2 Configuring Standalone Oracle HTTP Server with Oracle Application Server

This chapter contains information about configuring a standalone Oracle HTTP Server 1.3 installation to communicate with an existing Oracle Application Server, 10g Release 2 (10.1.2) middle-tier installation. The standalone installation of Oracle Application Server for Oracle HTTP Server 1.3 does not contain Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control Console, and Distributed Configuration Management, which make configuration and management of groups of servers (farms) simple in the Oracle Application Server installation. Without these helpful tools, several manual configuration steps are needed to configure the standalone Oracle HTTP Server 1.3 installation to interoperate with an existing managed Oracle Application Server middle-tier installation.

Topics discussed are:

• Configuration Checklist

• Installing Standalone Oracle HTTP Server

• Configuring OPMN

• Configuring mod_oc4j

• Configuring Single Sign-On

2.1 Configuration Checklist

Before configuring the standalone Oracle HTTP Server 1.3 installation, verify the following:

• Assure that all the standard (managed) Oracle Application Server, 10g Release 2 (10.1.2), instances are installed and configured as desired. You must configure all instances prior to configuration of the standalone Oracle HTTP Server 1.3 listener. Any changes to the standard Oracle Application Server OC4J configuration, such as adding and removing a server from a cluster, or adding a new instance, will require a reconfiguration of the standalone (manually managed) installation.

  
  

  See Also: Oracle Application Server Administrator's Guide Oracle Application Server High Availability Guide

  
  

• Install and configure the standalone Oracle HTTP Server 1.3. These instructions assume that all instances of the Oracle HTTP Server 1.3 and the regular Oracle Application Server middle-tier have been installed prior to proceeding with the configuration steps described in the following sections.

2.2 Installing Standalone Oracle HTTP Server

Standalone Oracle HTTP Server is distributed on the OracleAS Companion CD, which is included in the Oracle Application Server CD Pack.

Following are instructions for installing standalone Oracle HTTP Server:

1. Insert the OracleAS Companion CD, and do the following to launch the Oracle Universal Installer to install standalone Oracle HTTP Server:

   • On UNIX:

     prompt > cd

     prompt > mount_point/1012disk1/runInstaller

   • On Windows:

     If your computer supports the auto-run feature, then the installer launches automatically.

     If your computer does not support auto-run, then double click on the setup.exe file to launch the installer.

2. When Oracle Universal Installer appears, review the Welcome screen, and click Next.

3. If this is the first time you are installing any Oracle products on your computer, the Specify Inventory Directory and Credentials screen appears:

   Enter the following information on this screen:

   • Full Path of the Inventory Directory: Enter the full path to a directory for the installer's files. Enter a directory that is different from the Oracle home directory for the product files.

     For example: /opt/oracle/oraInventory

   • Operating System Group Name: Enter the name of the operating system group that has write permissions for the inventory directory.

     For example: oinstall

   Click Next. A window appears and asks you to run orainstRoot.sh. Run the script in a different shell as the root user. The script is located in the oraInventory directory. Click Continue.

4. On the Specify File Locations screen, enter the following information:

   • Name: Enter a name to identity this Oracle home. The name cannot contain spaces, and has a maximum of 16 characters.

     For example: OH_STANDOHS

   • Destination Path: Enter the full path to the destination directory. This is the Oracle home. If the directory does not exist, the installer creates it. If you want to create the directory beforehand, create it as the oracle user; do not create it as the root user.

     For example: /opt/oracle/STANDOHS

   Click Next.

5. On the Select a Product to Install screen, select Web Server Services 10.1.2.0.0, and click Next.

6. On the Select Installation Type screen, select the standalone Oracle HTTP Server installation of your choice, and click Next.

7. On the Summary screen, verify your selections, and click Install.

8. The Install Progress screen displays the progress of the installation.

9. On the Configuration Assistants screen, monitor the progress of the configuration assistants. The configuration assistants configure the installed components. You will be prompted to run root.sh. Run the script in a different shell as the root user. Click OK.

10. The End of Installation screen appears once the installation has completed. Click Exit to quit the installer.

See Also: Oracle Application Server Installation Guide

2.3 Configuring OPMN

Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server (OPMN) consists of the following two components that interpret and convey notification sent between Oracle Application Server processes within the same or different OPMN servers:

• Oracle Notification Server: Oracle Notification Server (ONS) is the transport mechanism for failure, recovery, startup, and other related notifications between components in Oracle Application Server. It operates according to a publish-subscribe model: an Oracle Application Server component receives a notification of a certain type per its subscription to ONS. When such a notification is published, ONS sends it to the appropriate subscribers.

• Oracle Process Manager: Oracle Process Manager (PM) is the centralized process management mechanism in Oracle Application Server and is used to manage Oracle Application Server processes. It starts, stops, restarts, and detects death of these processes. The Oracle Application Server processes that PM is configured to manage are specified in the opmn.xml file.

See Also: Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server Administrator's Guide

Perform the following steps to configure Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server.

1. Copy the ons.conf configuration file from the regular Oracle Application Server middle-tier installation to the corresponding directory in the Oracle HTTP Server 1.3 installation. This file is located in the ORACLE_HOME/opmn/conf directory. Edit the ons.conf file to add all of the Oracle HTTP Server 1.3 standalone instances in the manually managed cluster. The new ons.conf file should contain a list of all the instances in the managed Oracle Application Server installation, and each of the manually managed instances as well.

   The following is the ons.conf file format:

   nodes=<host_name | host_ip>[:port] [,<host_name | host_ip>[:port]] [, ...]
   
