This topic describes how to implement a web server plug-in.
The product works with a web server to route requests for dynamic
content, such as servlets, from web applications. The web servers
are necessary for directing traffic from browsers to the applications
that run on an application server. The web server plug-in uses the
XML configuration file to determine whether a request is for an application
server.
Before you begin
- See the information about choosing a front end for your WebSphere® Application Server topology. This topic helps you determine whether to
set up a web server plug-in, a proxy server, or a secure proxy server to provide session affinity,
failover support, and workload balancing for your WebSphere Application Server topology. Install your web server if it is not already installed.
Avoid trouble: The web server that is provided with
IBM® i, is already installed under product 5761-DG1 for
IBM i V6R1 or 5770-DG1 for
IBM i V7R1. The
IBM i web server is referred to as the IBM HTTP Server for
IBM i. This web server is different from the IBM HTTP Server that is provided with
WebSphere Application Server, which does not run on
IBM i.
If you are making a series of simultaneous changes, such as installing numerous applications, you
might want the configuration service disabled until after you make the last change. The web server
plug-in configuration service is enabled by default. To disable this service, in the administrative
console click , and then clear the option.
Avoid trouble: If your installation
uses a firewall, make sure that you configure the web server plug-in
to use a port that has been opened. See your security administrator
for information about how to obtain an open port.
About this task
The appropriate plug-in file is installed.
In addition, an http profile is created (/QIBM/UserData/WebSphere/Plugins/V85/webserver/profiles/http). The http profile can be used to facilitate
the creation of web server definitions. See the topic about selecting
a web server topology diagram and road map for instructions on how
to configure IBM HTTP Server
for IBM i to communicate with
an application server.
The following
procedure describes the steps for updating the plug-in configuration
file, including configuring for SSL and web server tuning.
Procedure
- Use the administrative console to change the settings in
the plug-in configuration file.
When setting up your
web server plug-in, you must decide whether to have the configuration
automatically generated in response to a configuration change. When
the web server plug-in configuration service is enabled and any of
the following conditions occur, the plug-in configuration file is
automatically generated:
- When the web server is created or saved
- When an application is installed
- When an application is uninstalled
- When the virtual host definition is updated
You can either
use the administrative console, or issue the GenPluginCfg command to regenerate your plugin-cfg.xml file.
Complete the following steps to regenerate your plugin-cfg.xml file by using the administrative console:
- Select web_server_name.
- Select Automatically generate plug-in configuration file or
click one or more of the following topics to manually configure the
plugin-cfg.xml file:
Avoid trouble: You must delete the
plugin-cfg.xml file in the
profile_root/config/cells directory before you
complete this task. Otherwise, configuration changes do not persist to the
plugin-cfg.xml file.
- Caching
- Request and response
- Request routing
- Custom Properties
See the topic about web server plug-in configuration properties for information about how to
map each property to one of these topics.
Avoid trouble: Do not
manually update the plugin-cfg.xml file. Any manual updates you make for a web
server are overridden whenever the plugin-cfg.xml file for that web server is
regenerated.
-
Click OK.
- Propagate the plug-in configuration.
To propagate the plug-in configuration from the administrative console, click
web_server_name.
Another method to propagate the plug-in configuration is to run the
GenPluginCfg command. For more information, see the
GenPluginCfg command documentation.
You do not need to propagate the
plug-in configuration if the web server is on the same machine as the associated stand-alone version
of the product. If the propagation of the plug-in configuration fails due to an unknown cause, you
must manually copy the plugin-cfg.xml file to the location for the remote web
server installation.
Avoid trouble: If you use the FTP function to
perform the copy, and the configuration reload fails, check the file authorities on the
plugin-cfg.xml file and make sure that users QTMHHTTP, QNOTES and QEJBSVR have
RWX authority. If the authorities are not correct, the web server cannot access the new version of
the file, which causes the configuration reload to fail. To check the authorities, run the following
IBM i command:
wrklnk 'plug_in_folder_location/plugin-cfg.xml'
Then select option 9 to view
the authorities that are assigned to the users (QTMHHTTP, QNOTES, and QEJBSVR).
If the
authorities are incorrect, issue the following IBM i command
to change the file authorities to the appropriate settings:
CHGAUT USER(QEJBSVR QTMHHTTP QNOTES) OBJ('plug_in_folder_location/plugin-cfg.xml') DTAAUT(*RWX)
The
plug_in_folder_location is the location you specified when you transferred the
plugin-cfg.xml file.
- You might have to stop the application server and then
start the application server for the web server to locate the plugin-cfg.xml file.
- Tune your web server.
See the page about tuning web servers for more information.
- Copy the keystore file to the keystore directory on your
web server.
Avoid trouble: This step is required
for the web server to function properly.
For detailed instructions
on copying the keystore file, read the topic on configuring the web
server plug-in for Secure Sockets Layer.
Results
The configuration is complete. To activate the configuration,
stop and restart the web server. If you encounter problems restarting
your web server, check the http_plugin.log file
for information about what portion of the plugin-cfg.xml file contains an error. The log file states the line number on which
the error occurred, along with other details that might help you diagnose
why the web server did not start. You can then use the administrative
console to update the plugin-cfg.xml file.If applications are infrequently installed or uninstalled, which
is usually the situation in a production environment, or if you can
tolerate the performance impact of generating and distributing the
plug-in configuration file each time any of the previously listed
actions occur, consider enabling the configuration service.