Planning your URIs

Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) have an important role in Jazz architecture. When you plan your deployment and installation of the IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) you must decide which URI to use for the server.

Overview

ELM applications and the Jazz Team Server generate absolute URIs to resources that are used for the following purposes: stored artifacts, mail notifications, feeds, copying items to the system clipboard, web access, and for stable resource identification for all applications. These URIs are rooted by a "Public URI" that is declared for the application or Jazz Team Server.

In many instances, these generated URIs persist in the repository databases because various stored resources contain URI links between them and outbound links to resources on other applications and servers. These URIs might also be referred to in contexts that are outside of the local network. For example, a URI might be referred to from another Internet domain or outside a corporate firewall.

You must choose a public URI that is fully qualified and accessible from anywhere in the network where users need to connect. If necessary, a URI that is based on a stable host name can be rerouted through a domain name server (DNS).

Note: In a limited number of scenarios, you can change the server URL later by using the server rename feature. For details, see Changing the public URL by using server rename. However, using server rename is a potentially disruptive procedure. Correcting the stored links into the server from all other applications and systems can be difficult or impossible. Also, server rename might not be supported in your deployment, depending on the types of integrations with other products being used. Therefore, be sure to plan your deployment carefully so that a rename is not needed.

Options for choosing a URI

The public URI must be configured while Jazz Team Server and the applications are set up. The public URI can be set, validated, and tested in the Jazz Team Server setup wizard.

When you choose a public URI, you make the following decisions:

• Choose your protocol (HTTP or HTTPS): By default, Jazz Team Server and the applications require HTTPS for all protected resources. Use HTTPS for secure communications within your network.
• Determine your host name: Choose a host name that is unlikely to change and that can be resolved through a DNS within your network. This choice gives you the option to move the server to a computer with a different IP address and maintain a stable URI. Ensure that the host name is fully qualified. If you are deploying all of the applications in one application server, you can use virtual host names to make the applications more portable while keeping a stable URI. For more information, see DNS names in topologies.
• Avoid using host names that cannot be resolved with a DNS: Avoid host names such as "localhost" or an IP address.
• Determine the server port: By default, Jazz Team Server and the applications use the default port 9443 for HTTPS communications. If you prefer to use a different port, plan to do so early. For more information, see Changing the port numbers for the application server.
• Decide whether to use the default HTTPS or HTTP ports: In this example, the port is not included in the public URI. For example: https://my.host.example.org/jts. This selection is common when you are using a reverse proxy to have a single host name for all applications that are deployed to separate physical computers. For more information, see Reverse proxy servers in topologies and Changing the port numbers for the application server.
• Determine the context root: The context root is determined when web applications are deployed on the application server. The context root is the first segment after the host and port segment of the URI. A context root can have only a single segment. For example, in the URI https://u1.example.com:9443/ccm, the context root is "ccm". By default, the context roots for the CLM applications and Jazz Team Server are as follows for new installations:
  • Change and Configuration Management (CCM): ccm
  • Quality Management (QM): qm
  • Requirements Management (RM): rm
  • Jazz Team Server: jts
• If you are upgrading from previous versions of IBM Rational Team Concert, IBM Rational Quality Manager, and IBM Rational Requirements Composer, the old context roots are used to preserve URI stability. If you are deploying up multiple instances of the CCM, QM, and RM applications to one logical host, choose context roots that have meaning within your organization.
  Important: The context root for the public URI must be the same as the context root for installing the application and deploying the application to its application server, even when a reverse proxy server is used in the topology. To choose a different context root for your installation, see Choosing a different context root than default.
• Use the public URI of the target application or server: When you connect applications to each other or to Jazz Team Server, always use the public URI of the target application or server.
• Remember that clients can connect to the CCM application with an alias: This ability supports the case where a local caching proxy is set up for caching source-control content. For more information, see Using content caching proxies for Jazz Source Control on Jazz.net. If you connect with an alias, you might be redirected to the public URI when you follow URIs that the application provides.

Related topics: You can't change the public URI, Maintaining the public URL

External links:

• Engineering Lifecycle Management Information Center