CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaosgisoaapache-karafpaas
user1768830
user1768830

Reputation:

Does OSGi-as-a-Service exist?

Are there any Java PaaS solutions out there that offer OSGi containers as a service?

If not a full-blown PaaS, just a clusterable/scalable OSGi host. Google turned up nothing, so I'm assuming there isn't anything like this. Thanks in advance!

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1432

Answers (5)

Thomas Uhrig
Thomas Uhrig

Reputation: 31603

(In contrast to the other answers:) No, there is no OSGi-as-a-Service in the cloud, yet.

I am currently writing my master thesis about porting an OSGi application on a PaaS, so I did my own researches about PaaS and OSGi. I did not find any satisfying solution based on OSGi in the cloud (however I did find other solutions ;). The problem is that OSGi is pretty unpopular and the cloud is notoriously trendy.

As the other questions mentioned, OSGi is a Java library. So you could set it up pretty much everywhere where Java is supported. But that would be more a IaaS solution as a PaaS solution (which you seem to look for, as you are asking for OSGi-as-a-service). You would need to setup a OSGi framework on your own and you would have no support for deploying bundles. Which degenerates this solution pretty much. So no, there is no special cloud offer for OSGi, despite there are many for Java.

However, there is a nice book called Modular Cloud Apps with OSGi from Paul Baker and Bert Ertman published by O’Reilly. The book describes their PaaS-like solution to use OSGi in the cloud. The basically setup a repository of OSGi bundles, where they stored all their stuff. Then they created a cloud image, which only contains an empty OSGi framework/server (just like Apache Karaf, but they wrote their own tool called Apache ACE for what reason ever...). They were able to boot those images and as soon as the machine was up, they just deployed the bundles from their repository to the instance (via a web interface).

There is also a video of their demo on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN3jYKOQ1Tk

I think this strategy is the best PaaS-like solution you could get. But - unfortunately - this is not supported by any cloud vendor out of the box. But you could set it up on (for exmaple) Amazon very easily.

EDIT

There also exists a Build Pack for Cloud Foundry to setup a Virgo server which can run OSGi apps: https://github.com/glyn/virgo-buildpack

Upvotes: 5

sajux
sajux

Reputation: 136

There is a commercial provider of OSGi cloud services - Paremus. They have 2 cloud products - Nimble and Service Fabric. You might want to check them out. The Nimble product is available in a limited free edition for trial.

Upvotes: 1

surya
surya

Reputation: 109

OSGi is basically a Java library that can run on a virtual machine that has a JDK/JRE support. But remember one stuff, out of the box support is what you are looking for and you need to customize the PaaS you choose to run your app. I think to do this, you need to choose the provider that is easiest to configure and scale. Try out Jelastic. It is easiest of the lot to cinfigure and get started. Check their jar uploads, and I think it will suffice your needs.
Let me know what you think and if this answer is of any help.
Surya

Upvotes: 0

Neil Bartlett
Neil Bartlett

Reputation: 23948

OSGi can be used on pretty much any cloud provider that offers Java support, since it is essentially just a Java library.

The exception to this would be Google App Engine, since they don't just modify Jetty, they modify Java itself and remove the ability to create threads and classloaders, both of which are required for full OSGi support.

Upvotes: 0

Gunnar
Gunnar

Reputation: 2359

Take a look at Gyrex. It's not a service yet but can be used to build you're own OSGi PaaS cluster. It uses Equinox, p2 for provisioning and Jetty.

http://eclipse.org/gyrex

Disclaimer: I'm a committer and heavy user of it.

Upvotes: 1

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