How do you remotely update Java applications?

Question

We\'ve got a Java server application that runs on a number of computers, all connected to the Internet, some behind firewalls. We need to remotely update the JAR files and start

Answer 1

You should definitely take a look at OSGi, it was created just for these cases (especially for embedded products) and is used by a large number of companies. You can update jar "bundles", add and remove them, while the app is running. I haven't used it myself, so I don't know about the quality of the open source frameworks/servers, but here is a bunch of useful links to get you started:

http://www.osgi.org/Main/HomePage
http://www.aqute.biz/Code/Bnd
http://blog.springsource.com/2008/02/18/creating-osgi-bundles/
http://blog.springsource.com/
http://www.knopflerfish.org/
http://felix.apache.org/site/index.html