An application server is a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that is running user applications. The application server collaborates with the Web server to return a dynamic, customized response to a client request. Application code, including servlets, JavaServer Pages (JSP) files, enterprise beans and their supporting classes, runs in an application server. Conforming to the Java 2 platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) component architecture, servlets and JSP files run in a Web container, and enterprise beans run in an Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) container.
Overview
To begin creating and managing an application server, see Administering application servers .
You can define multiple application servers, each running its own JVM. You can also use the following options to enhance the operation of an application server:
Asynchronous messaging
The product supports asynchronous messaging based on the Java Message Service (JMS) of a JMS provider that conforms to the JMS specification version 1.1.
The JMS functions of the default message service in WebSphere Application Server are served by one or more messaging engines (in a service integration bus) that runs within application servers.
In a deployment manager cell, there can be WebSphere Application Server version 5 nodes. If a version 5 node is configured to use V5 default messaging (the version 5 embedded messaging), there can be at most one JMS server on that node.
Generic Servers
A generic server is a server that is managed in the WebSphere administrative domain, although it is not a server that is supplied by the WebSphere Application Server product. The generic server can be any server or process that is necessary to support the Application Server environment.
For more information, refer to Creating generic servers .