Admin Center is a web user interface that runs
on Liberty V8.5.5.2 and later servers. After
installing Liberty and creating a server,
configure the server.xml file.
In version 21.0.0.4 and
later, see the Open Liberty website for Admin Center documentation.
Before you begin
Install WebSphere® Application Server Liberty with Liberty
Administrative Center ("Admin Center"). The Installing Liberty Repository assets topic lists the ways to
install assets such as Admin Center. The quickest
way to install Admin Center is to run the
installUtility command or the featureManager command:
- If you have not done so already, install WebSphere Application Server Liberty V8.5.5.2 or later.
Restriction: Ensure that you use a Java virtual machine (JVM) that supports Liberty products and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
Do not use an IBM JVM available with a WebSphere Application Server traditional product, such as
Network Deployment, for your Liberty
installation with Admin Center. By default, the IBM JVM
available with a traditional product points to security classes that are available only with a
traditional product, and not to security classes needed by Admin Center. Using an IBM JVM available with a traditional
product can cause Admin Center to not display in a
browser.
- Open a command window at the main directory of the Liberty installation. For example, open a command
window at c:\wlp.
- Run a command to install the
adminCenter-1.0
feature.For Version 8.5.5.6 or
later, run the
installUtility
command:
bin/installUtility install adminCenter-1.0
For
Version 8.5.5.5 or earlier, run the
featureManager
command:
bin/featureManager install adminCenter-1.0 --when-file-exists=ignore
To install Admin Center on hosts
that cannot access the internet-based Liberty
repository, first install Liberty and the Admin Center feature on a host that can access the internet.
Then transfer the installation to the target hosts. The following information discusses
packaging.
About this task
You can set up Admin Center on stand-alone servers and
on collective controllers. This topic focuses on setting up a stand-alone Liberty server.
To enable Admin Center on a
collective controller, see Configuring a Liberty collective. Ensure the
server.xml file of the collective controller includes
<feature>adminCenter-1.0</feature>
in the feature manager configuration and
sets a host
value in the httpEndpoint
element, such as
host="*"
so all hosts can access the collective controller.
Procedure
-
If your Liberty installation does not
have a server, create a Liberty server.
For example, in a command window at the wlp/bin directory, create a server
named myServer
.
server create myServer
The example command adds server files to the wlp/usr/servers/myServer
directory.
-
Open an editor on the server.xml file of the Liberty server, and configure the server for Admin Center.
-
Add the
adminCenter-1.0
feature to the feature manager.
<featureManager>
<feature>adminCenter-1.0</feature>
</featureManager>
For more timely updates to server and application status in the Explore tool, also add the
websocket-1.1
or websocket-1.0
feature to the server
configuration.
<featureManager>
<feature>adminCenter-1.0</feature>
<feature>websocket-1.1</feature>
</featureManager>
WebSocket provides a live view of the topology regardless of size. Without the WebSocket feature,
Admin Center periodically and frequently polls for
changes.
-
Add one or more users to configure a secure login.
For
example:
<quickStartSecurity userName="admin" userPassword="adminpwd" />
If user names or passwords include non-English characters, create the
jvm.options file for the server and define the default client encoding as
UTF-8:
-Ddefault.client.encoding=UTF-8
For information about the
jvm.options file, see
Customizing the Liberty environment.
Configure administrative
roles.
<basicRegistry realm="basicRealm">
<user name="admin" password="adminpwd" />
<user name="reader" password="readerpwd" />
</basicRegistry>
If user names or passwords include non-English characters, create the jvm.options file
for the server and define the default client encoding as UTF-8:
-Ddefault.client.encoding=UTF-8
For information about the jvm.options
file, see Customizing the Liberty environment
- Configure administrative roles required to access the Admin
Center.
A user with the administrator-role has full access to the Admin Center.
<administrator-role>
<user>admin</user>
</administrator-role>
A user with the reader-role has read-only access to the Admin Center.
<reader-role>
<user>reader</user>
</reader-role>
-
To protect keystore files that have server authentication credentials, define a keystore and
assign it a password.
<keyStore id="defaultKeyStore" password="Liberty" />
For an example server.xml file that defines an Administrator and a
non-Administrator and that defines a keystore, see the Example in this topic. For information about defining multiple administrative users, see
Example: Using BasicRegistry and role mapping
on Liberty.
-
To access Admin Center from a smartphone, tablet, or
remote computer, ensure that the server.xml file sets the
host
attribute of the httpEndpoint
element to *
(asterisk) or to a
defined host name. By default, the host
attribute is set to
localhost
.
<httpEndpoint id="defaultHttpEndpoint"
host="*"
httpPort="9080"
httpsPort="9443" />
-
Save your changes to the server.xml file.
If you defined the default client encoding as UTF-8 for non-English characters in the
jvm.options file and the user registry is in
quickStartSecurity
or basicRegistry
elements, which store user
names and passwords in the server.xml file, then save the
server.xml file in UTF-8 encoding.
-
If the server is not running, start the server.
For example, in a command window at the wlp/bin directory, enter a
run or start command.
server run myServer
Look for server messages that show the adminCenter
web application is running.
After Admin Center is running, you can point a web
browser at the application and log in. See Logging in to Admin Center.
Example: server.xml file that defines two authorized users
<server description="new server">
<!-- Enable features -->
<featureManager>
<feature>adminCenter-1.0</feature>
</featureManager>
<!-- Define the host name for use by the collective.
If the host name needs to be changed, the server should be
removed from the collective and re-joined. -->
<variable name="defaultHostName" value="localhost" />
<!-- Define an Administrator and non-Administrator -->
<basicRegistry id="basic">
<user name="admin" password="adminpwd" />
<user name="nonadmin" password="nonadminpwd" />
</basicRegistry>
<!-- Assign 'admin' to Administrator -->
<administrator-role>
<user>admin</user>
</administrator-role>
<keyStore id="defaultKeyStore" password="Liberty" />
<httpEndpoint id="defaultHttpEndpoint"
host="*"
httpPort="9080"
httpsPort="9443" />
</server>