Use this topic to perform advanced configuration on a proxy. Proxy settings enable the system administrator to fine tune the behavior of the proxy server. In particular, you can configure the connections and requests to the application server, enable caching, configure the requests that must be rejected, define how error responses are handled, and specify the location of the proxy logs.
The proxy server, upon creation, auto-senses the environment and is capable of routing requests to WebSphere Application Server. Additional configuration can be applied to the proxy server to meet the needs of a particular environment.
To view this administrative console page, click Servers > Proxy Servers > server_name > HTTP Proxy Server Settings >Proxy settings.
You can edit configurable field settings for the proxy server on the Configuration tab.
Configuration tab
Configure basic HTTP connection parameters between the proxy server and content servers.
Outbound SSL alias: The SSL repertoire alias, that is configured in detail under Security > SSL that is used to secure proxy content server connections. If requests can be handled over SSL connections only, it is recommended that you create a new SSL alias that contains the trusted certificate authorities and point to that alias. Create an SSL alias in the administrative console by clicking Security > SSL > New .
Outbound request timeout: The default number of seconds the proxy waits for a response before timing out a request to a content server. Consider this optoin carefully when changing the value.
Pool connections to server: The option to pool connections to the server, is an optimization feature. Pooling prevents the need to frequently create and destroy socket connections to the server, by allowing the proxy server to pool these connections and reuse them. Maximum connections per server: The maximum number of connections that will be pooled to any single content server. Proxy custom properties that tweak content server connections are as follows:
The proxy server can be configured to cache the content of servers. By default, caching content is enabled. The properties that follow apply only if caching is enabled:
The proxy server examines every incoming request. You can define certain methods for exclusion and if the requested HTTP method matches any of the configured methods for exclusion, the proxy server rejects the requests with a METHOD DISALLOWED error.
The proxy server has logs that are generated for proxied requests and stored cache requests. With this configuration, you can specify the location of the proxy access log and the cache access log.
Use the default location, or specify a directory location. There is a third log called ${SERVER_LOG_ROOT}/local.log that logs locally-served proxy content. This content does not come from the proxy cache. Proxy custom properties that can be used to tweak logging are as follows:
HTTP requests are logged in one of three logs: proxy, cache, and local. Local log configuration is not currently available in the administrative console, but it available at ${SERVER_LOG_ROOT}local.log. Specify the location of this log by setting the http.log.localFileName custom property to the file location. The content of each log is formatted using National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) common log format.
Use this section to set up security options.
Use this parameter for the generation of a proxy plug-in configuration file that you can use on a Web server that is deployed in front of the proxy server. The plug-in can determine the URI that the proxy is handling on behalf of the application server. The plug-in can determine the endpoint, or boundaries of the proxy so that it can properly route requests it receives to the proxy. This feature is useful for those who prefer to deploy a proven Web server in the demilitarized zone (DMZ), which is fully capable of exploiting the ability of the proxy server.
An option is available to define a level by which to generate the plug-in. For the cell scope, the proxy server generates a plug-in configuration that includes all of the URIs handled by all the proxy servers in the cell. The node scope includes all of the URIs that are configured for the node, and at the server level the proxy server generates only a plug-in configuration file for the proxy server that is currently configured.
Use this field to support the use of customized error pages when errors occur during the processing of the request. Refer to Overview of the custom error page policy for a summary of how the custom error page policy works. The default is no customized error pages generated. The properties that follow enable customized error pages for use when errors occur during request processing:
GET /house/rooms/kitchen.jpg HTTP/1.1 Host: homeserver.companyx.com The request results in a HTTP 404 response (local or remote), and the request URI to the error page application would be: /ErrorPageApp/ErrorPage?responseCode=404&uri=/house/rooms/kitchen.jpg&Host= homeserver.companyx.com
Proxy custom property to use when tweaking the custom error page: key=http.statuscode.errorPageRedirect. This custom property determines whether error page generation is done using the redirect, instead of using the proxy error page application. The values are true or false. The default is false.