22/05/2024 11:46 How to Use Nginx with WebSphere Application Server?
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How to Use Nginx with WebSphere Application
Server?
Last updated: August 28, 2023
Geekflare articles are written by humans for humans.
Chandan Kumar
Contributor
IBM WAS (WebSphere Application Server) usually go with IBM HTTP Server, However; then this
quick guide will help you.
IHS is based on Apache HTTP server, and it works, but when it comes to performance, then
nothing beat Nginx web server.
Nginx market share is gradually increasing in top million busiest sites.
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22/05/2024 11:46 How to Use Nginx with WebSphere Application Server?
Let’s see what it takes to integrate Nginx with IBM WAS. The following is demonstrated in
Linux environment.
I assume you have installed WAS & Nginx. If not, here is quick guide to installing Nginx
Login into Web Server
Install using following commands
yum install epel-release
yum install nginx
Few things to note when using Nginx.
You don’t need to use the WebSphere Plug-in. Instead, we will use proxy_pass
You can either forward all request to WebSphere or by context root in location directive
You need to specify all JVM host and port manually in Nginx configuration file
Let’s get it started…
Login to Nginx server
Take a backup of nginx.conf file (/etc/nginx/nginx/conf in default installation location)
Add the following upstream under http block
upstream wasservers {
server localhost:9080;
server localhost:9081;
}
In above example, I am creating an upstream backend called “wasservers” and have
configured two JVM. You can configure as many as you need.
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22/05/2024 11:46 How to Use Nginx with WebSphere Application Server?
Note: if your WAS server is different than Nginx then you got to ensure necessary ports are
allowed in the firewall.
Next, I will instruct Nginx to forward all request to a newly created wasservers backend.
Add the following proxy_pass under location block
proxy_pass http://wasservers;
it should look like this
location /
{
proxy_pass http://wasservers;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
}
Restart the Nginx web server
service nginx restart
Let’s verify by accessing WAS application through Nginx listening address
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22/05/2024 11:46 How to Use Nginx with WebSphere Application Server?
So you can see I got cachemonitor application opened through Nginx.
This is very basic configuration to get IBM WAS integrated with Nginx as front-end web
server.
You may also be interested in exploring additional Nginx configuration like;
Configuring load balancing – you can setup a load balancing to distribute request based on
client IP. This would be useful or necessary if you have multiple JVM’s and want to persist the
connection.
This is possible by adding ip_hash in an upstream module. For ex:
upstream wasservers {
ip_hash;
server localhost:9080;
server localhost:9081;
}
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22/05/2024 11:46 How to Use Nginx with WebSphere Application Server?
Taking WAS JVM out – if you have configured multiple JVM’s and for some reason one of
them are having an issue, then you have two options.
Either you delete the JVM server: port from an upstream module or
leverage down parameter to temporarily disable the request forwarding.
For ex:
upstream wasservers {
ip_hash;
server localhost:9080;
server localhost:9081 down;
If you are looking for advanced configuration like session affinity, health checks, etc., hen you
got to use Nginx Plus.
I hope this short note give you an idea how to implement Nginx as a web server in front of
IBM WAS. You may also refer to IBM official guide for more details.
Chandan Kumar
Contributor
Chandan Kumar is a founder of Geekflare. He has been instrumental in the development of
valuable content and resources for a global audience of businesses and individuals.
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