This assumes you have already add an IBM IHS Web Server to your WebSphere deployment manager. 

Let's say you have added an IHS web server named foo.example.com on node ihs1.example.com.

If the WebSphere deployment manager is able to communicate with the IHS web server using the IHS Admin Server, the status of the IHS web server should be displayed (green arrow for running, red X for stopped).

This doesn't mean that you are able to start or stop the web server using the WebSphere deployment manager. All this confirms is a successful communication from WebSphere to the IHS web server via the IHS Admin Server.

There are a number of "systems" that the request to start or stop the IHS web server will pass through.

Assuming WebSphere is able to communicate with the IHS Admin Server, the most important configuration are:

• ensure user in the IHS Admin Server configuration file (admin.conf) is an exact match of user in the IHS Web Server configuration file (httpd.conf)
• ensure group in the IHS Admin Server configuration file (admin.conf) is an exact match of group in the IHS Web Server configuration file (httpd.conf)

For example, if your IHS Admin Server configuration file (admin.conf) has the following then your IHS Web Server will also need to have "nobody" as the user and "webadmins" as the group.

User nobody
Group webadmins

By default, the IHS Admin Server configuration file (admin.conf) is configured to log events at log level warning.

LogLevel warn

At log level warning, when attempting to start or stop the IHS web server from the WebSphere deployment manager, the admin_access.log on the IHS node should contain an event like this. 

This confirms a successful connection from WebSphere to the IHS Admin Server as user john.doe from the WebSphere system with IP address 10.14.123.9. This does not let you know if the IHS web server was successfully started or stopped.

~]$ tail /opt/IBMIHS/logs/admin_access.log 
10.14.123.9 - john.doe [16/Dec/2021:06:03:59 -0600] "GET /wasadmin HTTP/1.1" 200 90 -

Likewise, the admin_error.log on the IHS node should contain an event like this.

[Fri Dec 17 04:08:39.284876 2021] [:warn] [pid 48045:tid 140486336960256] [client 10.84.176.231:36006] UnixStart: Saw messages on stdout during Start operation: 'httpd'
[Fri Dec 17 04:08:39.284919 2021] [:warn] [pid 48045:tid 140486336960256] [client 10.84.176.231:36006] UnixStart: Saw messages on stderr during Start operation: '(pid'

If you are unable to start or stop the IHS web server from WebSphere, you'll probably need to update the IHS Admin Server to log events at log level debug, and restart the IHS Admin Server for this change to take effect.

LogLevel debug

Then, try to stop or start the IHS web server from WebSphere, and admin_error.log on the IHS node should contain an event like this. This shows that the apachectl script is being used stop or start the IHS web server.

[Fri Dec 17 04:21:02.586123 2021] [:info] [pid 89155:tid 140321340061504] handle_cmd: ap_applname: /opt/IBMIHS/bin/apachectl
[Fri Dec 17 04:21:02.586177 2021] [:info] [pid 89155:tid 140321340061504] handle_cmd: apconfig: /opt/IBMIHS/conf/httpd.conf
[Fri Dec 17 04:21:02.586187 2021] [:info] [pid 89155:tid 140321340061504] handle_cmd: opts: -k start

Meaning that a command like this is being run on the IHS web server.

/opt/IBMIHS/bin/apachectl -k start -f /opt/IBMIHS/conf/httpd.conf

And if you examine the /opt/IBMIHS/bin/apachectl file, you will see that this script does nothing more than invoke the httpd command.

HTTPD='/opt/IBMIHS/bin/httpd -d /opt/IBMIHS'

start|stop|restart|graceful|graceful-stop)
    $HTTPD -k $ARGV

Meaning that a comment like this is being run on the IHS web server.

/opt/IBMIHS/bin/httpd -d /opt/IBMIHS -k start -f conf/httpd.conf