Customizing Business Automation Workflow to work with a web server

After you install and configure Business Automation Workflow, you must customize your environment so that it can function properly as a cluster with a web server.

Before you begin

This topic describes only the additional Business Automation Workflow configuration that is required after configuring a web server in your WebSphere Application Server cell, as described in Implementing a web server plug-in. Sticky sessions, or session affinity, are also required for proper clustering behavior, and if you do not set up sticky sessions, you might see one or more of the following results:

Unusual or unexpected User is not authenticated messages.
A node goes offline and the portal becomes unavailable while other nodes are still running.
Inconsistent data is returned when you are using the common URL set up by the load balancer. However, you see correct data if you do the tasks directly on a node.
Between tasks, users are asked to log in again before the session times out.

Some Business Automation Workflow applications enforce HTTPS, and therefore also rely on a secure connection between the web server and WebSphere Application Server. See the links under "Related information" for more details.

This task uses the setBPMVirtualHost and setBPMDefaultVirtualHost commands, which are run using the AdminTask object of the wsadmin scripting client. To run the commands, the following prerequisites must be met:

The commands must be run on the deployment manager node.
If the deployment manager is stopped, use the wsadmin -conntype none option to run the commands in disconnected mode.
If the deployment manager is running, you must connect with a user ID that has WebSphere Application Server configurator privileges. Do not use the wsadmin -conntype none option.

Start the wsadmin scripting client from the deployment_manager_profile/bin directory. The setBPMVirtualHost and setBPMDefaultVirtualHost commands do not write to a log file, but the wsadmin scripting client always writes a profile_root/logs/wsadmin.traceout log file where you will find exception stack traces and other information.

Make sure that the Workflow Server or Workflow Center has been installed and configured, and that you have configured the deployment environment. You cannot start the cluster until you have completed the procedures in this topic.

About this task

If you use a web server as an entry point into your network, you must configure virtual host information about the web server so that Business Automation Workflow generates URLs that are based on the host name of the web server.

Procedure

The following procedure describes the steps to follow for a simple configuration. For an advanced configuration, refer to the topic "Configuring Business Automation Workflow endpoints to match your topology."

Stop the deployment manager.
Start the wsadmin scripting client from the deployment manager profile /bin directory:
```
wsadmin -conntype none -lang jython
```

Create the virtual host object for your web server:

webserver_vh = AdminTask.setBPMVirtualHost( [ '-de', 'De1', '-name', 'webserver_vh', '-transportProtocol', 'https', '-hostname', 'webserver.example.com' ] )

Note: If there is only one deployment environment in the WebSphere cell, you can omit the -de parameter.

Point to the newly created Business Automation Workflow virtual host from the EXTERNAL_CLIENT endpoint scenario:
```
AdminTask.setBPMEndpoint( [ '-de', 'De1', '-scenario', 'EXTERNAL_CLIENT', '-virtualHost', 'webserver_vh' ] )
```
Note: If there is only one deployment environment in the WebSphere cell, you can omit the -de parameter.
Save your changes:
```
AdminConfig.save()
```
Restart the deployment manager.
Map each application's web modules to your web server.
This is in addition to the cluster mapping that is done when the deployment environment is created. For more details, see Mapping modules to servers.
Note:
- Existing applications are mapped to the web server by default when it is created if Application mapping to the web server is set to ALL. If the default cluster mappings are removed, the application does not function properly.
- The ICMBPMServices application is not mapped to the web server by default, you must map this application to the web server manually. For more information, see Mapping modules to servers.
- When web module mappings are changed, you must regenerate the web server plug-in and propagate it to the web server. For more information, see Plug-ins configuration.