Proxy server setup

A proxy server is a specific type of application server that routes HTTP requests to content servers that perform the work. We can classify a proxy server according to the role that it plays in a system. This specific proxy server is classified as a reverse proxy server because the main function is to act as the first point of contact, not including the firewall, for client requests into the enterprise server. By contrast, a forward proxy server acts as the first point of contact for outbound traffic.

Review the topic that describes how to select a front end for the WAS topology. This topic helps you determine whether you should 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 the WAS topology.

The proxy server acts as a surrogate for content servers within the enterprise. As a surrogate, we can configure the proxy server with rules to route to and load balance the clusters of content servers. The proxy server is also capable of securing the transport, using SSL, and the content using various authentication and authorization schemes. Another important feature is its capability to protect the identity of the content servers from the web clients by using response transformations (URL rewriting). The proxy server can also improve performance by caching content locally and by protecting the content servers from surges in traffic.

A proxy server configuration provides settings that control how a proxy server can provide services for the enterprise applications and their components.

• Create an HTTP or SIP proxy server to route requests to application server nodes.
• Install a Session Initiation Protocol proxy server.
• Migrate profiles for the proxy server.
• Modify or add HTTP endpoints

What to do next

• Create proxy servers in the cell.
• Deploy applications to the proxy server.

Subtopics

1. Create a proxy server
2. Create a proxy server cluster
3. Manage a proxy server cluster
4. Migrate profiles for the proxy server
5. Customize routing to applications
6. Route requests to ODC-compliant application servers in other cells
7. Configure rules to route requests to web servers
8. Modify the HTTP endpoints that the proxy server listens on
9. Add a new HTTP endpoint for the proxy server
10. Set up caching in the proxy server
11. Route requests from a plug-in to a proxy server
12. Create a proxy server cluster using wsadmin
13. Monitoring the proxy server with PMI
14. Monitoring traffic through the proxy server
15. Overview of the custom error page policy
16. Request mapping
17. Session failover in the proxy server
18. Install a Session Initiation Protocol proxy server
19. Troubleshooting the proxy server
20. Session Initiation Protocol overload protection
21. High availability and workload management with Session Initiation Protocol proxy server
22. Configure SIP quorum support using the default core group
23. Configure the SIP proxy for network outage detection
24. Administer proxy actions
25. Administer custom advisors for the proxy server
26. Create custom advisors for the proxy server
27. Administer proxy virtual hosts
28. Administer proxy rule expressions
29. Create a custom filter and deploying it to a proxy server
30. Configure denial of service protection for the proxy server
31. Tune the security properties for the DMZ Secure Proxy Server for IBM WebSphere Application Server
32. Configure a DMZ Secure Proxy Server for IBM WebSphere Application Server using the administrative console
33. WebSphere DMZ Secure Proxy Server for IBM WebSphere Application Server

Related concepts

Select a front end for the WAS topology