Web server configuration

Plug-in configuration involves configuring the web server to use the binary plug-in module that WebSphere® Application Server provides. Plug-in configuration also includes updating the plug-in XML configuration file to reflect the current application server configuration. The binary module uses the XML file to help route web client requests.

The plug-ins configuration process uses the following files to configure a plug-in for the web server that you select:

The web server configuration file on the web server machine, such as the httpd.conf file for IBM® HTTP Server.
The binary web server plug-in file on the web server machine.
The plug-in configuration file, plugin-cfg.xml, on the application server machine that you propagate (copy) to a Web server machine.
The configuration script for configuring the web server definition for your application server in a remote HTTP scenario.

See the following descriptions of each file.

Web server configuration file

The web server configuration file is installed as part of the web server.

Configuration consists of adding directives that identify file locations of two files:

Binary web server plug-in file
Plug-in configuration file, plugin-cfg.xml

Binary web server plug-in file

An example of a binary plug-in module is the mod_was_ap22_http.dll file for IBM HTTP Server on the Windows platform.

[IBM i] Another example of a binary plug-in module is the QSVTAP20 service program on the IBM i platform.

The binary plug-in file does not change. However, the configuration file for the binary plug-in is an XML file. The application server changes the configuration file when certain changes to your WebSphere Application Server configuration occur.

The binary module reads the XML file to adjust settings and to route requests to the application server.

Plug-in configuration file, plugin-cfg.xml

The plug-in configuration file is an XML file with settings that you can tune in the administrative console. The file lists all of the applications installed on the web server definition. The binary module reads the XML file to adjust settings and to route requests to the application server.

[IBM i] When you make application server configuration changes that affect deployed applications, regenerate the plug-in configuration XML file.

After regeneration, propagate (copy) the file to the web server machine. The binary plug-in then has access to the most current copy of its configuration file.

[IBM i] On IBM i systems, the plug-in is not automatically generated. You must regenerate and propagate the file manually.

Configuration script for the Web server definition

Configuring your web server with the configureOs400WebserverDefinition script or using the IBM i Administrative GUI creates the configureweb_server_name script on the web server machine in the plugins_root/bin directory. The script is created for remote installation scenarios only.

Copy the script from the web server machine to the app_server_root/bin directory in the IBM i partition. Run the script to create a web server definition in the configuration of the application server.

The IBM i Administrative GUI has plug-ins that allow the administrative console to manage IBM HTTP Servers. Use the administrative console to update your web server definition with remote web server management options. Click Servers > Server Types > Web servers > web_server_name to see configuration options. For example, click Remote Web server management to change such properties as:

Host name
Administrative port
User ID
Password

If a web server definition already exists for a standalone application server, running the script does not add a new web server definition. Each standalone application server can have only one Web server definition.

You cannot use the administrative console of a standalone application server to add or delete a web server definition. However, you can do both tasks using the administrative scripting interface:

Add a web server definition through the wsadmin facility using the configureweb_server_name script. The script uses a Java™ Command Language (Jacl) script named configureWebserverDefintion.jacl to create and configure the web server definition.

Delete a web server definition using wsadmin commands. The Web server is named webserver1 in the following example:

set webserverName webserver1
set webserverNodeSuffix _node
set webserverNodeName 
$webserverName$webserverNodeSuffix
$AdminConfig remove 
  [$AdminConfig getid 
    /Node:$webserverNodeName/Server:$webserverName]
$AdminConfig remove 
  [$AdminConfig getid /Node:$webserverNodeName]
$AdminConfig save

Alternatively, you can use the configureOs400WebServerDefinition and removeOs400WebServerDefinition scripts to perform these tasks.

Replacing the default plug-in configuration file with the file from the web server definition (propagation)

The default file uses fixed parameter values that might not match the parameter values in the actual file on the application server. The default file is a placeholder only.

The file cannot reflect changes that occur in the application server configuration. The file also cannot reflect nondefault values that might be in effect on the application server.