Install Liberty on distributed operating systems using response files

We can WAS Liberty Core using Installation Manager response files.

Prepare each of the systems onto which to install the offering as described in Install Installation Manager and prepare to install Liberty.

Use Installation Manager, we can work with response files to install the offering in a variety of ways. We can record a response file using the GUI as described in the following procedure, create a new response file, or copy and modify an existing response file.

To install v8.5.5.4 and later of the Liberty profile requires IBM Installation Manager v1.6.2 or later.

1. Optional: Record a response file to install the offering.

   On one of the systems, perform the following actions to record a response file that can install the offering.

   1. From a command line, change to the eclipse subdirectory in the directory where you installed Installation Manager.

   2. Start Installation Manager from the command line using the -record option.

      For example:

      • Administrator or non-administrator:

        IBMIM.exe -skipInstall "C:\temp\imRegistry" 
          -record C:\temp\install_response_file.xml

      • Administrator:

        ./IBMIM -skipInstall /var/temp/imRegistry 
          -record /var/temp/install_response_file.xml

      • Non-administrator:

        ./IBMIM -skipInstall user_home/var/temp/imRegistry 
          -record user_home/var/temp/install_response_file.xml

      When we record a new response file, we can specify the -skipInstall parameter. Using this parameter has the following benefits:

      • No files are actually installed, and this speeds up the recording.

      • If we use a temporary data location with the -skipInstall parameter, Installation Manager writes the installation registry to the specified data location while recording. When we start Installation Manager again without the -skipInstall parameter, we then can use the response file to install against the real installation registry.

        Do not use the -skipInstall operation on the agent data location used by Installation Manager. This is unsupported. Use a clean writable location, and reuse that location for future recording sessions.

      For more information, read the IBM Installation Manager Information Center.

   3. Follow the instructions described in Install Liberty on distributed operating systems using the GUI.

2. Optional: Create a credential-storage file for installation. If we are using an authenticated remote repository, we can store credentials for URLs that require authentication, such as remote repositories, in a credential-storage file. For IBM Installation Manager v1.6.2 and later, use the -secureStorageFile and -masterPasswordFile options to store credentials in a credential-storage file. For previous versions of Installation Manager, the -keyring and -password options are used to access credentials in a keyring file. These options are deprecated in v1.6.2. There is no migration path from keyring files to storage files because of the differences in the file structures.

   • For more information on using the -secureStorageFile and -masterPasswordFile options to store credentials in a credential-storage file, see the Installation Manager Version 1.6 Information Center.

   • For more information on using the -keyring and -password options to store credentials in a keyring file, see the Installation Manager Version 1.5 Information Center.

3. Use the response files to install the offering.

   Go to a command line on each of the systems on which to install the offering, change to the eclipse/tools subdirectory in the directory where you installed Installation Manager, and install the offering.

   For example:

   • Administrator or non-administrator:

     imcl.exe -acceptLicense 
       input C:\temp\install_response_file.xml 
       -log C:\temp\install_log.xml 
       -secureStorageFile C:\IM\credential.store -masterPasswordFile C:\IM\master_password_file.txt

   • Administrator:

     ./imcl -acceptLicense 
       input /var/temp/install_response_file.xml 
       -log /var/temp/install_log.xml 
       -secureStorageFile /var/IM/credential.store -masterPasswordFile /var/IM/master_password_file.txt

   • Non-administrator:

     ./imcl -acceptLicense 
       input user_home/var/temp/install_response_file.xml 
       -log user_home/var/temp/install_log.xml 
       -secureStorageFile user_home/var/IM/credential.store -masterPasswordFile user_home/var/IM/master_password_file.txt

   • The relevant terms and conditions, notices, and other information are provided in the license-agreement files in the lafiles or offering_name/lafiles subdirectory of the installation image or repository for this offering.

   • The program might write important post-installation instructions to standard output.

   Read the IBM Installation Manager Information Center for more information.

Example

The following is an example of a response file for installing the offering.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<agent-input clean="true" temporary="true">
<server>
<repository location="http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.liberty.v85" />
</server>
<install modify='false'>
<offering id='com.ibm.websphere.liberty.v85' 
  profile='WebSphere Liberty V8.5' 
  features='embeddablecontainer' installFixes='none'/>
</install>
<profile id='WebSphere Liberty V8.5' 
  installLocation='C:\Program Files\IBM\WebSphere\Liberty'>
</profile>
</agent-input>

If we are installing on a 64-bit system, we must include one of the options for an IBM Software Development Kit.

• We can use the cic.selector.arch property key and related value to specify the architecture to install, 32 bit or 64 bit.

  Here is an example of specifying a 32-bit architecture:

  <profile>
  ...
  <data key='cic.selector.arch' value='x86'/>
  ...
  </ptofile>

  If we do not specify anything for this key, you receive a correct match for the system. For a 64-bit system, the installation defaults to a 64-bit installation.

  Your choice here applies to all packages installed in the package group. For information about the supported values for the cic.selector.key keys, see the Values for cic.selector.key table in the Installation Manager Information Center.

To disable remote searches for updates in the response file, set the following preferences to false:

• offering.service.repositories.areUsed

  Used for searching remote repositories for updates to installed offerings

• com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.searchForUpdates

  Used for searching for updates to Installation Manager

For example:

<preference value='false' name='offering.service.repositories.areUsed'/>
<preference value='false' name='com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.searchForUpdates'/>

We can find more details on silent preference keys in the IBM Installation Manager Information Center.

