Stopping a proxy server

Stopping a proxy server ends a server process based on the process definition settings in the current application server configuration.

Ensure that you understand how stopping a particular server affects your ability to handle work requests, especially if we need to maintain a highly available environment.

There are times we need to stop a proxy server. For example, you might want to upgrade the operating system, or you might want to change a configuration setting for the proxy server. We can use one of the following options to stop a proxy server.

Note: To perform a proxy quiesce for the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) proxy server, you must shut down the SIP proxy server by issuing the stopServer command from the command line. If we attempt to shut down the proxy server from the console, then the server shuts down immediately and the proxy quiesce is not completed.

(zos) The quiesce function for the SIP proxy server is not supported on the z/OS platform. To use a similar function on z/OS, see the information center article, Pausing an application server listener to manually update a high availability application.gotcha

• (dist)(zos) We can issue the stopServer command from the command line to stop a single proxy server.

  (dist) We can issue the stopServer command from the C:\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv02\bin directory.

  # .\stopServer.sh proxyserver1

  We can issue the stopServer command from the /usr/WebSphere/AppServer/bin directory.

  # ./stopServer.sh proxyserver1

  (zos) Do not use the CANCEL proxyserver_proc_name command to stop a server. Every time you start a server, a new temp directory is created from the servant process token, such as profile_root/default/temp/node/server_name. When you perform a graceful shutdown, which happens if we cancel rather than stop the server, these temp directories are typically removed. However, if you infrequently perform graceful shutdowns, then these temp directories are not removed and the hierarchical file system (HFS) used for these temp directories becomes full.

• We can use the console to stop a proxy server.

  1. From the console, click Servers > Server Types > WebSphere proxy servers.

  2. Select the proxy server, and click Stop.

  3. Confirm to stop the selected proxy server.

  4. View the Status value and any messages or logs to see whether the proxy server stops.

• (iseries) We can use the stopServer Qshell script to stop a proxy server:

• (iseries) We can use the End Job (ENDJOB) CL command to stop a proxy server. Enter the following line of code to use the ENDJOB CL command.
  ENDJOB JOB(jobNumber/QEJBSVR/jobName) OPTION(*CNTRLD) DELAY(delayTime)

  In this example, jobNumber is the job number, jobName is the name of the proxy server job, and delayTime is the amount of time, in seconds, to wait for the job to end. We can initially set delayTime to 600 seconds and then adjust the value, if necessary, to a value that is more appropriate for the environment.

Results

The specified proxy server stops as soon as requests assigned to that server finish processing. To verify that the proxy server is in the stop state, in the console, click Servers > Server Types > WebSphere proxy servers.

If the stopServer command is issued from the command line, then the server delays shutdown for a period of time until new inbound messages to route are not no longer being received. The quiesce feature notifies the load balancer to discontinue routing inbound messages by sending error responses to the advisor messages.

What to do next

By default, the SIP proxy server stops the flow of messages between the load balancer and the back-end containers to prevent calls from being lost when the proxy server shuts down. This process is called a proxy quiesce.

During proxy quiesce, the SIP proxy server notifies the load balancer and the back-end containers that the server is shutting down. After the devices stop forwarding messages through the proxy server, the server shuts down.

The default quiesce timeout period is three minutes. The SIP proxy server also waits a minimum of 20 seconds to allow the quiesce process to complete. The SIP proxy server continues to forward messages to the back-end containers while it responds to advisor messages from the load balancer with an error response. During a quiesce, the SIP proxy server also notifies the back-end containers that the proxy server is no longer a member of the cluster. After the initial 20 seconds, the SIP proxy server shuts down based on the specified amount of time configured for the proxy quiesce, which ranges from one second to a maximum of three minutes.

Complete these steps to change the timeout period for proxy quiesce.

1. From the console, expand...
   Servers | Server Types | WebSphere proxy servers | proxy_server_name | Server infrastructure | Java and Process management | Process definition | Java Virtual Machine (JVM)

2. Set the Generic JVM argument to -Dcom.ibm.ejs.sm.server.quiesceTimeout=120.

3. Define these SIP proxy custom properties to set the SIP proxy server to be fronted by a load balancer running a SIP advisor: LBIPADDr and SIPAdvisorMethodName.

Related tasks

Browse all SIP topics

Configure the SIP container

Start a proxy server

Troubleshooting administration

SIP container custom properties

SIP proxy server custom properties

(zos) Pausing an application server listener to manually update a high availability application