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Create custom installation repositories with IBM Packaging Utility

IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty uses IBM Installation Manager for installation and lifecycle management. Installation Manager accesses source repositories containing the content for a software product installation. Repositories are available on product media, in IBM-hosted web-based repositories, and from Passport Advantage . IBM Packaging Utility can help we create and customize enterprise repositories containing the correct combination of products and maintenance levels needed for all aspects of the business.

You use Installation Manager to connect to an Installation Manager repository (or set of repositories) to find products and service updates available to you for installation. An Installation Manager repository is simply a tree-structured file folder that includes product payload and metadata. We can install the software products needed directly from an IBM web-based service repository or download and unpack compressed files from Passport Advantage and install the products from the resulting unpacked file folders. The result of unpacking the files is also considered to be an Installation Manager repository. Like any Installation Manager repository, these unpacked files can be hosted on an internal HTTP server, FTP server, or network mount in order to make them available to the organization.

Packaging Utility is a companion tool for Installation Manager with which we can create and manage custom Installation Manager repositories for our organization. We can copy multiple packages, maintenance levels, and fixes into a single repository. Packaging Utility copies from source repositories to the target custom repositories. Source repositories can include any accessible Installation Manager repository, including IBM web-hosted product repositories and unzipped Passport Advantage downloads.

For more information on Packaging Utility, go to the IBM Packaging Utility Information Center.

Use Packaging Utility to create custom or “enterprise" Installation Manager repositories containing specific products and maintenance levels that fit the needs of the business.

As an administrator, we can control the content of the enterprise repository, which then can serve as the central repository to which the organization connects in order to perform product installations and updates.

Packaging Utility essentially copies from a set of source Installation Manager repositories to a target repository and eliminates duplicate artifacts, helping to keep the repository size as small as possible. We can also delete (or “prune") a repository, removing maintenance levels or products that are not needed.

We can download the latest version of Packaging Utility from the IBM Support Portal.

Like Installation Manager, Packaging Utility has GUI and command-line interfaces. We must specify repository URLs for Installation Manager repositories containing the offerings that you wish to copy.

Installation Manager repository URLs follow this pattern:

This location does not contain a web page that we can access using a web browser.

For example, WebSphere Application Server Liberty product repositories are located at the following URLs:

additional product repositories.

The target repository that we create with Packaging Utility will always support a full installation; therefore, we cannot use Packaging Utility to create a repository that is only a copy of a fix pack. We can, however, create a repository containing the minimum content to support direct installation to a fix-pack level. Consider the following two examples that use the Packaging Utility command-line interface (PUCL.exe) that is available in the Packaging Utility installation folder.

With some offerings, such as WebSphere SDK Java Technology Edition v7.0 for Liberty, we can use Packaging Utility with the –platform option (sometimes called "platform slicing") to create a repository that is scoped to the platforms and architectures that are used by the organization. This feature is available in command-line mode by specifying the –platform option with the os and arch arguments as shown in the following example: 

PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.liberty.IBMJAVA.v70 
–repositories http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.liberty.IBMJAVA.v70 
-platform os=linux,arch=ppc64
-target D:\LIB_CORE
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense</p>
Your repository can be scoped for platforms other than the one on which it is created or stored. For example, we can run Packaging Utility on a Windows system to create a repository with the content needed to install on a Linux system. During installation on Linux, you point Installation Manager to the custom repository.

The following table lists valid combinations for creating a local WebSphere SDK Java Technology Edition v7.0 for Liberty offering repository that is sliced by operating system and architecture.

for creating a local WebSphere SDK Java Technology Edition Version
Platform Options Resulting Repository
Windows os=win32,arch=x86 32-bit repository for 32-bit Windows OS and 64-bit Windows
os=win32.arch=x86_64 64-bit repository for 64-bit Windows
Linux Intel os=linux,arch=x86 32-bit repository for 32-bit Linux Intel and 64-bit Linux Intel
os=linux.arch=x86_64 64-bit repository for 64-bit Linux Intel
Linux Power os=linux,arch=ppc 32-bit repository for 32-bit Linux Power and 64-bit Linux Power
os=linux.arch=ppc64 64-bit repository for 64-bit Linux Power
zLinux os=linux,arch=s390 32-bit repository for 32-bit zLinux and 64-bit zLinux
os=linux.arch=s390x 64-bit repository for 64-bit zLinux
AIX os=aix,arch=ppc 32-bit repository for 32-bit AIX and 64-bit AIX
os=aix.arch=ppc64 64-bit repository for 64-bit AIX
Solaris Sparc os=solaris,arch=sparc 32-bit repository for 32-bit Solaris Sparc and 64-bit Solaris Sparc
os=solaris,arch=sparc64 64-bit repository for 64-bit Solaris Sparc
Solaris Intel os=solaris,arch=x86_64 64-bit repository for 64-bit Solaris Intel
HP-UX Itanium os=hpux,arch=ia64 64-bit repository for 64-bit HP-UX Itanium
z/OS os=zos,arch=s390x 64-bit repository for z/OS

For more information on platform slicing, go to the IBM Packaging Utility Information Center.


Parent topic: Install Liberty on distributed operating systems

Tasks:
Install Installation Manager and prepare to install Liberty
Install Liberty on distributed operating systems using the GUI
Install Liberty on distributed operating systems using the command line
Install Liberty on distributed operating systems using response files
Add and remove features from Liberty on distributed operating systems
Uninstall Liberty from distributed operating systems using the GUI
Uninstall Liberty from distributed operating systems using the command line
Uninstall Liberty from distributed operating systems using response files
Upgrading Liberty on distributed operating systems using the GUI
Use the launchpad to start Liberty installations



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