   

   For example:

   nodes=managed1:6000,managed1:6300,unmanaged2:6400
   
   

2. To determine the correct ONS remote listening port, examine the OPMN configuration file of each manually managed instance (located at ORACLE_HOME/opmn/conf/opmn.xml). The ONS remote listening port value is specified by the "remote" attribute of XML element located at /opmn/notification-server/port in the opmn.xml file.

   For example:

   If opmn.xml on unmanaged2 contains:

   <opmn>
     <notification-server>
       <port local='6100' remote='6400' request='6300'/>
     ...
     </notification-server>
   <...>
   </opmn>
   
   

   Then, the ons.conf file should contain:

   nodes=managed1:6200,unmanaged1:6300,unmanaged2:6400
   
   

3. If a host is multi-homed (is configured with multiple IP addresses), it is best to set the /opmn/notification-server/ipaddr "remote" attribute in the opmn.xml file. This attribute will bind the ONS listener to a single valid IPv4 address or host name. If this attribute is not set, or the ipaddr element is omitted, then ONS will enable listening on all IP addresses on a multi-homed host.

   For example:

   The host unmanaged2 is multi-homed, with IP addresses of 10.1.1.1 and 10.1.2.1. To restrict ONS to listen on only the 10.1.1.1 IP address, modify the opmn.xml file as follows:

   <opmn>
     <notification-server>
       <ipaddr remote='10.1.1.1'/>
       <port local='6100' remote='6400' request='6300'/>
     ...
     </notification-server>
   <...>
   </opmn>
   
   

   ons.conf should look like the following:

   nodes-managed1.oracle.com:6200,unmanaged1.oracle.com:6300,10.1.1.1.1:6400
   
   

4. Make sure to create an entry in the ons.conf file for every single Oracle Application Server instance in the cluster. Copy this manually created file to each of the other unmanaged Oracle HTTP Server 1.3 instances in the cluster. The ons.conf configuration data should match both the "remote" and "ipaddr" setting, if present, in the opmn.xml configuration file for each unmanaged node.

2.4 Configuring mod_oc4j

Manually managed Oracle HTTP Server 1.3 listeners must be configured to route traffic to the managed Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE installations as follows:

1. Configure OC4J on the managed cluster.

   
   

   See Also: Oracle HTTP Server Administrator's Guide Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE User's Guide

   
   

2. For each manually managed standalone Oracle HTTP Server 1.3 instance, assure that the mod_oc4j.conf file is configured to point to the managed cluster and instance.

   For example, a manually managed Oracle HTTP Server 1.3 listener is configured to direct traffic to the cluster named managed1, instance name home is used in the mod_oc4j.conf file:

   Oc4jMount /MyApp/* cluster://managed1:home
   
   

3. A mount point must be added for each application for which routing is needed.

4. Restart Oracle HTTP Server to allow configuration changes to take effect.

   • UNIX: ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin> opmnctl [verbose] restartproc ias-component=HTTP_Server

   • Windows: ORACLE_HOME\opmn\bin> opmnctl [verbose] restartproc ias-component=HTTP_Server

5. Each time a new application is configured, Oracle HTTP Server 1.3 standalone mod_oc4j.conf must be modified to reflect these changes.

2.5 Configuring Single Sign-On

If single sign-on functionality is desired for the standalone Oracle HTTP Server 1.3 install, manually managed Oracle HTTP Server 1.3 listeners may be registered with Oracle Application Server Single Sign-On by performing the following steps:

1. Configure the Partner Application using SSO Server Administration tool.

   
   

   See Also: Oracle Application Server Single Sign-On Administrator's Guide

   
   

2. Manually create the osso.conf file. This is accomplished by cutting and pasting the required data from the Edit Partner Application screen, after the Partner Application had been configured.

   For example, the Edit Partner Application screen will display the necessary configuration data for creating the osso.conf file. The following shows an Edit Partner Application page sample:

   ID: 643C32F6
   Token: Q2057R2D646C20F1
   Encryption Key: 3F46C27C5153B7C7
   Login URL: http://foobar.us.oracle.com:7778/pls/orasso.wwsso_app_admin.ls_login
   Single Sign-Off: http://foobar.us.oracle.com:7778/pls/orasso.wwsso_app_admin.ls_logout
   
   

   The data provided from the Edit Partner Application screen can be used to manually create a clear-text osso.conf configuration file as follows:

   sso_server_version=v1.4
   cipher_key=3F46C27C5153B7C7
   site_id=643C32F6
   site_token=Q2057R2D646C20F1
   login_url=http://foobar.us.oracle.com:7778/pls/orasso.wwsso_app_admin.ls_login
   logout_url=http://foobar.us.oracle.com:7778/pls/orasso.wwsso_app_admin.ls_logout
   cancel_url=http://foobar.us.oracle.com:7778
   
   

3. Copy the newly created file to the osso configuration directory:

   ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/conf/osso/osso.conf cleartext
   
   

4. The plain-text file must now be obfuscated to protect the encryption key information. This is accomplished by using the apobfuscate tool located in ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/bin directory as following:

   ../../bin/apobfuscate osso/conf/cleartext osso.conf
   
   

5. Restart Oracle HTTP Server to allow the configuration to take effect.

   • UNIX: ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin> opmnctl [verbose] restartproc ias-component=HTTP_Server

   • Windows: ORACLE_HOME\opmn\bin> opmnctl [verbose] restartproc ias-component=HTTP_Server