The Basic JBoss Configuration Files

The conf directory of each ServerConfiguration (ex: server/default/conf) contains the configuration files you will need to manage your JBoss instance.  The files are

jboss-service.xml

This file defines the core services that JBoss provides when starting up.  When adjusting the values of core services (logging, JNDI, deployers, etc...) you will need to update this file.  Changes to this file will not be seen until the server restarts. 

jbossmq-state.xml

This file is used by the StateManager to store information about JBossMQ users and their durable descriptions.  Because this file can be written by the StateManager MBean, you should be careful when editing it by hand.  

log4j.xml

This file contains the logging configuration for the entire server.   It defines both the log files and the log level for the various JBoss subsystems.  JBoss periodically checks for changes in this file and will adjust the logging details whenever it is changed.

login-config.xml

This file is read by the XMLLoginConfig MBean and defines the JAAS security domains in the server.  Changes to this file will not be seen until the server restarts.

server.policy

This file is the standard Java security policy file used by the JBoss server.  It grants full permissions to all code in the server.  If you need to limit the ability of JBoss, or applications deployed in JBoss, you can declare your security policy here. 

standardjboss.xml

This file contains the default EJB configurations: invokers, cache sizes, etc...  While you can edit the server-wide defaults or add new global, it is better to override the configurations in each application's jboss.xml file.                       

standardjbosscmp-jdbc.xml

This file contains the CMP defaults for entity beans, including the the default datasource, database type and type mappings.  As with standardjboss.xml, it is generally better to override the per-application jbosscmp-jdbc.xml file.

web.xml

This file contains the default settings for all web applications deployed in this JBoss instance.