WildFly has a new management mode ( embedded mode) for the Command Line Interface which allows varying your configuration without an active WildFly server.
Using WildFly CLI offline
A common use case, especially for Cloud applications, is to run CLI commands when the server is not active. You can easily do that by using the embed-server command. Here is the synopsis of the command:
embed-server [--admin-only=true|false] [-c=config_file || --server=config=config_file] [--empty-config --remove-existing-config] [--jboss-home=rootdir] [--stdout=discard|echo]
If you just run the embed-server command, the prompt will change as follows:
You can now execute CLI commands and they will reflect in XML configuration changes.
By default, the standalone.xml file will be the target for configuration changes. On the other hand, if you want to vary a different configuration file, add the option –server-config as follows:
embed-server --server-config=standalone2.xml --std-out=echo
Additionally, if you use the option –std-out=echo, you will see in the Console the Server bootstrap.
When running in embedded mode, your network interface will be disabled. Therefore, you will not conflict with any running server:
You can check the status of the server by executing a simple “ls” on the application server root:
[[email protected] /] ls core-service name=francesco-pc deployment namespaces=[] deployment-overlay process-type=Server extension product-name=WildFly Full interface product-version=9.0.0.Beta2 path profile-name=undefined socket-binding-group release-codename=Kenny subsystem release-version=1.0.0.Beta2 system-property running-mode=ADMIN_ONLY launch-type=EMBEDDED schema-locations=[] management-major-version=3 server-state=running management-micro-version=0 suspend-state=RUNNING management-minor-version=0
Updating your configuration
Next, let’s try updating your configuration:
[[email protected] /] /subsystem=ejb3/thread-pool=default:write-attribute(name=max-threads,value=99)
Then, check your server configuration XML file which has been updated accordingly.
Please note that the embedded mode enables you to start with an empty configuration file. This allows you to create a new server configuration from scratch:
[disconnected /] embed-server --server-config=my-config.xml --empty-config
In order to stop the embedded server you can simply type:
[[email protected] /] stop-embedded-server [disconnected /]
Running embedded server in Domain mode
If you are running WildFly in Domain mode, you have to use the embed-host-controller command instead:
embed-host-controller
The Host Controller will start in admin-only mode, just like for the standalone version:

To exit the embedded server, just use the command stop-embedded-host-controller:
stop-embedded-host-controller