Configurations When PTC HTTP Server is Installed Remotely
If you have elected to run PTC HTTP Server on a remote system (on a machine different than Windchill, also known as a split configuration), then PTC HTTP Server must be able to recognize changes to the Windchill configuration environment and the PTC HTTP Server user account must have read privileges to the Windchill codebase directory. As changes occur in the Windchill configuration that impact the running environment, the changes are not automatically applied to the PTC HTTP Server installation. Consequently, you must manually update PTC HTTP Server with the most current Windchill environment settings.
PTC HTTP Server must be updated with changes to the Windchill installation whenever the Embedded Servlet Engine and Windchill configuration files are modified, such as when a Windchill application is installed or modified. During a Windchill application installation, environment settings particular to the installation are captured and applied to the Embedded Servlet Engine and Windchill configuration files. Therefore, for the same changes to be recognized by PTC HTTP Server, the configuration files must be copied to the PTC HTTP Server machine and updated using Ant.
Theoretically, these instructions should be executed following the installation of any Windchill application in order to capture the most current changes made to the Windchill configuration. However, if you are installing a suite of Windchill products, then you can simply perform these instructions after all the Windchill products are installed (or a group of them are installed) to capture the most recent environment changes.
To implement these instructions you will use the PTC HTTP Server Ant utility.
1. Install PTC HTTP Server using the PTC HTTP Server installer and the instructions provided to perform the installation.
3. Copy the content of the <Windchill>/apacheConf/config directory and the <Windchill>/apacheConf/config-WHC directory to a directory of choice on the PTC HTTP Server machine.
The apacheConf/config and apacheConf/config-WHC directories contain configuration files for Embedded Servlet Engine and Windchill. The content of these files is dynamic and changes to accommodate the installation of a Windchill application.
4. Create a shared file system of the Windchill codebase directory for PTC HTTP Server that meets your site requirements. There are several methods available to establish a shared file system, use a method appropriate for your site. The objective is to allow PTC HTTP Server to access the contents of the Windchill codebase directory.
◦ Set access for the shared file system so that the PTC HTTP Server user account has read permission to the Windchill codebase and Windchill Help Center directories. For example:
Windows: C:\ptc\Windchill_<release_level>\codebase and C:\ptc\Windchill_<release_level>\WHC (where C:\ptc\Windchill_<release_level> is the default installation directory for Windchill)
UNIX: /opt/ptc/Windchill_<release_level>/codebase and opt/ptc/Windchill_<release_level>/WHC (where /opt/ptc/Windchill_<release_level> is the default installation directory for Windchill)
5. Perform the following to apply the most recent Embedded Servlet Engine, Windchill, and Windchill Help Center changes to PTC HTTP Server:
◦ Change directory to the location where you copied the apacheConf/config files on the PTC HTTP Server machine and execute the following Ant command (entire string on one line)
ant -f applyApacheWebAppConfig.xml -DAPACHE_HOME=<file path to Apache installation> -DdocBase=<file path to Windchill codebase>
◦ Change directory to the location where you copied the apacheConf/config-WHC files on the PTC HTTP Server machine and execute the following Ant command (entire string on one line)
ant -f applyApacheWebAppConfig.xml -DAPACHE_HOME=<file path to Apache installation> -DdocBase=<file path to Windchill WHC> –DdisableAJP=true
Configuring remote communication between PTC HTTP Server and the Embedded Servlet Engine
By default, the PTC Embedded Servlet Engine only responds to local traffic. In order to configure a remote web PTC HTTP Server the following steps are necessary:
The Servlet Engine hostname and port are configured using the following command run in <HTTPSERVER_HOME>
ant -f config.xml configureAJPWorkers -DAJP_HOST=<tomcat_host>
-D AJP_PORT=<tomcat_listening_port>
The listening address for the PTC Embedded Servlet Engine can be configured with the following command in the <WT_HOME>/tomcat directory:
ant -DajpAddress=<IP address of interface to listen on> -f config.xml configureConnectors
The <IP address of interface to listen on> can be empty string (“”) to listen on all interfaces.
Both the PTC HTTP Server and the Embedded Servlet Engine should be configured to use a shared secret. This can be done with the following commands:
• For PTC HTTP Server run the following command in <HTTPSERVER_HOME>: ant -DajpRequiredSecret=<secret value> -f config.xml configureAJPWorkers:
• For Embedded Servlet Engine run the following command in <WT_HOME>/Tomcat: ant -DajpRequiredSecret=<secret value> -f config.xml configureConnectors
In both cases, the <secret value> must be the same string.