Administer internal HTTP transports

An HTTP transport is the request queue between a Web server plug-in and an application server's Web container. After a client request reaches the Web server, the transport routes the request from the Web server to the Web container. The transport's configuration specifies the characteristics of the connection between the Web server plug-in and the Web container.

HTTP transports specify:

• How to manage a set of connections. For example, to specify the number of concurrent requests to allow.
• Whether to secure the connections with SSL.
• Host and IP information for the transport participants.

WebSphere Application Server provides internal HTTP transports. HTTP requests are routed to the application server directly through the HTTP transport, or indirectly through a Web server plug-in. In WebSphere Application Server Version 5.0.1 and earlier, you can use the HTTP transport functionality only to forward HTTP requests from a Web server plug-in. In Version 5.0.2, HTTP transport functionality is a supported internal Web server. You do not need to configure a separate HTTP server instance for your application server. However, for performance reasons, it is recommended that you use a separate Web server and a Web server plug-in to receive client requests. By default, the internal HTTP transport listens for HTTP requests on port 9080 and for HTTPS requests on port 9443.

For example, use the URL http://localhost:9080/snoop to send requests to the snoop servlet on the local machine over HTTP and https://localhost:9443/snoop to send requests to the snoop servlet on the local machine over HTTPS.

Use the administrative console to configure the internal transport to use different port numbers. If you change the port number for an HTTP transport, change the host alias settings for your virtual host. For more information about virtual hosts, see Administer virtual hosts.

Before you decide which type of transport to use, consider the following limitations of the internal HTTP transports:

• Internal transports do not support Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).
• Existing Common Gateway Interface (CGI) support must be implemented as servlets. That is, convert any existing CGI programs to servlets.
• Internal transports do not support session affinity for workload balancing.
• Because static content can not be served directly by an external HTTP server, overall application server performance can be adversely affected.
• Web servers generally are more susceptible to security exposures than application servers are. If a production environment includes an external Web server and an application server running on two separate machines, many of the Web server's security exposures can be limited to the machine where the Web server runs. However, if you use the internal HTTP transport, the internal HTTP transport always runs on the same machine as the application server. As a result, a security exposure in the Web server can expose both the Web server's and application server's environments.

For help with HTTP transport settings, see HTTP transport settings. For information about configuring, modifying, and removing internal HTTP transports, see these sections:

• Configure HTTP transports
• Modify HTTP transports
• Remove HTTP transports

Configure HTTP transports

To configure a new internal HTTP transport, follow these steps:

1. Start the administrative console.
2. In the topology tree, expand Servers and click Application Servers
3. Click the name of your application server.
4. On the application server page, click Web Container.
5. On the Web Container page, click HTTP Transports.
6. On the HTTP Transports page, click New.
Specify a host and port number for the transport. If you want to enable SSL for this transport, select Enable SSL and select an SSL settings type.
7. Click Apply or OK.
8. Save the configuration.
9. Restart the server.
10. Regenerate the Web server plugin configuration.

Modify HTTP transports

To modify the settings for an internal HTTP transport, follow these steps:

1. Start the administrative console.
2. In the topology tree, expand Servers and click Application Servers
3. Click the name of your application server.
4. On the application server page, click Web Container.
5. On the Web Container page, click HTTP Transports.
6. Click the host whose properties you want to set.
7. Make your changes. To configure custom properties, see Set custom properties for an HTTP transport.
8. Click Apply or OK.
9. Save the configuration.
10. Restart the server.
11. Regenerate the Web server plugin configuration.

Remove HTTP transports

To remove an internal HTTP tranpsport, follow these steps:

1. Start the administrative console.
2. In the topology tree, expand Servers and click Application Servers
3. Click the name of your application server.
4. On the application server page, click Web Container.
5. On the Web Container page, click HTTP Transports.
6. Select the check box for the transport that you want to remove.
7. Click Delete.
8. Save the configuration.
9. Restart the server.
10. Regenerate the Web server plugin configuration.

For more information about transports, see these topics:

Set custom properties for an HTTP transport
This page describes the custom properties that you can set for HTTP transports and how to set them.

Configure logging for internal HTTP transports
This topic describes how to configure error logging for HTTP transports.

Configure access logging for internal HTTP transports
This topic describes how to configure access logging for HTTP transports.