Welcome!

AJAX & REA Authors: Stephen Pierzchala, Sebastian Kruk, Elizabeth White, Pat Romanski, RealWire News Distribution

Related Topics: Java, SOA & WOA, Websphere, AJAX & REA, Apache

Java: Article

Enterprise Framework Service for WebSphere Datapower

Minimize the exposure of ports and their configuration on firewall

Create Enterprise Framework Service:
Perform the following steps to create an Enterprise Framework Service, called EnterpriseFrameworkServiceMPGW, in Datapower.
1-    Create two loopback Services using XML Firewall:
1.a.    ServiceA
1.b.    serviceB

2-    Create the following 3 files
2.a.    Create EnvironmentConfig.xml. This file contains the environment value, so the incoming request is assign to right backend.

2.b.    Create EnvironmentConfig.xslt. This XSLT file read value from the EnvironmentConfig.xml and set the environment variable.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"

version="1.0"

xmlns:dp="http://www.datapower.com/extensions"

extension-element-prefixes="dp"

exclude-result-prefixes="xalan dp"

xmlns:xalan="http://xml.apache.org/xslt">

<xsl:template match="/">

<xsl:variable name="masterConfig" select="document('local:///EnvironmentConfig.xml')"/>

<dp:set-variable name="'var://context/wp/environment'" value="normalize-space($masterConfig/config/environment/text())"/>

</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

 

2.c.    Create EnterpriseFrameworkRouter.xslt. This XSLT file constructs the backend URL by preserving the incoming URI and reading the target host
information from the config.xml of that service.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"

xmlns:dp="http://www.datapower.com/extensions"

extension-element-prefixes="dp" exclude-result-prefixes="dp">

<xsl:template match="/">

<xsl:copy-of select="."/>

<xsl:variable name="incomingURI">

<xsl:value-of select="dp:variable('var://service/URI')"/>

</xsl:variable>

<xsl:variable name="tempVar">

<xsl:value-of select="substring-after($incomingURI,'/')"/>

</xsl:variable>

<xsl:variable name="serviceName">

<xsl:if test="contains($tempVar,'/')">

<xsl:value-of select="substring-before($tempVar,'/')"/>

</xsl:if>

<xsl:if test="not(contains($tempVar,'/'))">

<xsl:value-of select="$tempVar"/>

</xsl:if>

</xsl:variable>

<xsl:param name="hostAddr" select="'local:///'"/>

<xsl:variable name="remoteURL" select="concat($hostAddr,'/xml/',$serviceName,'/config.xml')"/>

<xsl:variable name="environment" select="dp:variable('var://context/wp/environment')"/>

<xsl:variable name="config" select="document($remoteURL)" />

<xsl:variable name="serviceDestination">

<xsl:copy-of select="$config/EnterpriseFrameworkDestinationList/serviceDestination[@environment=$environment]"/>

</xsl:variable>

<dp:set-variable name="'var://service/routing-url'" value="concat($serviceDestination,$incomingURI)"/>

</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

 

 

3-    Upload these files to Datapower
3.a.    Create “xslt” folder and upload both xslt files there
3.b.    Upload “EnvironmentConfig.xml” to “local:///

 

4-    Create a Multi-Protocol Gateway (MPGW) named,  EnterpriseFrameworkMPGW with:
4.a.    Dynamic backend
4.b.    Request and Response type to Non-xml

 

5-    Create a front side handler, name it EnterpriseFrameworkFSH and assign port number to “81

 

6-    Create a new policy, EnterpriseFrameworkPolicy, and add following rules:
6.a.    Create a new rule for “Client to Server” and with two Transform actions
6.a.i.    Assign EnvironmentConfig.xslt to the first Transform action, make sure the Output set to NULL

 

6.a.ii.    Assign EnterpriseFrameworkRouter.xslt to the second Transform action, make sure Output set to NULL

 

6.b.    Create a new rule for “Server to Client” without any actions
6.c.    Overall EnterpriseFrameworkPolicy should look like this:

6.d.    Apply the Policy and close the window

7-    The EnterpriseFrameworkMPGW should look like this:  Save the configuration.

 

Integrate the Existing or New Services to the Enterprise Framework:

In order to incorporate the existing or new service in to the Enterprise Framework
1-    Create folder with the name of the service as a folder name under local:///xml/

 

2-    Create the following config.xml for serviceA
2.a.    The config.xml file for serviceA, which contains the IP address or hostname for each environment and  the port where serviceA is running

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<EnterpriseFrameworkDestinationList>

<serviceDestination environment="DEV">http://192.168.136.145:2048</serviceDestination>

<serviceDestination environment="QA">http://192.168.136.146:2048</serviceDestination>

<serviceDestination environment="PROD">http://192.168.136.147:2048</serviceDestination>

</EnterpriseFrameworkDestinationList>

 

 

3-    Upload the config.xml file at “local:///xml/serviceA” folder

 

4-    Create the similar config.xml for serviceB with serviceB’s hosts for each environment and assigned port

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<EnterpriseFrameworkDestinationList>

<serviceDestination environment="DEV">http://192.168.136.145:2049</serviceDestination>

<serviceDestination environment="QA">http://192.168.136.146:2049</serviceDestination>

<serviceDestination environment="PROD">http://192.168.136.147:2049</serviceDestination>

</EnterpriseFrameworkDestinationList>

 

5-    Upload the config.xml file at local:///xml/serviceB folder

6-    Every time a new service need to be integrated to Enterprise Framework, a config file need to be created for that service with values
of hostname/IP address and the port number where the service is installed. Nothing needs to be done on the EnterpriseFrameworkMPGW at all.

