Troubleshooting Port conflict in Websphere Portal

Today, I found this strange error while starting "Websphere application server" and "Websphere Poral server" on my box which already running one more instance of WPS. I was able to start only one process at a time but not both. I got this error while starting the server1 when websphere Portal is already started.

WsServerImpl E WSVR0009E: Error occurred during startup
com.ibm.ws.exception.RuntimeError: com.ibm.ws.exception.RuntimeError: org.omg.CORBA.INTERNAL: CREATE_LISTENER_FAILED_4 vmcid: 0x49421000 minor code: 56 completed: No

This was due to port conflict between processes "server1" and "Websphere Portal". To resolve this perform the following steps.

1. Stop all WebSphere processes: Application Servers, nodeagents, and the deployment manager.
2. View all ports in use on the operating system by issuing a netstat -a command. Make note of any ports in use.
3. Open the serverindex.xml file for your server. You can find it in the directory /config/cells//nodes//serverindex.xml
4. Check this file for any of the port conflict with the result in step-2.
5. Resolve the port conflict by editing the serverindex.xml and change the conflicting port number to one that is not in use, then restart all the WebSphere processes.

Websphere Portal isses with IE8

In my current project, I got this request from our client that they need portal application to be tested on IE8. Sounds pretty easy to me at the first glance but to my surprise I found few really interesting issues and their solution. So I thought let me share it with other community members as well.

Main issues which I dealt with were regarding java script used in themes/skins as well as portlet applications. One major issue was with Portlet context menu not displaying at all in IE8. Also the pagination was broken in IE8 as well. Our developer has spent substantial time on fixing this but eventually I found this out of the wood solution for that.. :)

1. In Websphere Portal navigate to Administrative portlets and click on Supported Clients.


2. You can see the "Manage Clients" Portlet. Click on Add New Client link
3. Fill up the necessary details about IE8 as shown below.



4. Save it and you are done.

Here are few more options that you can provide in the form above.
User Agent: .*MSIE 8.0.*
Markup: html
Markup version: ie
Manufacturer: Microsoft
Model: Internet Explorer
Version: 8.0
Capabilities: CACHE_VARY,
HTML_2_0,
HTML_JAVA,
HTML_CSS,
HTML_FRAME,
HTML_TABLE,
HTML_4_0,
HTML_3_2,
HTML_JAVASCRIPT,
HTML_3_0,
HTML_NESTED_TABLE,
FRAGMENT_IDENTIFIER,
HTML_IFRAME

Hope you like this hidden feature of IBM. :)

Sample virtual member manager plug-in for WebSphere Application Server Version 6.1 and above

I got this very nice article on virtual member manager plug-in for WAS 6.1 and above while browsing through developerworks site. The plug-in manager provides a framework that enables you to write extensions to virtual member manager API to consume a variety of services that can be added in the future

You can find complete article here.

WebSphere Portal NOW:- Jump Start a Content Portal in Less Than a Month!

Just back from a long break. Stepped in to second phase of my life- After marriage :) Starting year 2010 with an excellent offer from IBM once again.

IBM has just released a new software template and services solution for WebSphere Portal that handles the majority of requirements most companies have for a basic content portal.
The WebSphere Portal NOW is a reusable software template and a well-defined services process, which allows for deployment of a fully working portal and content solution for customers in less than a month.
Basic Features:

• WebSphere Portal structure for a pre-configured environment with two themes, including a Home Page with links to critical information, feeds, documents, processes or applications.
• Pre-configured Web Content Management with support for different types of content, organized publishing streams for authors and editors, and flexible publication scheduling.
• Ready to use Services, such as application or web site links, RSS feeds, Sametime contacts, document management, or people finder.

More information can be found here.

How to restore WebSphere Portal back to the out-of-the-box security configuration

One of my colleague was engaged in an assignment this week where he needed to revert back the existing security with LDAP to out-of-the-box security (File repository). Here are the steps which we followed to complete this task.

We are using portal 6.1. So, we need to install the required patch for this task. We installed PK73815 and update the Portal configuration. You can down load this APAR from the IBM fix central.

• Modify the wkplc.properties file for the following changes. Add this properties at the end fo the file.
  

# The realm name to be used. A realm with this name will be created.
restore.file.realm=federatedRealm
restore.file.delimiter=/

# Portal and WAS admin UID (short name) and password
restore.file.primaryAdminId=adminUID
restore.file.primaryAdminPassword=adminPWD

# CN of portal admin group (short name)
restore.file.primaryPortalAdminGroup=adminGroupCN

• Make sure that your WAS admin password and your Portal admin password are populated in wkplc.properties file.
• Start Websphere Application Server and Websphere Portal server before running the task.
• Navigate to the /opt/ibm/WebSphere/wp_profile/ConfigEngin directory. Run the following command from here.
  wp-restore-default-repository-configuration
• The wp-restore-default-repository-configuration task allows you to return to the default VMM setup with a federated file repository. The task will create a new realm, delete all existing repositories, and configure a file repository in VMM.
• If you want the admin user to be added to the admin group, restart both the servers and run the following command from /opt/ibm/WebSphere/wp_profile/ConfigEngin
  wp-restore-default-repository-add-group-member

This process will revert back your repository back to out-of-the-box security.

References:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=688&ca=portall2&uid=swg21368395

How to provide anonymous access to your web content

It's sometimes so frustrating to see that some thing which you have already done once is giving you a hard time doing again.

This is exactly what I faced today. I have configured anonymous access to the web content for my site and have configured Web Content Viewer portlet for anonymous access in my devl environment. But when I tried the same thing today in Production, it's just not working. After so many tries looking for the solution what I found, is a small mistake which cost me dearly.

This has again inspired me to put this thing on papaer to make my life easy. So, for all you people out there who are also into such kind of scenarios, here is a quick note on how to assign anonymous access to web content.

Steps:

1. Create a copy of the "Web Content Viewer" portlet and rename it to whatever name you like.
2. Add "Anonymous Portal User" into the user role of the portlet.
3. Add "Anonymous Portal User" into the user role of your content library.
4. If point -3 doesn't suits to your access policy, then atleast make sure that you need to have user access for "Anonymous Portal User" on every item in the path to the current content item. i.e. library/site/site area/content item and ofcourse on the Authoring Template and presentation Template.
5. Modify the Edit Shared Settings in the portlet and configure the content item to be displayed.

Hope this helps to some extent when you really need it. :)

Learning WebSphere Portal Enable, Extend, and Express 6.1 for Administrators

It's been quite a while since I blog . Busy with ongoing assignments and of course my wedding is around the corner. :)

For the people who are more aligned towards portal administration rather than development, here is collection of all the details/know-how which will be handy while working. This is a one stop shop for administrator.

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/portalwiki.nsf/dx/learning_portal_for_administrators