There are two aspects to JMS in Geronimo: the JMS Server itself (also known as the Message Broker), and the connection factories, topics, and queues through which individual application components communicate with the message broker. The ActiveMQ message broker is started by default in Geronimo, and usually does not need to be changed. JMS connection factories and destinations are bundled into JMS Resource Groups which can be individually deployed into Geronimo. Under the covers, JMS resource groups are configured as J2EE Connectors, and the default JMS resource groups connect to the embedded ActiveMQ server, so the J2EE Connector used to deploy JMS connection factories and destinations is known as the ActiveMQ RAR.

	Tip
	If you deploy JMS Resource Groups through the Geronimo console, you won't have to worry about the details of the RAR file and deployment plan. The console can only deploy server-wide resource groups, though you can use it to write a plan for an application-scoped or client-scoped resource group.

With that in mind, there are several steps to deploying JMS resources:

When you deploy a server-wide resource group, you'll give the customized deployment descriptor and the ActiveMQ RAR to the deploy tool, and it will deploy the new resource group as it would any other standalone J2EE Connector. When you deploy an application-scoped JMS resource group, you'll include the TranQL RAR in the application EAR like any other application module, and add the customized deployment descriptor to the EAR as well. When you deploy a client-scoped resource group, you'll use a shortcut in the client module's Geronimo-specific deployment descriptor that allows you to configure a J2EE Connector right there, for that module alone. In any of those cases the ActiveMQ RAR is the same and the configuration file format is the same; it's just the method of deployment that's different.