Publishing projects to a WebSphere Application Server v5.x

The server tools feature allows you to publish projects on a separate local or remote installation of WebSphere Application Server v5.x. When you select Run on server for a project or resource, the server tools automatically do the following things:

• Validates the server configuration to ensure that the projects that are defined in the server configuration are consistent with the projects in the workspace

• Tries to connect to the application server

• Updates the server configuration with the remote configuration information that is defined in the server

• Provided that the Automatically publish before starting servers check box is selected in the Server preferences page ( Window > Preferences > Server), the following things are done:
  • Publishes the server configuration to the WebSphere server using the remote file transfer mechanism defined in the server.

  • Publishes the application to the local or remote machine.

Note:For remote WebSphere Application Server v6.0, the Agent Controller is no longer required. You must run the WebSphere File Transfer servlet application, filetransfer.ear. This application is installed and started on the WebSphere v6.0 server by default.

To publish your project on WebSphere Application Server v5.x,...

1. Set up WebSphere Application Server v5.x with Agent Controller.

2. Define WebSphere Application Server for publishing.

3. (Optional) If you installed IBM HTTP server when you installed WebSphere Application Server, and you want to test using IBM HTTP server in the application server, select the Generate plug-in configuration check box on the Overview page of the server editor. The plugin-cfg.xml file will be generated and published in the following directory under the WebSphere deployment directory:

   config/cells

   For more information, on the replacement of default WebSphere Application Server files, refer to the related topic about reverting the published server configuration to the original server configuration.

4. By default, when WebSphere Application Server starts, the system class path for the machine is not added to the application server process. If you do want to add the system class path to the application server process, then do the following steps before you start the server:
   1. Stop the server.

   2. Edit the pluginconfig.xml file, under the directory x:\plugins\com.ibm.etools.websphere.tools\config, where x is the directory where Agent Controller is installed.

   3. For the following application, change the position parameter of the CLASSPATH variable from replace to prepend:
      • For WebSphere Application Server v5: wteRemoteV5.exe

      • For WebSphere Application Server v5.1: wteRemoteV51.exe

      For example, your change should look similar to this:

      <Application configuration="default" executable="wteRemoteV5.exe" location="%WAS_HOME_V5%" path="%WAS_HOME_V5%\java\bin\javaw.exe">
      
          <Variable name="CLASSPATH" position="prepend" value="%RASERVER_HOME%\plugins\com.ibm.etools.websphere.tools\lib\wasToolsCommonV5.jar;%RASERVER_HOME%\plugins\com.ibm.etools.websphere.tools\lib\wteServersV5.jar;%LOGUTIL_CP%;%WAS_HOME_V5%\properties;%WAS_HOME_V5%\lib\bootstrap.jar;%WAS_HOME_V5%\lib\lmproxy.jar"/>
      
          <Variable name="PATH" position="prepend" value="%WAS_HOME_V5%\bin"/>
      
      </Application>

   4. Save your changes.

   5. Restart Agent Controller.

5. Add the project to the server.

6. In the Navigator view, right-click the project that you want to run on the application server and select Run on Server. The server selection dialog box opens.

7. Select the WebSphere server you just created and click Finish. When the server is started, the server tools automatically do the following for you:
   • Publishes the server configuration on the target application server.

   • Publishes the application that you want to test on the target application server.

   • Starts the server.
   Important: Do not stop Agent Controller when a remote server is starting or started; otherwise, the server process in the remote server may not be properly stopped. You may then need to manually terminate the remote server process in the remote machine, for example by using the Windows Task Manager on Windows.

8. When you have finished testing your project on the application server, stop the server

9. Stop Agent Controller on the remote machine.

Note: When publishing to remote WebSphere servers, the remote machine must have the same codepage as the local machine. Running the local and remote server with different codepages is not supported and may cause the console to become corrupted.

Setting up WebSphere Application Server for publishing
The server tools feature allows you to publish projects on a separate local or remote installation of WebSphere Application Server.

Defining a WebSphere server for publishing
The server tools feature simplifies the effort required to test and publish applications on a variety of servers. If your target server is WebSphere Application Server running locally or on a separate machine, provide information about how the server tools should transfer files to the server. You do this when you define the server.

Reverting the published server configuration to the original server configuration for WebSphere Application Server v5.x
If you select the Use default WebSphere deployment directory check box when creating a WebSphere Application Server v5.x and then publish using this server, the default WebSphere Application Server cells directory is replaced with the published version.