Configuring IBM HTTP Server with WebSphere Application Server

The IBM HTTP Server archive installation is primarily targeted for Liberty, but you can use it with WebSphere Application Server.

1. If you installed IBM HTTP Server on an unmanaged node, you must configure and start the IBM HTTP Server admin server to allow WebSphere to start/stop IBM HTTP Server and to propagate configuration files for the web server plug-in.
   The user and group that are specified in the following substeps are an operating system user and group. This document uses userid "ihsadmin" and group "ihsgroup" but you substitute any unprivileged username and group name, such as "nobody".
   1. Run the following command to change to the root IHS directory:

      cd /path/to/IHS

   2. Run the following command to configure conf/admin.conf:

      bin/postinst -i $PWD -t setupadm -v ADMINPORT=8008 -v SETUPADMUSER=ihsadmin -v SETUPADMGROUP=ihsgroup

   3. Run the following command to configure the HTTP basic authentication user and password:

      bin/htpasswd -c conf/admin.passwd ihsadmin

      The username that is specified in this sub step can be any value and is shared between conf/admin.passwd and the WebSphere Application Server webserver definition. It is not related to any operating system user, it is only used for HTTP Basic Authentication.

      If you require SSL between the WebSphere Admin Console and the IHS Admin Server, establish SSL trust by creating SSL keystores and adding the issuers of your application servers trust chain.

   4. If IBM HTTP Server will be started by root (UID 0), run the following command as root to enable the admin console to propagate the Plug-in configuration file.

      bin/setupadm -usr ihsadmin -grp ihsgroup -cfg conf/httpd.conf 
      -plg plugin/config/webserver1/plugin-cfg.xml -adm conf/admin.conf

   5. Run the following command: bin/adminctl start.
   6. Run the following command:

      bin\httpd.exe -k install -n IHSADMIN -f conf/admin.conf 
      bin\httpd.exe -k start -n IHSADMIN

2. Create the webserver definition in WebSphere Application Server.
   1. Create an unmanaged node.
   2. Create a server of type WebServer on the appropriate node. When prompted for the plug-in installation root, supply the IBM HTTP Server root with plugin appended to it.
3. Map existing applications to the new webserver. From the Applications menu, select an application then Manage Modules to perform the mapping.
4. Generate and propagate configuration from the application server to the webserver.
   1. From the Servers > Web Servers view, generate and propagate the WebSphere Application Server plug-in configuration.
5. Configure or disable SSL.
   1. If you do not require SSL between the WebSphere Application Server WebServer Plug-in and the application server, append the following snippet to conf/httpd.conf to offload SSL to IBM HTTP Server:

      SetEnv ssl-map-mode offload

   2. Click Copy to WebServer keystore directory to establish trust between on the Plugin Properties tab of the new WebServer server.
6. Restart the IBM HTTP Server.
   1. Run bin/apachectl restart to restart the server.
   2. Run bin\httpd.exe -k restart to restart the server.