[AIX Solaris HP-UX Linux Windows][IBM i]

Configuring a web server and an application server profile on the same machine

WebSphere® Application Server provides web server plug-ins that you can configure to communicate with a particular brand of web server. Learn how to install the web server, its web server plug-in for WebSphere Application Server, and the application server on the same machine.

Before you begin

[IBM i]When multiple profiles exist, you can select the profile that the Web Server Plug-ins Configuration Tool configures. See Plug-ins configuration for a description of the flow of logic that determines how to select the profile to configure.

[AIX Solaris HP-UX Linux Windows]When multiple profiles exist, you can select the profile that the Web Server Plug-ins Configuration Tool configures. See Plug-ins configuration for a description of the flow of logic that determines how to select 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), 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.

[AIX Solaris HP-UX Linux Windows]Suppose that you create a new profile and you also want to use a web server. You must install a new web server for the new profile, install the Web Server Plug-ins, and use the Web Server Plug-ins Configuration Tool to configure both the web server and the application server.

If the web server is not already installed, you can still install the Web Server Plug-ins for future use.

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.

However, a standalone application server profile and a managed profile can each have multiple web servers defined, each in a separate web server definition.

This article describes how to create the following topology:

Application Server with optional web server on one machine

Note: Nonroot installation for the plug-in component is only supported if the application server was also installed by the same nonroot user. Otherwise, the web server configuration scripts will fail to run against the application server installation.

About this task

Note: This topic references one or more of the application server log files. As a recommended alternative, you can configure the server to use the High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL) log and trace infrastructure instead of using SystemOut.log , SystemErr.log, trace.log, and activity.log files on distributed and IBM i systems. You can also use HPEL in conjunction with your native z/OS® logging facilities. If you are using HPEL, you can access all of your log and trace information using the LogViewer command-line tool from your server profile bin directory. See the information about using HPEL to troubleshoot applications for more information on using HPEL.
The Web Server Plug-ins Configuration Tool configures the plug-in for the supported web server after collecting the following information:
  • Type of web server to configure
  • Architecture of your installed target web server (64 bit or 32 bit)
  • Location of the configuration file or files for the web server to be configured
  • Web server port
  • For IBM HTTP Server, the following information:
    • Port number for optional IBM HTTP Server administrative server setup
    • User ID and password to authenticate to the optional IBM HTTP Server administrative server from the administrative console
    • [AIX][Linux]System user ID and group to have write permission to IBM HTTP Server, the IBM HTTP Server administrative server, and the web server plug-in configuration files
    • [Windows]User ID and password if you choose to run the IBM HTTP Server administrative server as a Window service
  • Name of the web server definition
  • Configuration scenario to be used
    • If it is a remote scenario, the tool collects the host name or IP address of the application server.
    • If it is a local scenario, the tool collects the installation root directory of the WebSphere Application Server product.
  • Profile to be configured with the web server plug-in

The Web Server Plug-ins Configuration Tool edits the configuration file or files for a web server by creating directives that point to the location of the binary plug-in module and the plug-in configuration file.

The name of the binary plug-in module varies per web server type. The plug-in configuration file is always the plugin-cfg.xml file.

The Web Server Plug-ins Configuration Tool creates a web server definition in the configuration of the application server unless one already exists.

You can use the administrative console to manage the web server configuration. For example, when you install an application on the application server, you can also choose to install it on the web server definition. If so, the updated plugin-cfg.xml file shows that the new application is available. When the web server reads the updated plug-in configuration file, the web server becomes aware of the new application that it can serve to web clients.

If you choose not to install the new application on the web server definition, the application is not added to the plug-in configuration file. The web server is not aware of the application and cannot serve it to web clients.

Supported configurations Supported configurations: This tool is supported only on AIX®, Linux, and Windows. As an alternative to using the Web Server Plug-ins Configuration Tool, you can use the pct command-line tool with a response file to configure a web server. Read Configuring a web server plug-in using the pct tool for more information.sptcfg

Use this procedure to install the web server plug-in, configure the web server, and create a web server definition in the default application server profile.

Procedure

Results

The installation of the Web Server Plug-ins results in the creation of the Plugins directory and several subdirectories. The following directories are among those created on a Linux system, for example:
  • plugins_root/bin/32bits or plugins_root/bin/64bits contain the binary plug-ins for all supported web servers
  • plugins_root/logs contains log files
  • plugins_root/properties contains version information

The Web Server Plug-ins Configuration Tool creates a web server definition within the application server profile unless one already exists.

The Web Server Plug-ins Configuration Tool configures the web server to use the profile_root/plugin-cfg.xml file.

The application server regenerates the web server plug-in configuration file, plugin-cfg.xml whenever an event occurs that affects the file. Such events include the addition or removal of an application, server, or virtual host. The standalone application server regenerates the file in the following location:
profile_root
   /config/cells/cell_name/nodes/
   web_server_name_node/servers/
   web_server_name/plugin-cfg.xml
On a federated node, the creation or removal of clusters and cluster members also causes file regeneration. The deployment manager regenerates the file for a federated application server in the following location:
profile_root
   /config/cells/cell_name/nodes/
   node_name_of_AppServer/servers/
   web_server_name/plugin-cfg.xml

What to do next

You can start a standalone application server and the web server immediately after configuring the plug-in for the local web server. Open the administrative console of the application server after you start the server and save the changed configuration.

After configuring the plug-in for the local web server, you can start a federated application server and the web server after running the script that completes the configuration. Open the administrative console of the deployment manager. Wait for node synchronization to occur. Save the changed configuration that includes the new web server definition.

See Selecting a web server topology diagram and roadmap for an overview of the installation procedure.

See Plug-ins configuration for information about the location of the plug-in configuration file.

See Web server configuration for information about the files involved in configuring a web server.

See Editing web server configuration files for information about how the Web Server Plug-ins Configuration Tool configures supported web servers.

See Configuring web server plug-ins for information about other installation scenarios for installing web server plug-ins.


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Timestamp icon Last updated: March 5, 2017 17:27
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