To Start ESCWA

This chapter details how you can start and configure ESCWA, including enabling it to operate using Transport Layer Security (TLS).
Note: Enterprise Server Security is enabled by default. See Default Enterprise Server Security Configuration for more information.

On UNIX, to start ESCWA as default:

  1. From a command prompt, execute cobsetenv to set the environment:
    . <product-install-dir>/bin/cobsetenv
    Note: The product install directory is typically located at /opt/microfocus/VisualCOBOL/opt/microfocus/EnterpriseServer/bin.
  2. Change to a new directory to store the ESCWA standard output, in this case, in a file called escwa.out and avoid blocking unmounting the current file system:
    cd working-directory
  3. To execute ESCWA in the background, type:
    nohup escwa < /dev/null > escwa.out 2>&1 & disown

In addition, ESCWA can only initially be contacted using the loopback address (localhost 127.0.0.1). You can access the application by using the following URL in your Web browser: http://localhost:10086.

Note: On the first occasion you access the Web interface, the following warning message is displayed:
  • The ESCWA server is not TLS-enabled. Communications across the network will not be encrypted. Micro Focus recommends that you enable TLS settings as soon as possible.

To restrict access to ESCWA you need to enable a security manager. See Specifying an External Security Manager for more information.

You can access ESCWA from a Web browser on a remote host by turning off the loopback mode.

Note: Micro Focus recommends that you restrict access and enable TLS before turning off loopback mode.

You can turn off loopback mode using one of the following three methods:

  1. Modify the ESCWA application configuration file:
    1. Edit the commonwebadmin.json file, and change the value of the MfRequestedEndpoint property to tcp:*:10086.

      The application configuration file is located in $COBDIR/etc.

      Note: The commonwebadmin.json file is not overwritten when installing a new version of Visual COBOL. Previous versions of ESCWA used port 10004, therefore, you might need to modify the configuration file.
  2. Add a parameter to the service before starting it.

    On UNIX:

    1. From a command prompt, execute cobsetenv to set the environment:
      . <product-install-dir>/cobsetenv
      Note: The product install directory is typically located at /opt/microfocus/VisualCOBOL/bin.
    2. Change directory to $COBDIR/bin and type:
      nohup escwa --BasicConfig.MfRequestedEndpoint="tcp:*:10086" --write=true < /dev/null > escwa.out 2>&1 &
  3. Modify the requested endpoint from within ESCWA:
    1. In a browser, type the following into the search bar localhost:10086.
    2. Click .

      This opens the Enterprise Server Administration Configuration dialog box.

    3. Click Server Settings to expand the available configuration options.
    4. In the Hostname or IP Address field, type *
    5. In the Port field, type 10086
      Note: You must restart the ESCWA service if you modify these fields.
    6. Click Apply.
Note: You can substitute the IP and port values of tcp:*:10086 (protocol:ip_or_domain:port) with the IP or domain and port you require. The --write=true parameter enables configuration changes to be written to the config file.