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


Preparing AIX systems for installation

Learn how to prepare an AIX® system for the installation of WebSphere® ESB.

About this task

The installation uses an InstallShield MultiPlatform (ISMP) wizard. You can also install the product silently. Silent mode is invoked at a command line with a parameter that identifies a response file, which you edit before installing.

If you encounter a problem such as needing more temporary space or missing prerequisite packages on your operating system, cancel the installation, make the required changes, and restart the installation.

Restriction: The Profile Management Tool is an Eclipse-based application and there are known issues with using Cygwin/X to run Eclipse-based applications on remote AIX machines. This affects your use of the Profile Management Tool and the Installation Factory. With Cygwin/X on remote AIX, for example, a splash screen for the Profile Management Tool appears but the Profile Management Tool never actually comes up. For details of existing Bugzilla reports on these issues, see the information at Bugzilla – Bug 36806. If a different X server (such as Hummingbird Exceed) is used, these problems do not occur.
Note: WebSphere ESB prevents users from installing to a non-empty directory. If you try to install WebSphere ESB in a directory with a lost+found sub-directory, you are prompted to use an empty directory. If you still want to install into this directory, delete the lost+found directory. However, the next time fsck is run, the lost+found directory will be created. This does not have any effect on an existing installation. During uninstallation, this directory will not be removed.

Use the following procedure to prepare the operating system for installation of WebSphere ESB.

Procedure
  1. Optional: Install the Mozilla browser if it is not already installed. The Mozilla browser supports the launchpad console. Use the System Management Interface Tool (SMIT) to identify whether the Mozilla 1.7.8 or later package is already installed. If it is not already installed, complete the following procedure:
    1. Download the latest supported version of Mozilla (1.7.8 or later) for AIX. Mozilla for AIX is available from the following location:

      Web browsers for AIX.

      Download the installp image and install it from SMIT.

      Important: IBM® has not tested and does not support the Mozilla images distributed on the Mozilla Web site. Download the Mozilla images from the Mozilla Web site to ensure that the version that you download is tested and supported.
      Using Mozilla 1.7.5 or earlier can result in ISMP failing to initialize during installation. The launchpad link might seem to fail, for example. See V6.0.2: The WebSphere Application Server launchpad fails with Mozilla 1.7.5 (and earlier) on 64-bit AIX 5.2 or 5.3 for more information.
  2. Optional: Export the location of the supported browser.

    Export the location of the supported browser using a command that identifies the location of the browser.

    For example, if the Mozilla package is in the /usr/bin/mozilla directory, use the following command:
    export BROWSER=/usr/bin/mozilla
  3. Optional: For silent installation only: Allow for a known ISMP problem that causes a call to the X Window service during a silent installation.
    The DISPLAY environment variable on your AIX workstation might point to an X Server that is not logged in. Two common scenarios can cause this to occur:
    • Your AIX workstation has an X Server running, but the X Server is stuck at the graphical login screen because you have not yet logged in.
    • Your AIX workstation is configured to display X Window applications on a remote X Server that is not logged in.

    A silent installation can hang in either case as ISMP calls X Window services.

    Two solutions exist:
    • Log in to the local X Server through the graphical user interface before beginning the silent installation.
    • Export the DISPLAY environment variable to point to null or blank, as shown in the following example:
      export DISPLAY=null
  4. Log on to the system. Your user ID does not have to have root privileges.
  5. Select a umask that allows the owner to read and write to the files, and allows others to access them according to the prevailing system policy. For root users, a umask of 022 is recommended. For non-root users, a umask of 002 or 022 can be used, depending on whether the users share the group.
    To verify the umask setting, issue the following command:
    umask
    To set the umask setting to 022, issue the following command:
    umask 022
  6. Stop all Java™ processes that are related to WebSphere Application Server on the workstation on which you are installing the product.
  7. Stop any Web server process such as the IBM HTTP Server.
  8. Use the SMIT tool to display packages that are installed to determine whether you must update packages that are described in the following steps.
  9. Download the most current version of the Info-ZIP product to avoid problems with zipped files. Download a current version of the Info-ZIP package from the Info-ZIP Web site.
  10. Provide adequate disk space. For the space required to install WebSphere ESB and related products, see WebSphere ESB detailed system requirements at http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27006912 and select the link to your version of the product.
    With the JFS file system on AIX, you can allocate expansion space for directories. If the installation wizard does not have enough space, ISMP issues a system call for more space that increases the space allocation dynamically. The message you might see when this occurs for the /usr directory is similar to the following example:
    NOTE: The following file systems will be expanded during the installation:
      /usr

    Manually verify that the required space for creating a profile is available on AIX. A known problem in the underlying ISMP code prevents proper space checking on AIX systems.

