Advertisment

Pramati Server 3.0

author-image
PCQ Bureau
New Update

We reviewed Pramati Studio 3.0, a Java-development suite in our November 2002 issue (Build Java Apps, Page 114), and found it to be an excellent product. So, naturally our expectations with this Java application server from the same company were quite high. Being purely Java based, the application server is OS independent. It integrates seamlessly with its sister product (Studio 3.0), but is not limited to it. It’s J2EE 1.3 compliant, and also supports other standards like Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) 2.0, Java Server Pages (JSP) 1.2, Servlets 2.3, Java Messaging Service (JMS) 1.0.2, Java Transaction API (JTA) 1.0 and Java Database Connector (JDBC) 2.0. This facilitates the integration of this middle-tier system with the backend. 

Advertisment

A performance-oriented application server with an 



extremely rich feature set

The most important feature of this product is perhaps its clustering mechanism. Two or more instances of this server running independently on singe/different machines can actually function as a single entity. These independently running servers are called nodes in Pramati terminology. The use of clustering technology increases the reliability of this application server to a very large extent. The nodes are centrally managed by an arbitrarily assigned master (any node can be configured as one). In case this master node fails, another node takes up its duties automatically. The same holds for other nodes as well, and this entire activity is transparent to the applications running on the server. They don’t need to be ‘cluster aware’. To support the clustering functionality, Pramati Server 3.0 has also added load balancing.

The server has an administration server, which automatically detects all servers running on the network. Using this you can deploy the EJB components, Web components or servlets. There is a separate Deploy tool that can deploy applications using RMI (Remote Method Invocation). This involves creating an XML descriptor. However, even this has been automated using the deploy tool. Their status can be viewed/altered in real time using this administration server.

Advertisment

Snapshot

Price Rs 250,000 (small project value pack for 2 CPUs)
Key

specs
: Clustering, load balancing, hot deployment
Cons : In depth knowledge of Java is necessary
Pros : Auto-discovery of all Pramati Servers on the network, J2EE 1.3 compliance, centralized administration
Contact : Pramati technologies,

Hyderabad.
Tel : 3411672/3
E-mail : sales@pramati.com

The server supports various backend servers like Oracle 8i, Informix 7.3.0 TC3, Cloudscape 4.0 and, of course, any JDBC-compliant database, including Microsoft’s SQL Server. The documentation provided is extremely helpful and clear, though it is directed towards the developer community and assumes in depth knowledge of Java. This may not be a plus point for people like network administrators who will be responsible for setting up and administrating the server. 

Ankit Khare

Advertisment