Bootstrap properties initialize the runtime environment for a particular server.
Generally, they are attributes that affect the configuration and initialization of the runtime
core.
About this task
Bootstrap properties are set in a text file named bootstrap.properties. This
file is not required, so it does not exist unless you create it. You must create this file in the
server directory, which also contains the configuration root file server.xml.
By default, the server directory is usr/servers/server_name.
You can change the server directory as described in Customizing the Liberty environment.
You can create a bootstrap.properties file by using the editor in WebSphere® Application Server Developer Tools for Eclipse. From the Servers
view, right-click on the server you want to configure, then select New, then
Server Environment File, then bootstrap.properties, and
the file is created from a template and opened in an editor. Along with the
server.xml and server.env files, the
bootstrap.properties file appears in the Servers view
under the server that it is associated with and can be edited by double-clicking it.
You can edit the bootstrap.properties file by using a text editor or the
editor in the WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools for Eclipse.
If you update the bootstrap.properties file, you must restart the server for the changes to take effect.
The
bootstrap.properties file contains two types of properties:
- A small, predefined set of initialization properties.
- Any custom properties that you choose to define. You can then use these custom properties as
variables in other configuration files such as server.xml and included
files.
- Use predefined properties to configure trace and logging.
For a list of the predefined properties for trace and logging, see Logging and Trace.
- Use predefined properties for OSGi framework diagnostics. For example, set the port for the OSGi console as
follows:
osgi.console = 5678
For more information, see Using an OSGi console
- Use predefined properties for OSGi framework extensions.
Specify the org.osgi.framework.bootdelegation if this property is required
by external monitoring tools. The value is a comma-delimited list of packages.
- Use predefined properties for configuration password encryption. For more information, see
The limits to protection through password encryption
- Use custom properties to define the default ports for web applications.
You can share server.xml and use XML configuration files across various
development environments that allow machine- or environment-specific customization. For example:
- Specify the properties default.http.port and
default.https.port in the bootstrap.properties file:
default.http.port = 9081
default.https.port = 9444
Note: If you do not specify the properties, the default HTTP port is 9080 and HTTPS ports is 9443.
To override the default HTTP endpoint definition, set the id attribute of the
httpEndpoint element to defaultHttpEndpoint in the server
configuration.
- Use the following properties in the server.xml configuration file:
<httpEndpoint id="defaultHttpEndpoint"
host="*"
httpPort="${default.http.port}"
httpsPort="${default.https.port}" />
Note: host="*" means to listen on all adapters. By default, the server is
listening only on address 127.0.0.1/localhost. You can also use the
host property to specify a single IP address, and then the system listens only
on the specified adapter.
- Use custom properties to set the command port.
Set the command port to enable the server script to communicate with the running Liberty server and request certain operations,
such as stopping the Liberty server or
issuing a Java™ dump. For security, the command port cannot be
accessed remotely, and clients must have read/write access to the server output directory to be
authorized to issue commands.

By default, the Liberty server acquires an ephemeral port to be
used by the command listener. You can override the default behavior of the
Liberty server by using the
command.port property.
- Valid values
- -1
- Command port is disabled.
- 0
- Ephemeral port is chosen at run time.
- 1-65535
- User-specified port.
- Default value
- 0

Ephemeral port is chosen at run time.
Note: 
You are discouraged from disabling the command port. If you
disable the command port, you cannot use the server script to request some operations, for example,
stopping the Liberty server or issuing a Java dump.
- Use custom properties to configure server start wait time.
You can increase the server start wait time beyond the product default setting by adding the
server.start.wait.time property to the boostrap.properties
file. The server.start.wait.time is specified in seconds.
- Specify the server.start.wait.time property in the
bootstrap.properties file. The following example sets the server start time to 25
seconds.
server.start.wait.time = 25
This setting means that as the server starts, the reporting mechanism for the server attempts to
report on the completed stages of the start. If the reporting mechanism for the server cannot
perform its function within 25 seconds, an error 22 occurs.
If you do not add the server.start.wait.time property to the
bootstrap.properties file, the default server start wait time is internally set
to 30 seconds.
Use custom properties to set the angel name.
Use predefined properties to indicate to which angel process the server should connect. By
default, the server connects to the default un-named angel process if this angel process is
available.
- To connect to a specific named angel, set the com.ibm.ws.zos.core.angelName property to the
named angel.
com.ibm.ws.zos.core.angelName=named_angel
Use a custom property to require that the server be connected to a running angel process so
that the server can start. By default, an angel process is not required for the server to start. However, if no angel
process exists, some system services are not available. .
- To indicate that an angel process is required for server startup, set the
com.ibm.ws.zos.core.angelRequired property to true.
com.ibm.ws.zos.core.angelRequired=true
- To apply the changes, restart the
server.