JBoss Clustering in Amazon EC2

Amazon AWS does not allow multicasting so the default clustering configuration for JBoss needs configuration.  Here are the steps to configure 2 JBoss nodes of a cluster that will run on AWS.

1. Create 2 security groups JBoss1 and JBoss2 that have group access to each other.

2.  Choose a Linux image and launch with security group JBoss1.  I used image:
           amazon/suse-sles-11-sp1-v1.01.x86_64.

3. Install Java JDK 6.

4. Download JBoss 4.3.2 and unzip:
    wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/jboss/files/JBoss/JBoss-4.2.3.GA/jboss-4.2.3.GA-jdk6.zip/download

5. Download concurrent-1.3.2 jar and copy to $JBOSS_HOME/lib as the gossip server requires it.

6. In the jboss bin directory create a file gossip.sh to run the gossip server 
     export JBOSS_HOME=/xxx/jboss-4.2.3.GA
     java -cp $JBOSS_HOME/server/all/lib/jgroups.jar:$JBOSS_HOME/lib/commons-logging.jar:$JBOSS_HOME/lib/concurrent-1.3.2.jar org.jgroups.stack.GossipRouter -port 5555 -expiry 30000 -bindaddress jboss1

7. Edit jboss-4.2.3.GA/server/all/deploy/cluster-service.xml

replace
           <UDP mcast_addr="${jboss.partition.udpGroup:228.1.2.3}"
                 mcast_port="${jboss.hapartition.mcast_port:45566}"
                 tos="8"
                 ucast_recv_buf_size="20000000"
                 ucast_send_buf_size="640000"
                 mcast_recv_buf_size="25000000"
                 mcast_send_buf_size="640000"
                 loopback="false"
                 discard_incompatible_packets="true"
                 enable_bundling="false"
                 max_bundle_size="64000"
                 max_bundle_timeout="30"
                 use_incoming_packet_handler="true"
                 use_outgoing_packet_handler="false"
                 ip_ttl="${jgroups.udp.ip_ttl:2}"
                 down_thread="false" up_thread="false"/>
            <PING timeout="2000"
                  down_thread="false" up_thread="false" num_initial_members="3"/>
with
            <UDP ip_mcast="false" mcast_addr="244.0.0.35" mcast_port="45566" ip_ttl="32"
             mcast_send_buf_size="150000" mcast_recv_buf_size="80000"/>
            <PING gossip_host="jboss1" gossip_port="5555"
            gossip_refresh="15000" timeout="2000" num_initial_members="2"/>

8.  Save the image

9.  Start a second instances using this image and security group jboss2.

10. On both servers add to the /etc/hosts file the internal ip addresses
For example:
  10.248.11.223  jboss1
  10.248.10.253  jboss2

11. Wait until the operating systems updated network addresses by running
      ping jboss1
      ping jboss2

12. On jboss1 start gossip server
   ./gossip.sh &

13. On jboss1 started jboss
     ./run.sh -c all -g TestCluster -b jboss1

14. On jboss2 started jboss2
   ./run.sh -c all g-TestCluster -b jboss2

15. You will see messages in the startup that show that the cluster formed.
  11:00:59,124 INFO  [TestCluster] Dead members: 0 ([])
  11:00:59,124 INFO  [TestCluster] New Members : 1 ([10.248.10.253:1099])
  11:00:59,124 INFO  [TestCluster] All Members : 2 ([10.248.11.223:1099, 10.248.10.253:1099])

16. To automate the setting of the jboss1 and jboss2 ip addresses:
 a. Install Ruby if not already installed

b.  install rubygems
     wget http://production.cf.rubygems.org/rubygems/rubygems-1.8.19.tgz
     tar xvf rubygems-1.8.19.tgz
    cd rubygems-1.8.19
    ruby setup.rb

c. install right_aws amazon interface
    gem install right_aws

d. download scripts and configure
     settings.rb
     cloud_init.rb

e. create cron job
    crontab -e
    */5 * * * * ruby /root/cloud_init.rb generate_hosts=Y

References
http://www.hugotroche.com/my_weblog/2008/06/clustering-jbos.html
http://xebee.xebia.in/2009/12/03/jboss-clustering-in-5-minutes/
https://community.jboss.org/message/209111
http://docs.jboss.org/jbossas/jboss4guide/r4/html/cluster.chapt.html