Virgo (software)

Virgo is an open source, OSGi-based, Java application server originally developed as SpringSource dm Server by SpringSource and currently maintained by the Eclipse Foundation.^[1][2] SpringSource is now a division of VMware. Virgo supports the deployment of OSGi bundles and unmodified Java web applications as well as OSGi-influenced Shared Libraries WARs and Shared Services WARs.^[3]

Virgo is based on the Equinox OSGi implementation, part of the Eclipse project; the Apache Tomcat servlet container; The Spring Framework; and Spring Dynamic Modules for OSGi Service Platforms. Virgo is licensed using the Eclipse Public License.

History

The SpringSource dm Server was originally announced as the SpringSource Application Platform on April 30, 2008.^[4] Version 1.0 of the SpringSource dm Server was released September 30, 2008.^[5] Version 2.0 was released January 12, 2010.^[6]

SpringSource donated dm Server to Eclipse as the Virgo project later in 2010.^[7]

Feature summary

• Web admin console - deploy and manage artifacts, examine diagnostic dumps, and explore bundle wiring, either in a live system or offline following a resolution failure
• Gogo shell - manage Virgo and deployed artifacts using a command line shell accessed via ssh or telnet
• Plans - define the artifacts that comprise an application, optionally making the application atomic to tie the artifact lifecycles together, and scoped to isolate the application from other applications
• Provisioning - automatically supply the dependencies of an application including bundles, plans, plan archives (PARs), and configurations, from both local and remote repositories
• Web container - supports vanilla WAR files, with all their dependencies in WEB-INF/lib, and Web Application Bundles, that import their dependencies via OSGi manifest metadata, via the reference implementation of the OSGi Web Container specification, based on embedded Apache Tomcat and configured using the standard Tomcat server.xml
• User region - isolates the kernel from user-installed applications and enables administrators to focus on application artifacts and their dependencies without seeing those of the kernel as well
• Spring 3 – Virgo 3.6.2 packages Spring 3.1.0, but can easily be configured to use a different version of Spring
• Hot deployment - deploy artifacts to Virgo by copying them into the pickup directory, either in archive or exploded form, as an alternative to deploying via the admin console or shell
• Logging - via embedded LogBack with a rich set of appenders available out of the box
• JMX management, accessed via the admin console, the shell, the Virgo IDE tooling, or directly via a JMX client such as JConsole

References

External links

• Virgo project home page
• SpringSource dm Server product page
• "OSGi with SpringSource dm Server" training
• SpringSource dm Server community page
• Spring Dynamic Modules for OSGi Service Platforms community page
• Dynamic Enterprise Application Platform Project
• Introduction to SpringSource dm Server by Rod Johnson