without shutting down the JBOSS server :

What is the best way (without shutting down the JBOSS server ) to deploy in production environment.
I have been using JBOSS 3.X and i had faced several problems while doing hotdeployment (move the deployment to deploy folder without server restart). Since JBOSS 4.X is available, I want to know whether this has been made easier? or is there any other way of deployment without bringing the server down

Thank you
Poornima

If you have your application deployed in exploded exploded form, then you can redeploy without having to restart the server as mentioned at:

RedeployAnApplicationWhenChangeAFileInAnExplodedDeploymentDirectory

If your application is deployed as an archive and not in exploded form then you can delete the existing application from the deploy directory and paste the newer version in that place. This will redeploy the application without having to restart the server.

What will be the state of the application while deployment happens and the server is hit with the request, will this request gets server? I am trying to analyze Jboss4.x in production environment.

Thank you

Until the deployment is completed successfully, all these requests will fail (most likely with 404 errors - No mapping found for url sort of errors). In production environment i believe you would be notifying the users beforehand that the system will be down for some time and during this time you will doing the deployment of your application.