WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Administration and Configuration Guide for the Full Profile

304 WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Administration and Configuration Guide for the Full Profile

application servers, and click the server name to open the configuration page. In the

Container settings section, expand Web Container Settings, and click Web container.

7.8 Creating and updating virtual hosts

By default, default_host is associated with all user application requests. The following

examples show cases in which multiple virtual hosts must be created:

 Applications with conflicting URIs

 Special support for extra ports

 Providing independence of each virtual host for applications and servers

To create a new virtual host:

1. Click Environment  Virtual hosts, and then click New.

2. Enter a name for the virtual host, and click Apply. Note that two links become active: Host

Aliases and MIME Types.

3. Click Host Aliases in the Additional Properties pane.

4. Click New.

5. Enter values for the Host Name and Port fields, and click OK.

The host aliases are not necessarily the same as the host name and port number of the

WebSphere Application Server servers. They are the host names and port numbers that

the web server plug-in is expecting to receive from the browser. The web server plug-in

sends the request to the application server using the host name and port number in the

transport setting for that server. If the web server is running on a separate machine from

WebSphere, the host aliases are for web server machines.

Mapping HTTP requests to host aliases is case sensitive and the match must be

alphabetically exact. Also, different port numbers are treated as different aliases. For

example, the request http://www.myhost.com/myservlet does

not map to any of the

following sites:

– http://myhost/myservlet

– http://www.myhost.com/MyServlet

– http://www.myhost.com:9876/myservlet

If the web server plug-in receives a request that does not match one of the virtual hosts, it

passes the request to the web server. The web server looks in the

web_server_root/htdocs directory for the content. If it finds the content, it serves the page

to the client. If it does not find the content, an HTTP 404 response is returned to the client.

Simple wild cards can be used on the host aliases. A * can be used for the host name, the

port, or both. It means that any request will match this rule.

6. Save your changes.

Host aliases can also be updated for virtual hosts through the administrative console. To

update, complete the following steps:

1. Click Environment  Virtual hosts.

2. Click the virtual host name to open the configuration page.

3. Click Host Aliases in the Additional Properties pane.

Note: If the virtual host is used in a cluster environment, all host aliases used by

servers in the cluster must be registered in the virtual host.