TCP transport channel settings

Use this page to view and configure a TCP transport channels. This type of transport channel handles inbound TCP/IP requests from a remote client.

To view this administrative console page, click Servers > Server Types > WebSphere application servers > server_name > Ports. Click View associated transports for the port that is associated with the TCP transport channel whose settings you want to view.

Transport channel name

Specifies the name of the TCP transport channel.

The name field cannot contain the following characters: # \ / , : ; " * ? < > | = + & % '

This name must be unique across all channels in a WebSphere® Application Server environment. For example, an HTTP proxy inbound channel and a TCP transport channel cannot have the same name if they reside within the same system.

Information Value
Data type string

Port

Specifies the TCP/IP port this transport channel uses to establish connections between a client and an application server. The TCP transport channel binds to the host names and ports listed for the Port property. You can specify the wildcard * (an asterisk), for the host name if you want this channel to listen to all hosts that are available on this system. However, before you specify the wildcard value, make sure this TCP transport channel does not have to bind to a specific host name.

Information Value
Data type string
[AIX Solaris HP-UX Linux Windows][IBM i]

Thread pool

This field applies only for IBM® i and distributed platforms. Select from the list the thread pool you want the TCP transport channel to use when you dispatch work.

[z/OS]On the z/OS® platform, this field is not available for TCP channels that are members of a web container transport chain. These TCP channels run with specialized internal thread pools to minimize thread context switches and improve performance.

Maximum open connections

Specifies the maximum number of connections that are available for a server to use.

Leave the Maximum open connections property set to the default value 20000, which is the maximum number of connections allowed. The transport channel service by default manages high client connection counts and requires no tuning.

For version 8.0.0.2 and higher, the range of connections you can specify is 1 - 128,000 inclusive.

Information Value
Default 20,000

Inactivity timeout

Specifies the amount of time, in seconds, that the TCP transport channel waits for a read or write request to complete on a socket.

If client connections are being closed without data that is written back to the client, change the value specified for the Inactivity timeout parameter. This parameter controls the maximum number of connections available for a server's use. Upon receiving a new connection, the TCP transport channel waits for enough data to arrive to dispatch the connection to the protocol-specific channels above the TCP transport channel. If not enough data is received during the time period that is specified for the Inactivity timeout parameter, the TCP transport channel closes the connection.

The default value for this parameter is 60 seconds, which is adequate for most applications. You should increase the value that is specified for this parameter if your workload involves numerous connections and all of these connections cannot be serviced in 60 seconds.

Avoid trouble: The value that is specified for this property might be overridden by the wait times established for channels above this channel. For example, the wait time that is established for an HTTP transport channel overrides the value specified for this property for every operation except the initial read on a new socket.
Information Value
Data type Integer
Default 60 seconds

Address exclude list

Lists the IP addresses that are not allowed to make inbound connections.

Use a comma to separate the IPv4 or IPv6 or both addresses to which you want to deny access on inbound TCP connection requests.

All four numeric values in an IPv4 address must be represented by a number or the wildcard character * (an asterisk).

Following are examples of valid IPv4 addresses that can be included in an Address exclude list: 
*.1.255.0
254.*.*.9
1.*.*.*

All eight numeric values of an IPv6 address must be represented by a number or the wildcard character * (an asterisk). No shortened version of the IPv6 address should be used. Even though a shortened version is processed with no error given, it does not function correctly in this list. Each numeric entry should be a 1- 4 digit hexadecimal number.

Following are examples of valid IPv6 addresses that can be included in an Address exclude list: 
0:*:*:0:007F:0:0001:0001
F:FF:FFF:FFFF:1:01:001:0001
1234:*:4321:*:9F9f:*:*:0000
Avoid trouble: The Address include list and Host name include list are processed before the Address exclude list and the Host name exclude list. If all four lists are defined, the following cases are true:
  • An address that is defined on either inclusion list is allowed access provided it is not included on either of the exclusion lists.
  • If an address is included in both an inclusion list and in an exclusion list, it is not allowed access.

Address include list

Lists the IP addresses that are allowed to make inbound connections. Use a comma to separate the IPv4 or IPv6 or both addresses to which you want to grant access on inbound TCP connection requests.

All four numeric values in an IPv4 address must be represented by a number or the wildcard character * (an asterisk).

Following are examples of valid IP addresses that can be included in an Address include list: 
 *.1.255.0
 254.*.*.9
 1.*.*.*

All eight numeric values of an IPv6 address must be represented by a number or the wildcard character * (an asterisk). No shortened version of the IPv6 address should be used. Even though a shortened version is processed with no error given, it does not function correctly in this list. Each numeric entry should be a 1- 4 digit hexadecimal number.

Following are examples of valid IPv6 addresses that can be included in an Address include list: 
0:*:*:0:007F:0:0001:0001
F:FF:FFF:FFFF:1:01:001:0001
1234:*:4321:*:9F9f:*:*:0000
Avoid trouble: The Address include list and the Host name include list are processed before the Address exclude list and the Host name exclude list. If all four lists are defined:
  • An address that is defined on either inclusion list is allowed access provided it is not included on either of the exclusion lists.
  • If an address is included in both an inclusion list and in an exclusion list, it is not allowed access.

Host name exclude list

List the host names that are not allowed to make connections. Use a comma to separate the URL addresses to which you want to deny access on inbound TCP connection requests.

Avoid trouble: The host name in the exclude list is not case-sensitive.

A URL address can start with the wildcard character * (an asterisk) followed by a period. See the following example: *.Rest.Of.Address. If a period does not follow the wildcard character, the asterisk is treated as a normal non-wildcard character. The wildcard character cannot appear anywhere else in the address. For example, ibm.*.com is not a valid host name.

Following are examples of valid URL addresses that can be included in a Host name exclude list: 
*.ibm.com
www.ibm.com
*.com
Avoid trouble: The Address include list and Host name include list are processed before the Address exclude list and the Host name exclude list. If all four lists are defined, the following cases are true:
  • An address that is defined on either inclusion list is allowed access provided it is not included on either of the exclusion lists.
  • If an address is included in both an inclusion list and in an exclusion list, it is not allowed access.

Host name include list

Lists the host names that are allowed to make inbound connections. Use a comma to separate the URL addresses to which you want to grant access on inbound TCP connection requests.

Avoid trouble: The host name in the include list is not case-sensitive.

A URL address can start with the wildcard character * (an asterisk) followed by a period. See the following example: *.Rest.Of.Address. If a period does not follow the wildcard character, the asterisk is treated as a normal non-wildcard character. The wildcard character cannot appear anywhere else in the address. For example, ibm.*.com is not a valid host name.

Following are examples of valid URL addresses that can be included in a host name include list: 
*.ibm.com
www.ibm.com
*.com
Note: The Address include list and Host name include list are processed before the Address exclude list and the Host name exclude list. If all four lists are defined:
  • An address that is defined on either inclusion list is allowed access provided it is not included on either of the exclusion lists.
  • If an address is included in both an inclusion list and in an exclusion list, it is not allowed access.