Set up V4.0.x and V6 coexistence

 

Before you begin

You must migrate prerequisite and corequisite programs to the levels required by WebSphere Application Server, V6. You must also identify ports in use in V4.0.x before you begin the V6 installation, to avoid possible conflicts during coexistence. The first two steps in this task describe these activities.

 

Overview

We can install WebSphere Application Server V4.0.x and V6 on the same node. Change the ports to avoid conflicts during profile creation (see Using the Profile creation wizard for more information on profile creation).

Silent installation also supports configuring for coexistence silently. We can specify non-conflicting port assignments in the pct options response file.

By default, there are port conflicts between V4.0.x and V6 that resolve. Also, if you migrate more than two V4.0.x nodes to V6, there are port conflicts that resolve, as described in the Setting up V6 coexistence topic.

 

Procedure

  1. Migrate prerequisite and corequisite programs to the levels required by WebSphere Application Server, V6.

    Refer to the IBM WebSphere Application Server supported hardware, software, and APIs site for current requirements.

  2. Resolve port conflicts.

    Refer to the Port number settings in WAS versions topic to see a list of default port numbers, and where they are defined.

    Inspect the configuration of the previous version:

    • For WAS Advanced Single Server Edition, Version 4.0.x: Inspect the server-cfg.xml file to get port values for the configuration.

    • For WAS Advanced Edition, V4.0.x: Inspect the admin.config file to get port values for the configuration. When the administrative server is running, use this command 

      xmlConfig -export config.xml -nodeName theNodeName

      Review the config.xml file to look for <node action="update" name="nodename"> to find the appropriate node and port number assignments in the file. The V6 installation wizard will display the default set of coexistence port numbers during profile creation time. Change the values to ports that are not in use. The installation wizard uses whatever values you approve.

  3. Associate a Web server with each WebSphere Application Server.

    • Use a separate Web server for each WebSphere Application Server.

      1. Create a Web server instance using the Web server documentation.

      2. Use the standalone Web server plug-in installation wizard to install the appropriate V6 Web server plug-in. This wizard is provided on a separate CD from the WAS Installation CD. The Web server plug-in configuration file, plugin_cfg.xml, is now configurable using the administrative console. Communicating with Web servers describes how to configure this file for V6..

    • Use the same Web server for both WAS versions.

      To use the same Web server for both Application Server versions, first upgrade the Web server to the common level supported by both versions of the application server.

      Follow this procedure to use the same Web server for both WAS versions.

    1. Install the appropriate V6 Web server plug-in using the standalone Web server plug-in installation wizard provided on a separate CD from the WAS Installation CD.

    2. Edit the V4.0.x plugin-cfg.xml file and the V6 plugin-cfg.xml file, to merge their entries into a combined file of all Web context roots. Use the administrative console to configure the V6 plugin-cfg.xml file.

      Web context roots must be unique across Application Server versions. If there is a common context root across versions, requests are served by the plug-in instance that was last loaded.

      If you have both V4.0.x Samples and V6 Samples in the file, one can access only the V6 Samples after merging the configuration files because there is one context root for Samples.

      Whenever you modify the plugin-cfg.xml file for either version, manually merge the files again, to make a master file.

      This is described in the Preparing to install and configure a Web server (tins_webserver) topic in the base Application Server information center.

      Whenever you modify the plugin-cfg.xml file for either version, manually merge the files again, to make a master file.

    3. Replace the original plugin-cfg.xml file of the Version 5 installation with the master file.

  4. Fix any problems with environmental variables on Windows platforms. For example, installing WebSphere Application Server, V6 updates the system variable PATH, potentially affecting tools with the same name across installations. To run tools with conflicting names, alter the PATH environment variable in a command window and place the directory for the former installation before the directory for the latter installation. For example, PATH=E:\WebSphere\AppServer\40\bin;%PATH%. Then, invoke the tools from the bin directory.

 

What to do next

Return to Migrating from, or coexisting with a previous version to continue.

 

Related Tasks


Setting up V5 and V6 coexistence
Setting up V6 coexistence

 

See Also


Port number settings in WAS versions
Installation: Resources for learning