WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus, Version 6.2.0 Operating Systems: AIX, HP-UX, i5/OS, Linux, Solaris, Windows


.nifregistry and vpd.properties files

The installer program for WebSphere® ESB uses the InstallShield MultiPlatform (ISMP) program to install code. The .nifregistry and vpd.properties files list program components that are currently installed. The file helps ISMP and the installer programs of WebSphere ESB recognize previous installations of WebSphere ESB and control options for new installations.

Location of the .nifregistry file

The location of the .nifregistry file varies per operating platform:
  • For AIX operating system On AIX® platforms: The root directory /usr/.ibm/.nif/.nifregistry or the non-root directory <NON-ROOT-HOME>/.ibm/.nif/.nifregistry
  • For HP-UX operating system On HP-UX platforms: The root directory /opt/.ibm/.nif/.nifregistry or the non-root directory <NON-ROOT-HOME>/.ibm/.nif/.nifregistry
  • For i5/OS operating system On i5/OS® platforms: The root directory /QIBM/WAS/.ibm/.nif/.nifregistry
  • For Linux operating system On Linux® platforms: The root directory /opt/.ibm/.nif/.nifregistry or the non-root directory <NON-ROOT-HOME>/.ibm/.nif/.nifregistry
  • For Solaris operating system On Solaris platforms: The root directory /opt/.ibm/.nif/.nifregistry or the non-root directory <NON-ROOT-HOME>/.ibm/.nif/.nifregistry
  • For Windows operating system On Windows® platforms: The root directory C:\Windows\.nifregistry
For example:
NON-ROOT user: fvttest
NON-ROOT-HOME: /home/fvttest .nifregistry dir: /home/fvttest/.ibm/.nif/.nifregistry

Examples of the .nifregistry file

For a particular product, the .nifregistry file contains one entry (line) each for every PAK that gets installed and one entry (line) for the product offering.

The following line shows an example of a PAK entry in the .nifregistry file:
<pak installrooturi="file:///C:/IBM/WebSphere/ESB/" name="wbi.primary.pak"
paklocationuri="zip:///C:/IBM/WebSphere/ESB/properties/version/nif/backup/
wbi.primary.pak" productid="ESB"/
The following line shows an example of a product offering entry in the .nifregistry file:
<product installrooturi="file:///C:/IBM/WebSphere/ESB/" 
lastvisited="2008-09-04 16:56:33-0400" productid="ESB" version="6.2.0.0"/>

Cleaning up the .nifregistry file after a failed uninstallation

For these steps to clean the .nifregistry file after a failed uninstallation:
  1. Backup the .nifregistry file.
  2. Open the .nifregistry file in a text editor (ensure that line wrapping is turned off).
  3. Search and delete all lines that have the <INSTALL_LOC> and <PRODUCT_ID> in them where <INSTALL_LOC> is the install location where you have a failed uninstallation and <PRODUCT_ID> is the product offering ID of the product that you are trying to uninstall.
  4. Save the .nifregistry file and close the text editor.
For HP-UX operating systemFor Solaris operating system Operating system exceptions for using the vpd.properties file

Situations that require you to edit the vpd.properties file

Certain situations require you to edit the vpd.properties file before reinstalling WebSphere ESB. The uninstaller programs for WebSphere ESB edit the vpd.properties while uninstalling a product, to remove entries for the product and any of its features that might have entries in the file.

Some situations that occur require you to manually remove product entries from the vpd.properties file before you can reinstall a product. These situations include:
  • Bypassing the uninstaller program to uninstall a product manually
  • Uninstalling a product manually when the uninstaller program is not present or is not working

If the vpd.properties file has entries for a product that you uninstalled, you must edit the file and remove the entries. If you do not edit the vpd.properties file to remove entries for a product or features of a product, you cannot reinstall the product into the same directory structure. If product entries in the vpd.properties file are present, the installer program reads the vpd.properties file, determines that the product is already installed, and displays the panel that prompts you to install additional features into the existing product or to install the binaries a second time. Unfortunately, the existing binaries might not be valid at that point. The installer program does not verify the products that it finds listed in the vpd.properties file.

For Vista operating system Restriction on using the vpd.properties file by a non-Administrator on Microsoft® Windows Vista™ and Windows 2008 operating systems: For a non-Administrator on the Windows Vista and Windows 2008 operating systems, this file is not valid if User Access Control (UAC) is enabled. It might contain some Administrator's properties and will not remain consistent.

Location of the vpd.properties file

The location of the vpd.properties file varies per operating platform:
  • For AIX operating system On AIX platforms: The root directory or the usr/lib/objrepos directory
  • For i5/OS operating system On i5/OS platforms: /InstallShield/VitalProductData/vpd.properties
  • For Linux operating system On Linux platforms: The root directory
  • For Windows operating system On Windows platforms: Installation directory of the operating system, such as the C:\WINNT directory or the C:\windows directory

Example of the vpd.properties file

The following example shows the entry for the vpd.properties file for Version 6.2.0.0 of the WebSphere product on a Windows platform. The example shows entire lines but wraps each line for formatting purposes.

WSEAA62|6|2|0|0|6.2.0.0|2=IBM WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus|
IBM WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus|IBM WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus V6.2|
IBM|http://www.ibm.com|6.2.0.0|
C:\Program Files\IBM\WebSphere\ESB|0|0|1|WSEAA62|6|2|0|0|6.2.0.0|2|0|
false|"properties/version/_uninst.wbi" "uninstall.jar" "uninstall.dat" "
"|true|3|WSEAA62|6|2|0|0|6.2.0.0|2

Identifying entries in the vpd.properties file

Use the following table to help identify product entries.

Table 1. Identifer in the vpd.properties file for WebSphere products
Identifier Product
WSE...62 All version 6.2 products use this identifier to identify the core product files:
  • WebSphere Process Server, Version 6.2
  • WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus, Version 6.2

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Timestamp icon Last updated: 21 June 2010


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