Where to begin?

[Joe Cuppa]

For the New Year, I've decided to learn EJB. Since I do not work with EJB, I'm going to use the certification process as a framework to focus my studies.

I've read several posts and the FAQs, but I still haven't found the answer to my basic question: Where do I start?

Although I am a reasonably competent programmer, I have no experience with J2EE. I work basically as a DB applications programmer.

I think the first thing I have to do is get and install a server for the EJBs. The problem is that I only have access to my desktop computer. Can I install and run a server on my desktop and also use the same machine as the client?

Where can I get a (free) server?

What do ranchers recommend for a development environment?

What other problems (opportunities?) should I anticipate to encounter?

[Thiru Thangavelu]

Get the Head First EJB book and read start to end.
Get JBoss application server. It is easy to install and free it. Start doing all the exercises on your own. I am doing the same and making a very good progress.

[Joe Cuppa]

Where do I get JBoss?

Also, does it come with good documentation that makes it easy to install and work with? Without(and maybe even with) good documentation I wouldn't have a clue about how to install and work with a server, even on my own machine.

[Thiru Thangavelu]

Get JBOSS here here
Get the zip file and unzip it to C:\ and you are done. Just start the command prompt and run the file run.bat from jboss bin directory. There are plenty of documents all over the net for examples and jboss deployment. Do your homework and it is easy once you start.