The following examples show you how to change response file in order to perform alternative actions.

• To install multiple copies of this offering, specify a different installation location and a new package group for each installation. For example, to install a second copy of the offering into the C:\Program Files\IBM\WebSphere\Liberty_2 directory and create the WebSphere Liberty V8.5_2 package group, replace:

  <profile id='WebSphere Liberty V8.5' 
    installLocation='C:\Program Files\IBM\WebSphere\Liberty'>

  with:

  <profile id='WebSphere Liberty V8.5_2'
    installLocation='C:\Program Files\IBM\WebSphere\Liberty_2'>

• To add optional features, add them as an entry in a comma-separated list. For example:

  <offering id='com.ibm.websphere.liberty.v85' 
    profile='WebSphere Liberty V8.5'
    features='embeddablecontainer' installFixes='none'/>

  • Embeddable EJB container and JPA client (embeddablecontainer)

    This option installs the embeddable EJB container and JPA client.

    The embeddable EJB container is a Java archive (JAR) file for running enterprise beans in a standalone Java Platform, Standard Edition (SE) environment. We can run enterprise beans using this embeddable container outside the application server. The embeddable EJB container is a part of the EJB 3.1 specification and is primarily used for unit testing enterprise beans business logic.

    The JPA client can be used with the embeddable EJB container to provide Java Persistence API capability in a Java SE environment.

  If no features are specified, the default feature (embeddablecontainer) is installed.

• 

  We can specify additional assets to install from the Liberty Repository.

  To install Liberty Repository assets, have access to the internet, and have IBM Installation Manager v1.6.2 or later. Previous versions of Installation Manager do not have the option to install Liberty Repository assets. If we are using a response file and have not updated Installation Manager to 1.6.2 or later, the assets that we specify in the response file are ignored during the installation.

  For a list of Liberty features, see Liberty features. We can also install the following additional features:

  Liberty Repository features that we can install using IBM Installation

  Feature	Symbolic name and short name	Description
  Portlet Container	com.ibm.websphere.appserver.portlet-2.0 portlet-2.0	This feature provides a runtime environment for portlets that comply with JSR 168 and JSR 286 and a development environment for testing portlets deployed into WebSphere Portal Server.
  Portlet Serving	com.ibm.websphere.appserver.portletserving-2.0 portletserving-2.0	This feature provides the portlet serving or URL addressability functionality for portlets that are compliant with JSR 168 and JSR 286. This feature enables us to invoke a portlet under a defined URL from a browser.
  Web Cache Monitor	com.ibm.websphere.appserver.webCacheMonitor-1.0 webCacheMonitor-1.0	This feature provides monitoring of the distributed map cache and provides simple cache statistics, cache entries, and cache policy information for Servlet cache instances.

  To install additional features, specify two extra data key elements in the response file. We can use either the symbolic name or the short name.

  The following example installs the Portlet Container and Portlet Serving features using the symbolic name.

  <data key='user.feature' value='com.ibm.websphere.appserver.portlet-2.0,,com.ibm.websphere.appserver.portletserving-2.0'/>
  <data key='user.accept.license' value='true'/>

  The following example installs the Portlet Container and Portlet Serving features using the short name:

  <data key='user.feature' value='portlet-2.0,,portletserving-2.0'/>
  <data key='user.accept.license' value='true'/>

  

  Beginning with v8.5.5.4, the extprogmodels feature is no longer available. Instead, install the extendedPackage-1.0 add-on, or install the individual features needed from the Liberty Repository. See the following topics for more information:

  • Install Liberty Repository assets

  • Liberty features

  The following example installs the Extended Programming Models using the user.addon parameter and the Portlet Container and Portlet Serving features using the user.feature parameter with symbolic names:

  <data key='user.addon' value='extendedPackage-1.0'/>
  <data key='user.feature' value='com.ibm.websphere.appserver.portlet-2.0,,com.ibm.websphere.appserver.portletserving-2.0'/>
  <data key='user.accept.license' value='true'/>

  The following example installs the Extended Programming Models using the user.addon parameter and the Portlet Container and Portlet Serving features using the user.feature parameter with short names:

  <data key='user.addon' value='extendedPackage-1.0'/>
  <data key='user.feature' value='portlet-2.0,,portletserving-2.0'/>
  <data key='user.accept.license' value='true'/>

  To learn more about the Liberty Repository and the assets it contains, see Liberty Repository.

• Installation Manager can save earlier versions of a package to roll back to if you experience issues later. When Installation Manager rolls back a package to a previous version, the current version of the files are uninstalled and the earlier versions are reinstalled. If we choose not to save the files for rollback, we can prevent the files from being saved by changing the following preference in your response file:
  <preference name='com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.preserveDownloadedArtifacts' value='true'/>

  to this:

  <preference name='com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.preserveDownloadedArtifacts' value='false'/>

  For more information on setting the Installation Manager preferences, see the IBM Installation Manager Information Center.

  Even if you choose not to preserve files locally for rollback with this option, we can still roll back to any previously installed level by accessing the appropriate product repository.

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
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
Create custom installation repositories with IBM Packaging Utility
Use the launchpad to start Liberty installations

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