Declarative configuration decouples the configuration of components and their actual activation state from their declared desired state. This allows the platform to be configured with an intended configuration, with Rhino asynchronously making the required component state transitions to achieve the new configuration. This applies to services, resource adaptor entities, and the activation state of the SLEE.
The expected users of Rhino declarative configuration are tools that manage a cluster (or clusters) of Rhino nodes providing a service. For this use case, declarative configuration bundles replace the role previously held by SLEE management Ant tasks or the use of console commands in scripts. It is possible to use the import of partial declarative configuration bundles for manual SLEE management, but this does not offer any significant benefits over other methods. Notably, the Rhino Element Manager continues to function as an easy to use administrative interface for common maintenance tasks.
