Preparing your web server

A web server is responsible for accepting HTTP requests from clients (web browsers) and serving them HTTP responses along with optional data content, such as web pages (HTML documents) and linked objects such as images.

JavaServer Pages (JSP) and servlets are Java technologies that allow software developers to dynamically generate HTML, XML, or other types of documents in response to a Web client request. The technology allows Java code and certain pre-defined actions to be embedded into static content.

The mid tier uses third-party web servers and JSP/servlet engines. The following table outlines the tasks necessary to prepare your web server for use with the BMC Remedy Mid Tier (depending on the JSP engine you will use).

Steps to prepare your web server

As you set up the mid tier to work with third-party web servers, remember these tips:

• The mid tier installer includes a bundled version of the Tomcat web server. A third-party web server installation is not necessary.
• The mid tier requires HTTP version 1.1.
• If you use Tomcat 5.5.28 or later and you have a forward slash (/) in your form or view name, you must configure Tomcat to allow forward slashes in the URL.
• Tuning web servers and JSP/servlet engines is beyond the scope of BMC Support. Contact the vendor for help with tuning these components.

To prepare an Apache server before installing the mid tier

1. Make sure you have root permissions to the Apache web server that allow you to write to all relevant files and directories. For example, you must have access to the /usr/conf/httpd.conf file.
2. If you are upgrading and the existing mid tier was installed with a Group ID value of #-1 (default value), modify the <ApacheInstallDirectory>/conf/httpd.conf file.
   Use an editor to search for the Group identifier. If you see Group #-1, change it to the valid group and save the file.

3. Make sure that the DSO option on your Apache installation is enabled. After the Apache software has been installed, enter the following command to see the list of modules:

   <ApacheInstallDir>/bin/httpd -l

   If this list contains the mod_so.c entry, the DSO is enabled.

4. To minimize security exposure, include umask 077 in the web server start sequence.
   Using umask 077 ensures that files created by the web server processes will be owned and can only be used by the user who runs that web server.

Related topics

System requirements
Configuring your web server and installing BMC Remedy Mid Tier with a .war file