PeopleSoft Application Server : Binding JSL Port to Multiple IP Addresses

For the impatient:

On any multi-homed¹ host, replace %PS_MACH% variable in "Jolt Listener" section of the application server domains' psappsrv.cfg file wih the special IP address "0.0.0.0" to get the desired effect. It enables TCP/IP stack to listen on all available network interfaces on the system. In other words, if JSL is listening on 0.0.0.0 on a multi-homed system, PIA traffic can flow using any of the IP addresses assigned to that system.

For the rest:

A little background first.

PeopleSoft application server relies on Jolt, a companion product that co-exists with Tuxedo, to handle all web requests. That is, Jolt is the bridge between PeopleSoft application server and the web server (any supported one) that facilitates web communication. Tuxedo helps schedule PeopleSoft application server processes to perform the actual transactions. When the application server is booted up, Jolt server listener (JSL) is bound to a pre-configured port number and is actively monitored for incoming web requests. On the other hand, web server instance(s) are made aware of the existence of all Jolt listeners in a PeopleSoft Enterprise by configuring the hostname:port# pairs in each of the web domain's configuration.properties file.

By default the variable %PS_MACH% in each of the application server domain configuration file, psappsrv.cfg, gets resolved to the hostname of the system during application server boot-up time. The following example demonstrates that.

eg.,

/* Application server configuration file */
% cat psappsrv.cfg
..
[JOLT Listener]
Address=%PS_MACH%
Port=9000
..

/* Boot up the application server domain */
% psadmin -c boot -d HRHX
..
exec JSL -A -- -d /dev/tcp -n //ben01:9000 -m 100 -M 100 -I 5 -j ANY -x 20 -S 10 -c 1000000 -w JSH :
        process id=20077 ... Started.
..

% hostname
ben01

% netstat -a | grep 9000
ben01.9000                 *.*                0      0 49152      0 LISTEN

% netstat -an | grep 9000
17.16.221.106.9000          *.*                0      0 49152      0 LISTEN

% ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=2001000849 mtu 8232 index 1
 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000 
bge0: flags=1000843 mtu 1500 index 2
 inet 17.16.221.106 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 17.16.221.255
bge1: flags=1000843 mtu 1500 index 3
 inet 18.1.1.1 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 18.1.1.255
e1000g0: flags=1000843 mtu 1500 index 4
 inet 18.1.1.201 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 18.1.1.255

% telnet 17.16.221.106 9000
Trying 17.16.221.106...
Connected to 17.16.221.106.
Escape character is '^]'.

% telnet 18.1.1.1 9000
Trying 18.1.1.1...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused

% telnet 18.1.1.201 9000
Trying 18.1.1.201...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused

Notice that %PS_MACH% was replaced by the actual hostname and the Jolt listener created the server socket using the IP address 17.16.221.106 and port number 9000. From the outputs of netstat, ifconfig and telnet, it is apparent that "bge0" is the only network interface that is being used by the Jolt listener. It means web server can communicate to JSL using the IP address 17.16.221.106 over port 9000 but not using any of the other two IP addresses 18.1.1.1 or 18.1.1.201. This is the default behavior.

However some customers may wish to have the ability to connect to the application services from different/multiple networks. This is possible in case of multi-homed systems -- servers with multiple network interfaces that are connected to a single or multiple networks. For example, such a host could be part of a public network, a private network where only those clients that can communicate over private links can connect or an InfiniBand network, a low latency high throughput network. The default behavior of JSL can be changed by using a special IP address "0.0.0.0" in place of the variable %PS_MACH% in application server domains' configuration file. The IP address 0.0.0.0 hints the Jolt listener (JSL) to listen on all available IPv4 network interfaces on the system. (I read somewhere that "::0" is the equivalent for IPv6 interfaces. Didn't get a chance to test it out yet). The following example demonstrates how the default behavior changes with the IP address 0.0.0.0.

% cat psappsrv.cfg
..
[JOLT Listener]
Address=0.0.0.0
Port=9000
..

/* Update the binary configuration by reloading the config file */
% psadmin -c configure -d HRHX

% psadmin -c boot -d HRHX
..
exec JSL -A -- -d /dev/tcp -n //0.0.0.0:9000 -m 100 -M 100 -I 5 -j ANY -x 20 -S 10 -c 1000000 -w JSH :
 process id=20874 ... Started.

% netstat -a | grep 9000
      *.9000               *.*                0      0 49152      0 LISTEN

% telnet 17.16.221.106 9000
Trying 17.16.221.106...
Connected to 17.16.221.106.
..

% telnet 18.1.1.1 9000
Trying 18.1.1.1...
Connected to 18.1.1.1.
..

% telnet 18.1.1.201 9000
Trying 18.1.1.201...
Connected to 18.1.1.201.

Footnote:
[1] Any system with more than one interface is considered a multi-homed host