Creating an additional HTTP port on WebSphere Application Server

When creating a new application server, WebSphere automatically sets up an HTTP and an HTTPS port on which applications can be mapped (via the default_host virtual host). Sometimes it may be desirable to create an additional HTTP or HTTPS port. The following procedure describes how to do this using the administrative console. It works for standalone servers as well as Network Deployment profiles. Note however that for a cluster all the steps except updating the virtual hosts need to be executed for each cluster member separately.

Here are the steps:

  1. Go to the admin console page for the application server on which you want to create an additional HTTP(S) port.

  2. Under Web Container Settings click on Web container transport chains.

  3. Click New.

  4. In Step 1 of the wizard, specify a transport chain name. You can use any name, but it is a good idea to chose a name that starts with WCInbound (to match the convention used for the chains set up by WebSphere by default, such as WCInboundDefault). On the same page, the Transport chain template drop-down list allows you to choose between creating of an HTTP port (WebContainer) or an HTTPS port (WebContainer-Secure).

  5. In Step 2 create a new port as follows:

    • Port name: again, you can use any name, but in order to follow the same conventions as for the existing ports, choose one that starts with WC_.

    • Host: in general, this should be * (unless you want to restrict the network interfaces on which to listen; e.g. you could specify localhost or 127.0.0.1 to listen only on the loopback device).

    • Port: the TCP port number for the new HTTP(S) port.

  6. In Step 3 confirm the settings.

By default, the newly created HTTP(S) port will use the same thread pool (WebContainer) as the default HTTP(S) ports. For the purpose of better isolation, it may be desirable to use a separate thread pool. In this case, execute the following additional steps:

  1. Create a new thread pool.

  2. Go back to the Web container transport chains page and click on the newly created chain.

  3. Click on TCP inbound channel and select the new thread pool.

Finally, to be able to use the new port, you also need to make sure that your WebSphere configuration has a virtual host with a corresponding alias. In most cases this means updating the existing default_host to add a new alias with the right port number.