Configure a remote HTTP topology

In a remote HTTP topology, the application server and the HTTP server are hosted on separate machines or logical partitions. Your application server connects to the new HTTP server instance to receive client requests.

This figure shows an example of a remote HTTP topology:

Example remote HTTP topology

In this sample topology, Machine A hosts the Web server and receives HTTP requests from clients. The Web server uses HTTP or HTTPS protocol to forward the requests to the application server on Machines B.

To create an HTTP server instance on a machine or logical partition that does not host your application server, use the crtplugininst script in Qshell. For information on running Qshell scripts, see Configure Qshell to run WebSphere Application Server - Express scripts.

Before you can run the script, install the *BASE option of WebSphere Application Server - Express (5722E51 *BASE) on the machine or logical partition that hosts your Web server instance. When you install the *BASE option, the QEJBSVR profile is created on the machine. The script also requires that one of these profiles is also on the machine:

The crtplugininst script creates and configures the directory structures that the Web server plug-ins use to find a plugin-cfg.xml file generated by your application server instance. After the plugin-cfg.xml file has been generated on your application server system with the correct configuration information, move the file from the system that hosts your application server to the system that hosts your HTTP server instance. After you move the plugin-cfg.xml file to the Web server machine, run the crtplugininst script one more time to set up the appropriate access authorities for the plug-in.

To point to the location of the HTTP server instance, the configuration file uses a host alias within the virtual host that you choose. For information on configuring a virtual host, see Manage virtual hosts for your application server.

Authority

To run the crtplugininst script, your iSeries user profile must have *ALLOBJ authority.

Usage

Run the crtplugininst script on the machine or logical partition that hosts your HTTP server instance.

    On the CL command line, enter the STRQSH (Start Qshell) command.

    Run the cd command to change to the directory that contains the script: 

    cd /QIBM/ProdData/WebASE51/bin

    Run the crtplugininst script: 

    crtplugininst -instance instance

    where instance is the name of your application server instance.

    After the script runs, copy the plugin-cfg.xml file from your application server instance to the system that hosts your HTTP server instance. For example, for an application server named myAppSvr, the file is located in the /QIBM/UserData/WebASE51/ASE/myAppSvr/config/cells directory. Copy the file to the /QIBM/UserData/WebASE51/ASE/myAppSvr/config/cells directory on the machine or logical partition that hosts your Web server.

    Run the crtplugininst script again. Specify the same value for the -instance parameter. When the script is finished, it displays this message: 

    The Creation of a WebSphere Application Server - Express plug-in instance completed successfully.

Whenever you regenerate the Web server plug-in configuration for your application server, copy the new plugin-cfg.xml file to the Web server machine. After you copy the new plugin-cfg.xml file to the Web server machine, run the crtplugininst script to ensure that the new file has the correct authorities.

Syntax

The syntax of the script is shown below. 

crtplugininst -instance instance

where instance is the name of your WebSphere Application Server - Express application server instance.

The script creates a directory structure based on the value that you specify for the -instance parameter. For example, for an instance named myAppSvr, the crtplugininst creates these directories:

For information about how to configure your application server to use remote HTTP, see the following topic:


Configure the application server machine for remote HTTP