WebSphere Application Server Tutorial and FAQ — WAS in 5 Minutes

If you’re developing applications for WAS and you’re new to it, this is what you need to know:

* What is the default URL of the admin console: https://$hostname:9043/ibm/console.
* What are the default ports: HTTP: 9080, HTTPS: 9443.
* How to locate the logs: Logs can be found under $install_root/profiles/$profile_name/logs/$server_name. The default profile name is AppSrv01 and the default server name is server1. Example:/usr/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/AppSrv01/logs/server1. SystemOut.log is the file containing everything that was logged to standard out. Logs can also be viewed from the admin console by navigating to Troubleshooting/Logging and Tracing/server_name/Runtime.
* How to start/stop a server: If you’re dealing with a “Network Deployment” type of installation (multiple application servers running under the control of the “deployment manager”), your can start/stop a server from the console (Server/Server Types/WebSphere application servers). Otherwise you have to do it from command line. Go to install_root/bin and run ./startServer.sh server_name, e.g., ./startServer.sh server1 (this assumes that your installation has only one profile defined, otherwise you may need to “cd” to the profile_name/bin directory). Make sure that you run all commands using the appropriate system account. To stop the server, run ./stopServer.sh server_name -username user_name -password password. user_name and password is the credentials of an admin account, typically the same one you use to login to the console.
* How to deploy an application: In admin console, navigate to Applications/Application Types/WebSphere enterprise applications, click on “Install new application”, select “Fast path”, accept all the defaults except that on “step 2” make sure that you targeted correct servers (if you have multiple servers/clusters in your environment). Note that you can deploy a WAR file directly, you don’t have to build an EAR. In this case, make sure that you set a context root on “step 4” screen of the wizard.
* How to change context root of a Web application: Go to Applications/Application Types/WebSphere enterprise applications/application_name/Context Root For Web Modules in the console. Re-start the application after the change.
* How to change the order of classloaders: If you’re getting a ClassNotFoundException when you’re starting the app, changing the order of classloaders is the first thing you may want to try. Go to Applications/Application Types/WebSphere enterprise applications/application_name/Manage Modules/module_name and make the appropriate selection in the “Class loader order” drop-down (this assumes you’re doing it for a WAR module).
* How to enable dynamic class reloading: If you need to frequently update your deployed application (e.g., you use a local WAS installation for development), enabling dynamic reloading could be a huge time saver. Go to your application in the console, “Class loading and update detection”, set “Override class reloading settings …” and set polling interval to 2 seconds. See this post for more details on how to configure your development environment to support class reloading.
* How to find a host name and a port of the server: Go to Server/Server Types/WebSphere application servers. You’ll find the host name in the Host Name column. To find a port, click on your server, and expand Ports. WC_defaulthost is the HTTP port and WC_defaulthost_secure is the HTTPS port.
* How to kill a JVM: If the normal “stop” routine failed to stop the server in a reasonable amount of time, you may need to kill it. In a “Network Deployment” environment, simply navigate to the list of servers, select the server and click “Terminate”. A node agent will kill the JVM for you. To achieve the same from command line (the only option if you’re running standalone), cd to install_root/profiles/profile_name/logs/server_name, and kill the process ID contained in the file server_name.pid. On Unix, you can simply do kill -9 `cat server1.pid` (assuming server1 is your server name). Use task manager or taskkill /PID on Windows.
* How to browse JMS messages: Go to Buses/Your bus name/Destinations/Your destination/Queue points/Your queue point/Runtime/Messages.
* Where to find configuration files: WAS has many configuration files, most of them are in XML/XMI format. The files are located under $install_root/profiles/$profile_name/config/cells/$cell_name.

This post is part of the series on WebSphere Application Server administration. Please subscribe to our blog if you’d like to receive updates.

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