Using external web servers with IBM Integration Bus

IBM® Integration Bus is frequently a component in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) patterns that include external web servers and other HTTP solutions. Learn about the facilities that IBM Integration Bus provides to help you to configure your web server infrastructure, and which configuration option best fits your existing topology.

The following diagram shows a web server topology that uses a web server plug-in generated in WebSphere® Application Server to handle HTTP and HTTPS connections with an application server. The web clients use HTTPS to communicate with the web server, and the WebSphere Application Server plug-in forwards traffic over HTTP to one of two application servers. This topology provides simplified administration: the clients connect to a single endpoint, and all client security is handled in a single place. The plug-in can be used to handle load-balancing and failover between the two application servers.

WebSphere Application Server plug-in with application servers
You can configure a WebSphere Application Server plug-in so that it can be used, without any loss of functionality, with IBM Integration Bus in the place of the application server. You can then take advantage of the load-balancing and failover capabilities of the plug-in to:
  • Support many HTTP sessions
  • Enable access to the integration node from multiple IP addresses and ports
  • Simplify the administration of your SOA topology

In the following diagram, IBM Integration Bus takes the place of the application servers. HTTP traffic is handled by integration node listeners on both systems.

WebSphere Application Server plug-in with IBM Integration Bus

The WebSphere Application Server plug-in can be used in the preceding cases, and in more complex scenarios, to:

  • Implement load-balancing
  • Implement clustering for failover
  • Expose application server and web server services and files through a single front end
  • Manage security for all URLs in a single place and in a consistent manner
  • Set up a network dispatcher to multiple web service endpoints
You can use IBM Integration Bus to achieve this type of configuration. Depending on your existing topology, use IBM Integration Bus to generate the most appropriate type of configuration data:
  • If your existing topology incorporates WebSphere Application Server, generate a configuration file that can be read by a WebSphere Application Server web server plug-in
  • If your existing topology does not contain WebSphere Application Server, but uses an Apache web server, other than IBM HTTP Server, generate a configuration file that can be merged into your Apache mod_proxy configuration
  • If your topology is not described by the previous options, you can use the IBM Integration API to generate a per-integration node list of port and URL data in CSV format, which you can use in your web server configuration
Note: For details about support provided for configurations between IBM Integration Bus and IBM HTTP Server, see IHS support issues.
Refer to the following topics to help you to generate the appropriate configuration data for your web server topology: