The domain.xml file is located at JBOSS_HOME/domain/configuration/. It includes the main domain configuration, which is shared by all server instances. In the domain.xml file, we will define the server group configurations, specifying a profile that is compatible with clustering. Out of the box, a JBoss AS 7 domain ships with four different profiles:

So, first specify in your domain.xml file a cluster-aware profile for your server groups. In our example, we have adopted the full-ha profile for both server groups so that you can run the full Java EE stack on all your domain servers:

<server-groups>
        <server-group name="main-server-group" profile="full-ha">
            <jvm name="default">
                <heap size="64m" max-size="512m"/>
            </jvm>
            <socket-binding-group ref="full-sockets"/>
        </server-group>
        <server-group name="other-server-group" profile="full-ha">
            <jvm name="default">
                <heap size="64m" max-size="512m"/>
            </jvm>
            <socket-binding-group ref="full-sockets"/>
        </server-group>
</server-groups>

In addition to the domain.xml file, you need to check that your domain controller's host.xml file contains a reference to the local domain controller, as shown in the following code snippet:

<host name="master" xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:1.3">
    ...
    <domain-controller>
       <local/>
    </domain-controller>
    ...
</host>

In case your domain controller is located on a remote host, the preceding configuration requires to specify the remote domain controller host and its port (in this example we have added some variables as placeholders):

<host name="master" xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:1.3">
    ...
    <domain-controller>
       <remote host="${jboss.domain.master.address}"  port="${jboss.domain.master.port}" />    
    </domain-controller>
    ...
</host>

Finally, you need to create a management user that will be used to establish a connection between the slave nodes and the domain controller. For this purpose, launch the add-user.sh/add-user.cmd script, which is located in JBOSS_HOME/bin of your distribution:

As you can see from the preceding screenshot, you have to create a management user by specifying a username and a password for it. You should answer the previous question with yes or y to indicate that the user will be used to connect to the domain controller from the host controller. The generated secret value is the Base64-encoded password of the newly created user.

Now we can start the domain controller by specifying the address that will be used for the public and management interfaces (in our example 192.168.1.1) with the following command:

domain.sh -b 192.168.1.1 -Djboss.bind.address.management=192.168.1.1    

We have set the physical network bind address to the host configuration with the jboss.bind.address.management property. The management interface must be reachable for all hosts in the domain in order to establish a connection with the domain controller.

After the domain controller is configured and started, the next step is to set up the other hosts that will connect to the domain controller. On each host, we also need an installation of JBoss AS 7, where we will configure the host.xml file (as an alternative you can name the host file as you like, and start the domain with the -host-config parameter. For example, ./domain.sh -host-config=host-slave.xml.)

The first thing is to choose a unique name for each host in our domain in order to avoid name conflicts. Otherwise, the default is the hostname of the server.

<host name="server1" xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:1.4">
    ...
</host>

And for the other host:

<host name="server2" xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:1.4">
    ...
</host>

Next, we need to specify that the host controller will connect to a remote domain controller. We will not specify the actual IP address of the domain controller, but leave it as a property named jboss.domain.master.address.

Additionally, we need to specify the username that will be used to connect to the domain controller. So let's add the user admin1234, which we have created on the domain controller machine:

<domain-controller>
       <remote host="${jboss.domain.master.address}"      port="${jboss.domain.master.port:9999}"
       username="admin1234" 
       security-realm="ManagementRealm"/>
</domain-controller>

Finally, we need to specify the Base64 password for the server identity that we have included in the remote element:

<management>
   <security-realms>
      <security-realm name="ManagementRealm">
         <server-identities>
            <secret value="QWxlc3NhbmRybzIh" />
         </server-identities>
         <authentication>
            <properties path="mgmt-users.properties" relative-to="jboss.domain.config.dir" />
         </authentication>
      </security-realm>
      <security-realm name="ApplicationRealm">
         <authentication>
            <properties path="application-users.properties" relative-to="jboss.domain.config.dir" />
         </authentication>
      </security-realm>
   </security-realms>
   <management-interfaces>
      <native-interface security-realm="ManagementRealm">
         <socket interface="management" port="${jboss.management.native.port:9999}" />
      </native-interface>
   </management-interfaces>
</management>  

The final step is to configure the server nodes inside the host.xml file on both hosts. So, on the first host, we will configure server-one and server-two to belong to main-server-group:

<servers>
        <server name="server-one" group="main-server-group"/>
        <server name="server-two" group="main-server-group" auto-start="false"> 
            <socket-bindings port-offset="150"/>
        </server>
</servers>

And on the second host, we will configure server-three and server-four to belong to other-server-group:

<servers>
     <server name="server-three" group="other-server-group"/>
     <server name="server-four" group="other-server-group"> auto-start="false">
            <socket-bindings port-offset="150"/>
     </server>
</servers>

Please note that the auto-start flag indicates that the server instances will not be started automatically if the host controller is started.

For server-two and server-four, a port-offset value of 150 is configured to avoid port conflicts. Okay, now we are done with our configuration. Assuming that the first host has an IP address of 192.168.1.2, we can then start the first host with the following code snippet:

domain.sh 
-b 192.168.1.2  
-Djboss.domain.master.address=192.168.1.1 
-Djboss.bind.address.management=192.168.1.2

The second host(192.168.1.3) can be started with the following code snippet:

domain.sh 
-b 192.168.1.3  
-Djboss.domain.master.address=192.168.1.1 
-Djboss.bind.address.management=192.168.1.3