Resolving communication problems with remote servers

If you are having problems communicating with a remote server, such as problems in publishing to the remote server or obtaining the status of the server, it is possible that the server settings or system settings on the remote machine are not correctly set up.

About this task

There are numerous scenarios where you can encounter problems in communicating with remote servers. In many of these scenarios, your first indication of trouble will be when one of several Publishing failed messages is issued. Also, if you are attempting to run a component test on an application that resides on a remote machine and the integration test client fails to communicate with the remote server on the machine, you may see the following message (where application_name is the name of the application):

Starting the integration test client has encountered a problem. Cannot start application application_name.

In many situations, communication problems with remote servers are caused by incorrect server settings or system settings on the remote machine. To ensure that these settings are correct, complete the steps in the following procedure.

Procedure

In the file system of the remote machine, open the file serverindex.xml that is located in the installation path of your server profile. The default installation path for a server profile is:
C:\IBM\BPM\v7.5\profiles\profile_name\config\cells\cell_name\nodes\node_name\serverindex.xml

For example:

C:\IBM\BPM\v7.5\profiles\AppSrv01\config\cells\localhostNode01Cell\nodes\nlNode01\serverindex.xml
In the serverindex.xml file, ensure that the hostName parameter is not set to localhost (which can cause problems in publishing and reporting status for the server). If it is set to localhost, change the value of the hostName parameter to the actual host name. For example:
```
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<serverindex:ServerIndex xmi:version="2.0"
 xmlns:xmi="http://www.omg.org/XMI"
 xmlns:serverindex="http://www.ibm.com/websphere/appserver/schemas/5.0/serverindex.xmi"
 xmi:id="ServerIndex_1"
 hostName="MyHostName">
<serverEntries ...
```
Tip: You can change the value of the hostName parameter to the actual host name at the command line level or console. To change the value of hostName, see Changing the node host names.
Save your changes and restart the remote server.
If you continue to experience problems in communicating with the remote server, complete the following steps:
1. In the file system of the local machine where IBM® Integration Designer is installed, open the file hosts that is located in the following path:
  C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
2. In the hosts file, ensure that there is an entry to map the IP address of the remote server to its host name. Any entry that maps an IP address to a host name must be specified on a separate line in the file. The IP address must be placed in the first column followed by at least one space and then the corresponding host name. For example:
  9.186.64.134 MyRemoteServerHostName
3. Save your changes.
4. Republish to the remote server. (If you are working with the integration test client, you can click the Run icon to republish.)