[TechNote] Disabling the WebSphere Application Server ping mechanism

Disabling the WebSphere Application Server ping mechanism

Technote (troubleshooting)

Problem(Abstract)

Under some circumstances it is necessary to disable the ping mechanism to avoid a restart of the Application Server even when the server is unresponsive.

Resolving the problem

Each application server sends a ping signal to the administrative server or nodeagent according to the Ping Interval set for that server. The administrative server or nodeagent waits for the ping signal from each Application Server according to the settings and if a ping signal is not sent according to the Ping Timeout value, the administrative server or nodeagent assumes that the Application Server has become unresponsive and tries to restart the Application Server.

For some applications, the default value for Ping Timeout might be too small. In such cases, tune this value to avoid an unnecessary restart of application servers.

Note: Under normal circumstances, it is not advisable to disable the ping mechanism.

Disabling the ping mechanism

• For version 6.1, 7.0 and 8.0:
  1. Go to the administrative console.
     
     
  2. Click Application Servers > server_name > Java and Process Management > Monitoring Policy.
     
     
  3. Specify the Ping Interval as 0 (zero) seconds to disable the ping mechanism.
     
     
• For version 6:
  1. Go to the administrative console.
     
     
  2. Click Servers > server_name > Java and Process Management > Monitoring Policy.
     
     
  3. Specify the Ping Interval as 0 (zero) seconds to disable the ping mechanism.
     
     

By setting the Ping Interval to 0 (zero), the administrative server or nodeagent does not communicate with the Application Server to verify if the server is running.