After you install the product on your z/OS® system,
you can configure an application server that is running on that system
to communicate with a web server and web server plug-in for WebSphere® Application Server that is running
on a distributed platform, such as Linux or Microsoft Windows.
Before you begin
The WebSphere Application Server for z/OS product package contains the web server
plug-ins for web servers that run on distributed platforms and are
supported by the WebSphere Application Server Version 6 products.
About this task
This configuration enables requests for a particular application
to be routed from a browser, through the web server and web server
plug-in, to one of the application servers defined for that application
on the z/OS system. (An application is associated with
a web server when it is deployed on an application server.)
In addition
to regular plug-in functions, Web Server Plug-ins for the WebSphere Application Server uses private headers
as a mechanism for forwarding proxy information from the plug-ins
to an application server running on the z/OS platform.
This information is not otherwise included with HTTP requests.
Procedure
- Go to the WebSphere Application Server administrative console that is running on the z/OS platform
and make sure the virtual host contains an alias for the port number
used by the web server. Specify this same port on a <Virtual Hostname>
element in the plug-in plugin-cfg.xml file.
- Generate a plug-in configuration file. The plug-in
configuration file that is created when you run the Plug-in installation
wizard does not include any information about the a/OS applications
for which it will be receiving requests. Therefore, you must use the WebSphere Application Server administrative
console located on your z/OS system to generate a plug-in
configuration file that includes this application information.
To generate a plug-in configuration file:
- Select web_server_name.
- Select Automatically generate plug-in configuration
file or click on one or more of the following topics to manually
configure the plugin-cfg.xml file:
- Caching
- Request and response
- Request routing
- Service
- Click OK.
- Optional: Make any additional changes to the
plug-in configuration file. Usually, you will not have
to make any manual changes to the plug-in configuration file you just
created. However if you do need to make changes remember that these
changes will be overwritten the next time the configuration file is
regenerated.
Starting with Version V6.0.1, the plug-in configuration
file,
plugin-cfg.xml, is generated in ASCII format.
(Previously, the configuration file was generated in EBCDIC format.)
If you need to edit this file, issue the following command to convert
the file to EBCDIC format:
> iconv -f ISO8859-1 -t IBM-1047 plugin-cfg.xml.ASCII > plugin-cfg.xml.EBCDIC
Edit the file, and then issue the following command to convert it
back to ASCII format:
> iconv -f IBM-1047 -t ISO8859-1 plugin-cfg.xml.EBCDIC > plugin-cfg.xml.ASCII
- Optional: To enable the Application Server
to use the private headers that the web server plug-in sends, make
sure the transport you are using is configured for SSL and is trusted. If your transport is a transport chain you must define security
for that chain that includes a trust file definition. If a trust
file definition is not included, the private headers will be ignored,
and the application server might not locate the requested application.
After you enable the use of private headers, this transport trusts
all inbound private headers it receives. Therefore, you must ensure
that all inbound paths to this transport are trusted.
- If you want to use Secure-socket layer (SSL) with this
configuration, use the plug-in's installation wizard to install the
appropriate GSKIT installation image file on your workstation.
- Download the newly generated plug-in configuration file
to the web server. You must replace the plug-in configuration
file the Plug-in installation wizard created with the one you just
generated on your z/OS system. Therefore, after you
finish generating the plug-in configuration file, download it to the
directory on the web server that contains the plug-in configuration
file that the Plug-in installation wizard generated.
Results
The configuration is complete. To activate the configuration,
stop and restart both the product, and the web server that is running
on your workstation.