Creating or updating a global Web server plug-in configuration file

If all of the application servers in a cell use the same Web server to route requests for dynamic content, such as servlets, from Web applications to application servers, you can create a global Web server plug-in configuration file for that cell. The resulting plugin-cfg.xml file is located in the profile_root/config/cells directory.

Before you begin

Avoid trouble: [aug2010] You can update the global plugin-cfg.xml file using the administrative console or running the GenPluginCfg command for all of the clusters in a cell. However, you must delete the config/cells/plugin-cfg.xml file before you update the global plugin-cfg.xml file. If you do not delete the config/cells/plugin-cfg.xml file, only the new properties and their values are added to the global plugin-cfg.xml file. Any updates to existing plug-in property values are not added to the global plugin-cfg.xml file. [aug2010]
aug2010
gotcha

About this task

You must update the global Web server plug-in configuration file whenever you:

To update the configuration settings for a global Web server plug-in, you can either use the Update global Web server plug-in configuration page in the administrative console, or issue the following command:

%was_profile_home%/config/cells/GenPluginCfg.sh|bat

Both methods for regenerating the global Web server plug-in configuration create a plugin-cfg.xml file in ASCII format.

To use the Update global Web server plug-in configuration page in the administrative console:

Procedure

  1. Click Environment > Update global Web server plug-in configuration.
  2. Click OK to update the plugin-cfg.xml file.
  3. Click View or download the current Web server plug-in configuration file if you want to view or download the current version of this file. You can select this option if you want to:
    • View the current version of the file before you update it.
    • View the file after it is updated.
    • Download a copy of this file to a remote machine.

Results

Regenerating the configuration might take a while to complete. After it finishes, all objects in the administrative cell use their newest settings, which the Web server can access. Whether triggered manually or occurring automatically, plug-in regeneration requires about 30 to 60 seconds to complete when the Application Server is on the same physical machine (node) as the Web server. In other cases, it takes more time.

The delay is important because it determines how soon the new plug-in configuration takes effect. Suppose you add a new served path for a servlet, then regenerate the plug-in configurations. The regeneration requires 40 seconds, after which a user should be able to access the servlet by the new served path.

For an HTTP plug-in, the length of the delay is determined by the Refresh Interval attribute of the Config element in the plugin-cfg.xml file. The plug-in polls the disk, or file system, at this interval to see whether the configuration has changed. The default interval is 60 seconds. To regenerate the plug-in configuration requires twice the refresh interval.

In a development environment in which you are frequently changing settings in the administrative console, it is recommended that you set the refresh interval to 3 to 5 seconds.

In a production environment, set a longer refresh interval, perhaps as long as 30 minutes, depending on the frequency of changes.

What to do next

You might need to stop the application servers in the cell and then start the application servers again before the changes to the plug-in configuration go into effect.

If the Web server is running on a remote machine, click View or download the current Web server plug-in configuration file to download a copy of the plugin-cfg.xml file to a that machine.




In this information ...


Related reference

IBM Redbooks, demos, education, and more

(Index)

Use IBM Suggests to retrieve related content from ibm.com and beyond, identified for your convenience.

This feature requires Internet access.

Task topic    

Terms of Use | Feedback

Last updated: Oct 21, 2010 1:44:59 AM CDT
http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/wsbroker/redirect?version=compass&product=was-express-dist&topic=twsv_plugin_regen
File name: twsv_plugin_regen.html