Before you begin
When multiple profiles exist, the plug-ins installer
configures only the default profile. See Plug-ins configuration for a description
of the flow of logic that determines how the installer selects the
profile to configure.
If the WebSphere Application Server product family
supports a particular brand of Web server, such as IBM® HTTP Server or Microsoft® Internet Information Services
(IIS), then your WebSphere Application
Server product provides a binary plug-in for the Web server that you
must install.
If the WebSphere Application Server product family
does not provide a binary plug-in for a particular brand of Web server,
then the Web server is not supported. The purpose of the binary plug-in
is to provide the communication protocol between the Web server and
the application server.
Suppose that you create
a new profile. Suppose also that you want to use a Web server. You
must install a new Web server for the new profile and use the Plug-ins
installation wizard to install the binary plug-in module and to configure
both the Web server and the application server.
If
the Web server is not already installed, you can still install the
plug-ins for future use. If the WebSphere Application
Server product is not installed, you can still install the plug-ins.
However, it is recommended that you install the Web server and the WebSphere Application Server
product before installing the plug-ins for the supported Web server.
About this task
The Plug-ins installation wizard installs the plug-in
module, configures the Web server for communicating with the application
server, and creates a Web server configuration definition in the application
server, if possible.
This procedure
configures the application server profile that is the default profile on the
machine. A one-to-one relationship exists between a Web server and the application
server.
This topic describes how to create the following topology:
Attention: If you are planning to add the application server node
into a deployment manager cell but have not done so yet, start the
deployment manager and federate the node before installing the plug-in.
You cannot add an application server with a Web server definition
into the deployment manager cell.
The following
topology is considered a remote topology because the Web server is
on a separate machine. The diagram shows a typical remote topology
for a distributed environment:
This
topic describes the installation of a Web server on one machine and
the application server on a separate machine. In this situation, the
Plug-ins installation wizard on one machine cannot create the Web
server definition in the application server configuration on the other
machine.
In such a case, the Plug-ins installation
wizard creates a script on the Web server machine that you can copy
to the application server machine. Run the script on the application
server machine to create the Web server configuration definition within
the application server configuration.
Perform
the following procedure to install the plug-in and configure both
the Web server and the application server.
- Log on to the operating system. If you are
installing as a non-root or non-administrative user, then there are
certain limitations.
![[Windows]](../../windows.gif)
When installing as an administrative
user on a Windows
® operating
system, a Windows service
is automatically created to autostart the application server. The
installer user account must have the following advanced user rights:
- Act as part of the operating system
- Log on as a service
For example, on some Windows operating
systems, click
Control Panel > Administrative Tools >
Local Security Policy > Local Policies > User Rights Assignments to
set the advanced options. See your Windows operating
system documentation for more information.
If you plan to run the application server as a Windows service, do not install
from a user ID that contains spaces. A user ID with spaces cannot
be validated. Such a user ID is not allowed to continue the installation.
To work around this restriction, install with a user ID that does
not contain spaces.
- Install WebSphere Application
Server Network Deployment on
Machine A.
Read the "Installing the
product and additional software" topic.
- Install the IBM HTTP
Server or another supported Web server on Machine B.
See Installing IBM HTTP Server or
refer to the product documentation for your Web server for more information.
- Optional: Create a new host alias
for the default virtual host.
If you configured the
Web server to use a port other than port 80, then you must add a new
host alias for that port for the default host. For example, when running
as non-root, IBM HTTP Server
is configured with a default port value of 8080.
- Launch the Plug-ins installation wizard on the
machine with the Web server.
Select the Plug-ins installation
wizard from the launchpad or change directories to the plugin directory
on the product disk or in the downloaded installation image and issue
the install command.
- Clear the check box for the roadmap or select
the check box to view the roadmap, then click Next.
If you are unsure of which installation scenario to follow,
display the roadmap instead. Print and keep the roadmap as a handy
overview of the installation steps.
Press Ctrl-P to
print the roadmap if the Web browser navigation controls and the menu
bar are not present on the browser window that displays the Plug-ins
roadmap. Press Ctrl-W to close the browser
window if the navigation controls and the menu bar do not display.
Or close the browser window with the window control in the title bar.
- Read the license agreement and accept the agreement
it if you agree to its terms. Click Next when
you are finished.
- If your system does not pass the prerequisites
check, stop the installation, correct any problems, and restart the
installation. If your system passes the prerequisites check, click Next.
Look for the appropriate log file for information about missing
prerequisites:
If you stop the installation, see the temporaryPluginInstallLog.txt file
in the temporary directory of the user who installed the plug-ins.
