Portal Express, Version 6.0
Operating systems: i5/OS, Linux, Windows
Preparing your Windows machine
This section includes information for setting up your operating system for IBM® WebSphere® Portal Express with the default database. Other components might require additional steps; see the product documentation for the specific components you want to install for information.
WebSphere Portal Express can run on specific versions of Microsoft Windows. Refer to Supported hardware and software to view a list of the supported Windows operating systems and associated service packs.
Before installing WebSphere Portal Express, there are several tasks you should perform to ensure that your machine is ready for installation.
- Verify the operating system/service pack version
- Check your network setup
- Check access rights for the system logon user ID
- Manage the length of your Path environment variable
- Disable any firewall products
- Launch Services
- Launch Task Manager
Verify the operating system/service pack version
You can check your operating system and service pack version by doing the following steps:
- Right-click on the My Computer icon (located on the desktop or in the File Explorer).
- Click Properties.
- Verify that an appropriate operating system/service pack combination is installed.
- If an appropriate operating system or service pack is not installed, refer to the Microsoft support site to download and install the required software.
Check your network setup
Proper network configuration is essential when installing WebSphere Portal Express. This section describes the network setup requirements you should verify before installation.
Checking for a configured, fully-qualified host name
WebSphere Portal Express also requires the use of a fully-qualified host name, which is typically the host name of the server along with its fully-qualified domain name (FQDN). To be sure that this is configured correctly, you can check with a simple ping before you start installation. For example, you could enter ping yourserver.yourcompany.com at a command prompt.
If a fully-qualified host name is not correctly configured, the request might time out. Contact your network administrator for assistance.
Check access rights for the system logon user ID
Before installing WebSphere Portal Express, check that the system logon user ID you will use during installation has the following permissions and rights:- The user ID must already exist prior to installation.
- The user ID must be a local Windows user ID that is in the Administrators group.
To determine if a user account is a member of the Administrators group:
- Click Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Computer Management.
- Expand Local Users and Groups and select Groups.
- Open the Administrators group to see what members belong to it.
- Add users to the Administrators group as necessary.
A domain user ID with administrator privileges is not sufficient for installation.
When running as a service, provide the system logon user ID and password. The user ID must have the following user rights:
- Act as part of the operating system: Windows designates this user right as a privilege for the user account.
- Log on as a service: Windows designates this user right as a logon right for the user account.
Manage the length of your Path environment variable
- Path name length
- There is a known limitation with many Windows operating systems that limits path names to a maximum length of 259 characters. This can be a potential problem due to the depth of the WebSphere Application Server directory structure, particularly when deploying applications or performing migration.
During installation and configuration, values are added temporarily to the Path, which might result in one of the following errors during configuration:
These messages might also appear in the wpinstalllog.txt file.
- The input line is too long.
- The syntax of the command is incorrect.
- The filename is too long.
To avoid problems related to excessively long paths names, consider the following recommendations when installing:
- Use a short installation path. For example, use C:\WebSphere instead of C:\Program Files\IBM\Websphere.
- Specify short cell and node names – do not use names longer than 5 characters. For example, you might use scell instead of stonemillNode01cell.
- The name of the WAR files must be less than approximately 21 characters. The installation program attempts to truncate or rename long names before it deploys the WAR file into the application server; however, it cannot always circumvent the path name to exceed the limit. To correct this error, modify the file name to less than 21 characters.
- Refer to the following tech note for more information: http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=688&context=SSHRKX&q1=1254579&uid=swg21254579&loc=en_US&cs=utf-8&lang=en.
Disable any firewall products
Before you start the WebSphere Portal Express installation program, disable any firewall products that are running on the machine where portal will be installed. If the installation program detects a firewall, a warning message displays.
Launch Services
The Windows operating system includes an administrative tool called Services that enables you to stop, start, or check the status of a service. An example of a service is DB2 - DB2, which is the name of the main service that is provided by DB2.
At various times during the installation of WebSphere Portal Express, you might need to check the status of specific services or start and stop services. Note that some applications like DB2 have more than one service running, and if you have to start or stop these services, start or stop all of them.
To access Services:
- Click Start > Programs > Administrative Tools.
- Open Services.
- To determine if a service has started, view the Status column. If there is no value in the Status column, then that service has not started.
- To start or stop a service, right-click on the service and then click Start or Stop.
Services are sometimes referred to as processes in the screens that are provided with some applications.
Launch Task Manager
Windows Task Manager provides real-time status information about your system, including the programs and processes that are running and the system resources, such as memory, that are being consumed. Because some parts of the WebSphere Portal Express installation are processor intensive, you can use Windows Task Manager to verify that the installation is continuing, even though progress indicators on the install panels might appear to have stalled.
To open Windows Task Manager:
- Right-click an empty space on the taskbar.
- Click Task Manager.
- Click the Processes or Performance tab to view the progress.