Portal Express, Version 6.0
Operating systems: i5/OS, Linux, Windows
WebSphere Portal Express Support Statement
This document proposes a revision to the definition of "supported" and "unsupported" with respect to the various products of which IBM® WebSphere® Portal Express depends on for proper operation.
Introduction
WebSphere Portal Express requires the use of several collateral products for its normal operations. In particular, it requires WebSphere Application Server, a database, a repository for user information (typically an LDAP), and other products depending on specific customer requirements.
During the testing of a new release, Development generally tests WebSphere Portal Express with a prescribed list of these collateral products. These products are designated as "Supported Products" in the "Supported Hardware and Software" section of the "Planning" chapter of the information center for that release.
Because the list of "Supported Products" cannot reasonably describe all possible configurations that a customer may need to use, some customers have voiced concerns about the level of support that will be provided for configurations that are not specifically designated as "Supported." This paper is intended to provide clarification of the level of support that can be generally expected for the current release with various combinations of dependent products.
Although the statements in this paper reflect the general level of support that can be expected for WebSphere Portal Express, the terms and conditions of any specific support offering, license or other Agreement you might have with IBM will determine the actual delivered support for the product. Nothing herein shall be construed as supplementing, modifying or superseding the terms of your IBM license agreement for WebSphere Portal Express or any other agreement you might have with IBM, nor shall it create any obligation for IBM to deliver a level of support other than might be set forth in such Agreements.
Categories of Support
There are three (3) categories of support for collateral products to WebSphere Portal Express. They are "Supported Products", "Newer Versions and Releases of Supported Products" and "Unsupported Products". The definition and support statement for each category follows:
- Supported Product
A "Supported Product" is a product (at a specified version, release and fix level) that was tested by Development and is known to work with WebSphere Portal Express.
Products in this category are supported as per the terms of your WebSphere Portal Express License Agreement. PMRs (Problem Management Records) will be accepted by IBM Support in accordance with the conditions of the WebSphere Portal Express License Agreement.
- Newer Versions and Releases of Supported Products
Many Products outside the specific version(s), release(s) or fix pack(s) of the "Supported" version, (referenced in the information center) may not have been explicitly tested by IBM WebSphere Development, yet can reasonably be expected to perform within the accepted bounds of reliability, function and performance by a customer.
Products that fall into this category are typically newer releases or fix levels of a product already in the "Supported Product" category or a product that adheres to a standard API that WebSphere Portal Express supports (such as an LDAP server). Some specific examples might include a newer operating system fix level, a WebSphere Application Server (WAS) fix pack newer than the original "Supported "fix pack level, an IBM Java (JVM) fix pack, a new fix pack or release of DB2 or an updated LDAP server.
For products that fall into this category, support is as follows:
For IBM products, such as IBM Directory Server or Domino LDAP, IBM DB2, IBM JDKs (JVMs) and WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere Portal Express will fully support fix-pack, release and version updates that do not significantly change interfaces or other underlying support that WebSphere Portal Express depends on for its functionality. If and when a newer release of one of these products is shipped that WebSphere Portal Express cannot accommodate, that fact will be noted as described in the next section entitled "Unsupported Products". Note that in order for WebSphere Portal Express to support an update to a database or LDAP product, WebSphere Application Server must support that update as well.
For non-IBM products, the Support team will make a commercially reasonable effort to support products in this category. Support will accept problem reports (PMRs) for the appropriate releases using these untested products. If Support is able to recreate the reported problem using a "Supported" version of the product, we will attempt to fix the problem.
If Support is not able to recreate the problem with a "Supported" version of the product in question and is not able to resolve the problem on the untested version of the product in question, Support will look to the support organization for the product in question to provide resolution. Please note that varying degrees of customer involvement may be necessary to handle this process for non-IBM products.
If the support organization for the untested product in question is unable to resolve the problem, Support will deem that version, release or fix pack level of the untested product in question to now be an "Unsupported Product".
- Unsupported Products
An "Unsupported Product" is a product (at a specified version, release and fix level) that is known to not work with WebSphere Portal Express and is therefore not supported. A product can be included in this category as a result of an explicit test effort by Development or as a result of discovery from a prior customer problem. The WebSphere Portal Express Support team maintains a list, by WebSphere Portal Express release, of all known "Unsupported Products" published on the Web as a techdoc available to all customers at WebSphere Portal Express Support Statement Addendum - Unsupported Products
WebSphere Application Server has a similar support statement which can be found at: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=180&context=SSEQTP&uid=swg27004311
WebSphere Application Server uses specially customized builds of the IBM JVMs and JDKs. Updates to these must be obtained from WebSphere Application Server support.
WebSphere Portal Express can be sensitive to changes in the underlyingWebSphere Application Server. Upgrading to a new fix pack level of the application server is well tolerated and encouraged (such as from WebSphere Application Server version 5.1.1.3 to 5.1.1.5) since WebSphere Portal Express version 5.0.2 and later as long as all required fixes for WebSphere Application Server are available as integrated into that fix pack or by applying an interim fix specifically for that maintenance level. However, upgrading from one version of WebSphere Application Server to the next is quite problematic if not done within the context of a migration of versions , and should never be attempted with an "in-place" system.