Configuring the web server plug-in for Secure Sockets Layer

This topic documents the configuration that is necessary to instantiate a secure connection between the web server plug-in and the internal HTTP transport in the web container for the Application Server.

Before you begin

WebSphere® Application Server has an internal HTTP transport that accepts HTTP requests. If you install an external HTTP server, the web server plug-in must forward requests from the external HTTP server to Application Server internal HTTP transport. Follow instructions that are provided by your HTTP vendor to install and configure your HTTP server. Test your HTTP server by accessing http://your-host-URL and https://your-host-URL. You should also have a web server plug-in installed. See the instructions for installing the HTTP Server and the web server plug-ins. They also describe how to enable the plug-in to load the correct libraries for Secure Socket layers (SSL) on Solaris x64.

Procedure

Create a directory on the web server host for storing the key ring file that is referenced by the plug-in and associated files, for example: plugin_install_root/etc/keys.
From the administrative console, click Servers > Web servers.
Select the web server name.
Click Plug-in properties.
Click Manage keys and certificates to access configuration options for your keys and certificates. By default, you can change your password that is used to protect the keystore.
Click OK.
Click Copy to web server keystore directory to copy the keystore and to stash files to a managed web server. For non-managed web servers, use FTP to copy them.
Note: You must copy the keystore file to the web server for the web server to function properly.
Optional: Under Additional Properties, you can also select one of the following:
- Signer certificates - Use to add new certificates, delete certificates, extract certificates, and to retrieve certificates from a port.
- Personal certificates - Use to create a new chained or self-signed certificate, delete a certificate, or to import and export a personal certificate.
- Personal certificate requests - Use to manage personal certificate requests.
- Custom properties - Use to define custom properties for the keystore.
Manually stash the password for the plugin-key.kdb file.
If the password is not manually stashed, then the following error appears in the http_plugin.log file:
```
ERROR: lib_security: logSSLError: str_security (gsk error 201):  
Object containing the password for the certificate store file not found.
```
The default path of the plugin-key.kdb file is <profile_root>/config/<webserver_definition_name>/plugin-key.kdb. The web server must be restarted after stashing the password. For more information on stashing the password see: Recreating the .kdb keystore internal password record.

Results

The IBM HTTP Server plug-in and the internal Web server are configured for SSL.