[DeveloperWorks] Using WebSphere Application Server V7 with IPv6

Using WebSphere Application Server V7 with IPv6

Introduction

IBM WebSphere Application Server V7 is IBM's implementation of the Java™ Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 5 platform conforming to the J2EE™ 1.5 specification. It provides a run time environment for enterprise class applications, including J2EE applications, portlet applications, and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) applications. WebSphere Application Server is capable of hosting enterprise applications in advanced topologies, and features workload management, scalability, high availability, and central administration.

IPv6 is the “next“ version of the Internet Protocol, the data packaging and routing standard on which the Internet is based. IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) offers several improvements over the current version, IPv4. Most importantly, with 128-bit Internet addresses instead of the 32-bit addresses of IPv4, IPv6 increases the number of available addresses from about 4 billion to about 340 trillion trillion trillion addresses. Given the continued rapid growth of the Internet, ensuring there are enough addresses is crucial. The proliferation of wired and wireless devices means that multiple addresses will be required for every person who uses the Internet. IPv6 is also a strategic direction and key requirement of the federal government, along with many state and local governments and commercial organizations worldwide who are now transitioning to the new protocol.

WebSphere Application Server is a middleware hosting environment that lives on top of the native operating system platform. WebSphere Application Server does not implement TCP/IP communication protocol at the transport layer by itself; instead, WebSphere Application Server uses the native TCP/IP communication protocol provided by the host operating system platform at the transport layer. WebSphere Application Server has been certified to work within an IPv6 environment.

This article demonstrates how you can configure, deploy, and validate WebSphere Application Server topologies in pure IPv6, and in IPv6/IPv4 mixed mode infrastructure topologies. Specifically, this article covers these use cases:

• WebSphere Application Server deployment topology involving pure IPv6 infrastructure and a homogeneous hosting platform environment of Microsoft® Windows®.
• WebSphere Application Server deployment topology involving pure IPv6 infrastructure and a homogeneous hosting platform environment of RedHat Enterprise Linux® release 4.
• WebSphere Application Server deployment topology involving pure IPv6 infrastructure and a heterogeneous hosting environment of Windows and RedHat Enterprise Linux release 4.
• WebSphere Application Server deployment topology involving a mixed mode IPv6/IPv4 infrastructure and a heterogeneous hosting environment of Windows and RedHat Enterprise Linux release 4.