Disable SSL on Websphere Application Server

Question

Hi all,

Is there a way to disable SSL on WAS? So you can just log on using a username and password. That isnt tied to disabling the Global Security?

Cheers

Answer 1

First of all, the login part of the application has nothing to do with the protocol you use to reach your application, e.g. you can use a login dialog (forms, http auth... etc), with 'normal' http or http over SSL (SSL being preferred if the app is not inhouse use only, even if it is, I would think about using SSL).

In WebSphere you deploy your application on a Virtual Host. A virtual host is a collection of host names and ports (called host aliases) from which your application should be reachable. So to get the behaviour you want, I would create a new virtual host (description is for the WebSphere Admin Console Application in 6.1):

Environment > Virtual Host > New

Give it a descriptive name, like http_only. Afterwards you do:

Environment > Virtual Host > http_only > Host Aliases > New

There you add a host name or a asterisk ('*', without the quotes) and a port number (in this case the port for http. Next is changing the virtual host your application is bound on:

Applications > Enterprise Applications > app_name > Virtual hosts

There are dropdown boxes you can choose the virtual hosts from. After that and a save, the app should be reacheable only over http.