If you have WebSphere Application Server installed on your z/OS
system, you can configure an application server that is running on that system
to communicate with a Web server and Web server plug-in for WebSphere Application
Server that is running on a distributed platform, such as Linux or Microsoft
Windows.
About this task
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 WebSphere Application Server 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.
Before you begin:
The WebSphere Application Server for z/OS product package
contains the Web server plug-ins for Web servers that run on distributed platforms
and are supported by the WebSphere Application Server Version 6 products.
See Configuring a Web server and an application server on separate machines (remote) to install the Web
server plug-ins before you begin this procedure.
Procedure
- Go to the WebSphere Application Server administrative console that
is 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.
- Generate a plug-in configuration file. The plug-in configuration
file that is created when you run the Plug-in installation wizard does not
include any information about the a/OS applications for which it will be receiving
requests. Therefore, you must use the WebSphere Application Server 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:
- Select Servers > Web Servers > web_server >
plug-in properties.
- 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:
- Click OK.
- Optional: Make any additional changes to the plug-in
configuration file. Usually, you will not have to make any manual
changes to the plug-in configuration file you just created. However if you
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 you 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
- Optional: To enable the Application Server to use the
private headers that the Web server plug-in sends, make sure the transport
you are using is configured for SSL and is trusted. If your transport
is a transport chain you must 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.
If you are using an HTTP transport, make
sure the transport is configured
for SSL and the TrustedProxy custom
property for the transport is set to true.
After you enable the
use of private headers, this transport trusts all inbound private headers
it receives. Therefore, you must ensure that all inbound paths to this transport
are trusted.
- If you want 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.
- Download the newly generated plug-in configuration file to the
Web server. You must replace the plug-in configuration file the
Plug-in installation wizard created with the one you 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 that contains the plug-in
configuration file that the Plug-in installation wizard generated.
Results
The configuration is complete. To activate the configuration, stop
and restart both the WebSphere Application Server that is running on your
z/OS system , and the Web server that is running on your workstation.