Add/remove/update system properties in JBoss EAP 8 / 7 / 6

Environment

• Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (JBoss EAP)
  • 8
  • 7
  • 6

Issue

• How can I add/remove/remove all system properties with the CLI?

• Is there a replacement for properties-service.xml?

• Is there an alternative to using JAVA_OPTS for system properties?

• Tried manually removing the system property and got error

    {"JBAS014653: Composite operation failed and was rolled back. Steps that failed:
    " => {"Operation step-1" => "JBAS014803: Duplicate resource [(\"system-property\
    " => \"foo\")]"}}
  

• Can we change system properties on without a restart?

• How to update a system property using the jboss-cli in JBoss EAP 8 ?

Resolution

System properties are specified like such in standalone(-*).xml or domain.xml/host.xml:

    <system-properties>
        <property name="foo" value="bar" boot-time="true"/> <!-- boot-time disallowed in standalone*.xml, see below -->
    </system-properties>

Note:

• The boot-time attribute can be available only in the domain mode. It can be used to have the host controller spawn new EAP instances with system properties on the JVM invocation when the boot-time attribute set to true.
• If you need to set system properties that are available in the start-up in the *standalone *mode like the boot-time attribute, you can set system properties via the java command line. (Note that this way doesn't work for the domain mode. )

  • standalone.conf: Add to environment variable JAVA_OPTS in standalone.conf:

      JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS -Dfoo=bar"
    

  • standalone.sh: Set straight on the command line at startup in standalone mode, for example:

      ./standalone.sh -Dfoo=bar
    

It's possible to add/remove system properties by CLI command. See the following for details.

Standalone CLI

• ADD
  To add system properties:

    /system-property=foo:add(value="bar")
  

  then the following entry goes into the standalone(-*).xml:

    <system-properties>
        <property name="foo" value="bar"/>
    </system-properties>
  

• REMOVE
  To remove the above system properties:

    /system-property=foo:remove
  

• LIST
  To get a list of defined system properties:

    ls /system-property
  

  It's possible to remove all defined system properties by removing each system-property which is listed in the above results using :remove instead of :add.

Domain CLI

• server-group level

  • ADD
    To add system properties:

      /server-group=main-server-group/system-property=foo:add(value=bar)
    

    then the following entry goes into <server-group> in domain.xml:

      <server-group name="main-server-group" profile="full">
          ...(snip)...
          <system-properties>
              <property name="foo" value="bar"/>
          </system-properties>
          ...(snip)...
      </server-group>
    

  • UPDATE
    To update the above system property:

      /server-group=main-server-group/system-property=foo:write-attribute(name=value,value=bar1)
    

  • UPDATE
    To remove the above system properties:

      /server-group=main-server-group/system-property=foo:remove
    

  • LIST
    To get a list of system properties defined in the <server-group>:

      ls /server-group=main-server-group/system-property 
    

    It's possible remove all defined system properties by removing each system-property which is listed in the above results using :remove instead of :add.

• server level

  • ADD
    It's possible to add system properties at server level by the following CLI:

      /host=master/server-config=server-one/system-property=foo:add(value=bar)
    

    then the following entry goes into <server> in host.xml:

      <servers>
          ...(snip)...
          <server name="server-one" group="main-server-group" auto-start="true">
              <system-properties>
                  <property name="foo" value="bar"/>
              </system-properties>
              ...(snip)...
          </server>
          ...(snip)...
      </servers>
    

  • REMOVE
    To remove the above system properties:

      /host=master/server-config=server-one/system-property=foo:remove
    

  • LIST
    To get a list of system properties defined in the <server>:

      ls /host=master/server-config=server-one/system-property
    

    It's possible remove all defined system properties by removing each system-property which is listed in the above results using :remove instead of :add.

NOTE :If multiple property values to a single property is required then use double quotes " " as below :

/server-group=group-name/system-property=https.protocols:add(value="TLSv1,TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2")

Root Cause

If configuration files are manually edited, make sure to restart the server, host controller and process controller for changes to take effect.

Passing parameters vs passing file with parameters

One can pass a file parameter with standalone.sh -P <file> (or domain.sh -P )
where file is:

    myproperty=foo
    otherproperty=bar
    afinalproperty=baz

Diagnostic Steps

• For this error, try to remove the system property via cli command specified above first.

    Operation step-1" => "JBAS014803: Duplicate resource
  

• Try restarting the server if it doesn't work.

• Check the runtime value of the property with jinfo. On Red Hat Enterprise Linux run:

    $ jinfo -sysprops ${JAVA_PID} | grep foo
  

  Where ${JAVA_PID} is the id of the JBoss EAP Server process, and "foo" is the system property name.
  The output should look like:

    foo = bar
  

  Note Make sure the jinfois the same version of the JDK as the JBoss EAP Server or it will print an error like:

    sun.jvm.hotspot.runtime.VMVersionMismatchException: Supported versions are 25.212-b04. Target VM is 25.91-b14
  

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