RMI technology

Classic: protocol JRMP; naming service rmiregistry; started by OS or by server; server and naming service on the same machine. RMI with JNDI: protocol JRMP or IIOP; naming service rmiregistry or tnameserv; server and naming service can be on different machines; great portability and scalability.

RMI-IIOP: protocol IIOP; JNDI compliant; CORBA compliant. RMI with activation: activation only at request;  protocol JRMP; naming service rmiregistry; need rmid and a wrapper program to start-up.
The server object must be designed so that it allows the activation, by specifying extends Activation instead of UnicastRemoteObject
Must implement a wrapper (Setup) program, to inform the RMI activation subsystem about the wake-up of a server object.

The program rmid must be active on the server machine. The wrapper program registers the server object to rmid. A single rmid is needed on a machine.
The active server objects are running on one (or more) JVM(s). The wrapper program specifies a JVM interpreter for the server object. A JVM can execute a group of server objects.