In our project, we worked with Apache 1.3 and WebSphere Application Server 3.5. First, install Apache and get it working reliably. This is the key. You want to make sure your regular Web serving environment is nice and clean.

Once you get Apache running, you're going to need to install the WebSphere Application Server. The WebSphere install will attempt to modify your Apache httpd.conf file with WebSphere-specific configuration changes. Because of this, it's a very good idea to make a copy of your httpd.conf file before installing WebSphere. For those of you not all that familiar with Apache, the httpd.conf file is the main configuration file for Apache.

Within the httpd.conf file, here are the directives that will be modified:

We were using AIX on our test machine, but you're likely to be able to use similar directives (but with appropriate file locations) on other platforms that support both Apache and WebSphere.

If you're using WebSphere with Apache (or any other interesting products), please let me know what you're up to. Send a note to me at david@ZATZ.com. Maybe we'll feature your integration project in a future article!

For more than 20 years, David Gewirtz, the author of Where Have All The Emails Gone? and The Flexible Enterprise has analyzed current, historical, and emerging issues relating to technology, competitiveness, and policy. David is the Editor-in-Chief of the ZATZ magazines, is the Cyberterrorism Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals, and can be reached via email at david@zatz.com.