Mule app deployment to standalone Mule runtime

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Overview

Contents hide
1 Overview
2 JDK setup :
3 Download and setup Mule standalone runtime :
4 Export Mule application as JAR file :
5 Deploy Mule Application :

Deploying a Mule application to a standalone Mule runtime is an essential step when moving from development to a real-world production environment. While AnypointStudio provides a powerful interface to build, test, and simulate your Mule applications, it’s important to understand that Studio is designed strictly for development purposes — not for running applications in production.

For production-grade deployment, MuleSoft provides several runtime options: CloudHub, Runtime Fabric, and standalone Mule runtime. Among these, standalone runtime is often chosen by teams that need on-premises deployment, tighter infrastructure control, or integration with private network systems.

This article will walk you through:

  • The prerequisites you need before deploying your app.
  • How to install the Mule standalone runtime on your system.
  • Steps to export your application from AnypointStudio.
  • How to deploy the exported application into the standalone runtime and get it running

JDK setup :

As of May 16, 2025, the latest version of the Mule standalone runtime requires JDK 17 to be properly configured on your machine. Without JDK 17, the runtime will fail to start and crash upon launch. If JDK 17 is already installed on your system, you’re good to go. If not, don’t worry — the next section will guide you through the steps to install and configure it correctly.

  • 👉 Click here to visit the official Oracle website, where you can download the JDK 17 installer.
    Download and install it on your machine.
    Once the installation is complete, navigate to:

    C:/Program Files/Java/
  • You should see a folder corresponding to the installed JDK version (e.g., jdk-17.x.x). Now, follow the video below to configure both the System Environment Variable and User Variable properly.

Now that we’ve successfully completed the JDK setup, it’s time to download the Mule standalone runtime and deploy our first Mule application to it.

Download and setup Mule standalone runtime :

  • 👉 Click here here to navigate to Mulesoft site to download the Mule standalone runtime.
  • Once you’re on the page, select the product as “Mule Standalone”.
  • Choose the latest version from the dropdown.
  • Fill in the required details such as:
    • Name.
    • Email.
    • Phone number etc.
  • Click the Download button.
  • You will receive an email with the download link.
  • Use the link from the email to download the product.

Once the file is downloaded, you’ll notice it’s a ZIP file, which means there’s no installer included. It’s a portable package that you can simply extract and use.

  • Extract the ZIP file to any location of your choice. Then, navigate to the extracted folder, open the bin directory, and double-click the mule.bat file to run it.
⚠️ Important Note:
Before running the batch file, make sure your JDK is properly installed and the correct version is configured. Otherwise, the command prompt will open and close automatically.

Export Mule application as JAR file :

Since we are going to deploy the Mule application in the Mule Standalone runtime, we need to create a JAR file by building and exporting the project. Follow the instructions below to do so.

  • Open Anypoint Studio and right-click on the Mule project that you want to run in the Mule Standalone runtime. If you don’t have a project created yet, please 👉click here to follow our article where we demonstrate how to create your first app in MuleSoft.
  • Once you right-click on the project, select the Export option, then follow the short clip below to create the JAR file.

Deploy Mule Application :

  • Navigate to the bin folder inside the Mule Standalone directory and run the mule.bat file.
  • Copy the JAR file that we created in the previous section and place it into the apps directory, which is located at the same level as the bin directory. As soon as you add the file, you’ll notice in the command prompt that the application is being initialized and deployed.
  • Once the deployment is complete, you’ll see a text file named after your project with the suffix -anchor. Whenever you want to undeploy the application, simply delete the *-anchor file — this will automatically remove the app from the Mule runtime.

  • Now that the app is up and running, you can invoke it using Postman, and it will return the expected output.

📌 Note:
Our Mule application is running fine, but if you close the command prompt, the app will become unreachable. Additionally, after a system restart, you’ll need to run the batch file again to start the Mule Standalone runtime. To avoid this manual step, it’s better to register the Mule runtime as a Windows service so it starts automatically when the server boots up.
  • Navigate to the bin folder inside the Mule Standalone runtime directory and open a command prompt in that location.
  • Run the command mule start. If the ‘Mule Enterprise Edition service’ is not installed, you will see an error.
  • To install the service, run mule install. This will install and register the ‘Mule Enterprise Edition service’ in Windows Services.
  • Once the service is installed, you can start it by running mule start.
  • You can also manage or view the service under Windows Services.
  • If you want to deploy additional applications in the Mule Standalone runtime, simply export them as JAR files and place them in the apps directory. Mule will automatically detect and deploy them.

  • If you want to delete the Mule service, simply run mule remove. Please note that once the service is removed, any running applications will become unreachable. To restore functionality, you’ll need to reinstall the Mule Enterprise Edition service and start it again.

🚫Problems with Just Mule Standalone Runtime:

In this article, we successfully deployed our application to a Mule Standalone Runtime. While that’s a great first step, it’s far from ideal when it comes to managing applications efficiently.

Let’s break down why.

  • No UI for Management:
    Every time you want to stop or un-deploy an application, you need to manually go into the apps/ directory and delete the -anchor file.
    This process is tedious, error-prone, and not scalable—especially when managing multiple apps or environments.
  • No Central Dashboard:
    You don’t have a visual dashboard to monitor CPU usage, memory, thread pools, or JVM stats.
  • Zero Automation:
    There’s no ability to automate deployments, restarts, or rollbacks unless you build custom scripts.
  • No Alerts:
    If your application crashes or exceeds memory limits, you won’t know until it’s too late.
📌 Solution :
Mule Runtime Manager (part of Anypoint Platform) gives you a web-based UI and a full set of tools to deploy, monitor, and manage Mule apps—whether they run on-prem, in CloudHub, or hybrid environments.Stay tuned for next article on Mule Runtime Manager

✨ Hope you found this article informative!
If it helped you, share it with your friends or team — let’s spread the knowledge. 🙌
Cheers! 🚀

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