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Set up communication between a z/OS Application Server and a web server running on a workstation

After installing the product on your z/OS system, we can configure an application server running on that system to communicate with a web server and web server plug-in for WebSphere Application Server running on a distributed platform, such as Linux or Microsoft Windows.

The WAS for z/OS product package contains the web server plug-ins for web servers that run on distributed platforms and are supported by the WAS v6 products.

This configuration enables requests for a particular application to be routed from a browser, through the web server and web server plug-in, to one of the application servers defined for that application on the z/OS system. (An application is associated with a web server when it is deployed on an application server.)

In addition to regular plug-in functions, Web Server Plug-ins for the WAS uses private headers as a mechanism for forwarding proxy information from the plug-ins to an application server running on the z/OS platform. This information is not otherwise included with HTTP requests.


Tasks

  1. Go to the WAS administrative console running on the z/OS platform and make sure the virtual host contains an alias for the port number used by the web server. Specify this same port on a <Virtual Hostname> element in the plug-in plugin-cfg.xml file.
  2. Generate a plug-in configuration file. The plug-in configuration file created when running the Plug-in installation wizard does not include any information about the a/OS applications for which it will be receiving requests. Therefore, use the WAS administrative console located on your z/OS system to generate a plug-in configuration file that includes this application information.

    To generate a plug-in configuration file:

    1. Select Servers > Server Types > Web Servers > web_server > plug-in properties.

    2. Select Automatically generate plug-in configuration file or click on one or more of the following topics to manually configure the plugin-cfg.xml file:

    3. Click OK.

  3. Optional: Make any additional changes to the plug-in configuration file. Usually, we will not have to make any manual changes to the plug-in configuration file we just created. However if we do need to make changes remember that these changes will be overwritten the next time the configuration file is regenerated.

    Starting with Version V6.0.1, the plug-in configuration file, plugin-cfg.xml, is generated in ASCII format. (Previously, the configuration file was generated in EBCDIC format.) If we need to edit this file, issue the following command to convert the file to EBCDIC format: 

    > iconv  -f ISO8859-1 -t IBM-1047 plugin-cfg.xml.ASCII > plugin-cfg.xml.EBCDIC
    Edit the file, and then issue the following command to convert it back to ASCII format: 
    > iconv  -f IBM-1047 -t ISO8859-1  plugin-cfg.xml.EBCDIC > plugin-cfg.xml.ASCII

  4. Optional: To enable the Application Server to use the private headers that the web server plug-in sends, make sure the transport we are using is configured for SSL and is trusted. If our transport is a transport chain define security for that chain that includes a trust file definition. If a trust file definition is not included, the private headers will be ignored, and the application server might not locate the requested application.

    After enabling the use of private headers, this transport trusts all inbound private headers it receives. Therefore, ensure that all inbound paths to this transport are trusted.

  5. To use Secure-socket layer (SSL) with this configuration, use the plug-in's installation wizard to install the appropriate GSKIT installation image file on your workstation.
  6. Download the newly generated plug-in configuration file to the web server. We must replace the plug-in configuration file the Plug-in installation wizard created with the one we just generated on your z/OS system. Therefore, after you finish generating the plug-in configuration file, download it to the directory on the web server containing the plug-in configuration file that the Plug-in installation wizard generated.

The configuration is complete. To activate the configuration, stop and restart both the product, and the web server running on your workstation.


Related:

  • Private headers
  • Modify the default web container configuration
  • Configure virtual hosts
  • Web server plug-in caching properties
  • Web server plug-in request and response optimization properties
  • Web server plug-in request routing properties
  • Web server plug-in configuration service property