Install Liberty by extracting a Java archive file

We can install Liberty by running a self-extracting Java archive (JAR) file.

The system must meet the operating system and Java requirements for using Liberty.

See WebSphere Application Server detailed system requirements.

Note: Liberty on the IBM i platform uses the system-wide version of Java. To install Java on IBM i, follow these guidelines:

See Install Java on your IBM i server.

The wlp-<edition>-all-<fix_pack>.jar files install the Liberty runtime environment for your edition and any Liberty features that apply.

Note: A removal notice was issued for the Liberty runtime, extended programming model, and extras JAR files. Although we can still install from these files, they are eligible to be removed in the future as described in Removal notices.

  1. Download the JAR file for your edition.

    Each Liberty image is packaged as a JAR file called wlp-<edition>-all-<fix_pack>.jar. For a list of the available archives, see List of installation Java archive files.

  2. Extract the distribution image to your preferred directory by running the following command. 

      java -jar wlp-<edition>-all-<fix_pack>.jar

    All application server files are stored in subdirectories of the wlp directory.

    For a list of the available extraction options, see Java archive file extraction options.

  3. Optional: Set the JAVA_HOME property for the environment.

    Liberty requires a Java runtime environment (JRE) or Java SDK in which to run. We can specify the Java SDK or JRE location using the JAVA_HOME property in the server.env file, as described in Liberty environment variables. When you set the JAVA_HOME property in the server.env file, Liberty uses the same Java runtime location regardless of the user profile that the Liberty server runs under. To download an IBM Java SDK, see IBM Java SDKs for WebSphere Liberty. JAVA_HOME property as a system-level environment variable is not recommended. The IBM i platform is a shared environment, and changing system-level environment variables might affect other applications. On Linux or UNIX systems, we can instead set JAVA_HOME in the user .bashrc file, or append the JDK or JRE path to the PATH environment variable. On Windows systems, we can instead set JAVA_HOME as a system environment variable, or append the JDK or JRE path to the PATH system variable. For example, on Windows systems we can use the following commands to set the JAVA_HOME property, and to add the Java /bin directory to the path: 

      set JAVA_HOME=C:\Progra~1\Java\JDK8
set PATH=%JAVA_HOME%\bin;%PATH%

    Note: The Liberty runtime environment searches for the java command in this order: JAVA_HOME property, JRE_HOME property, and system PATH property.

    For more information about supported Java environments and where to get them, see Minimum supported Java levels.

  4. Optional: Upgrade our Liberty installation to a more advanced supported edition. For example, we can upgrade from WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core to WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment.

    See Apply a license to Liberty installations.


What to do next

After we install Liberty, we can further customize the environment by installing additional assets; see Install Liberty Repository assets. platform, after you extract the distribution image, we can configure all servers to run as jobs in the batch subsystem under the QEJBSVR user profile provided with the product. For more information, see Configure the Liberty server to start as a job in the QWAS9 subsystem on IBM i .