Install Liberty on IBM i operating systems
IBM Installation Manager is a common installer for many IBM software products. We can use Installation Manager to install and manage the product lifecycle of WAS Liberty Core.
Installation Manager is a single installation program that can use remote or local software repositories to install, modify, or update WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core. It determines available packages—including products, fix packs, interim fixes, and so on—checks prerequisites and interdependencies, and installs the selected packages. You also use Installation Manager to uninstall packages.
Restriction: The Installation Manager GUI is not available on IBM i; all interaction with Installation Manager on IBM i is done through the command line or response files.
Overview of IBM Installation Manager: IBM Installation Manager is a general-purpose software installation and update tool that runs on a range of computer systems. Installation Manager can be invoked through a command-line interface. We can also create response files in XML and use them to direct the performance of Installation Manager tasks in silent mode.
For more information on using Installation Manager, read the IBM Installation Manager Information Center.
Packages and package groups: Each software product that can be installed with Installation Manager is referred to as a package. An installed package has a product level and an installation location. A package group consists of all of the products installed at a single location.
How many Installation Managers do we need: You only need to run Installation Manager on those systems on which you install or update product code. You normally need only one Installation Manager on a system because one Installation Manager can keep track of any number of product installations.
Creating an Installation Manager: When the installation kit is available on the system, we can create an Installation Manager. An Installation Manager consists of a set of binaries that are copied from the installation kit and a set of runtime data that describe the products that have been installed by this particular Installation Manager. Before creating an Installation Manager, decide in which mode the Installation Manager will run as well as where the binaries and runtime data—called agent data or appdata—will reside. Then, you issue the Installation Manager installation command from the appropriate user ID to create the Installation Manager.
Access product repositories: All software materials that will be installed with IBM Installation Manager are stored in repositories. Each repository contains program objects and metadata for one or more packages—that is, software products at a particular level. Repositories can also contain product maintenance, such as fix packs and interim fixes. Whenever you install a new product, we can choose from any of the available product levels in any accessible repository.
Installing the product: After we have created an Installation Manager and have access to all necessary product repositories, we can use Installation Manager command-line commands or response files to perform the actual product installations. When we install a product, you provide the package name, optionally the product level to be installed, the product location, and any other optional properties. For example, some products have optional features that we can select at installation time or a list of optional supported language packs from which we can select.
Working with installed products: We can use Installation Manager commands to list installed products and product levels. We can also obtain this information for installed copies of WAS Liberty Core by issuing the versionInfo command from the product file system. We can use Installation Manager commands or response files to install a new product level, roll back to a previous level, or modify the product by adding or removing optional features or language packs.
- We must have Java SE 6 32 bit (option 11 of the IBM Developer Kit for Java) installed on the IBM i system before installing WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core.
- Do not transfer the content of a repository in non-binary mode and do not convert any content on extraction.
- When we try to install IBM Installation Manager locally from the WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core media on an IBM i operating system, the following error message might be displayed:
The Installc executable launcher was unable to locate its companion shared library.
This error occurs because all directory and files names contained by the media are displayed in uppercase. To resolve this issue, enable the handling of mixed case on the IBM i operating system using the following command:
CHGOPTA EXTMEDFMT(*YES)
If we are installing WebSphere Application Server Liberty profile v8.5.5.1 in console mode, we might receive warning messages similar to the following example:
No "conClass" attribute in "commonPanel" element of panel com.ibm.was.liberty.userdata.panel.UserData in com.ibm.was.liberty.userdata.panel.
This problem is caused by an IBM Installation Manager API which is deprecated in v1.6.2. These warning messages can be ignored. No action is required.
For more information on using Installation Manager, read the IBM Installation Manager Information Center.
Perform one of these procedures to install, update, rollback, or uninstall the offering using Installation Manager.
Before using Installation Manager to install a offering, we might want to back up the Installation Manager configuration using the instructions in the IBM Installation Manager Information Center if the possibility of corruption is a concern.
- Install Liberty on IBM i operating systems using response files
- Install Liberty on IBM i operating systems using the command line
- Install Liberty remotely on IBM i operating systems using the iRemoteInstall command
- Add and remove features from Liberty on IBM i operating systems using response files
- Install Liberty interim fixes on IBM i operating systems using the command line
- Uninstall Liberty interim fixes from IBM i operating systems using the command line
- Install Liberty fix packs on IBM i operating systems using response files
- Install Liberty fix packs on IBM i operating systems using the command line
- Uninstall Liberty fix packs from IBM i operating systems using response files
- Uninstall Liberty fix packs from IBM i operating systems using the command line
- Uninstall Liberty from IBM i operating systems using response files
- Uninstall Liberty from IBM i operating systems using the command line
Results
- The following locations are the defaults for Installation Manager files on IBM i systems:
- Installation location: /QIBM/ProdData/InstallationManager
- Agent data location: /QIBM/UserData/InstallationManager
- Registry: /QIBM/InstallationManager/.ibm/registry/InstallationManager.dat
- Logs are located in the logs directory of Installation Manager's agent data location. For example:
/QIBM/UserData/InstallationManager/logs
The main log files are time-stamped XML files in the logs directory, and they can be viewed using any standard web browser.
Subtopics
Install Liberty on IBM i operating systems using the command line
We can WAS Liberty Core on IBM i operating systems using the Installation Manager command line.
Install Liberty on IBM i operating systems using response files
We can WAS Liberty on IBM i operating systems using Installation Manager response files.
Install Liberty remotely on IBM i operating systems using the iRemoteInstall command
We can use the iRemoteInstall command to install IBM Installation Manager or WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core from a Windows workstation to a remote target IBM i system.
Verify the installation
We can verify successful installation of the offering using the capabilities of IBM Installation Manager.
Add and remove features from Liberty on IBM i operating systems using response files
We can install and remove WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core features using Installation Manager response files.
Uninstall Liberty from IBM i operating systems using the command line
We can use Installation Manager to unWAS Liberty Core using the Installation Manager command line (imcl).
Uninstall Liberty from IBM i operating systems using response files
We can unWAS Liberty Core using Installation Manager response files.
Install Liberty interim fixes on IBM i operating systems using the command line
Fix packs contain bundled service to bring WebSphere Application Server Liberty for IBM i up to a new level. Interim fixes provide corrective service for specific known problems. You can use the IBM Installation Manager command-line function to update the offering with the fixes available for the service level of WAS Liberty for IBM i.
Install Liberty fix packs on IBM i operating systems using the command line
Product fix packs contain bundled service to bring WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core up to a new product level. Interim fixes provide corrective service for specific known problems. We can use the IBM Installation Manager command-line function to update the product with the fixes available for the service level of WAS Liberty Core installation.
Install Liberty fix packs on IBM i operating systems using response files
We can update WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core to a later version using Installation Manager response files.
Uninstall Liberty interim fixes from IBM i operating systems using the command line
We can use the IBM Installation Manager command-line function to remove interim fixes from WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core.
Uninstall Liberty fix packs from IBM i operating systems using the command line
We can roll back WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core to an earlier version using the Installation Manager command line.
Uninstall Liberty fix packs from IBM i operating systems using response files
We can roll back WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core to an earlier version using Installation Manager response files.
- Use the sample response files
We can edit and use sample response files for installing, modifying, or uninstalling IBM Web Enablement Liberty for IBM i silently.
Parent topic: Install Liberty using Installation ManagerTasks:
Install Liberty on distributed operating systems
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