Configuring IBM i Access for Web
Configuring your Web serving environment consists of these steps:
- Start the IBM Web Administration for i interface
- Create an IBM Integrated Web Application Server for i
- Link IBM i Access for Web to the Integrated Web Application Server
- Verify IBM Integrated Web Application Server for i
- Configure IBM i Access for Web
- Start a 5250 (green screen) session
- That's It!!!
If you got through all these steps now it's time to use a browser to access IBM i Access for Web
So, let's go through each step from start to finish:
1
Start the IBM Web Administration for i interface
Start a 5250 session to your IBM i System and sign on with a user profile that has at least these special authorities: *ALLOBJ, *IOSYSCFG, *JOBCTL, and *SECADM. From any command line run the following command to start the web administration interface job:
2
Create an IBM Integrated Web Application Server for i
Open a browser to http://<system_name>:2001/HTTPAdmin
Log in with a user profile that has, at least these special authorities: *ALLOBJ, *IOSYSCFG, *JOBCTL, and *SECADM.
Select the Setup tabbed page.
Under Common Tasks and Wizards, select Create a New Application Server.
The Create Application Server page opens. Select Next:
Now select IBM integrated Web application server for i :
At this stage you may be prompted to install and setup the Install IBM Installation Manager. If you do then just follow the instructions here if you already have the Installation Manager installed you can ignore this.
The Specify Application Server Name page opens. So now define your Application server name. For my example I am calling the server "WEBSIGNON". This will be the name of the WebSphere Web application server. Select Next.
Now you can select the communication PORTS that you will be using. For my example, I am sticking with defaults:
What JOBD do you want for the IBM Web Signon?
Now select the USRPRF you want to use for this webserver:
Assuming your install went smoothly you should see something like this:
IMPORTANT - Configure Server to use Java 8 64BIT
Ensure the Webserver is STOPPED
Go to the APPLICATION SERVERS Tab and click JRE:
Select JAVA 8 64 BIT
I tried both Java 11 and Java 17 and they threw errors for me! however, your mileage may vary.
3
Link IBM i Access for Web to the Integrated Web Application Server
Now we have to tell IBM i Web Signon to use this Web Application Server we just created.
From the command line we will run the IBM i command(CFGACCWEB) to specify which web application server to configure IBM i Access for Web to run under.
Configure IBM i Access for Web command completed.
4
Verify IBM Integrated Web Application Server for i
Check your new webserver is active and running:
Click ALL Servers and ensure you new WEB5250 is STARTED:
5
Configure IBM i Access for Web
Sign on to Access for Web homepage with administrative profile: :port/webaccess/iWAHome
This should ask you for a user to signon:
If it works - you will see the following dashboard:
Do you get this error?
Error 500: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: sun/misc/BASE64Decoder
6
Start a 5250 (green screen) session
Welcome to IBM i Access for Web
Select 5250 Tab and Select Configure New Session
Now let's use the IBM i Access for Web
Now - how do we configure this signon screen to make it prettier, more use friendly, less technical?
We will cover that in the next lesson... this one was heavy and you probably need to go and make a nice cup of tea before continuing.