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Roadmap: Development environment

Use this roadmap if we are an organization that needs an environment to develop and test your portlets and themes before you go live. Do not use this roadmap to develop web content. See instead: HCL DX roadmap: Web content servers to develop web content. The topology for a portlet and theme environment is the same as the demonstration environment. It includes a portal server with a local database. However, the software configuration is different. The topology diagram depicts a portal server that is connected to a code repository for group development. While the topology diagram depicts a server, the portlet and theme environment might be configured on a notebook.


Prepare for the installation process

Gather information and software before installing HCL WebSphere Portal.

  1. Check product system requirements.

  2. Log in to HCL Software Support and get the software.


Install prerequisites

Before installing HCL WebSphere Portal, install any prerequisites that are necessary for the environment. We can use existing prerequisite software installations. Verify that your existing version is supported. If it does not, upgrade to the appropriate version.

  1. Prepare a database server.

  2. Prepare a user registry.


Install the HCL WebSphere Portal

Install HCL WebSphere Portal involves preparing the operating system, installing or upgrading the installation manager, and running the installation program. Visit Install the HCL WebSphere Portal software for more topic information.


Apply the latest cumulative fix

Portal maintenance is delivered through individual fixes (Fixes) and Combined Cumulative Fixes (CFs), which is recommended to the environment.


Transfer the database

After we install the web experience, Apache Server is your available database. Depending on our requirements, we might need to transfer to a different database. The Database Transfer configuration option in the Configuration Wizard assigns users and permissions, creates databases, obtains support for database collation, and transfers the database.

  1. Log in to HCL WebSphere Portal to verify that we have a working portal:

      http://hostname.example.com:10039/wps/portal

    hostname.example.com is the fully qualified host name of the server where Portal is running and 10039 is the default transport port that is created by DX Application Server. The port number might be different for the environment.

  2. To get the latest updates for the wizard, apply the most recent Combined Cumulative Fix. For more information about applying the latest fix pack, visit Combined cumulative fix strategy for more topic information.

  3. Access the Configuration Wizard. Go to http://your_server:10200/hcl/wizard.

    Note: If working with HCL WebSphere Portal 8.5 or 9 software level prior to CF18, the wizard address will be: http://your_server:10200/ibm/wizard. After installing CF18, the configuration wizard will automatically be adjusted to http://your_server:10200/hcl/wizard. Restriction: There is a known issue with Chrome version 45.x and the Configuration Wizard. If we are experiencing difficulties, use a different browser when we access the wizard.

  4. Log in to the Configuration Wizard with the administrative ID for the configuration wizard profile, cw_profile.

    Note: If the language is not currently supported for the user interface, we might see the English version. For details on supported languages and the language codes for all of the HCL Portal user interfaces, see Supported languages.

  5. Select Set Up a Stand-alone Server > Database Transfer.

  6. Provide information about the environment.

  7. Save the configuration settings.

  8. Choose one of the following options:

    • Click Download Files to run the steps remotely.
    • Click Run All Steps to run the steps locally.

  9. Optional: To shorten the site URL for search engine optimization benefits, we can modify your context root and remove navigational state information from your URL using the Modify Site URLs for SEO configuration option.

  10. Log in to HCL WebSphere Portal to verify that we have a working portal server.


Enabling federated security

After we install the web experience, a default file-based repository is your available user registry. Depending on our requirements, we might need to enable a federated LDAP user registry.

Note: If you set Use Administrator IDs stored in the LDAP user registry to yes, the WebSphere Application Server and HCL WebSphere Portal user IDs and passwords are changed to the LDAP user ID and password. If we do not want to change both user IDs and passwords to match the LDAP user ID and password, set this value to no. After we configure the LDAP user registry, we can manually change the user IDs and passwords.

  1. To get the latest updates for the wizard, apply the most recent Combined Cumulative Fix. For more information about applying the latest fix pack, visit Combined cumulative fix strategy for more topic information.

  2. Access the Configuration Wizard. Go to http://your_server:10200/hcl/wizard.

    Note: If working with HCL WebSphere Portal 8.5 or 9 software level prior to CF18, the wizard address will be: http://your_server:10200/ibm/wizard. After installing CF18, the configuration wizard will automatically be adjusted to http://your_server:10200/hcl/wizard. Restriction: There is a known issue with Chrome version 45.x and the Configuration Wizard. If we are experiencing difficulties, use a different browser when we access the wizard.

  3. Log in to the Configuration Wizard with the administrative ID for the configuration wizard profile, cw_profile.

    Note: If the language is not currently supported for the user interface, we might see the English version. For details on supported languages and the language codes for all of the HCL WebSphere Portal user interfaces, see Supported languages.

  4. Select Set Up a Stand-alone Server > Enable Federated Security.

    Note: If you set Use Administrator IDs stored in the LDAP user registry to yes, the WebSphere Application Server and HCL Digital Experience user IDs and passwords are changed to the LDAP user ID and password. If you do not want to change both user IDs and passwords to match the LDAP user ID and password, set this value to no. After we configure the LDAP user registry, we can manually change the user IDs and passwords.

  5. Provide information about the environment.

  6. Save the configuration settings.

  7. Choose one of the following options:

    • Click Download Files to run the steps remotely.

    • Click Run All Steps to run the steps locally.

  8. Log in to HCL WebSphere Portal to verify that we have a working portal server.


Tune the servers in the environment

Tune the servers is important to the performance of the portal environment. HCL Digital Experience is not tuned for a production environment after installation and deployment. The database needs tuning for improved performance. We can organize your database now or soon after finishing the configuration. We need to tune and maintain your database on a regular basis. Run the performance tuning tool to complete an initial tuning of the servers.


Change to developer mode

Change your stand-alone server to developer mode to improve startup performance.

Parent topic: HCL WebSphere Portal Roadmaps for stand-alone servers