Anyone here use Enterprise Java Beans?

[GuruWannabe]

We use Microsoft Transaction Server and DCOM at work. Because we're already running into scalability issues with our current setup, and we're expecting a LOT more business in a few months, my boss is now open to alternative technologies, and he's letting me evaluate Enterprise Java for possible use here. I'm still new to the technology, but so for it seems to be a lot more flexible, and the fact that it can run on any platform is a huge plus.

Is anyone here using EJB, and if so, can you tell me about your experiences with it?

[Dru Lee Parsec]

I'm JUST starting to learn about EJB. I'd say go ahead and get the O'Reilly book on EJB and take it from there. Of course, any Java solution is the best answer to any programming question. :D

[rch-tech]

So far in my experience with EJB, (just a few months) I think its better than any M$ solution and apparently they do to, just look at the new .Net stuff and C#. (It's all java or c++ at the heart but 5+years behind...)
The problem we've had is response time on a few things. HOWEVER that is largely dependant on what EJB App server you are using. We us IBM Websphere which is a hog but getting better. Just throw hardware at it and its happier. The more RAM the better, the fast the processor, the better, etc.
I've heard BEA Weblogic is awesome. And of course, the fact that you write once run anywhere, with any Database kicks A$$. I say go for it, you can't go wrong.

I'm a SCJP but only been doing it for a year, so there may be some totally wrong assumptions in my evaluation. But even if I am wrong...its still better than M$.

[Dru Lee Parsec]

rch-tech:

We were using WebSphere when I worked at the bank on their on-line banking system. It was damn fast, but we wern't using EJB at the time. We were just using it as (essentially) the replacement for Tomcat as our servlet engine.

That's good to know about the efficiency of WebSphere in EJB.

[rch-tech]

I agree, version 3.5 runs like a champ with normal Javabeans.
It would probably run fine but we are only running it on a M$ NT box, with a mere 256 MB of RAM. I think minimum WebSphere really wants 384MB.
another tip, don't leave the GUI console open on the server...I think there's a leak cause the longer we leave it open, the slower the machine and response time becomes.
Also the DB2 database is running on the same machine. That doesn't help either.
The prediction is that WebSphere and BEA will share the lead in market share this by year end.

[Dru Lee Parsec]

We were running it in IBM's AIX on some major IBM Heavy Iron MainFrames so it was really fast. DB2 Was running on a separate machine. The entire thing was copied so we were running 2 identical strings of machines that would update each other and do automatic failover and recovery. The web sprayer and web servers were on still more computers.

Then the entire system was duplicated in another office about 200 miles away and THAT was automatically synched up so if the building suddenly collapsed or if all the power died or if the multiple T1 Lines all died then we would seamlessly switch over to our backup system 200 miles away.

No 200 Mhz Pentiums here. :)

Hey, it was a bank. Our customers kind of demand that we don't lose their money. :D

Of course the nice thing about Java and WebSphere is that the developers could run a small version of the system on their machine in NT and all the code would work on AIX Unix when we copied it over. Imagine that. Moving code from one hardware/OS system to another didn't require porting, it just required copying.

[nanode]

Our present project is using websphere with a DB2 backend. We're currently migrating to 3.5 from 3.0. So far no weirdness, but we've only done light testing. It's rough to emulate the client's environment while planning future compatibility.

[GuruWannabe]

Thanks for the replies, fellas. I bought the O'Reilly book a couple of weeks ago. I also downloaded evaluation versions of both WebLogic and WebSphere.

Wish me luck! :D