For example, the /tmp/temporaryPluginInstallLog.txt file
might exist if the root user installed the plug-ins on an operating
system such as AIX® or Linux®.
- If you continue the installation in spite of warnings about missing
prerequisites, see the plugins_root/logs/install/log.txt file
after the installation is complete.
Read the "Troubleshooting installation" topic for more
information about log files.
- Select the type of Web server that you are configuring
and click Next.
The
Plug-ins installation wizard panel prompts you to identify the Web
servers to configure. Actually you can select only one Web
server each time you run the Plug-ins installation wizard.
Stop
any Web server while you are configuring it. A step later in the procedure
directs you to start the Web server as you begin the snoop servlet
test.
If you select the Web server identification
option labeled None, the Web server installs
the binary plug-ins but does not configure the Web server.
- Select Web server machine (remote) and
click Next.
- Accept the default location for the installation
root directory for the plug-ins. Click Next.
You can type another new directory or click Browse to
select an empty directory. The fully qualified path identifies the
plug-ins installation root directory.
Restriction: The
installation directory cannot contain any unsupported characters.
See "Object names: what the name string cannot contain" for more information.
A
possibility exists that the Web server might run on a platform that WebSphere Application Server
does not support.
- Click Browse to select
the configuration file for your Web server, verify that the Web server
port is correct, and then click Next when you
are finished.
Select the file and not just the directory
of the file. Some Web servers have two configuration files and require
you to browse for each file.
The following list shows configuration
files for supported Web servers:
- Apache HTTP Server
- apache_root/config/httpd.conf
- Domino® Web Server
- names.nsf and Notes.jar
The
wizard prompts for the notes.jar file. The actual
name is Notes.jar.
The Plug-ins
installation wizard verifies that the files exist but the wizard does
not validate either file.
- IBM HTTP Server
IHS_root/conf/httpd.conf
- Microsoft Internet
Information Services (IIS)
- The Plug-ins installation wizard can determine the correct files
to edit.
- Sun Java™ System Web Server
(formerly Sun ONE Web Server and iPlanet Web Server) Version 6.0 and
later
- obj.conf and magnus.conf
The wizard displays a naming panel for the nickname
of the Web server definition.
- Specify a nickname for the Web server. Click Next when
you are finished.
The wizard uses the value
to name configuration folders in the plug-ins installation root directory.
The wizard also uses the name in the configuration script for the
application server to name the Web server definition.
If the
application server profile already has a Web server definition, delete
the Web server definition before continuing. Use the following commands
to delete the Web server definition:
$AdminTask deleteServer { -serverName webserver1 -nodeName webserver1_node }
$AdminTask removeUnmanagedNode { -nodeName webserver1_node }
$AdminConfig save
In these commands,
webserver1 is the
Web server name.
- Accept the default location for the plugin-cfg.xml file
that the wizard creates on the Web server machine, then click Next.
You can type a change to the value or click Browse to
select a file in another location. If you do not accept the default
location, the plugin-cfg.xml file must exist.
- Identify the host name or IP address of Machine
A, which is the application server machine, then click Next.
- Examine the summary panel. Click Next when
you are finished.
The panel notifies you that you have
manual steps to perform to complete the installation and configuration.
The type of Web server, the nickname of the Web server, and the location
of the plugin-cfg.xml file displays on the panel.
The
Plug-ins installation wizard creates the configureWeb_server_name script
in the plugins_root/bin/ directory
on Machine B (the machine with the Web server).
The Plug-ins
installation wizard also creates the plugin-cfg.xml file
in the plugins_root/config/Web_server_name directory.
The
Web server reads the plugin-cfg.xml file to determine
the applications that the application server on Machine A can serve
to the Web server on Machine B. Whenever the configuration changes,
the application server regenerates the file. When regeneration occurs,
propagate, or copy the actual plugin-cfg.xml file
from the application server machine to the Web server machine. You
can automatically propagate the file to the IBM HTTP Server product.
- Click Next on the pre-installation
summary panel to begin the installation or click Back to
change any characteristics of the installation.
The
panel specifies the plug-ins installation root directory, the Web
server plug-ins feature, and the disk size of the code that installs
when you click Next.
- After the wizard installs the code and creates
the uninstaller program, examine the post-installation summary panel.
Click Next when you are finished to display
the Plug-ins installation roadmap.
The Plug-ins installation
wizard installs the binary plug-in module. On a Linux system, for example, the installation
creates the plugins_root directory. The plugins_root/config/Web_server_name directory
contains the plugin-cfg.xml file.
