Welcome to Java! In short:
1. Yes (note that in the Java world "persistent objects" usually has a different meaning and normally refers to JPA managed objects that represent database tables)
2. The server *is* the java program - it can listen to any valid port
3. Netbeans will configure an instance of Glassfish during installation - no pluggins required. This works well on windows and allows localhost development and testing.
Hope this helps...
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