I have been trying to use iPlanet 6 for a eCommerce project and my experience with it has been terrible. The tools that come with it (the iPlanet Application builder and iPlanet dployment tool) really suck. I abandoned the application builder after a few days, when it could not save properly. The other problems with iPlanet i have encountered so far:
a. In CMP Entity beans, the XML files that are generated managle up the order of the database fields. Hence we have to open up the deployment descriptors and change them.
b. Whenever i redploy my apps (whic are servlets/JSP/EJBs), the changes dont seem to be propagated.
Reading from some of the netscape users groups suggest that manay people are having problems. My question to javalobby members is:
a. What is the correct way to develop/deploy/change/deploy J2EE applications, without using any iPlanet tools?
b. Does anybody use CMP based EJBs at all in iPlanet?

 Thanks
 Mani

i have had similar experiences with the iAS 6.0. but if you think that is buggy, try the iplanet portal server. I experienced tremendous amount of issues with it.