Administration

There are many ways to check and adjust WBI's settings.

WBI Graphical User Interface (GUI)

In addition to running WBI the old fashioned way (WBI Console), starting with WBI Development Kit v. 4.4, WBI can be run with a graphical user interface that adds better visibility to WBI. (Please refer to Launching WBI for information about how to choose between the two options.) It provides an easy-to-use interface that allows WBI users and programmers to control and adjust WBI's configuration. Furthermore, WBI users can now get realtime information about the requests routed through WBI.

WBI Configuration View

The WBI configuration view shows the status of WBI. It provides easy-to-view information about registered plugins and their associated megs. It also information about the port WBI is listening on (Sublayer) and displays runtime information (tracing and messaging information). The image below shows a screenshot of the WBI configuration view. All commands described in can also be executed in the GUI through menus.

WBI GUI

Request Processing View

To make it easier for WBI programmers to debug and test their plugins, the WBI GUI provides a request processing view. This view shows the most recent requests that were processed by WBI and its registered plugins. For each Meg that handled a particular request, this view shows the information/data that entered a Meg and the output of a Meg. This allows programmers to easily make conclusions of whether the Megs fulfilled their intended function or not. Below is a screenshot of the request processing view.

WBI GUI Request
View

Detailed information of how to use the WBI GUI can be obtained during runtime by choosing the Show Help .... menu item from the application's Help menu or proceed to the extended WBI GUI documentation.

WBI Console

WBI can still be run the old fashioned way with the WBI console. It provides a command-line interface to WBI. If you focus on the console and press <ENTER>, you should see the Console> prompt. Type 'help' or '?' and press <ENTER> to see a complete list of console commands. The most useful are

register / deregister: Register and deregister plugins.
enable / disable: Enable and disable plugins.
plugins: List the currently registered plugins. These are the plugins that WBI attempts to load when it is started. Appearance in this list does not imply that a plugin has been successfully loaded, or that it is currently enabled.
megs: List the component megs of the currently registered plugins.
shutdown: Wait for all pending transactions to complete, disable and terminate all plugins, and then terminate WBI.

Launching WBI

WBI is launched by executing the command Run. There are a number of optional parameters that can be used to control the way WBI runs. To see all of the optional parameters, type Run -? or Run -h. The most useful parameters are:

-g | -nogui: Specify whether to run WBI with or without the graphical user interface. (nogui is the default option.) You can also make g the default by modifying the WBI configuration file.
-t trace_levels: Specify how WBI should display its tracing information in the WBI console. The most common levels are "-t m" which sends MEG information, and "-t v" which sends verbose information.
-m msg_levels: Specify which messages WBI should display in the WBI console. The most common level is "-m e" which will show all errors.
-d base_directory: Use the given directory as the WBI home directory, rather than the current directory. WBI finds many resources relative to its home directory, so this parameter must be set correctly. If it is not specified, WBI assumes that the current directory is its home directory.

Configuration Files

The etc/ directory contains configuration information that WBI reads at startup. The information in this directory is stored as files containing key/value pairs (conformant with java.util.Properties). The etc/ is accessed and manipulated by the persistence API.

Warning: The persistence system caches data that it reads and is incapable of seeing changes other programs make to the data files. If you make changes by hand to these files while WBI is running, it may ignore or overwrite your changes. In other words: shut down WBI before you make any changes to these files.

Most of these settings are fine as they are and will not require your attention. However, you may need to change these depending upon your system and network configuration (e.g., firewall).

etc/sublayers/ibm/HttpSublayer.prop:ListenPorts: Specifies the whitespace-delimited port numbers which WBI will listen to for HTTP requests.
etc/config/wbi/TCPIP.prop: Socks, SocksPort, SocksEnabled: Specifies the machine name and port number for the socks v4 firewall machine that WBI should use for accessing servers. The SocksEnabled value should be set to false to disable use of the server, or true to enable use of the socks server. The well-known port number is 1080.
etc/config/wbi/TCPIP.prop: Proxy, ProxyPort, ProxyEnabled: Specifies the machine name and port number for the HTTP proxy machine that WBI should use for accessing servers. The ProxyEnabled value should be set to false to disable use of the server, or true to enable use of the proxy server. The well-known port number is 80.
etc/config/wbi/TCPIP.prop: NoProxy: Specifies the domains and machines for which a proxy/socks firewall is not needed. Entries are of the form domain:port. Domains can be specified using an asterisk ("*") as a wildcard character. For example, an entry of *.almaden.ibm.com:80 means you have direct access to all computers in the almaden.ibm.com domain without using a Proxy Server or a Socks Server. Multiple entries must be separated by spaces.
etc/config/wbi/TCPIP.prop: DnsServer: Specifies the machine name of your DNS server. Set this only if you want WBI to do DNS (resolve hostnames) itself, bypassing the operating system's normal DNS mechanism.
etc/config/wbi/ENVIRONMENT.prop: Gui: This value specifies the default for using the WBI GUI. Use true to automatically enable the WBI GUI, and false automatically disable it. Thus, if this value is set to either true or false, there is no need to be specify -g or -nogui when launching WBI. It is set to true by default.

Console Commands

shutdown: Shutdown the Proxy (recommended)
restart: Restart the Proxy
abort: Abort the Proxy immediately (terminate pending requests)
help: Displays this help screen
enable <pluginname>: Enable a plugin or resume listening for requests
disable <pluginname>: Disable a plugin or suspend listening for requests
register file.reg: Register a plugin
deregister <pluginname>: Deregister a plugin
deregister all: Deregister all plugins
plugins: List all registered plugins
megs: List all registered megs
requests: Displays outstanding requests
trace {nemv}: Enable tracing of the specified type(s). Typing trace <option> into the console will make WBI display the same tracing information as if you had started it with Run -t <option>. More.
message {niwev}: Enable messaging of the specified type(s). Typing message <option> into the console will make WBI display the same messaging information as if you had started it with Run -m <option>. More.
version: Display version information
?: Displays help screen

Run Parameters

-d base_directory

Specify which directory to use as the WBI home directory. Default value is the the current directory.

-t trace_levels

Specify how WBI should display its tracing information in the WBI console. Available levels are:

"n" (none - the default)
"e" (error exceptions)
"m" (MEG routing)
"v" (verbose - all information)

-m msg_levels

Specify which messages WBI should display in the WBI console. Available levels are:

"n" (none - the default)
"i" (informational)
"w" (warnings)
"e" (errors)
"v" (verbose - all messages)

-g

Run WBI's Graphical User Interface (GUI).

-nogui

Do not run WBI's GUI.

-?

Display available Run options

-h

Display available Run options