What you need for this book

Some basic knowledge on Linux/Unix is required to read this book. You may need to follow the shell commands shown in the book to configure the servers properly.

Some basic understanding of IP multicasting is strongly recommended. Because many clustering features rely on IP multicasting, you can better understand the design of EAP6 clustering with this knowledge.

If you want to follow the instructions in Chapter 8, Developing Distributed Applications, you may need some basic knowledge of EJB and Servlet development. In addition, some knowledge on Maven usage is preferred.

Chapter 6, Clustering with SSL, and Chapter 7, Configuring mod_cluster with SSL, mainly focus on applying SSL in clustering. Some basic understanding of SSL/TLS technologies is needed if you want to follow the instructions in these two chapters.

When you are following the instructions in this book, please turn off the network firewall of your machine in case it blocks important ports needed by the cluster. If you are using Linux as your working environment, please disable SELinux because it will affect a lot on the clustering features. When you have fully understood the EAP6 clustering features, you can turn these protections back online and configure them properly to work with the EAP6 cluster.