The
wizard displays the name and location of the configuration script
and the plugin-cfg.xml file. The wizard also
displays the type of Web server that is configured and the nickname
of the Web server.
If a problem occurs and the installation
is unsuccessful, examine the logs in the plugins_root/logs directory.
Correct any problems and reinstall.
- Close the road map and click Finish to
exit the wizard.
Log files from the installation are
in the plugins_root/logs/install directory.
- Copy the configureWeb_server_name script
from Machine B (the machine with the Web server) to the app_server_root /bin directory
on Machine A (the application server machine).
Web_server_name is
the nickname of the Web server that you specified in step 12. Web_server_name is
not a vendor name, such as IIS or Apache.
On
an operating system such as AIX or Linux, the file is configureWeb_server_name.sh.
On a Windows system, the
file is configureWeb_server_name.bat.
For example, on a Linux system
with an IBM HTTP Server named
web_server_1 in the default location, copy plugins_root/bin/configureweb_server_1.sh from
Machine B (the machine with the Web server) to the app_server_root/bin directory
on Machine A (the application server machine).
- Compensate for file encoding differences
to prevent script failure.
The content
of the configureWeb_server_name.bat script
or the configureWeb_server_name.sh script
can be corrupt if the default file encoding of the two machines differs.
This scenario is possible when one machine is set up for a double-byte
character set (DBCS) locale and the other machine is not.
Determine
the file encoding and use one of the following procedures to circumvent
the failure. To determine the default file encoding, run the appropriate
command.
- Run the locale charmap command
on a system such as AIX or Linux.
- Run the CHCP command on a Windows machine.
Use the result of the command on each machine as the value for
the web_server_machine_encoding variable and the application_server_machine_encoding variable
in one of the following procedures.Procedures for compensating
for encoding differences
Web server running on a system such as AIX or Linux
Suppose
that the Web server is running on a Linux machine
and Network Deployment is running on a Windows machine. Before you FTP the Web server
definition configuration script to the Windows machine in binary mode, run the following
command on the system to encode the file:
iconv -f web_server_machine_encoding \
-t application_server_machine_encoding \
configureWeb_server_name.bat
Important: The name of the Web server (nick name) is used in
the name of the script file. The name cannot contain characters from
a double-byte character set (DBCS) if you intend to set up IBM HTTP Server for automatic propagation.
Web server running on a Windows system
Suppose
that the Web server is running on a Windows machine
and Network Deployment is running on a machine with a system such
as AIX or Linux. You must first download the
iconv utility
from a third party because the command is not included by default
on Windows systems. Before
you FTP the Web server definition configuration script in binary mode
to a system such as AIX or Linux, run the following command
on the machine to encode the file:
iconv -f web_server_machine_encoding \
-t application_server_machine_encoding \
configureWeb_server_name.sh
For
example, if the target machine is z/OS
®,
you might use this command to convert the file from ASCII to EBCDIC,
handling the end-of-line characters correctly:
iconv -f ISO8859-1 -t IBM-1047 configureweb_server_name.sh > new_script_name.sh
Omit the continuation characters (\) if you enter the command
on one line.
If the conversion mapping is not supported by the iconv command
on your system, copy the contents of the Web server configuration
script to a clip board and paste it onto the machine where the application
server is running.
- Start the application server on Machine A.
- Open a command window and change to the profile
directory where the Web server should be assigned. Run the script
that you copied to Machine A (the application server machine).
You need the following parameters:
- Profile Name
- (Optional) Admin user ID
- (Optional) Admin user password
For example, you could enter the following:configurewebserver1.sh Dmgr01 my_user_ID my_Password
The
web server will be configured via wsadmin.The contents of the configurewebserver1.sh
script will be similar to this:
wsadmin.bat -profileName AppSrv01 -user my_user_ID -password my_Password
-f "%WAS_HOME%\bin\configureWebserverDefinition.jacl" webserver1 IHS..
- From the administrative
console of the deployment manager, click System administration >
Save Changes to Master Repository > Synchronize changes with Nodes >
Save.
- Domino Web
server only: Set the WAS_PLUGIN_CONFIG_FILE environment variable.
See Configuring Lotus Domino
- Regenerate the plugin-cfg.xml file
on Machine A (the application server machine) using the administrative
console. Click Servers > Server Types > Web servers.
Select the Web server, then click Generate Plug-in.
During the installation of the plug-ins, the default plugin-cfg.xml file
is installed on Machine B (the machine with the Web server) in the plugins_root/config/Web_server_name directory.
The Web server plug-in configuration service regenerates the plugin-cfg.xml file
automatically. To use the current plugin-cfg.xml
file from the application server, propagate the plugin-cfg.xml
file as described in the next step.
