Installing and Configuring the WLS Apache Plugin

There were some questions recently reguarding the Weblogic Apache plugin. I just want to show you in this quick example, how to configure and test the plugin in some easy steps:

1) Download the Apache plugins for WLS from the Oracle OTN website
2) Identify the right plugin for your platform and apache version.
You can decide to use a regular strength or a 128-bit encryption version of the modules.
3) Install the right plugin to your apache folder (/modules)
For this example I use the server103_apacheplugins.zip\win\32\mod_wl_20.so
4) Configure your apache to use it by editing httpd.conf and add the line :
LoadModule weblogic_module modules/mod_wl_20.so
5) Define any additional parameters for the Apache HTTP Server Plug-In.
The Apache HTTP Server Plug-In recognizes the parameters listed in General Parameters for Web Server Plug-Ins. To modify the behavior of your Apache HTTP Server Plug-In, define these parameters:
- In a Location block, for parameters that apply to proxying by path, or
- In an IfModule block, for parameters that apply to proxying by MIME type.
A simple example would be:

<IfModule mod_weblogic.c>
WebLogicHost localhost
WebLogicPort 7001
MatchExpression *.jsp
</IfModule>

6) Start/Restart the Apache server
7) Start your Weblogic Server
8) Test the plugin with an appropriate url (for the above example:
http://myapache.com/test.jsp

Additional features:
1) Custom error-pages for the plugin.
If something goes wrong during the wls server or cluster request, you can redirect to a custom error page using this configuration directive:
<IfModule mod_weblogic.c>
WebLogicHost localhost
WebLogicPort 7001
ErrorPage http://myerrorpage1.mydomain.com
MatchExpression *.jsp
</IfModule>

2) Turn debugging on:
You can turn on debugging for the plugin using this directive:
<IfModule mod_weblogic.c>
WebLogicHost localhost
WebLogicPort 7001
Debug ON
WLLogFile c:/tmp/global_proxy.log
MatchExpression *.jsp
</IfModule>

3) Turn on debug config info:
In addition to the debug log you can also turn on a separate debug configuration information using this switch:
<IfModule mod_weblogic.c>
WebLogicHost localhost
WebLogicPort 7001
Debug ON
DebugConfigInfo On

WLLogFile c:/tmp/global_proxy.log
MatchExpression *.jsp
</IfModule>

If you enable this switch, you can access the configuration information of the plugin with

http://myapache.com/test.jsp?__WebLogicBridgeConfig

4) You can change the name of the session cookie used by weblogic server:

<IfModule mod_weblogic.c>
WebLogicHost localhost
WebLogicPort 7001
CookieName MYCOOKIENAME
MatchExpression *.jsp
</IfModule>