Migrating a Version 5.1 web services gateway configuration
In WebSphere® Application Server Version 5.1, the web services gateway was a separable component with its own user interface. In later versions of the product, the gateway is integrated into service integration bus-enabled web services, and re-implemented as a mechanism for extending and linking inbound and outbound services. You use a wsadmin command script to migrate an existing gateway configuration from a Version 5.1 application server to an application server or cluster on a later version.
Before you begin
- WebSphere Application Server Version 5.0 is no longer supported, so you should migrate any existing gateways that are running in Version 5.0 application servers to run on application servers at the current level of the product.
- Web services gateways running on WebSphere Application Server Version 5.1 can, subject to certain restrictions, coexist with gateway instances running on Version 7.0 or later application servers.
- A Version 7.0 or later cell can contain Version 5.1, Version 6 and Version 7.0 or later application servers.
You can migrate a Version 5.1 gateway that is in production use without stopping the gateway; requester applications can then switch over to using the new gateway configuration while the existing Version 5.1 gateway continues to run.
About this task
The migration process takes a Version 5.1 gateway application whose configuration has been exported to an XML file and uses the exported XML file to configure the same gateway functions on a single application server or cluster on the later version. To do this you export the Version 5.1 gateway configuration, then run a script to migrate the exported configuration into a new gateway instance in an existing application server or cluster on the later version.
- As part of the migration process, a gateway instance is created automatically.
- Gateway services, target services and UDDI references are migrated directly.
- The definitions within the gateway of JAX-RPC handlers and handler lists are also migrated. You must ensure that the underlying handler classes are available at run time.
- Assignments of gateway services to specific channels are replaced by equivalent assignments to specific inbound port and endpoint listener pairs (because in later versions the functions of a channel are shared between an endpoint listener and an inbound port). Any use of an Apache SOAP channel is migrated to a SOAP over HTTP endpoint listener and inbound port.
- Existing filters are not migrated. The use of filters was deprecated in Version 5.1.1 and support for filters was removed in Version 7.0. The role formerly played by filters is now undertaken by a combination of JAX-RPC handlers and service integration bus mediations.
- Web service clients that are generated from the WSDL for the target service, rather than the gateway service, are flagged by default in later versions as an error.
- If you used the Version 5.1 gateway service WSDL to generate your web service clients, and your WSDL binding and encoding style is not document literal, then after migration to a later version you must regenerate the client stubs by using the new gateway service WSDL.
- WS-Security bindings are migrated as bindings that comply with
the WS-Security Draft 13 specification. However:
- The final version (1.0) of the WS-Security specification (implemented in WebSphere Application Server Version 6) is not compatible with the Draft 13 version, and therefore use of WS-Security Draft 13 was deprecated in WebSphere Application Server Version 6. Use of WS-Security Draft 13 is deprecated, and you should only use it to allow continued use of an existing web services client application that has been written to the WS-Security Draft 13 specification.
- The WS-Security binding objects are only migrated if the migration process is run on the machine on which the target server is running in the case of a stand-alone server, or on the machine on which the deployment manager is running in a network deployment configuration.
- Only WS-Security binding objects that are used by a Gateway Service or Target Service WS-Security configuration are migrated. Any binding objects that you create but do not use are not migrated. For example: If you have a WS-Security configuration that references a Signing Information object, and the Signing Information object references a Trust Anchor, then the Signing Information object and the Trust Anchor object are both migrated along with the WS-Security configuration that references them.
- The migration assumes that the external web addresses for the migrated services are unchanged. This assumption is based on the expectation that these addresses are associated with a web server rather than with the machine on which the gateway is hosted, and that the host name and port number for these addresses are therefore not affected. If in your configuration the external web addresses point to the gateway machine, modify the endpoint listener configuration after the migration process has completed.
- You can use WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment to migrate to a single server running under either configuration profile (stand-alone server or deployment manager). However, it is recommended that you migrate to a single server running under a deployment manager profile. If you migrate to a stand-alone server profile you cannot use the administrative console to subsequently modify your gateway configuration.
- Service integration bus-enabled web services validate web service messages more thoroughly than is done in WebSphere Application Server Version 5.1. As a result, some client applications that use poorly-formed requests or responses (where the message parts are misnamed) and that work when using Version 5.1 are now identified as poorly-formed. For the steps to take to resolve the problem, see Bus-enabled web services: Known restrictions.
To migrate an existing gateway configuration from a Version 5.1 application server to the gateway capability on an application server or cluster on a later version, complete the following steps:
Procedure
What to do next
- If your Version 5.1 gateway used filters, recreate your filter functions by using a combination of JAX-RPC handlers and service integration bus mediations.
- If the gateway configuration includes any gateway services that have multiple target services, the Version 5.1 configuration might have used a routing filter to choose a particular target service. If this is the case, then you must further configure your migrated gateway to choose a target service and port through a routing mediation.
- A web services gateway on a later version uses more memory to process a message, so if you pass a large attachment through the migrated gateway you might get an out-of-memory error in the Java virtual machine. To solve this problem, increase the JVM heap size.