This step shows you how
to regenerate the plugin-cfg.xml file. WebSphere Application Server
products are configured to automatically regenerate the file each
time a significant event occurs. Such events include installing applications
on the application server and the Web server, for example. Creating
a new virtual host is another such event.
- Propagate the plugin-cfg.xml file
from the application server to the Web server using the administrative
console. Click Servers > Web server. Select
the Web server, then click Propagate Plug-in.
Web servers other than IBM HTTP
Server require manual propagation.
The Web server plug-in
configuration service propagates the plugin-cfg.xml file
automatically for IBM HTTP Server
7.0 only. For all other Web servers, propagate the plug-in configuration
file by manually copying the plugin-cfg.xml file
from the profile_root/config/cells/cell_name/nodes/node_name/servers/Web_server_name directory
on Machine A (the application server machine) to the plugins_root/config/Web_server_name directory
on Machine B (the machine with the Web server).
- Start the Snoop servlet to verify the ability
of the Web server to retrieve an application from the Application
Server.
Test your environment by starting your Application
Server, your Web server, and using the snoop servlet with an IP address.
- Start the Application Server. In
a Network Deployment environment, the Snoop servlet is available in
the cell only if you included the DefaultApplication when adding the
Application Server to the cell. The -includeapps option for the addNode command
migrates the DefaultApplication to the cell. If the application is
not present, skip this step.
- Start the IBM HTTP
Server or the Web server that you are using.
Use a command window to change the directory to the IBM HTTP Server installed image,
or to the installed image of your Web server. Issue the appropriate
command to start the Web server, such as these commands for IBM HTTP Server:
To
start the IBM HTTP Server from
the command line:
![[AIX Solaris HP-UX Linux Windows]](../../dist.gif)
Access the
apache and
apachectl commands
in the
IBMHttpServer/bin directory.
- Point your browser to http://localhost:9080/snoop to
test the internal HTTP transport provided by the Application Server.
Point your browser to http://Host_name_of_Web_server_machine/snoop to
test the Web server plug-in.
The HTTP Transport port
is 9080 by default and must be unique for every profile. The port
is associated with a virtual host named default_host, which is configured
to host the installed DefaultApplication and any installed Samples.
The snoop servlet is part of the DefaultApplication. Change the port
to match your actual HTTP Transport port.
- Verify that snoop is running.
Either Web
address should display the Snoop Servlet - Request/Client Information
page.
- Remote IBM HTTP
Server only:
![[AIX Solaris HP-UX Linux Windows]](../../dist.gif)
Verify that the automatic
propagation function can work on a remote IBM HTTP Server by using the following steps.
This procedure is not necessary for local Web servers.
- Create a user=adminUser, password=adminPassword in the IHS_root /conf/admin.passwd file.
For example: c:\ws\ihs60\bin\htpasswd -cb c:\ws\ihs60\conf\admin.passwd
adminUser adminPassword
- Use the administrative console of the deployment
manager or the Application Server to enter the User ID and password
information that you created for the administrative user of IBM HTTP Server. Go to Servers >
Web server > Web_server_definition > Remote
Web server administration. Set the following values: admin
Port=8008, User Id=adminUser, Password=adminPassword.
- Set the correct read/write permissions for the httpd.conf file
and the plugin-cfg.xml file. See the IHS_root /logs/admin_error.log file
for more information.
Automatic propagation of the plug-in configuration file
requires the IBM HTTP administrative
server to be up and running. If you are managing an IBM HTTP Server using the WebSphere Application Server administrative
console, the following error might display:
"Could not connect to IHS Administration server error"
Perform
the following procedure to correct the error:
- Verify that the IBM HTTP
Server administration server is running.
- Verify that the Web server host name and the port that is defined
in the WebSphere Application
Server administrative console matches the IBM HTTP Server administration host name and
port.
- Verify that the fire wall is not preventing you from accessing
the IBM HTTP Server administration
server from the WebSphere Application
Server administrative console.
- Verify that the user ID and password that is specified in the WebSphere Application Server
administrative console under remote managed, is created in the admin.passwd file,
using the htpasswd command.
- If you are trying to connect securely, verify that you export
the IBM HTTP Server administration
server keydb personal certificate into the WebSphere Application Server key database
as a signer certificate. This key database is specified by the com.ibm.ssl.trustStore
directive in the sas.client.props file in the
profile where your administrative console is running. This consideration
is primarily for self-signed certificates.
- If you still have problems, check the IBM HTTP Server admin_error.log
file and the WebSphere Application
Server logs (trace.log file) to determine the
cause of the problem.