Creating a proxy server

Use the administrative console to create and configure a proxy server. When creating a proxy server, only the application server profile can be used as the target node.

1. Create a proxy server in the administrative console by clicking Servers > Server Types > WebSphere proxy servers > New.
2. Select the node on which you want the proxy server to reside.
3. Enter a name for the new proxy server and click Next.
4. The supported protocols HTTP and SIP are selected for you. Select HTTP if your proxy server will route requests to and from a web container. Select Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) if your proxy server will route requests to and from a SIP container.
   Determine whether or not to generate unique HTTP ports by selecting or clearing Generate unique HTTP ports. Click Next.

   Note: If you create multiple proxy servers on the same node for vertical scaling, then you might select the option to generate unique ports to avoid port conflicts. Certain advanced scenarios pertain to port mapping that might require unique ports. For example, a load balancer can load balance requests to the proxy servers within the same node, assuming that each proxy server is listening on a unique HTTP port. For the proxy server to accept requests for a specific virtual host, it is necessary to add the unique HTTP ports that are generated to the host alias of the virtual host. It might also be necessary to modify the port values that the wizard generates, if these ports conflict with other local servers on the same node.
5. Select a proxy server template on which to base your proxy server. Click Next.
   You can select a default template, or you can choose to map to an existing proxy server.

   Mapping to a pre-existing proxy server is a time-saving technique. You can build one proxy server and apply all of the specific configurations your environment needs, and then use that proxy server as a template.

6. Review the summary panel and click Finish.

Results

You now have a functional proxy server that automatically routes HTTP requests to the cell that the proxy server belongs to or SIP requests to and from a SIP container. To enable routing to another cell, configure your cell to communicate with other cells.

Avoid trouble: If the proxy server fails to start when attempting to start it as a non-privileged user on UNIX-based operating systems, change the ports of the PROXY_HTTP_ADDRESS and PROXY_HTTPS_ADDRESS transport chains to values greater than 1024.

Avoid trouble: When using the proxy server, one should use the default port. If any other port is used, any HTTPS URL redirection might go to the wrong port. This is because the virtual host named default_host might also be using this new port. The HTTPS redirection is based on the first HTTPS port that it finds in the default_host.

Avoid trouble: As the number of SIP containers grow in a deployment, the larger the heap settings need to be on the SIP proxy server. For example, a deployment of 20 containers requires a minimum heap size of 60 MB, so a -Xmo60m parameter should be added to the Generic JVM arguments field on the Java™ virtual machine panel of the admin console. However, a deployment of 70 containers requires a larger value such as 200 MB (-Xmo200m). See the documentation about Java virtual machine settings for more information about Generic JVM arguments.