Geronimo and the J2EE Tiered Architecture

Geronimo is a fully compatible J2EE 1.4 server. As such, it includes all the required features and services documented in the J2EE 1.4 specifications. This is a very large set of features, designed to cover the requirements from a highly diverse set of enterprise users.

From an architectural perspective, the features and services provided by Geronimo can be separated into the J2EE tiers, including the following:

• Web tier

• Business tier

• EIS tier

• Web services

• Interoperability

• Client support

Across these tiers, Geronimo also provides a set of valuable container services. These services are features that are available to software components running within Geronimo. These features are configurable by administrators and deployers working with Geronimo. These important container services include the following:

• Naming and directory

• Transaction

• Security

• Manageability

• Configuration management

Figure 4-1 illustrates each of these tiers and services, as well as how they interrelate with one another.

Figure 4-1: J2EE tiers and container services in Geronimo

The sections to follow describe each of the tiers and services in more detail. You will also discover the Geronimo service components and features on each of the tiers.