SOAP Gateway architecture

The SOAP Gateway installation is composed of three distinctive parts for flexible installation and for ease of system maintenance. This architecture provides flexibility in server installation and maintenance, allowing the system administrator to install SOAP Gateway on different mount points or directories.

The three-part architecture separates the binary files that run the SOAP Gateway server and the management utility from server configuration files, and user files such as web services-related artifact files. The following diagram shows this architecture in the file system:
Figure 1. SOAP Gateway system layout for installation
Begin figure description. This diagram shows that the three parts of SOAP Gateway that can be installed on separate directories or mount points. End figure description.
imsserver
The imsserver component contains the SOAP Gateway management utility and other executable files that the SOAP Gateway server runs on.
imsbase
The imsbase component contains the server configuration files and various log files.
imssoap
The imssoap component contains user-deployed web service-related files, such as the correlators, WSDL files, and other Java™ class files or libraries for custom authentication modules.

This separation is specified during installation by specifying the location for each of the three parts by using the IBM® Installation Manager. If no custom location is specified, by default all parts are installed under the same directory or mount point. The three parts, after installation, must be able to communicate with each other, such as over a shared drive, or in the same LPAR or Sysplex. The imsserver component must be able to access the files in the other two components as if they were local.

The support for installing the three parts of SOAP Gateway under different directory or mount point provides several advantages:
  • User files or web service-related artifacts can be stored separately from the server executable files and configuration information. Subsequent application of services or installation of maintenance releases do not affect user files.
  • Installation of the imsserver component can be done in READ ONLY mode. Because no log files or user data are written to this component, system security is enhanced.
  • When server log files or web service artifacts increase in size, additional storage can be allocated without shutting down the server.