Setting up communication between a z/OS Application Server and a web server running on a workstation

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:
1. Select Servers > Server Types > Web Servers > web_server_name > plug-in properties.
2. 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
3. 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.
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.