MACROMEDIA COLFUSION MX 7 - INSTALLING AND USING COLDFUSION MX Using Manual page 33

Context root
Because the J2EE environment supports multiple, isolated web applications running in a server
instance, J2EE web applications running in a server are each rooted at a unique base URL, called
a context root (or context path). The J2EE application server uses this initial portion of the URL
(that is, the portion immediately following http://hostname) to determine which web application
services an incoming request.
For example, if you are running ColdFusion MX 7 with a context root of cfmx, you display the
ColdFusion MX Administrator using the URL http://localhost/cfmx/CFIDE/administrator/
index.cfm.
Most J2EE application servers allow one application in each server instance to use a forward slash
(/) for the context root. Setting the context root to / for the ColdFusion MX 7 application is
especially useful when serving CFM pages from the web server, because it supports the
functionality most similar to previous ColdFusion versions. In addition, the RDS web application
is not required if you use a context root of /.
When you deploy the ColdFusion MX 7 EAR file, it uses the context root that you specified
when you ran the installation wizard, which copied your specification to the
element of the META-INF/application.xml file. When you deploy ColdFusion MX 7 as a WAR
file, you use application-server-specific functionality to define the context root.
Note: Each web application running in a server instance must have a unique context root. The JRun
default web application uses / for a context root, so if you want to use / for the ColdFusion MX 7
context root when you deploy on JRun, you must either delete the default-war application or change
the default-war context root by editing the default-ear/META-INF/application.xml file.
Multiple instances
When you use the J2EE configuration, you can define multiple server instances on a single
computer, each running ColdFusion MX 7. Running multiple instances of ColdFusion MX 7 has
the following advantages:
Application isolation
server instance has separate settings, and because each server instance runs in its own instance of
the JVM, problems encountered by one application have no effect on other applications.
Load balancing and failover
the instances to a cluster. The web server connector optimizes performance and stability by
automatically balancing load and by switching requests to another server instance when a server
instance stops running.
For more information on configuring ColdFusion MX 7 on multiple server instances, including
detailed information for configuring multiple server instances when running on JRun 4, see
Configuring and Administering ColdFusion MX. The multiserver configuration provides the
instance manager to make configuring ColdFusion MX 7 on multiple servers easier; however, you
can also configure ColdFusion MX 7 on multiple servers manually by deploying EAR files and
WAR files on multiple server instances.
You deploy an independent application to each server instance. Each
You deploy the same application to each server instance and add
context-root
J2EE application servers 33