The difference between a development instance and a production instance of PAS for OpenEdge is mainly a matter of security configuration.
  • An instance in a development environment allows unrestricted access to and control by a user or a group of users.
  • An instance in a production environment is configured to restrict access to everyone except authorized users and to limit control to system administrators.
For example, in a development environment, anyone may be allowed to shut down the server, whereas, in a production environment, only a system administrator with the appropriate privileges is allowed to stop a running server. Also, be aware that the development server includes a number of Tomcat and Progress configuration and management tools. A production server, to avoid unauthorized tampering, does not include those tools by default.
A default PAS for OpenEdge development instance contains the following:
  • An ABL web application deployed as ROOT. This application is derived from the oeabl.war application and contains a default ABL application that is name of the instance in the ablapps directory.
  • The Tomcat Manager web application deployed as manager. Tomcat Manager provides monitoring and administration tools. Tomcat Manager should only be deployed in the development mode.
  • The OpenEdge Manager web application is deployed as oemanager. OpenEdge Manager provides a REST API for remote management and monitoring of ABL applications deployed on a PAS for OpenEdge instance.
  • The Progress Application Server Debugger for OpenEdge web application deployed as oedbg. This application enables debugging support for ABL applications deployed in PAS for OpenEdge development environments.
Note: Never use a PAS for OpenEdge instance created in development mode in a production environment. Use only PAS for OpenEdge instance created in production mode for deployment in public facing production environment.

For a production security model instance, there is only an oeabl.war-based ROOT ABL web application that has all transports disabled by default. In OpenEdge 12.2, PAS for OpenEdge offers a subset of the production security instance that uses a noaccess.war-based ROOT ABL web application that allows for no access to any other web application. For more information, see Security configurations.

The differences between PAS for OpenEdge development and production instances are summarized in the following table:
PAS for OpenEdge development instance PAS for OpenEdge production instance
Can compile code* Cannot compile code*
Restricted to 5 concurrent requests and 1 agent* Unrestricted concurrent requests and agents*
Non-secure configuration Locked-down configuration
Test server instance in $WRKDDIR No test server instances
Remote administration included with Tomcat Manager and OpenEdge Manager applications Remote administration optional with Tomcat Manager and OpenEdge Manager applications
Built-in oeabl web application (ROOT) with all transports deployed and enabled Built-in oeabl web application (ROOT) with all transports deployed but disabled
Note: The differences indicated with (*) are enforced by the license agreements.