If you are running an instance of AS7 as a development tool, and are using the deployment folder, you can simply delete the application. You will notice that a marker file is created, such as test.ear.failed, to signify the status of the application deployment.

Answer 2

With JBoss Application Server it's possible handle deployment with plain file operations on wars/ears in deploy dir.
Just ls to enumerate, delete to undeploy, copy to deploy and touch to redeploy. No server restart required.
Also for the newest version of JBoss Application Server 7 you can use CLI.

Answer 3

You can also try CLI GUI. The Deployments-->Undeploy menu option provides a pick list of deployments. A couple of clicks and you are done.
See https://community.jboss.org/wiki/AGUIForTheCommandLineInterface

Answer 4

You dont have to restart the JBOSS server if you remove the WAR and EAR the application gets undeployed .
The article (http://docs.jboss.org/jbossas/docs/Clustering_Guide/4/html/clustering-intro-farm.html ) gives the perfect explanation of how it works.
Let all know if you have any questions about it .
We have been doing the development on Jboss the same way in our DEV , QA and Prod environment and have not faced any issues with it so-far.