I’ve been testing various “embedded platforms” lately to provide infrastructure for my IoT configurations. In doing so, I’ve installed and configured the GlassFish 4 Web Profile to run successfully on the Raspberry Pi Model B (512M). This post is not meant to be exhaustive or even necessarily prescriptive, but rather an iterative log of what I’ve done and do to configure a Raspberry Pi to “run with the big dogs”, i.e. Java Enterprise Edition (EE) 7.

Please check back (or subscribe to my RSS feed for IoT) to monitor updates. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a very dynamic space and will likely remain so for some time! The only constant…is change.  😀

Document version 1.3 (This number will change as I make updates and is for reference only)

Steps to Install/Configure GlassFish 4 on the Raspberry Pi

1. Download the latest version of Raspbian Wheezy from here. You can install NOOBS, Arch, or some other distro, but I chose Raspbian. Note that this distro includes the Java SE 7 JDK, which simplifies things a bit. If you wish to use an previous Raspbian build that doesn’t already include the JDK, simply run “sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-jdk” from your Pi shell.
2. Make a bootable SD card by doing the following (on my Mac; Windows steps will vary a bit):
   1. Unzip/decompress the downloaded image from step 1
   2. Open a Mac terminal window
   3. Run “diskutil list” to see drives
   4. Plug SD card into SD card slot
   5. Again run “diskutil list” to see drives, now including the SD card
   6. Run “sudo diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskn“, where n is the disk number of the SD card (as reported by diskutil)
   7. Issue the following command, being very careful to ensure the of= parameter points to the SD card! If not, you can overwrite something you’d rather not…like your boot drive: “sudo dd if=<path/name_of_Raspbian_image.img> of=/dev/diskn bs=1m”
   8. Once dd completes, issue “diskutil eject /dev/diskn” to eject the SD card
3. Plug the SD card into the Pi, plug ethernet cable and power into the Pi to boot.
4. At this point, you’ll need to determine current (dynamic) IP address of the Pi. I plugged in my Atrix Lapdock and did this “on the Pi”, but you can also use nmap or connect it to HDMI (TV) and USB keyboard.
5. Run “sudo raspi-config” and set the following:
   1. Expand the file system to take the entire SD card (not just what the image initially does)
   2. Under Internationalisation Options, change Locale, Timezone, & Keyboard layout as desired
   3. Overclock to High (950MHz). I’ve tried Turbo, but it seems prone to flakiness & data loss…at least for me.
   4. Under Advanced Options, change Hostname to desired Pi name, Memory Split to 16 (as a server, we can skinny the GPU memory allocation to maximize “main” memory), and enable SSH. You can also “Update this tool” (raspi-config) to the latest version, never a bad thing.
   5. Select “Finish” to reboot the Pi & use the new settings
6. Ensure the Pi has a static IP by doing the following (recommended for any server):
   1. Run “ifconfig -a” and “netstat -nr” on the Pi to gather the following information: current IP (if you want to keep it), netmask, gateway, destination, and broadcast. Jot these down.
   2. Make a backup of /etc/network/interfaces by running “sudo cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.orig
   3. Modify the interfaces file. I used vi, but use whatever editor you can & are comfortable with! The vi syntax is “sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces”
   4. Change the line that reads “iface eth0 inet dhcp” to “iface eth0 inet static” and add the following lines:
      • address 192.168.1.nnn (this is the IP address you want the Pi to have & keep)
      • netmask 255.255.255.0 (or whatever was shown in ifconfig -a above)
      • network 192.168.1.0 (or whatever was in the destination column, 2nd line from netstat -nr above)
      • broadcast 192.168.1.255 (as shown in ifconfig -a)
      • gateway 192.168.1.1 (or what was shown in either ifconfig or netstat)
   5. Save the file
   6. Reboot the Pi (“sudo reboot”)
   7. NOTE: You’ll also need to tell your network DHCP device/router that the IP address you statically assigned to the Pi is off-limits for assigning to another device
7. Download GlassFish 4 Web Profile (or full EE platform) from here. I chose the Zip installer.
8. Copy the GlassFish .zip file to the Pi (“scp glassfish-4.0-web.zip pi@raspi:.”). I have an entry in my Mac’s /etc/hosts that points “raspi” to the Pi’s static IP address.
9. On the Pi, “install” GlassFish by doing the following:
   1. Run “sudo mkdir -p /app/glassfish” to create GlassFish app parent directory
   2. Run “sudo chown pi /app/glassfish” to assign directory ownership to the pi user. Not absolutely necessary, but you typically don’t want root to own everything (although honestly at this stage & for this install, it’s not critical)
   3. “cd /app/glassfish” as the pi user to change directories into the “install” directory
   4. Run “unzip ~/glassfish-4.0-web.zip” to extract the GF files into this directory
10. Now to configure GF to allow for remote administration/configuration using its web console app:
    1. “cd /app/glassfish/glassfish4/bin”
    2. Run “./asadmin change-admin-password --user admin” to assign a password to the admin user. The admin password defaults to a blank password, a no-no for GF remote admin.
    3. Run “./asadmin start-domain” to start the default domain (which comes preconfigured in GF)
    4. Run “./asadmin enable-secure-admin” to enable remote administration using the web console
    5. In order to take utilize remote admin, stop the domain by running “./asadmin stop-domain”, then…
    6. Start the domain once more with “./asadmin start-domain”
11. From your workstation/laptop, plug this into a browser address bar: “raspi:4848” (substituting the name of your Pi per your /etc/hosts file) or “192.168.1.n:4848″ (substituting the IP address or your Pi) to load the GF admin console
12. Login and relish the fact that you now have a full Java EE 7 stack (or web profile) running on your Raspberry Pi server!

I’m capturing this from memory, so it’s possible I’ve missed a step I performed or have related it not-exactly-perfectly…but if you spot something that isn’t quite right or have questions, please let me know! I’ll update this document accordingly. YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary), especially if you’re using a Linux or Windows machine for your workstation, but hopefully, this will get you that much closer to your own tiny Java EE 7 stack for your own growing IoT empire.

All the best,
Mark

P.S. – Follow me on Twitter at @MkHeck for more Java/IoT adventures…yours and mine (and ours)!

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“But little Mouse, you are not alone,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!”

From “To a Mouse” (translated), by Robert Burns

As Burns so nicely stated, it was a great plan. Still is, actually, just not for October 12th! The inaugural Thanks for Sharing Informal International HackFest will be rescheduled for a later date – sometime in November, in all likelihood – due to a last-minute assignment on a short-suspense Java EE project. When duty calls…

Anyway, please check back (or keep your eye on my Twitter feed @MkHeck) for updates. Looking forward to a good time with great friends soon, creating & seeing some fun & useful projects. Until then!

All the best,
Mark

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