Configuration and setup planning

The directory decision depends on several factors. One major factor is the security requirements of your environment, and whether write access to the SOAP Gateway installation directory is a concern. When the imsserver component is installed on a separate location or mount point, the imsserver directory can be set in read-only mode. By making the imsserver directory read only, accidental removal or alteration of code is prevented to preserve the code integrity.

Another major factor is size. While the imsserver component does not change in size regardless of how long the SOAP Gateway server is up and running, or how many web services it handles, the imsbase and imssoap components do. The size of the imsbase component grows with the log files. Sufficient disk space must be allocated for log files, and the size depends heavily on your trace level setting requirements and whether you plan to enable transaction logging. The size of the imssoap component grows when more web services are added. In general each web service takes up 50 to 100 KB of disk space. Having each of the three SOAP Gateway components installed on a different directory or mount point provides the flexibility to add more disk space without the need to reinstall SOAP Gateway.

If later on you run out of disk space and more must be added, you must create a new directory or mount point in a different path.

On z/OS, one option is to mount the new directory under the old mount point, and then use a command such as the COPYTREE UNIX command on z/OS to manually copy everything from the old directory. Additional manual configuration is required. Therefore, careful planning of disk space based on anticipated usage before installation is crucial.

If you have multiple SOAP Gateway instances, you might consider sharing one JVM instance.