Setting up WebSphere Application Server for Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager

Deploying and starting the Jazz™ Team Server begins with the selection of the application server, which hosts the Jazz Team Server and its applications. Before you can deploy Rational® Engineering Lifecycle Manager applications war files, you must set up your WebSphere® Application Server.

Before you begin

Ensure you have completed the following tasks:

The Jazz web interface requires that authentication be configured in order to perform authorization and personalize the application.

Note:
  • Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager v1.x must share an application server with the Lifecycle Query Engine.
  • Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager v4.x can share an application server with the Lifecycle Query Engine or be deployed to a different application server. However both applications must be registered to the same Jazz Team Server.

About this task

This document does not provide details for configuring WebSphere authentication or SSL, which is a complex topic. Detailed information about the various authentication and encryption options is covered in the WebSphere Application Server Information Center. For more information, go to the WebSphere Information Center and use this phrase in search: Securing applications and their environment.

Procedure

  1. Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager requires several specific settings on the Java Virtual Machine in which it runs. To set these properties, in the WebSphere Integrated Solutions Console, click Servers > Server Types > WebSphere application servers > Server1.
  2. Under Server Infrastructure, click Java and Process Management > Process definition.
  3. Under Additional Properties, click Java Virtual Machine.
  4. Add the value 4096 to Initial Heap.
  5. Add the value 24576 to Maximum Heap Size.
    Tip: The figure here is only a suggestion; set the value according to your environment. A typical medium-size team can use a value of 4096 MB, providing 4 GB of heap memory for the Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager process on a 64-bit computer. If the Maximum Heap Size value is too small, the Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager data source to the Lifecycle Query Engine may stop processing the existing backlog and any new changes that create, modify, or delete products.

    It is also important to have more physical memory than is required by all of the processes on the machine combined to prevent paging or swapping. Paging reduces the performance of the system and affects the performance of the Java memory management system.

    When increasing the Java heap size, ensure that enough unused physical memory is available on the machine to cover the increase. If sufficient physical memory is not available, either install additional memory or take into account the effect on overall performance that occurs.

  6. In the Generic JVM arguments field, type the following line:
    Windows:
    -Xmx4g -Xms4g -Xmn512m
    -Xgcpolicy:gencon -Xcompressedrefs
    -Xgc:preferredHeapBase=0x100000000
    Linux:
    -Xmx4g -Xms4g -Xmn512m
    -Xgcpolicy:gencon -Xcompressedrefs
    -Xgc:preferredHeapBase=0x100000000
    Tip: If you need more heap size, then you can use the following setting, replacing {N} with the amount of memory to be used and {N/8} with 1/8 of the total memory. For example, if -Xmx is set to 8g, -Xmn should be set to 1g.
    -Xgcpolicy:gencon -Xmx{N} -Xms{N} -Xmn{N/8}
    -Xcompressedrefs  -Xgc:preferredHeapBase=0x100000000
  7. Click Apply, and then click Save directly to the master configuration.
  8. One of the custom properties you must add is JAZZ_HOME, a system property that specifies where to find certain configuration files. This property uses a URL rather than a simple path, so specify the value as a file-style URL: file:///file path. Under Java Virtual Machine > Additional Properties, click Custom properties.
    Remember: You must use three forward slashes (///) after file:
    Important: In a distributed environment, when you are using a separate application server for each web application, you must add these custom properties for each instance of the WebSphere Application Server.
  9. Click New, enter JAZZ_HOME in the Name field, and enter file:///JazzInstallDir/server/conf in the Value field. Substitute JazzInstallDir with the location of Jazz Team Server installation directory. For example, enter file:///C:/PROGRA~1/IBM/JazzTeamServer/server/conf on Windows or enter file:///opt/IBM/JazzTeamServer/server/conf on Linux systems.
    Note: To avoid problems, do not use spaces in file paths. For the Program Files directory you can use PROGRA~1, and for the Program Files (x86) directory, you can use PROGRA~2.
  10. Click OK.
  11. Repeat step 10 and add these custom properties:
    • Name: java.awt.headless Value: true
    • Name: org.eclipse.emf.ecore.plugin.EcorePlugin.doNotLoadResourcesPlugin Value: true
    • If you are connecting to an Oracle database, Name: ORACLE_JDBC_DRIVER_FILE Value: Absolute path to the JDBC driver/ojdbc6.jar
      Note: The path to the JDBC driver must be an absolute path. Do not use URL path (file:///). For more information about Oracle Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) connections, see Setting up an Oracle database for Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager and the Lifecycle Query Engine
    • Name: log4j.configuration Value: file:///JazzInstallDir/server/conf/startup_log4j.properties
      Note: The settings that the startup_log4j.properties file contains are used at the early stages in the startup process to pass messages to the WebSphere Application Server SystemOut.log file. After the early stages, each Jazz application switches to using the application-specific settings from the JazzInstallDir/server/conf/app context/log4j.properties file.
  12. Click Save directly to the master configuration.
  13. Increase the default thread pool to allow for multiple users. Click Servers > Server Types > WebSphere application servers > Server1.
  14. Under Additional Properties, click Thread pools.
  15. Click WebContainer, and increase the default maximum size from 50 to 200 threads.
  16. Click Save directly to the master configuration.
  17. Click Servers > Server types > Application servers > Server1 > Session management > Custom properties. On the Custom properties page, click New.
  18. On the Configuration page, enter InvalidateOnUnauthorizedSessionRequestException in the Name field, and enter true in the Value field. The default value for this session management custom property is false. Click OK or Apply.
  19. Click Save on the console task bar to save your configuration changes.
  20. For changes to take effect, restart the application server.

What to do next

Once you have configured the server, you need to deploy the application files to it.

  1. From the WebSphere Application Server administrative console, select Applications > Install New Application (or Applications > New Application > New Enterprise Application).
  2. Under Path to new Application, select Local file system.
  3. Under Full path, enter [relm_install_dir]/server/webapps/relm.war
  4. Set the context root to /relm
  5. Click Next, then continue with the remaining Install New Application steps as prompted by that editor. Click Finish.
  6. Install the Configuration Management application, vvc.war, using the same steps as above, substituting [relm_install_dir]/server/webapps/vvc.war for the path, and /vvc as the context root.
  7. Install the SPARQL Gateway component application, SPARQL_Gateway.war, using the same steps as above, substituting [relm_install_dir]/server/webapps/SPARQL_Gateway.war for the path, and /SPARQL_Gateway as the context root.
  8. If you would like to serve the documentation from your server rather than viewing it online, you can also deploy the relmhelp.war application.
  9. Select Save directly to the master configuration.
  10. The SPARQL Gateway requires a change to the default class loading order.
    1. Select Applications > Applications Types > WebSphere enterprise applications, choose SPARQL_Gateway_war from the application list.
    2. Click Class loading and update detection.
    3. In the Class loader order section, select Classes loaded with local class loader first (parent last)
    4. Click OK and Save to master configuration.
    5. Select Manage Modules. Select the SPARQL_Gateway module.
    6. Locate the Class loader order field and select Classes loaded with local class loader first (parent last).
    7. Click OK and Save to master configuration.
  11. On the Enterprise Applications page, select the applications that you have just deployed to WebSphere Application Server and select Start.
Note: This document does not provide details for configuring WebSphere authentication or SSL, which is a complex topic. Detailed information about the various authentication and encryption options is covered in the WebSphere Application Server Information Center. For more information, go to the WebSphere Information Center and use this phrase in search: Securing applications and their environment.

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