Obtain installation media and install Installation Manager for Liberty

Install Installation Manager and obtain the necessary product repositories before installing WebSphere Application Server Liberty.

  1. Install IBM Installation Manager Version 1.8.5 or later.

    If a previous version is installed, update it. The minimum acceptable version of IBM Installation Manager for installing Liberty is 1.9.0 or later. Through version 19.0.0.8, the minimum acceptable version of IBM Installation Manager is 1.8.5.

    1. Download the most current version of Installation Manager from the download website.

    2. Change to the location containing the Installation Manager installation files, and run one of the following commands.

      • Administrative installation: ./install
      • Non-administrative installation: ./userinst
      • Group-mode installation: ./groupinst

      Notes on group mode:

        Group mode allows multiple users to use a single instance of IBM Installation Manager to manage software packages.

        This does not mean that two people can use the single instance of IBM Installation Manager at the same time.

        If we do not install Installation Manager using group mode, we will not be able to use group mode to manage any of the products that we install later using this Installation Manager.

        Change the installation location from the default location in the current user's home directory to a location accessible by all users in the group.

        Set up your groups, permissions, and environment variables as described in the Group mode road maps in the IBM Installation Manager product documentation before installing in group mode.

      The installer opens an Install Packages window.

    3. Make sure that the Installation Manager package is selected, and click Next.

    4. Accept the terms in the license agreements, and click Next.

      The program creates the directory for your installation.

    5. Click Next.

    6. Review the summary information, and click Install.

      • If the installation is successful, the program displays a message indicating that installation is successful.

      • If the installation is not successful, click View Log File to troubleshoot the problem.

  2. Obtain the product repositories. There are two basic options for accessing the product repositories to install the offering.

    • Download repositories needed for local installation.

      The IBM Installation Manager-based media available in Passport Advantage includes a refresh pack containing Liberty fix pack 19.0.0.9. Add this pack to the IBM Installation Manager repository search path to install directly at a recent service level. For more information, see Recommended updates for WebSphere Application Server.

      Note:

      Passport Advantage contains only the media required for new installations. It does not include maintenance updates. We can obtain maintenance updates from IBM Fix Central or for some offerings, from live online repositories.

      To install the most recent version, add the Passport Advantage media to the IBM Installation Manager repository search path and install a maintenance update from Fix Central. For a list of maintenance updates and Fix Central download links, see Recommended updates for WebSphere Application Server.

      Whenever possible, use the remote web-based repositories so we are accessing the most up-to-date installation files. Use the downloadable repositories from the Passport Advantage site only with up-to-date downloadable Installation Manager repositories from Recommended updates for WebSphere Application Server. The Passport Advantage content needs to be configured only in the Installation Manager repository path and not directly installed.

    • Access the live repositories, and use web-based installation. If we have an IBM ID and password, we can access the product repositories and install the offering from the web-based repositories. Use Installation Manager to install the offering from the web-based repository located at 

        http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.liberty.ND

      Note that this location does not contain a web page we can access using a web browser. This is a remote web-based repository location that we must add to your Installation Manager preferences before the Installation Manager GUI can access the files in this repository to install the offering. Tip: This live repository is accessed using Passport Advantage authentication. After we have installed Installation Manager, we can set the Passport Advantage preference to connect to the live repositories. To set Passport Advantage preferences, follow this procedure:

      1. Open Installation Manager.

      2. Open the Passport Advantage preferences page by selecting File > Preferences > Passport Advantage.

      3. Select Connect to Passport Advantage to connect to the Passport Advantage repository.

        The Password Required dialog box opens.

      4. Enter a user name and password for Passport Advantage.

      5. Optional: Select Save password to save the user name and password credentials.

        If we do not save the user name and password credentials, we are prompted for these credentials each time you access Passport Advantage.

      6. Click OK to close the Password Required dialog box.

      7. Click OK to close the Preferences window.

      See the IBM Installation Manager product documentation.

      Whenever possible, you should use the remote web-based repositories so we are accessing the most up-to-date installation files.

    Notes:

    • If we do not have a Passport Advantage ID and password, we must install the offering from the product repositories on the media or local repositories.
    • With the Package Utility, we can create and manage packages for installation repositories. We can copy multiple packages into one repository or copy multiple disks for one product into a repository. We can copy packages from Passport Advantage or a web-based repository into a local repository for example. For more information on the Package Utility, go to the IBM Installation Manager product documentation.

  3. Optional: Configure an instance of the Liberty Asset Repository Service or a local directory-based repository. As part of installing Liberty, we can choose to install assets from the following repositories:

    • The Liberty Repository, a public IBM-hosted repository accessible through the internet.

      See Liberty Repository.

    • The Liberty Asset Repository Service, an open source service used to create an on-premises repository remotely accessible behind the firewall of an enterprise.

      See the WASdev/tool.lars project on GitHub.

    • Local directory-based repositories, which we create using the installUtility download action or by downloading the wlp-featureRepo-<version>.zip file, which contains all applicable features and addons.

      See Downloading assets using the installUtility command.

    Access to the Liberty Repository requires internet access. If the system does not have internet access or we want to install customized Liberty assets, set up an instance of the Liberty Asset Repository Service or a local directory-based repository, and then add the repository URL, directory path, or archive path in Installation Manager. See Install assets using Installation Manager.

  4. Optional: If we will be using the Installation Manager GUI, add the product repository to your Installation Manager preferences.

    1. Launch Installation Manager.

    2. Click File > Preferences.

    3. Select Repositories.

    4. Perform the following actions:

      1. Click Add Repository .
      2. Enter the path to the repository.config file in the location containing the repository files.For example:

        or 

          http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.liberty.ND

      3. Click OK.
    5. Deselect any locations listed in the Repositories window that we will not be using.

    6. Click Apply.

    7. Click OK.

    8. Click File > Exit to close Installation Manager.

    See the IBM Installation Manager product documentation.

  5. Optional: If we will be using the Installation Manager GUI, set your Installation Manager rollback preferences. By default, Installation Manager saves earlier versions of a package to roll back to if you experience issues later. When Installation Manager rolls back a package to a previous version, the current version of the files are uninstalled and the earlier versions are reinstalled. If we choose not to save the files for rollback, we can prevent the files from being saved or delete them after they are saved. To set your rollback preferences, perform the following actions before installing a package:

    1. Launch Installation Manager.

    2. Open the Rollback preferences window by selecting File > Preferences > Files for Rollback .

    3. Select or clear the Save files for rollback option to save or to stop saving a copy of files required to roll back packages on your computer.

      We can remove any files that have already been saved by clicking Delete Saved Files . If we delete the files and we need to roll back a package later, we must connect to a repository or insert the media to obtain the required files for the previous version of the package.

    4. Click OK to save your rollback preferences.

    See the IBM Installation Manager product documentation.


What to do next

Use Installation Manager to install the offering.