Configuring the Watson Explorer Engine Embedded Web Server

Note: An embedded web server is included with Watson™ Explorer Engine for development (testing) purposes. It is not to be used in production environments. For information on configuring Watson Explorer Engine for a production environment, see Configuring Watson Explorer Engine for Production Environments.

Watson Explorer Engine includes an embedded web server that can be used to isolate Watson Explorer Engine from any existing web server that is running on your system, or to provide a dedicated web server for use with Watson Explorer Engine API applications. How this web server runs on your system and any security that it uses are configured using the embedded-webserver-config command, which is explained in embedded-webserver-config Command.

Important: If you are using Watson Explorer Engine on a Microsoft Windows system, you should not attempt to use both Microsoft's IIS web server and the Watson Explorer Engine embedded web server to interact with the Watson Explorer Engine administration tool. These web servers typically execute as different users and groups, start processes using different user/group identities, and require different file permission and ownership settings on your Watson Explorer Engine installation. Use either one of these web servers exclusively when using the Watson Explorer Engine administration tool.

Any of the Watson Explorer Engine administration commands discussed in this section or in System Administration must be executed with at least the system privileges that you used when installing Watson Explorer Engine. In other words, if you installed Watson Explorer Engine as the root user on a Linux system or as Administrator on a Microsoft Windows system, you must execute the Watson Explorer Engine administration commands as that user or as another user with equivalent or superior privileges.

See Users and File Permissions for information about starting the embedded web server with administrative privileges but executing the web server process as another user. If you encounter an error when executing any of the embedded-webserver-config commands, see Command-Line Watson Explorer Engine Administration Commands for general information about resolving errors related to Watson Explorer Engine administrative commands.

To start and access the embedded web server:

  1. Use the embedded-webserver-config command (Linux) or embedded-webserver-config.exe command (Microsoft Windows) to:
    1. Enable the embedded web server, using the following command: 
      embedded-webserver-config
    2. Configure the user and group that the embedded web server should run as, using commands like the following: 
      embedded-webserver-config -user apache
embedded-webserver-config -group apache

      On a Linux system, you must configure the user and group that the embedded web server should run as.

      Setting the user and group configuration options is optional on a Microsoft Windows system, and depends on the user as whom you installed Watson Explorer Engine. See Web Server User Identity and File Permissions for detailed information about the user, file, and directory permissions that are required to create and modify Watson Explorer Engine data.

    You may also want to set other, optional configuration parameters. See embedded-webserver-config Command for detailed information about available configuration options and about using the command in general.

  2. Do one of the following to actually start the web server:
    • (Recommended) The engine-start command (Linux) or engine-start.exe command (Microsoft Windows) starts the web server, enables access to Watson Explorer Engine, and optionally starts other Watson Explorer Engine related processes. (See engine-start for detailed information about using this command.)
    • Use the embedded-webserver command (Linux) or embedded-webserver.exe command (Microsoft Windows) to manually start the web server, which is explained in embedded-webserver. This command will start the web server, but you may still not be able to access Watson Explorer Engine, depending on how it was last shut down on your system.

Once you have started the Watson Explorer Engine embedded webserver, you can complete your Watson Explorer Engine installation by accessing the Watson Explorer Engine administration tool through the embedded web server. If you do not know how to contact the Watson Explorer Engine embedded web server, you can use the is-running option of the embedded-webserver command (Linux) or embedded-webserver.exe command (Microsoft Windows) to show a URL that you can use to contact the web server.

For information about integrating the engine-start command into your system's startup and shutdown processes, see Command-Line Watson Explorer Engine Administration Commands.