Overview
An application server is a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) running user applications. The application server collaborates with the Web server to return a dynamic, customized response to a client's request. Application code, including servlets, JSPs, EJBs and their supporting classes, run in an application server. In keeping with the Java 2 platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) component architecture, servlets and JSPs run in a Web container, and EJBs run in an EJB container.
To begin creating and managing an application server, seeConfiguring application servers.
You can define multiple application servers, each running its own JVM. Enhance the operation of an application server by using the following options:
Application servers use an Object Request Broker (ORB) for RMI/IIOP communication.
Asynchronous messaging
The product supports asynchronous messaging based on the Java Messaging Service (JMS) of a JMS provider that conforms to the JMS specification version 1.0.2.
For IBM WebSphere Application Server, the JMS functions (of the JMS provider) for an application server are served by the JMS server within the application server.
For Network Deployment and Enterprise Extensions, the JMS functions (of JMS providers) within the administration domain are served by one or more JMS servers. There can be at most one JMS server on each node in the administration domain, and any application server within the domain can access JMS resources served by any JMS server on any node in the domain.
For more information, refer to Using JMS and messaging in applications.