In Milestone M5, for the first time, dm Kernel is available standalone. You can get it from here.

What is dm Kernel?

Basically, dm Kernel is everything good about dm Server except support for web applications. So, there are no web apps supplied (not even Admin Console or Splash) and no Tomcat —just the kernel.

Essentially, dm Kernel provides you with all that is good about dm Server’s OSGi support, including:

• scoping
• hot deployment
• pars
• bundles
• plans
• configuration properties
• auto-provisioning
• repositories
  • all repository types: watched, external and remote
  • chain support (the chain is empty by default)
• easy configurability
• the user region
• full system and application tracing and dump support
• oh, and of course, Spring beans and Spring DM support as usual,

but no web stuff.

If you want OSGi modular support for your system apps, but don’t want or need to host web applications, then dm Kernel is what you want.

This is exactly the same kernel that is shipped with a full dm Server—no modifications or adaptations. Being able to deploy and run the kernel by itself is yet another demonstration of the clean, modular design of dm Server.

Small print

How do I administer a dm Kernel without the Admin Console? (I can almost hear you ask.) Well, the answer is also provided in M5—use the Shell either locally or remotely (over ssh). You’d think we planned this, or something.

Enjoy.