Set up a local Web server

 

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For IBM HTTP Servers managed through a node agent running as a non-root user, do...

• Make sure the user ID owning the IHS directories and files, is the same user ID under which the non-root node agent is running.

  We cannot run an IHS as a root user if the node agent that is managing that IHS is running as non-root node agent because a node agent process that is running as a non-root user cannot spawn off an IHS that is running as a root user.

• The value specified for the listener port must be greater than 1024.

  An IHS that is running under a non-root user ID does not start if the port number for its listener port is 1024 or less.

To enable both the node agent and the IHS to run as non-root users:

1. Change the user ID for WAS to a non-root user ID.

2. Set the run-as setting for WAS.

3. Use the admin console to create a new IHS server, unless an already defined IHS has the required properties.

4. Change the ownership of the IHS directory and files to the non-root user ID under which the non-root node agent is running.

For Web servers defined on unmanaged nodes, the admin functions are handled through the IHS administration server.

For Web servers defined on managed nodes, the admin functions of the Web server are handled through the WAS node agent.

Web servers that are not provided with WAS v7 do not provide an administration server. Web servers that do not provide an administration server must reside on a managed node to facilitate plug-in administration functions and generation and propagation of plugin-cfg.xml.

The following steps create a Web server definition in the default profile.

1. Install WAS

2. Install IHS or another supported Web server.

3. Install the binary plug-in module using the Plug-ins installation wizard.

   The Web server definition is automatically created during the installation of the plug-ins.

 

Use the admin console to create the Web server definition

1. Go to...

   Servers | Server Types | Web servers | New | Create new Web server entry wizard

2. Select the appropriate node.

3. Select a template. Select a system template or a user-defined template for the Web server you want to create.

4. Enter the Web server properties:

   Type	The Web server vendor type
   Port	The existing Web server port (default: 80)
   Installation path	The Web server installation path. Required for IHS only.
   Service name	Windows only. The OS service name of the Web server. Default is IBMHTTPServer7.0.
   Use secure protocol	Use the HTTPS protocol to communicate with the Web server. The default is HTTP.
   Plug-in installation location	The directory path in which the plug-in is installed.

5. Confirm the creation of the new Web server and click Finish.

6. To verify that the plugin-key.kdb file is generated and to configure the Web server plug-in with SSL:

   1. Click

      Security | SSL certificate and key management | Configuration settings | Manage endpoint security configurations | Inbound or Outbound | mycell | nodes | Web_server_node_name | servers | myserver | Related Items | Key stores and certificates

      The admin console displays the CMSKeyStore configuration with the path to the plugin-key.kdb file.

   2. Export the default certificate from key.p12, and add it as a signer certificate to the plugin-key.kdb.

 

Use the plug-in configuration script to create the Web server definition.

If we install the plug-in, save the plug-in configuration script to run after you create a managed node, otherwise an error occurs. Wait until the script runs successfully and creates the Web server definition on the managed node and node synchronization occurs before starting the Web server.

Adding the node starts the node agent process. If the node agent is not running, start the node.

If we want the Web server to handle requests for an application for multiple managed nodes, install the application on each managed node and on the Web server definition.

The script already contains all of the information that gather when using the admin console option.

 

What to do next

Configure non-IHS Web servers as a remote Web server on unmanaged nodes, or as a local Web server on managed nodes. For a non-IHS Web server on a managed node, the following functions are supported:

• Generation of the plug-in configuration, based on WAS repository changes.

• Propagation of plugin-cfg.xml, based on using node synchronization with the WAS node. Node synchronization is necessary in order to propagate configuration changes to the affected node or nodes.The plugin-cfg.xml file is propagated to the appserver node repository tree from the dmgr repository.

  The plugin-cfg.xml file is propagated to the appserver node repository tree. This is not the default plugin-cfg.xml file installation location.

  Changes may have to be made to non-IHS Web server configuration files to update the location of the plugin-cfg.xml file that is read by the plug-in module.

  For example, Internet Information Services (IIS) has a file name called plugin-cfg.loc, which is read by the IIS plug-in modules to determine the location of the plugin-cfg.xml file.

  The plugin-cfg.loc file has to be updated to reflect the plugin-cfg.xml file location in the appserver node repository.

  Other non-IBM HTTP Server Web servers have different methods to specify the location of the plugin-cfg.xml file for the plug-in module. However, in order for propagation to work, update the location to reflect the location in the appserver node repository.

The following functions are not supported on a managed node for a non-IBM Web server.

• Starting and stopping the Web server.
• View and editing the configuration file.
• View the Web server logs.

For a non-IHS Web Server on an unmanaged node, we can generate plug-in configuration, based on WAS repository changes.

The following functions are not supported on an unmanaged node for a non-IHS Web server:

• Starting and stopping the Web server.
• View and editing the configuration file.
• View the Web server logs.
• Propagation of the Web server plugin-cfg.xml file.

Web server collection
Web server configuration
Web server log file
Web server plug-in properties
Web server configuration file
Web server custom properties
Remote Web server management