Configuring transport chains

A transport chain consists of one or more types of channels, each of which supports a different type of I/O protocol, such as TCP or HTTP. Network ports can be shared among all of the channels within a chain. The channel framework function automatically distributes a request arriving on that port to the correct I/O protocol channel for processing.

Before you begin

Ensure that a port is available for the new transport chain. If you need to set up a shared port, you must:

  • Use wsadmin commands to create your transport chain.
  • Make sure that all channels sharing that port have the same discrimination weight assigned to them.

About this task

You need to configure transport chains to provide networking services to such functions as the service integration bus component of IBM® service integration technologies, the caching proxy, and the high availability manager core group bridge service.

You can use either the administrative console or wsadmin commands to create a transport chain. If you use the administrative console, complete the following steps:

Procedure

  1. In the administrative console, click Servers > Server Types > WebSphere application servers > server_name or Servers > Server Types > WebSphere proxy servers > server_name, and then select one of the following options, depending on the type of chain you are creating:

    For application servers, in the Container settings section select one of the following options:

    • Click SIP Container Settings > SIP container transport chains.
    • Click Web container settings > Web container transport chains.
    • [z/OS]Click Container services > ORB service > ORB service transport chains.
    • In the Server messaging section, click either Messaging engine inbound transports or WebSphere MQ link inbound transports.

    For proxy servers, under HTTP proxy server settings, click Proxy server transports and select either HTTPS_PROXY_CHAIN or HTTP_PROXY_CHAIN. Then click HTTP proxy inbound channel.

  2. Click New.

    The Create New Transport Chain wizard initializes. During the transport chain creation process, you are asked to:

    • Specify a name for the new chain.
    • Select a transport chain template
    • Select a port, if one is available to which the new transport chain is bound. If a port is not available or you want to define a new port, specify a port name, the host name or IP address for that port, and a valid port number.
      Avoid trouble: If you are configuring a chain that contains a TCP channel, the wizard displays a list of configured TCP channels and a list of the ports that the listed TCP channels are not using. You must select one of the ports that none of the other TCP channels are using.

      Similarly, if you are configuring a transport chain that contains a UDP channel, the wizard displays a list of already configured UDP channels and a list of the ports that these UDP channels are not using. You must select one of the ports that none of the other UDP channels are using.

    When you click Finish, the new transport chain is added to the list of defined transport chains on the Transport chain panel.

  3. Click the name of a transport chain to view the configuration settings that are in effect for the transport channels contained in that chain.

    To change any of these settings, complete the following actions:

    1. Click the name of the channel whose settings you need to change.
    2. Change the configuration settings.

      Some of the settings, such as the port number, are determined by what is specified for the transport chain when it is created and cannot be changed.

    3. Click on Custom properties to set any custom properties that are defined for your system.
  4. When you your configuration changes, click OK.
  5. Stop the application server and start it again.

    You must stop the application server and start it again before your changes take effect.

What to do next

[AIX Solaris HP-UX Linux Windows][IBM i]Update any routines you have that issue a call to start transports during server startup. When a routine issues a call to start transports during server startup, the product converts the call to a transport channel call.

[z/OS]Update any routines you have that issue a call to start transports during server startup. When a routine issues a call to start transports during server startup, the product issues an error message.

Note: If you create a new web container transport chain, the initial value for the writeBufferSize attribute is 8192, which is too small for most web container transport chains. It is recommended that you use the administrative console or wsadmin scripting to change the value of this attribute to 32768. Complete the following steps if you want to use the administrative console, to change the value of this attribute:
  1. Click Servers and expand Server Types.
  2. Click WebSphere application servers > server_name.
  3. Expand Web Container Settings and click Web container transport settings > transport_chain_name.
  4. Click Web container inbound channel.
  5. Specify 32768 in the Write buffer size field, and click OK.
  6. Click Save.

To change the value using wsadmin scripting, see the documentation about working with web container inbound channel properties files.