Windows stand-alone: Preparing a remote Web server

Install and configure the web server plug-in, provided by IBM® WebSphere® Application Server to set up your web server to communicate with IBM WebSphere Portal Express®.

Prerequisites
Windows stand-alone: Converting the evaluation license
Windows stand-alone: Configuring your portal to use a database

About this task

Complete the following steps to install and configure your web server:

Procedure

  1. Install and configure the web server; refer to the web server documentation for information.
  2. If you are using Microsoft™ Internet Information Server, update the UrlSegmentMaxLength Registry key to a value of 0. This update helps to eliminate potential problems in a WebSphere Portal Express environment with the default IIS limitation on the length of URL path segments. Update the AllowRestrictedChars Registry key to a value of 1 to accept hex-escaped characters in request URLs that decode to the U+0000 - U+001F and U+007F - U+009F ranges.
    Note: Refer to Http.sys registry settings for IIS for information.
  3. If you are using IBM Lotus® Domino®, edit the NOTES.INI file on the web server. Set the HTTPEnableConnectorHeaders and HTTPAllowDecodedUrlPercent parameters to 1. Also, if you are using WebDAV, enable it in the Lotus Domino Webserver administrative console.
  4. If you are using IBM HTTP Server or Apache Server, edit the httpd.conf file on the web server. Set the AllowEncodedSlashes directive to On; the directive must be added at the root level as a global directive.
    Table 1. Links to HTTP and Apache server documentation
    HTTP server type Documentation link
    See the appropriate HTTP Server documentation IBM HTTP Server
    See the appropriate Apache Server documentation AllowEncodedSlashes directives
  5. Stop the web server.
  6. Install and configure the web server plug-in on the system where the web server is located by using the plug-ins installation wizard that is provided with WebSphere Application Server. Refer to Selecting a Web server topology diagram and road map or for information.
    If using WebDAV with mashups: After successfully installing the web server plug-in, locate and open your plugin-cfg.xml file and set AcceptAllContent to true.
    Important: Depending on how you use the web server, you might need to adjust the ServerIOTimeout value, which defines how long the plug-in must wait for a response from the application. The recommended minimum value is 60 but you might need to adjust this value higher if you are retrieving data from a database. To update this value, locate and open your plugin-cfg.xml file and set ServerIOTimeout to a value that is appropriate for your business needs. For more information, see Common questions about the Web server plug-in.
  7. If you are using a Oracle iPlanet Web Server, some portlets require that you disable the unix-uri-clean or nt-uri-clean directives to operate properly. You can enable/disable these directives by editing the obj.conf file. Refer to the Oracle iPlanet Web Server documentation to determine the appropriate setting for your environment.
    Note: If you are using Oracle iPlanet Web Server Version 7, you must disable uri-clean.
  8. If you are using Oracle iPlanet Web Server Version 7 update 8, read technote 1448262 and complete the steps to resolve the HTTP 408/409 error.
  9. Some features, such as portal mashups and change layout for pages with the Page Builder theme by using an IIS web server, require an enabled PUT and DELETE method. If your web server has these methods disabled, complete one of the following options
    • Enable HTTP tunneling to simulate PUT and DELETE requests, which means that POST requests are used instead. See the "Switch for tunneling of HTTP methods" link for information.
    • Follow the instructions for your web server to enable PUT and DELETE requests.
  10. Start the web server.
  11. Optional: Complete the following steps if you plan to use the Web application bridge integration feature:
    1. Log on to the WebSphere Integrated Solutions Console.
    2. Go to Applications > Application Types > WebSphere enterprise applications.
    3. Find and click the wp.vwat.servlet.ear application link.
    4. Under the Web Module Properties heading, click Context Root For Web Modules.
    5. Change the context root to /. This step can create name conflicts. Add a rewrite rule to avoid these conflicts. Read Apache Module mod_rewrite and for information.
    6. Click OK.
    7. Click Save to save your changes to the master configuration.
    8. Stop and restart the wp.vwat.servlet.ear application.