Planning for network ports

WebSphere® eXtreme Scale servers require several ports to operate.

Important: Avoid hard coding port numbers from the ephemeral range of your operating system. If you set a port that belongs in the ephemeral range, port conflicts can occur.

Catalog service domain

A catalog service domain requires the following ports to be defined:
peerPort
Specifies the port for the high availability (HA) manager to communicate between peer catalog servers over a TCP stack. In WebSphere Application Server, this setting is inherited by the high availability manager port configuration.
clientPort
Specifies the port that peer catalog servers use to access each other's service data. While the value defined for peerPort is used for heartbeat communication between peers that are in the same domain, the clientPort is the port over which actual data gets exchanged. In WebSphere Application Server, this port is set through the catalog service domain configuration.
listenerPort (catalog server)
Specifies the port number to which the Object Request Broker transport protocol binds for communication.

Default: 2809

Note: When a data grid server is run inside and the ORB transport protocol is being used, another port ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS must also be opened. The BOOTSTRAP_ADDRESS port forwards requests to this port.
JMXConnectorPort
Defines the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) port to which the Java™ Management Extensions (JMX) service binds. Only required if an SSL transport protocol is needed for JMX data.
SSLPort (optional)
For secure transport of grid data, the SSL port is used only when the ORB transport protocol is used. If an SSL port is not configured an ephemeral port is chosen at startup, and this can vary each time the catalog server is restarted. When security is enabled, you must use the following argument on the startOgServer script to configure the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) port: -jvmArgs -Dcom.ibm.CSI.SSLPort=<sslPort>.

Container servers

The WebSphere eXtreme Scale container servers also require several ports to operate. By default, an eXtreme Scale container server generates its HA manager port and listener port automatically. For an environment that has a firewall, it is advantageous for you to plan and control ports. For container servers to start with specific ports, you can use the following options in the startOgServer command.
haManagerPort
Specifies the port that is used by the high availability (HA) manager for heartbeat communication between peer container servers. The haManagerPort port is only used for peer-to-peer communication between container servers that are in same domain. If the haManagerPort property is not defined, then an ephemeral port is used. In WebSphere Application Server, this setting is inherited by the high availability manager port configuration.

Default: A dynamic port is chosen.

listenerPort (container server)
Specifies the port number to which the ORB transport protocol binds for communication.

Default: An ephemeral port is chosen.

Note: When a data grid server is run inside WebSphere Application Server and the ORB transport protocol is being used, another port ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS must also be opened. The BOOTSTRAP_ADDRESS port forwards requests to this port.
JMXConnectorPort
Defines the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) port to which the Java Management Extensions (JMX) service binds. Only required if an SSL transport protocol is needed for JMX data.
JMXServicePort
Required only for WebSphere eXtreme Scale in a stand-alone environment. Specifies the port number on which the MBean server listens for communication with Java Management Extensions (JMX).

Default: 1099

xioChannel.xioContainerTCPSecure.Port
Deprecated feature Deprecated: This property is deprecated. The value that is specified by the listenerPort property is used instead.
Specifies the SSL port number of eXtremeIO on the server. This property is used only when the transportType property is set to SSL-Supported or SSL-Required.
xioChannel.xioContainerTCPNonSecure.Port
Deprecated feature Deprecated: This property is deprecated. The value that is specified by the listenerPort property is used instead.
Specifies the non-secure listener port number of eXtremeIO on the server. If you do not set the value, an ephemeral port is used. This property is used only when the transportType property is set to TCP/IP.
Restriction: The xioChannel.xioContainerTCPNonSecure.Port property is not supported in the Liberty profile.
SSLPort (optional)
For secure transport of grid data, the SSL port is used only when the ORB transport protocol is used. If an SSL port is not configured an ephemeral port is chosen at startup, and this can vary each time the container server is restarted. When security is enabled, you must use the following argument on the startOgServer script to configure the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) port: -jvmArgs -Dcom.ibm.CSI.SSLPort=<sslPort>.

Proper planning of port control is essential when hundreds of Java virtual machines are started in a server. If a port conflict exists, container servers do not start.

Clients

WebSphere eXtreme Scale clients can receive callbacks from servers when you are using the DataGrid API or other multi-partition operations. Use the listenerPort property in the client properties file to specify the port on which the client listens for callbacks from the server.
listenerPort (client)
Specifies the port number to which the ORB transport protocol binds for communication. This setting configures the client to communicate with the catalog and container service. If a listener is not configured with the ORB transport protocol, an ephemeral port is chosen at startup. This port can vary each time the client application is started.

Default: An ephemeral port is chosen.

Note: When a data grid client is run inside WebSphere Application Server and the ORB transport protocol is being used, another port ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS must also be opened. The BOOTSTRAP_ADDRESS port forwards requests to this port.
SSLPort (optional)
For secure transport of grid data, the SSL port is used only when the ORB transport protocol is used. When the ORB or XIO transport protocol is used, SSL is an optional configuration. When SSL is enabled with the XIO protocol, it does not use a separate SSL port and sends SSL traffic over the listener port. When SSL is enabled with the ORB transport protocol, both sides can initiate traffic. If an SSL port is not configured an ephemeral port is chosen at startup, and this can vary each time the client is restarted. When security is enabled, you must use the following system property when starting the client process: -Dcom.ibm.CSI.SSLPort=<sslPort>.

Ports in WebSphere Application Server

You can define a catalog service domain in the administrative console. For more information, see Creating catalog service domains in WebSphere Application Server.

You can view the ports for a particular server by clicking one of the following paths in the administrative console:
  • WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Version 6.1: Servers > Application Servers > server_name > Ports > end_point_name.
  • WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Version 7.0 and later: Servers > Server Types > WebSphere Application Servers > server_name > Ports > port_name.