I have got an ear file to deploy on WAS. In the ear file, I see the war file, the jar files and other static stuff. But I also see files like variales.xml,security.xml and deployment.xml although the ant build script did not generate these files.
Where did these extra files come from? What purpose do they serve?
These files are part of a feature known as Enhanced EARs. See the WebSphere Application Server V7: Packaging Applications for Deployment redbook for more information. In short, application-specific configuration can be included in the application to minimize the per-server configuration that an administrator must perform when installing an application.