Common Tasks

Run the mule file located in the \bin directory beneath where you unzipped the Mule ESB EE software package. For example, on a Windows platform, open a command window, navigate to the Mule installation \bin directory. From the command line type in mule from within this \bin directory. (You can also type in mule.bat to start the server.)

The command window displays a series of start-up messages. When complete, you can login to the console.

Point your browser to the URL http://localhost:8585/mmc (if you are using the evaluation version of the software) to display the login screen. Otherwise, for a production version, point your browser to the URL http://localhost:8080/mmc. Login with the user name admin and the password admin. For more information, see How to Run the Management Console.

For the evaluation version, the server is automatically registered with the console.

The simplest way to register a server, if you need to, is with the console’s auto-discovery feature: the console automatically senses that a Mule server is running and makes it easy to register any "discovered" servers. Click the Servers tab, then click the Unregistered node in the left navigation pane. The window lists all servers that have come online and are not yet registered. Select the server to register, then click the Register button. You do not have to specify the URL for the server since the auto-discovery feature does this.

To manually register a server, click the Servers tab, then the New Server button. In the dialog that opens, enter a name for the server and the URL address for the server. (See Registering a Server.)

There are a set of example applications included with the Mule server package, located beneath the Mule installation folder in the \examples folder. When you open the \examples)) folder you should see a set of folders, such as {{\hello, \loanbroker-simple, \stockquote, and so forth.

Each folder in \examples contains all the files needed for that particular example application, plus a README.txt file with specific instructions for that example. The simplest example application is the hello application. If you are just getting started, you may want to try things out using this hello application. (See Find the Sample Applications.)

To run an application, you must first deploy it to a registered server. You can deploy a sample application, such as the hello application, by clicking the console’s Applications tab, then, in the All Deployments window, clicking New to create a new deployment.

If the application has not already been added to the server repository, click the Upload New Application button to upload the application to the server repository and deploy it. Note that you upload the archive, or zip, files for the sample applications. These archive files contain all the necessary files to deploy and run the sample applications.

For complete instructions, see Deploying Applications.

Once an application is deployed to the Mule server, you can run it from any browser window. You should refer to the README.txt files in each sample application folder for specific instructions for running that application.

For example, to run the hello sample application, open a new browser window or tab, and enter the URL http://localhost:8888/?name=Simon. (Feel free to use a name other than "Simon".)

The browser runs the deployed hello example application, which simply takes the name parameter and inserts it within a simple text line. The browser displays output from the application, such as: Hello Simon, how are you?

After running the application, use the Flows and Flow Analyzer tabs in the console to analyze the application’s processing. Flows represent the sum of all the processing going on within an application, including routers, transformers, and filters. You can see high-level and detailed information about an application’s flows, plus stop and start flows.

See Working with Flows for more information.

Click the Flow Analyzer tab to open the Flow Analyzer screen, which enables you to see details about message flows. For a given application, you can see the flow of messages and the message payloads, including before and after payloads at different points along a message’s processing route.

The section Analyze the Flow of Messages on the Application in the Quick Start guide illustrates how to use this console feature. See Analyzing Flow Processing and Payloads for complete details.

Alerts enable you to check for potential problems on your servers or to monitor situations that might later lead to server problems. You define conditions (referred to as SLAs) through the Alerts pane. These conditions may later trigger the console to display alert messages that warn or advise you about problem situations.

For a quick overview on working with alerts, seeAdding and Managing Alerts and SLAs.

When you first set up the server and console, you log in with the user name admin. The admin user is provided by default with the package. You most likely will want to add additional users, especially if you are using Mule ESB in a production environment.

Use the Administration tab in the console to manage users and roles. You define users and assign these users to roles, which are referred to as groups. You can also create groups and give them permissions to perform certain tasks.

For complete information on setting up and managing users, see Managing Users and Roles.