Packaging and sending your own software products using iSeries Navigator

 

In addition to sending IBM products from one i5/OS® system or logical partition to another i5/OS system or logical partition, you can also use iSeries™ Navigator to package and send your own software products.

Product packaging enables you to make your application programs into a packaged product that is installed and maintained in the same manner as the IBM® licensed programs. Once your application has been packaged as a product, you can manage all of the objects for that application as a single entity. Several methods are available that allow you to package your own products:

One of the advantages to packaging your application with iSeries Navigator is that it is part of the i5/OS operating system; and therefore, involves no additional cost. With iSeries Navigator, you can distribute your applications and fixes in the same way that you distribute i5/OS licensed programs. You can track your fixes the same way as you track IBM fixes. A product definition contains all the information that you need to send and install a product across multiple systems.

You need to create a product definition before you can package, or convert, your application into a product that your system recognizes as a product. The source system on which you create the product definition is used to manage the product. To package and distribute a product, do the following tasks.

  1. Create a product definition by following these steps:

    1. In iSeries Navigator, expand Management Central.

    2. Expand Definitions.

    3. Right-click Product and select New Definition.

    4. Follow the wizard's instructions for creating a new product definition. The source system on which you create the Management Central product definition is used to manage the product.

      As part of the wizard, you can indicate that you want to prompt users to accept a license agreement when the product is installed. Add the license documents from the Add License Documents dialog. For information on how to create these license documents, see Generating online software agreements for your own products.

  2. Install the product on the source system.

  3. Send and install the product on other systems by following these steps:

    1. In iSeries Navigator, expand Management Central.

    2. Expand Definitions.

    3. Select Product.

    4. Right-click the product definition that you want to send to and install on a target system and select Send and Install.

    5. Follow the wizard's instructions for installing the product definition on a target system. Clicking Finish causes the product to be sent and installed on the target system, and the status changes from Installed to Managed.

      • Only product definitions that have a status of Installed or Managed can be sent and installed.

      • Only fixes that have been applied are sent when you send and install a product.

Because the product is installed on the source system, the product is available to be managed. A status of Managed means that the definition can no longer be changed. To make any changes to the product for the current release requires that you generate a fix.

After you have installed the product on the source system, you can generate fixes to that product. For information on how to do this, see Generating fixes for installed products using Management Central.

Detailed task help is available from the iSeries Navigator window. Click Help from the menu bar and select Help Topics. Select What can I do with . . .? to find out what you can do and where you need to be in the iSeries Navigator window to make it happen.

What to do next:

After you package and send your own software products, send your fixes that you have generated. For specific information, see Sending and installing fixes.

 

Parent topic:

Distributing software using iSeries Navigator