Should I upgrade JBoss or shun it completely and move to Tomcat?

I'm using a very old version of JBoss (4.2.3) and now I'm looking to upgrade (6.0). I'm using almost the full javaee stack, plus a million other things, but almost all of my jars are included in the war file itself.

Since I'm doing that do I really need JBoss? I tried plugging my existing war into the new JBoss and saw errors, but I was able to plug it i开发者_StackOverflow社区nto Tomcat 7 without any hassle at all. Personally Tomcat seems much simpler, more lightweight, and probably more stable so why should I not just stick with that?

If I've already fetched all the jars I need (including a few jboss jars actually) do I really need a full JBoss server? Am I making some huge mistake trying to avoid the bloat and going with just tomcat?

I'm using almost the full javaee stack

No, you're not. You're not using EJBs and JMS for a start. And I guess clustering too, otherwise this:

I was able to plug it into Tomcat 7 without any hassle at all

wouldn't work.

My take on it: if it works with Tomcat, use Tomcat. Simple things work.

It seems like you are not using EJB and stuff, as Tomcat doesn't have a EJB container, and you are fine with Tomcat.

In case you are using JBoss specific jars, I would suggest you to stick with JBoss. Or if you want to go with Tomcat, you should get rid of JBoss specific jars. BTW, what JBoss specific things you have?

[Edited after receiving more info in comments]

Hibernate would fine with Tomcat. But if you are using JBossMQ, then Tomcat may not be for you. Because Tomcat doesn't support JMS stuff. You should stick to JBoss, or if you are really looking for some simpler alternative, then I would recommend you to take a look at GlassFish. As GlassFish is a full blown JavaEE server, and offers EJB, JMS stuff. However, JBoss is widely used in the industry, as compared to GlassFish, AFAIK.

BTW, JBossMQ is replaced by JBoss Messaging in JBoss 5. And then that, JBoss Messaging, is also replaced in JBoss 6 by HornetQ. Look at this SO Thread.

If you are very much inclined towards Tomcat, then you can go with Tomcat along with ActiveMQ -- for JMS stuff. You need to configure that in your Tomcat, plus you would definitely need to change your code, if that is not very standard JMS thing. Further, do test your application thoroughly, especially JMS part, as there may be some behavioural differences.