You can use developer tools to create and start a remote Liberty
server.
Before you begin
You must meet prerequisites for your local system and your remote system.
- The local system refers to the system where you installed the developer tools.
- The remote system refers to the system where you have Liberty runtime environment
that is installed and a Liberty server created.
For your remote system, ensure that you call the configUtility to download and
set up the remoteAdministration snippet from the repository. Copy the
config text that is retrieved by the configUtility into the
server.xml file. For more information, see configUtility command.
You can use the following sample remote configuration as an example for your
server.xml file:
<server description="new server">
<!-- Enable features-->
<featureManager>
<feature>restConnector-1.0</feature>
</featureManager>
<keyStore id="defaultKeyStore" password="password" />
<quickStartSecurity userName="admin" userPassword="password"/>
<httpEndpoint id="defaultHttpEndpoint" host="*" httpPort="9080" httpsPort="9443"/>
<remoteFileAccess>
<writeDir>${server.config.dir}</writeDir>
<writeDir>${server.output.dir}</writeDir>
<writeDir>${wlp.user.dir}</writeDir>
</remoteFileAccess>
</server>
Procedure
- In the workbench, open the Servers view by clicking the Servers
tab.
Tip: If the Servers view is not visible, navigate to and type Server in the filter text. Then, select
Servers.
- Right-click within the Servers view and select .
- Under the server type list, expand IBM and select the
WebSphere Application Server Liberty server type.
- Enter the host name of the remote server.
- Click Next. The Liberty Runtime Environment page is displayed.
Tip: If you already have a Liberty run time that is installed, you will go
directly to the New Remote Liberty Server page, skip to Step 7.
Select an installation, install from an archive file, or (for the no-charge developer edition)
download and install Liberty. If you previously installed Liberty, complete the following steps:

Select Choose an existing installation.

In the Path field, type or browse for the directory where you installed
the Liberty runtime environment.

On the Liberty Runtime Environment page, click
Next. The application-serving environment is selected, and now you can skip to Step 7.
If you want to install Liberty from an archive file that was previously downloaded,
complete the following steps:

Select Install from an archive or repository, and click
Next.

In the Destination field, type or browse for the directory where you
want to install the Liberty runtime environment. If you type a path that does not exist, then a folder for that path is created automatically at
the end of Step 12.

Select Install a new runtime environment from an archive.

In the Path field, either type or browse to the archive file on the
local file system, and click Next.
- In the Install Add-ons page, click Install or
Install Pending to make your selection of add-on archive files that you want
to install on the Liberty runtime environment.
You can install an add-on archive file from your local file system, download, or use a
combination of both when you install multiple add-on archive files. If the workbench is connected to
the internet, the Install Add-ons page is populated with add-on archive files
available for download from the WAS dev community download site.
This download site includes add-ons that you can select from the Liberty Repository, such as
runtime features, samples, or open source integration.
If you want to install add-on archive files from your local file system, click Add
Archive. In the Add-on archive field, type or browse for the
add-on archive file on the local file system, and then click OK. If you have
more add-on archive files to install from your local file system, repeat this step until you are
done.
If you want to install add-on files from a custom repository, first add the repository by
clicking Configure Repositories. Click New... to add
the repository. The files are then added to the list of add-on files.
After you complete your selection in the Install Add-ons page, click
Next.
- In the License Acceptance page, if you accept the license terms, select
I accept the terms of all the license agreements then click
Next.
Now you can skip to Step 7.
If you want to download and install the no-charge developer edition of Liberty,
complete the following steps:

Select Install from an archive or respository, and click
Next.

In the Destination field, type or browse for the directory where you
want to install the Liberty runtime environment. If you type a path that does not exist, then a folder for that path is created automatically at
the end of Step 12.

Select Download and install a new runtime environment from ibm.com,
choose a runtime environment version, and then click Next.
- In the Install Add-ons page, click Install or
Install Pending to make your selection of add-on archive files that you want
to install on the Liberty runtime environment.
You can install an add-on archive file from your local file system, download, or use a
combination of both when you install multiple add-on archive files. If the workbench is connected to
the internet, the Install Add-ons page is populated with add-on archive files
available for download from the WAS dev community download site.
This download site includes add-ons that you can select from the Liberty Repository, such as
runtime features, samples, or open source integration.
If you want to install add-on archive files from your local file system, click Add
Archive. In the Add-on archive field, type or browse for the
add-on archive file on the local file system, and then click OK. If you have
more add-on archive files to install from your local file system, repeat this step until you are
done.
If you want to install add-on files from a custom repository, first add the repository by
clicking Configure Repositories. Click New... to add
the repository. The files are then added to the list of add-on files.
After you complete your selection in the Install Add-ons page, click
Next.
- In the License Acceptance page, if you accept the license terms, select
I accept the terms of all the license agreements then click
Next.
Now you can skip to Step 7.
- Complete the user ID, password, and port information for the remote server and click
Verify.
Important: - The user ID and password must have the appropriate security credentials as defined by the
quickStartSecurity configuration item or the user registry of the remote Liberty
server.
- The port is the HTTPS port that is configured in the server.xml file.
After you click
Verify, if you see the following message, a local server
or remote server is already created with the same name.
The Liberty server already exists
You can verify this situation by expanding the
following folders in the Enterprise Explorer view and seeing the listed servers in the following projects:
- WebSphere Application Server Liberty
- WebSphere Application Server Liberty (Remote)
The remote directory is shown on the same page if the connection is successful. To resolve this
issue of two servers with the same name, you can rename the Remote Directory folder on the remote
system.
- In the New Remote Liberty Server page, click
Next.
The Remote WebSphere Application Server Settings page is displayed.
- If you do not want to enable remote start, stop, and restart, ensure that Enable the
server to start remotely is cleared, click Next, and skip the
next step.
- Enable remote start, stop, and restart.
- Select Enable the server to start remotely.
- Select whether your remote server is installed on the Windows operating system or other operating systems.
- Enter the location of the runtime installation and server configuration.
For more information, see the Directory locations and properties topic.
- Enter the remote server authentication information.
For authentication, complete one of the following options.
- To access the remote server with logon credentials, enter your user name and password.
- To access the remote server with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), copy the private key file to the
computer where the workbench is installed, and specify the key file location and user ID.
For more information about starting a remote server, see the Starting a remote WebSphere Application
Server topic.
- Optional: Add the projects of your application to the server. On the Add and
Remove page, under the Available list, select the projects that
you want to add to the server and click Add. The project appears in the
Configured list.
- Click Finish.
What to do next
- Edit the server configuration. When you make edits, the remote servers synchronize configuration
changes with the remote version of the file. If the configuration files are out of sync with the
remote server, then the developer tools prompt you before they overwrite any remote files. For more information, see the Administering Liberty by using developer tools topic where you can review information specific to remote servers.
Additionally, see the Editing the Liberty configuration by using developer tools topic.
- Start or stop the server, add or remove applications on the server, and many
other tasks. You can
perform these tasks by using the server menu (right-click on the server to open the pop-up menu) or
by selecting the tray buttons in the Servers view.
Tip: In the Servers view, you must
select the server entry to perform these tasks. Do not select the server configuration, such as the
Server Configuration [server.xml] entry for performing these tasks.