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Connecting JRun to External Web Servers


Connection overview

To process J2EE applications, a web server acts as a client that communicates with JRun. Therefore, the web server must establish a connection to JRun. A JRun connector is a filter that intercepts requests to the external web server and determines whether to pass the requests to the web server or process them by JRun. JRun provides native server connection modules that make this connection.

A native server connection module is compiled for the specific web server, hardware architecture, and operating system. JRun has connectors for NSAPI, ISAPI, and Apache 1.3 and 2.0 DSO interfaces, which support NES, Zeus, IIS, and Apache web servers for each JRun-supported hardware architecture and operating system.

JRun 4 can function as a stand-alone Java application server and as a plug-in module that adds web application support to an existing web server. As a stand-alone product, JRun serves up pages using its integrated JRun Web Server (JWS). As a plug-in module, you use the Web Server Configuration tool to connect JRun to your external web server.

JRun supports a wide variety of web servers. The basic procedure for configuring the connection between JRun and a web server is the same for all web servers, however, each web server has unique configuration information and settings.

You typically use the Web Server Configuration tool to configure a connection between the web server and JRun server running on the same computer. However, you do not have to install the web server and JRun on the same computer. When you connect JRun to an external web server, you must choose a JRun server or cluster that will process the web server requests.

Note:   If the JRun server participates in a cluster, the web server connector automatically enables load balancing and failover.

For a more in-depth discussion of JRun connectors and how to set up JRun in a distributed environment, see JRun Administrator's Guide.

Note:   The JRun server must be installed and started before running the Web Server Configuration tool. Running the Web Server Configuration tool requires Administrator privilege (Windows NT) or root privilege (UNIX).

Connecting JRun to external web server

The following is a general procedure for connecting JRun to an external web server.

To connect JRun to an external web server:

  1. Install JRun and start the JRun server to which you are connecting. If the JRun server is part of a cluster, start all JRun servers in the cluster.

    For details, see Chapter 2, "Installing JRun".

  2. Install and run the JRun Web Server Configuration tool on the machine that contains the external web server.

    For details, see "Running the Web Server Configuration tool".

  3. Verify the connection between JRun and the web server.

    For details, see "Verifying the connection between JRun and your external web server".

The remaining sections describe this procedure for specific web servers supported by JRun:
Web server
Platform
IIS 4.0/5.0
Windows NT/2000/XP
Apache 1.3.20 or later, 2.0
All supported platforms
Netscape (iPlanet) 3.6, 4.0, and 6.0
All supported platforms
Zeus 4.0
All supported Linux platforms and Solaris

For a detailed list of supported web servers and platforms, see "System requirements for installing JRun," in Chapter 1.

Using Secure Sockets Layer

JRun lets you use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for communications between the web server and a JRun server. Typically, this is not necessary because the web server is behind a firewall in most production environments. However, you can use SSL with the web server connector for maximum security.

To enable SSL for the web server connector, you must configure the JRun server ProxyService for SSL before running the Web Server Configuration tool.

To enable SSL for the web server connector:

  1. Generate a keystore using the following Java keytool command; for example:
    keytool -genkey -dname "cn=<server name or IP address>, ou=JRunEngineering, o=Macromedia,
     L=Newton, ST=MA, C=US" -keyalg rsa -keystore <keystore name>

    When prompted, enter appropriate passwords that have six or more characters.

  2. To add certificates to the keystore, rerun the keytool command.

    Note:   In a production environment you obtain a signed certificate from a certificate authority.

  3. Open the jrun.xml file and set the ProxyService keyStore, keyStorePassword, and trustStore (optional) attributes to appropriate values.

    The keyStore and trustStore attributes are the paths and filenames of the keystore and truststore files.

  4. Download and build OpenSSL. The OpenSSL distribution is available at http://openssl.org in a tar.gz file. You must download the distribution and build it for your operating system based on the included installation instructions. Place the compiled OpenSSL code in a directory that is in your system path, such as jrun_root/servers/lib.
  5. Run the Web Server Configuration tool.

    For details, see "Running the Web Server Configuration tool".

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