7-    For every incoming request EnterpriseFrameworkRouter.xslt (installed in the EnterpriseFrameworkMPGW) parse the URI and look for the
config.xml file for that service. If the service is not installed then there will be no xml/config file for that service.

Testing / Verification:

1-    Enabled the probes on serviceAFW and serviceBFW
2-    From the SOAP UI send the following test message for serviceA (http://<hostname>:81/serviceA)

3-    You should see the response back

4-    From the serviceA probe.  Notice the values of inbound-url and outbound-url.

5-    Now, send the request for serviceB  (http://<hostname>:81/serviceB)

6-    From the serviceB probe.  Notice the values of inbound-url and outbound-url.

7-    From the EnterpriseFrameworkMPGW Probe, you can see the requests are directed to their respective services. Notice the values of inbound-url and outbound-url.

Conclusion:
By implementing the Enterprise Framework Service to any WebSphere Datapower environment, it helps to streamline the development of
new services inside Datapower.  Datapower administrators do not need to deal with firewall and network configuration whenever a new
service is implemented on its appliances.  The framework also does not allow exposing any additional ports outside the network.

More Stories By Asim Saddal

Asim Saddal works in the Middleware (WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere Datapower, WebSphere Process Server, WebSphere VE) practice of IBM Software Services for WebSphere.

Cloud Expo Breaking News
SYS-CON Events announced today that nfina Technologies, a provider of highly reliable cloud server products, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. nfina Technologies develops, manufactures, and markets highly reliable cloud server products, designed to solve the most demanding data center requirements in mission-critical cloud applications. Nfina’s staff has decades of experience in co...
SYS-CON Events announced today that OpenStack will exhibit at SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. OpenStack software controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, all managed by a dashboard that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface. OpenStack powers some of the most widely-used SaaS app...
“Cloud has everything to do with what has happened with Big Data,” explained Jason Deck, Director of Strategic Alliances at Logicworks, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “Big Data doesn’t exist in its easily accessible way without cloud. From reduced startup costs, to cheap storage, to fast processing, to adequate security, to the easy incorporation of third-party analytics tools, cloud made Big Data accessible to customers of all sizes, with all different bud...
“Social, mobile, analytics and cloud can’t be looked at as distinct technology trends; they are facets of the same movement and an everyday reality for consumers and businesses alike,” said Craig Sowell, IBM VP of SmartCloud Marketing, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “This means that businesses need to start looking at trends as one: cloud is the delivery, analytics is the unique insight, social is a shareable service, and mobile is the ubiquitous access.” ...
With Cloud Expo New York | 12th Cloud Expo [June 10-13, 2013] hurtling towards us, let's take a look at the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference coming up June 10-13 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. We have technical and strategy sessions for you all four days dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing and Big Data, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, wha...
The new open source cloud orchestration platform called OpenStack is the promise of flexible network virtualization, and network overlays are looking closer than ever. The vision of this platform is to enable the on-demand creation of many distinct networks on top of one underlying physical infrastructure in the cloud environment. The platform will support automated provisioning and management of large groups of virtual machines or compute resources, including extensive monitoring in the cloud.
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Dave Eichorn, Global Data Center Practice Head at Zensar, will share a case study describing how a utility services company handled the migration of its Microsoft platform to the cloud. Challenged with the time-consuming task of opening operations out of temporary offices, this company struggled with the need to simultaneously access data that was accumulated from a vast amount of data-intensive jobs. Zensar migrated the company’s application ...
The rise of cloud computing has exposed hard drive-based storage as the new data center bottleneck. Combating this, data center managers have deployed SSDs to gain the performance needed to provide real-time access to data. However, due to budget constraints, many have turned to consumer-grade SSDs without understanding that they wear out quickly when processing enterprise workloads. In this session, Esther Spanjer will discuss recent endurance advancements in SSD technology that enable usage of...
SYS-CON Events announced today that Wowrack will exhibit at SYS-CON's 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. Wowrack’s core expertise lies in high-availability Private and Public Cloud IaaS Hosting Solutions. Wowrack provides a true Hybrid service – where business release all IT management and hardware provisioning – taking the data center and server system administrative headaches off our customer’s shoulders. ...
At pennies per virtual machine-hour, the economics of cloud computing are both compelling and daunting to replicate. Whether you are building your own cloud infrastructure, building a public cloud or choosing a cloud service, there are key strategy and technology decisions that make the difference between success and failure. In his General Session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Jason Waxman, VP in the Intel Architecture Group and general manager of the Cloud Platforms Group within Inte...