Creating generic appservers

 

Overview

There are two types of generic appservers:

• Non-Java applications or processes.

• Java applications or processes

You can use the wsadmin tool or the Create New Application Server panel of the administrative console to create either type.

Note: For the Base WebSphere Application Server product, although you can use the administrative console to create a generic appserver definition, you cannot use it to start, stop or, in any way, control or manage that appserver. The Base product administrative console can only be used to create server definitions and, if necessary, adjust the server definitions that it creates. To manage Base generic appservers, use the wsadmin tool.

• Create a non-Java application as a generic server. The following steps describe how to use the administrative console to create a non-Java application as a generic appserver.

  1. Select Servers > Application Servers

  2. Click New. This brings you to the Create New Application Server panel.

  3. Follow the instructions on the Create New Application Server panel to define your generic server.

     • Select a node for your generic server.

     • Type in a name for the generic server. The name must be unique within the node.

       Note: It is highly recommended that you use a naming scheme that makes it easy to distinguish your generic appservers from regular Websphere Application Servers. This will enable you to quickly determine whether to use the Terminate or Stop button in the administrative console to stop specific appserver. You must use the Terminate button to stop a generic appserver.

     • Do not change the default values for the HTTP transports.

     • Select a template to use in creating the new server. You can use a default appserver template for your new server or use an existing application server as a template. The new appserver will inherit all properties of the template server.

     • If you create the new server using an existing appserver do not enable the option to map applications from the existing server to the new server. This option does not apply for a generic server.

  4. Click Next

  5. Click Finish.The generic server now appears as an option on the Applications Server panel in the administrative console.

  6. On the Applications Server panel, Click on the name of the generic server.

  7. Under Additional Properties click Process Definition.

  8. In the Executable name field under General Properties, enter the name of the non-WebSphere program that is to be launched when you start this generic server. Executable target type and Executable target properties are not used for non-Java applications. Executable target type and Executable target properties are only used for Java applications

  9. Click OK.

• Create a Java application as a generic server:The following steps describe how to use the administrative console to create a Java application as a generic appserver.

  1. Select Servers > Application Servers

  2. Click New. This brings you to the Create New Application Server panel.

  3. Follow the instructions on the Create New Application Server panel to define your generic server.

     • Select a node for your generic server.

     • Type in a name for the generic server. The name must be unique within the node.

       Note: It is highly recommended that you use a naming scheme that makes it easy to distinguish your generic appservers from regular Websphere Application Servers. This will enable you to quickly determine whether to use the Terminate or Stop button in the administrative console to stop specific appserver. You must use the Terminate button to stop a generic appserver.

     • Do not change the default values for the HTTP transports.

     • Select a template to use in creating the new server. You can use a default appserver template for your new server or use an existing application server as a template. The new appserver will inherit all properties of the template server.

     • If you create the new server using an existing appserver do not enable the option to map applications from the existing server to the new server. This option does not apply for a generic server.

  4. Click Next

  5. Click Finish.The generic server now appears as an option on the Applications Server panel in the administrative console.

  6. On the Applications Server panel, Click on the name of the generic server.

  7. Under Additional Properties click Process Definition.

  8. In the Executable name field under General Properties, enter the path for Websphere Application Server's default JVM (${JAVA_HOME}/bin/java), which will be used to run the Java application when you start this generic server.

  9. In the Executable target type field under General Properties, select whether a Java class name, JAVA_CLASS, or the name of an executable JAR file, EXECUTABLE_JAR, will be used as the executable target of this Java process. The default for Websphere Application Server is JAVA_CLASS.

  10. In the Executable target field under General Properties, enter the name of the executable target. (Depending on the executable target type, this will be either a Java class containing a main() method, or the name of an executable JAR file.) The default for Websphere Application Server is com.ibm.ws.runtime.WsServer.

  11. Click OK.

      Note: If the generic server is to execute an appserver other than the WebSphere Application Server, leave the Executable name field set to the default value and specify the Java class containing the main function for your application serve in the Executable target field.

 

Results

You can now start and terminate the generic server whenever you want to start or terminate the non-WebSphere appserver or process associated with this server.

---

Application servers

Configuring appservers

Example: Managing generic servers using wsadmin
    

 

---