WebSphere Application Server file locations

WAS has a very specific directory structure that matches many of the concepts we previously discussed. Because the directory structure is standardized, it makes it easy for you to find the information you need by traversing the directories.

Appserver or WebSphere home directory

Our starting point is always what is referred to in IBM documentation as the WebSphere Directory. This is actually the directory, called appserver, where WAS is installed.

In a standard Linux install, this directory is found at: /opt/ibm/websphere/appserver.

In a standard Windows install, we strongly recommend modifying the default path on install from: c:\program files(x86)\ibm\websphere\appserver to instead be<drive>:\ibm\websphere\appserver.

There are several reasons for this, not least of which is that the WAS directory structure is deeply nested underneath the appserver location, and you may hit Windows file path length limits (which can be limited to 256 characters...