Solr with IBM WebSphere

Solr doesn't run out of the box on IBM WebSphere Application Server. The minimum version for Running Solar is WAS 6.1.x, cause WAS 6.0 doesn't support Java 5. This page is just about WebSphere specific instructions, see the instructions in the generic Solr installation page for general info before consulting this page.

Contents

  1. Solr with IBM WebSphere
    1. Required Modifications for WAS 6.1
      1. Enabling Java 5 for JSP pages
      2. Adding index.jsp to Welcome File List
      3. Working with the Admin Console and Multicore

Required Modifications for WAS 6.1

The following instructions are the required modifications for the apache-solr-1.3.0.war on WebSphere 6.1. This modifications should work with all versions of the the WAS 6.1 series.

Enabling Java 5 for JSP pages

Cause WebSphere 6.x is a J2EE 1.4 container, it doesn't support Java 5 out of the box. You have to explicit enable Java 5 for the JSP compiler. To do this, you've got to create (or modify) 2 files:

ibm-web-bnd.xmi 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<webappbnd:WebAppBinding xmi:version="2.0" xmlns:xmi="http://www.omg.org/XMI" xmlns:webappbnd="webappbnd.xmi" xmi:id="WebAppBinding_1213147492785" virtualHostName="default_host">
  <webapp href="WEB-INF/web.xml#WebApp_ID"/>
</webappbnd:WebAppBinding>

ibm-web-ext.xmi 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<webappext:WebAppExtension xmi:version="2.0" xmlns:xmi="http://www.omg.org/XMI" xmlns:webappext="webappext.xmi" xmi:id="WebAppExtension_1213147492785" reloadInterval="3" reloadingEnabled="true" additionalClassPath="" fileServingEnabled="true" directoryBrowsingEnabled="false" serveServletsByClassnameEnabled="true">
  <webApp href="WEB-INF/web.xml#WebApp_ID"/>
  <jspAttributes xmi:id="JSPAttribute_1" name="jdkSourceLevel" value="15"/>
</webappext:WebAppExtension>

Adding index.jsp to Welcome File List

In the apache-solr-1.3.0.war there is now welcome file section. WebSphere doesn't handle index.jsp as auto welcome file, so you've got to modify the web.xml to get a page displayed. Add the 'welcome-file' section add the bottom of the web.xml file.

web.xml 

        ...
        <welcome-file-list>
                <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
        </welcome-file-list>

Working with the Admin Console and Multicore

If you're having trouble using the various pages on the admin console when specifying the core name in your URL path you may see errors around WebSphere not finding the JSPs. This could be related to a known issue with Websphere not running filters when a static file is not found on the expected path.

PK33090 http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24014758

The SolrDispatchFilter removes the core name from the path when forwarding to the correct JSPs. To force Websphere to run the filter before returning a 404 add the custom property from the linked issue above to the app server running your Solr instance.

SolrWebSphere (last edited 2010-05-03 19:13:48 by BenBrown)