Web server plug-in properties settings
Use this page to view or change the settings of a web server plug-in configuration file. The plug-in configuration file, plugin_cfg.xml, provides properties for establishing communication between the Web server and the Application Server.
To view this administrative console page, click
.On the Configuration tab, you can edit fields. On the Runtime tab, you can look at read-only information.
The Runtime tab is available only when this web server has accessed applications running on application servers and there is an http_plugin.log file.
Ignore DNS failures during web server startup
Specifies whether the plug-in ignores DNS failures within a configuration when starting.
This field corresponds to the IgnoreDNSFailures element in the plugin-cfg.xml file.
When you set the value to true, the plug-in ignores DNS failures within a configuration and starts successfully if at least one server in each ServerCluster is able to resolve the host name. If a server host name cannot be resolved, it is marked unavailable for the continued existence of the configuration. Further attempts to resolve the host name are not made during the routing of requests. If a DNS failure occurs, a message is written to the plug-in log file and the plug-in initialization process continues.
By default, when the value is false, DNS failures cause the plug-in to not initialize and requests fail. However, the web server starts.
Information | Value |
---|---|
Data type | String |
Default | false |
Refresh configuration interval
Specifies the time interval, in seconds, at which the plug-in should check the configuration file to see if updates or changes have occurred. The plug-in checks the file for any modifications that have occurred since the last time the plug-in configuration was loaded.
In a development environment in which changes are frequent, a setting less than the default setting of 60 seconds is preferable. In production, a higher value than the default is preferable because updates to the configuration will not occur so often. If the plug-in reload fails for some reason, a message is written to the plug-in log file and the previous configuration is used until the plug-in configuration file successfully reloads. If you are not seeing the changes you made to your plug-in configuration, check the plug-in log file for indications of the problem.
Information | Value |
---|---|
Data type | Integer |
Default | 60 seconds. |
Plug-in configuration file name
Specifies the file name of the configuration file for the plug-in. The Application Server generates the plugin-cfg.xml file by default. The configuration file identifies applications, Application Servers, clusters, and HTTP ports for the web server. The web server uses the file to access deployed applications on various Application Servers.
If a different location is desired, you need to rerun the Plug-in Configuration Tool (pct) to define the new location, and then run the new configureWebserver script that is produced from the install process on your WebSphere Application Server machine.
If you select a web server plug-in during installation, the installer program configures the web server to identify the location of the plugin-cfg.xml file, if possible. The plug-in configuration file, by default, is installed in the plugins_root/config/web_server_name directory.
The installer program adds a directive to the web server configuration that specifies the location of the plugin-cfg.xml file.
For remote web servers, you must copy the file from the local directory where the Application Server is installed to the remote machine. This is known as propagating the plug-in configuration file. If you are using IBM HTTP Server V6.1 or higher for your web server, WebSphere® Application Server can automatically propagate the plug-in configuration file for you to remote machines provided there is a working HTTP transport mechanism to propagate the file.
You can click View to display a copy of the current plug-in configuration file.
Information | Value |
---|---|
Data type | String |
Default | plugin-cfg.xml |
Automatically generate plug-in configuration file
- This field must be checked.
- The plug-in configuration service must be enabled
- The WebSphere Application Server administrator defines new web server.
- An application is deployed to an Application Server.
- An application is uninstalled.
- A virtual host definition is updated and saved.
By default, this field is checked. Clear the check box if you want to manually generate a plug-in configuration file for this web server.
Automatically propagate plug-in configuration file
- This field must be checked.
- The plug-in configuration service must be enabled
- In a Network Deployment environment, a WebSphere Application Server node agent must be on the node that hosts the web server associated with the changed plug-in configuration file.
Because the plug-in configuration service runs in the background and is not tied to the administrative console, the administrative console cannot show the results of the automatic propagation.
For distributed platforms, you can check the related messages in the deployment manager SystemOut.log file to verify that the automatic propagation successfully completed.
For the z/OS platform, you can check the related messages in the TSO JOB log to verify that the automatic propagation successfully completed.
Plug-in key store file name
- Cick Manage keys and certificates to update this file.
- Click Copy to web server key store directory to add a copy of this file to the key store directory for the web server.
Information | Value |
---|---|
Data type | String |
Default | None |
Plug-in configuration directory and file name
Specifies the fully qualified path of the web server copy of the web server plug-in configuration file. This path is the name of the file and its location on the machine where the web server is running.
Plug-in key store directory and file name
Specifies the fully qualified path of the web server copy of the database file that contains your security key rings. This path is the name of the file and its location on the machine where the web server is running.
Plug-in logging
Specifies the location and name of the http_plugin.log file. Also specifies the scope of messages in the log.
The log describes the location and level of log messages that are written by the plug-in. If a log is not specified within the configuration file, then, in some cases, log messages are written to the web server error log.
On a distributed platform, if the log file does not exist then it will be created. If the log file already exists, it will be opened in append mode and the previous plug-in log messages will remain.
Log file name: The fully qualified path to the log file to which the plug-in will write error messages.
Information | Value |
---|---|
Data type | String |
Default | plugins_root/logs/web_server_name/http_plugin.log Specify the file path of the http_plugin.log file. |
- Trace. All of the steps in the request process are logged in detail.
- Stats. The server selected for each request and other load balancing information relating to request handling is logged.
- Warn. All warning and error messages resulting from abnormal request processing are logged.
- Error. Only error messages resulting from abnormal request processing are logged.
- Debug. All of the critical steps performed in processing requests are logged.
- Detail. All of the information about requests and responses are logged.
If a Log level is not specified, the default value Error is used.
Be careful when setting the level to Trace. A lot of messages are logged at this level which can cause the disk space/file system to fill up very quickly. A Trace setting should never be used in a normally functioning environment as it adversely affects performance.
ERROR: ws_config_parser:handleLogEnd: Failed to open log file '/opt/IBM/WebSphere/Plugin/logs/sunwebserver/http_plugin.log', OS
Information | Value |
---|---|
Data type | String |
Default | Error |