Chapter 12 Managing Named Configurations

This chapter describes adding, changing, and using named server configurations in Application Server. It contains the following sections:

About Named Configurations

Named Configurations

A named configuration is a set of server configuration information. This information includes configuration settings for things such as http listeners, orb/iiop listeners, JMS brokers, the EJB container, security, logging, and monitoring. Applications and resources are not defined in a named configurations.

Configurations are created in the administration domain. Multiple server instances or clusters in the domain can reference the same configuration, or they can have separate configurations.

For clusters, all server instances in the cluster inherit the cluster’s configuration so that a homogenous environment is assured in a cluster’s instances.

Because a named configuration contains so many required configuration settings, create a new configuration by copying an existing named configuration. The newly-created configuration is identical to the configuration you copied until you change its configuration settings.

There are three types of clusters and instances, depending on the way the clusters or instances use configurations:

Stand-alone. A stand-alone server instance or cluster doesn’t share its configuration with another server instance; that is, no other server instance or cluster references the named configuration.

Shared. A shared server instance or cluster shares a configuration with another server instance or cluster; that is, multiple instances or clusters reference the same named configuration.

Clustered. A clustered server instance inherits the cluster’s configuration.

The default-config Configuration

The default-config configuration is a special configuration that acts as a template for creating stand-alone server instance or stand-alone cluster configurations. No unclustered server instances or clusters are allowed to refer to the default-config configuration; it can only be copied to create new configurations. Edit the default configuration to ensure that new configurations copied from it have the correct initial settings.

Configurations Created when Creating Instances or Clusters

By default, new clusters or instances are created with configurations copied from the default-config configuration. To copy from a different configuration, specify it when creating a new instance or cluster.

For a server instance, the new configuration is named instance_name-config. For a cluster, the new configuration is named cluster-name-config.

Unique Port Numbers and Configurations

If multiple instances on the same host machine reference the same configuration, each instance must listen on a unique port number. For example, if two server instances reference a named configuration with an HTTP listener on port 80, a port conflict prevents one of the server instances from starting. Change the properties that define the port numbers on which individual server instances listen so that unique ports are used.

Port numbers for individual server instances are initially inherited from the configuration.

If the port is already in use when you create a server instance, override the inherited default value at the instance level to prevent port conflicts.

Assume an instance is sharing a configuration. The configuration has port number n. If you create a new instance on the machine using the same configuration, the new instance is assigned port number n+1, if it is available. If it is not available, the next available port after n+1 is chosen.

If you change the port number of the configuration, a server instance inheriting that port number automatically inherits the changed port number.

If you change an instance’s port number and you subsequently change the configuration’s port number, the instance’s port number remains unchanged.

Admin Console Tasks for Named Configurations

Creating a Named Configuration

In the tree component, select the Configurations node.

On the Configurations page, click New.

On the Create Configurations page, enter a unique name for the configuration.

Select a configuration to copy.

The configuration default-config is the default configuration used when creating stand-alone server instance or stand-alone cluster.

Editing a Named Configuration’s Properties

In the tree component, expand the Configurations node.

Select the node for a named configuration.

On the Configuration System Properties page, choose whether to enable dynamic reconfiguration.

If enabled, changes to the configuration are applied to the server instances without requiring a server restart.

Add properties, change current values for properties, or delete properties.

The properties that are already defined are ports. If more than one server instance exists on a system, the port numbers must be unique.

Table 12-1 Properties for Named Configurations
Property Name	Description
HTTP_LISTENER_PORT	This property specifies the port number for http-listener-1. Valid values are 1–65535. On UNIX, creating sockets that listen on ports 1–1024 requires superuser privileges.
HTTP_SSL_LISTENER_PORT	This property specifies the port number for http-listener-2. Valid values are 1–65535. On UNIX, creating sockets that listen on ports 1–1024 requires superuser privileges.
IIOP_SSL_LISTENER_PORT	This property specifies which ORB listener port for IIOP connections the IIOP listener called SSL listens on.
IIOP_LISTENER_PORT	This property specifies which ORB listener port for IIOP connections orb-listener-1 listens on.
JMX_SYSTEM_CONNECTOR_PORT	This property specifies the port number on which the JMX connector listens. Valid values are 1–65535. On UNIX, creating sockets that listen on ports 1–1024 requires superuser privileges.
IIOP_SSL_MUTUALAUTH_PORT	This property specifies which ORB listener port for IIOP connections the IIOP listener called SSL_MUTUALAUTH listens on.

Editing Port Numbers for Instances Referencing a Configuration

Each instance referencing a named configuration initially inherits its port numbers from that configuration. Since port numbers must be unique on the system, you might need to override the inherited port numbers.

In the tree component, expand the Configurations node.

Select the node for a named configuration.

On the Configuring System Properties page, click Instance Values next to the port number you want to edit.

For example, if you click Instance Values next to the SSL-port property, you see the value of SSL-port for every server instance that references that configuration.

Change the port values and click Save.