Customizing IBM BPM to work with a web server

After you install and configure IBM® Business Process Manager, you must customize your environment so that it can function properly as a cluster with a web server.

Before you begin

Note: This page describes only the additional IBM BPM configuration that is required after configuring a web server in your WebSphere Application Server cell, as described in Implementing a web server plug-in. Also note that sticky sessions, or session affinity, are required for proper clustering behavior, as described in the technote Cluster installation with a load balancer and sticky sessions. Finally, some IBM BPM applications enforce HTTPS, and therefore also rely on a secure connection between the web server and WebSphere Application Server. See the links under "Related information" for more details.

This task uses the setBPMVirtualHost and setBPMDefaultVirtualHost commands, which are run using the AdminTask object of the wsadmin scripting client. To run the commands, the following prerequisites must be met:

The commands must be run on the deployment manager node.
If the deployment manager is stopped, use the wsadmin -conntype none option to run the commands in disconnected mode.
If the deployment manager is running, you must connect with a user ID that has WebSphere Application Server configurator privileges. Do not use the wsadmin -conntype none option.

Start the wsadmin scripting client from the deployment_manager_profile/bin directory. The setBPMVirtualHost and setBPMDefaultVirtualHost commands do not write to a log file, but the wsadmin scripting client always writes a profile_root/logs/wsadmin.traceout log file where you will find exception stack traces and other information.

Make sure that the Process Server or Process Center has been installed and configured, and that you have configured the deployment environment. You cannot start the cluster until you have completed the procedures in this topic.

About this task

If you use a web server as an entry point into your network, you must configure virtual host information about the web server so that IBM BPM generates URLs that are based on the host name of the web server.

Procedure

The following procedure describes the steps to follow for a simple configuration. For an advanced configuration, refer to the topic "Configuring IBM BPM endpoints to match your topology."

Stop the deployment manager.
Start the wsadmin scripting client from the deployment manager profile /bin directory:
```
wsadmin -conntype none -lang jython
```
Get the deployment environment object.
Note: The sample below assumes a deployment environment name of De1 . This should be adapted to the deployment environment name you chose during configuration.
```
dePath = '/Cell:/BPMCellConfigExtension:/BPMDeploymentEnvironment:De1/'
```

Create the virtual host object for your web server:

webserver_vh = AdminTask.setBPMVirtualHost( [ '-de', 'De1', '-name', 'webserver_vh', '-transportProtocol', 'https', '-hostname', 'webserver.example.com' ] )

Point to the newly created IBM BPM virtual host from:
- The EXTERNAL_CLIENT endpoint scenario. The EXTERNAL_CLIENT endpoint scenario causes all user traffic to use the web server, while internal traffic (between BPM components and other clients within your data center) continues to connect to the current server's web container. If you also want internal traffic to use the web server, set it as the virtual host for INTERNAL_CLIENT.
  Find the BPMURL object for the EXTERNAL_CLIENT endpoint scenario:
```
for item in AdminUtilities.convertToList(AdminConfig.getid(dePath+'BPMURLS:/BPMURL:/')):
 if AdminConfig.showAttribute(item,'scenario') == 'EXTERNAL_CLIENT': bpmurl= item; break; 

print bpmurl
```
  Important: Because Jython relies on indentation to identify the contents of a loop, the space character before the if statement is required, and pressing enter twice is necessary to execute the loop.
  Set the web server virtual host for the EXTERNAL_CLIENT BPMURL and save your changes:
```
AdminConfig.modify(bpmurl, [['virtualHost',webserver_vh]])
```
Save your changes.
```
AdminConfig.save()
```
Restart the deployment manager.
Map each application's web modules to your web server. This is in addition to the cluster mapping that is done when the deployment environment is created. For more details, see Mapping modules to servers.
Note: Existing applications are mapped to the web server by default when it is created if Application mapping to the web server is set to ALL. If the default cluster mappings are removed, the application does not function properly.
When web module mappings are changed, you must regenerate the web server plug-in and propagate it to the web server. For more information, see Plug-ins configuration.