What are the options to use a custom runtime JBoss EAP 7 configurations in OCP

Solution Verified - Updated 10 Jul 2025

Environment

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP)
- 7.x
Red hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP)
- 4.x

Issue

How to customize a standalone-openshift.xml
How to add the UFC protocol on the jgroups stack on EAP image?

Resolution

Options to customize standalone-openshift.xml (and its behavior):

Option	Pro	Con	Runtime
Change JVM property via DC's via `JAVA_OPTS_APPEND`	easy to set	can only change JVM properties	Can be done in runtime (restart of the pod will be done)
changes via config map: actions.cli and postconfigure.sh	very simple: just need the cli command	Red Hat is maintaining the standalone-configuration and the user has to updates/adds only what they want to add to the default configuration	Can be done in runtime
overwrite standalone-openshift in /standalone/config	one and done (apply on the custom image)	In that case, the default standalone-openshift.xml is not used and it is up to the user to keep its custom configuration in sync with default configuration (in addition to their own changes)	no, another image must be provisioned
S2I build were EAP_HOME/standalone/configuration - create a file standalone-openshift.xml	One and done (apply on the custom image)	Need to do a S2I process and deployment	no, another image must be provisioned
Using LOGGER_CATEGORIES - described on EAP 7 logging mechanism and customization in OCP 4	Can be used at runtime, no need for postconfig.sh/actions.cli	Need to be set at deployment (dc or deployment) level	Can be used at runtime:yes, e.g. oc set env dc/eap-app LOGGER_CATEGORIES=org.jgroups.protocols.DNS_PING:TRACE - requires pod restart

Example 1: Adding a property via JAVA_OPTS_APPEND

For example, adding a certain JVM property that can be done via JAVA_OPTS_APPEND:

### set the environment variable JAVA_OPTS_APPEND
$ oc set env dc/eap-app JAVA_OPTS_APPEND=-Dflag=example
### get the environment variable:
$ oc get dc/eap-app -o yaml | grep -A2 JAVA_OPTS_APPEND
        - name: JAVA_OPTS_APPEND
          value: -Dflag=example

Example 2: Adding UFC protocol on the default EAP image

Via config-map (actions.cli + postconfigure.sh):

$ cat actions.cli

embed-server --std-out=echo --admin-only --server-config=standalone-openshift.xml 
/subsystem=jgroups/stack=tcp/protocol=UFC:add(add-index=10)
stop-embedded-server

$ cat postconfigure.sh

$JBOSS_HOME/bin/jboss-cli.sh --file=$JBOSS_HOME/extensions/actions.cli

Do the following to create the config-map:

oc create configmap jboss-cli --from-file=postconfigure.sh=postconfigure.sh --from-file=actions.cli=actions.cli
oc set volume dc/eap-app --add --name=jboss-cli -m /opt/eap/extensions -t configmap --configmap-name=jboss-cli --default-mode='0777' --overwrite

There are two commands above:
The first creates the configmap called jboss-cli; And the second one just sets the volume in the deployment. The second command does not complain about a cm that is not there.

Given the files: actions.cli and postconfigure.sh above, this can be set in a Dockerfile and an image provisioned from it, this is described on Running JBoss CLI commands on extended JBoss EAP 7 OpenShift Image.

Root Cause

This article describes runtime alternatives, for build time see the solution What are the options to execute CLI commands at build time in JBoss EAP 7 in OCP images that provides alternatives for executing CLI commands at build time, such as replace the default standalone-openshift.xml file inside /opt/eap/standalone/configuration also can be used to declare environment variables via docker set ENV EXAMPLE=/opt/eap/.

Note: as described on the solution Customizing standalone-openshift.xml, currently EAP images are not supported on podman/docker.

Diagnostic Steps

To confirm the config is created: $ oc get cm - example:

$ oc get cm | grep jboss-cli
NAME                                   DATA   AGE
jboss-cli                              2      23m

To confirm the volume is properly created - oc exec $podname on the pod and verify:

$ oc exec $podname -- ls /opt/eap/
LICENSE.txt
bin
docs
extensions <------------------------------------------------------
jboss-modules.jar
modules
standalone

In case the configMap is properly created, and the volume is applied but the pods didn't get update yet (meaning the user cannot access /eap/opt/extensions) verify the ReplicationControllers (or ReplicaSet for deployment yaml deployment).

Method of deployment	Method of control
Deployment Config	ReplicationControllers
Deployment	Replica Set

SBR

JBoss Base AS

Product(s)

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform

Components

jbossas

Category

Customize or extend

Tags

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