  11. Unmount file systems with broken links to avoid java.lang.NullPointerException errors.
    Installation can fail with the following error when broken links to file systems exist:
    An error occurred during wizard bean change notification:
    java.lang.NullPointerException 
      at com.ibm.wizard.platform.aix.AixFileUtils.
         getFileSystemData(AixFileUtils.java:388)
      at com.ibm.wizard.platform.aix.AixFileUtils.
         getPartitionDataWithExecs(AixFileUtils.java:172)
      at com.ibm.wizard.platform.aix.AixFileUtils.
         getPartitionData(AixFileUtils.java:104)
      at com.ibm.wizard.platform.aix.AixFileServiceImpl.
         getPartitionNames(AixFileServiceImpl.java:397)
    ...

    Use the following procedure to identify and unmount problematic file systems:

    1. Use the df -k command to check for broken links to file systems. Look for file systems that list blank values in the 1024-blocks size column. Entries with a value of "-" (dash) are not a problem. The following example shows that problems exist with the iw031864:/cdrom/db2_v91_aix53 file system and possibly with the /dev/lv00 file system. The /proc file system is not a problem.
      >  df -k
      Filesystem    1024-blocks      Free %Used    Iused %Iused Mounted on
      /dev/hd4          1048576    447924   58%     2497     1% /
      /dev/hd3          4259840   2835816   34%      484     1% /tmp
      /proc                   -         -    -         -     -  /proc
      /dev/lv01         2097152    229276   90%     3982     1% /storage
      /dev/lv00
      /dev/hd2          2097152    458632   79%    42910     9% /usr
      iw031864:/cdrom/db2_v91_aix53
    2. First, unmount any file systems that show definite problems, such as the iw031864:/cdrom/db2_v91_aix53 file system in the example. To do this, use one of the following commands:
      >  umount /cdrom/db2_v91_aix53
      >  umount /cdrom 
    3. Start the installation again.
    4. If the problem continues, unmount any file systems that have blank values, such as the /dev/lv00 file system in the example.
    5. If you cannot solve the problem by unmounting file systems with broken links, reboot the workstation and start the installation again.
  12. Verify that prerequisites and corequisites are at the required release levels.

    Although the installation wizard checks for prerequisite operating system patches, review the prerequisite supported hardware and software for WebSphere ESB if you have not already done so. To access this information, see WebSphere ESB detailed system requirements at Supported hardware and software website and select the link to your version of WebSphere ESB.

    Refer to the documentation for non-IBM prerequisite and corequisite products to learn how to migrate to their supported versions.

  13. Verify that the system cp command is used, rather than the cp command provided by emacs or other freeware.

    If you install the product using a cp command that is part of a freeware package, rather than with the system cp command, the installation might appear to complete successfully, but the Java 2 SDK that the product installs might have missing files in the install_root/java directory (where install_root represents the installation directory of WebSphere ESB).

    Missing files can destroy required symbolic links. You must remove the freeware cp command from the PATH in order to install the WebSphere ESB product successfully.

    If you have emacs or other freeware installed on your operating system, perform the following steps to identify which cp command is being used by the system, and to deactivate the freeware cp command if it is being used:

    1. Type which cp at the command prompt before running the installation program for the WebSphere ESB product.
    2. If the resulting directory output includes freeware, remove the freeware directory from your PATH. For example, if the output is similar to .../freeware/bin/cp, remove the directory from the PATH.
    3. Install WebSphere ESB.
    4. Add the freeware directory back to the PATH.
  14. Verify that the Java 2 SDK on your copy of the product discs is functioning correctly.

    If you created your own product DVD by copying the product DVD, or if you created your own DVD from the electronic download image, perform the following steps to verify that the Java 2 SDK is working correctly:

    1. On your created product disc, navigate to the /JDK/jre.pak/repository/package.java.jre/java/jre/bin directory. To do this, issue the following command:
      cd /JDK/jre.pak/repository/package.java.jre/java/jre/bin
    2. Verify the Java 2 SDK version. To do this, issue the following command:
      ./java -version
      The command completes successfully with no errors when the Java 2 SDK is intact.
    3. Repeat this procedure on all other created product discs.

Results

This procedure prepares the operating system for installation of WebSphere ESB.

What to do next

After preparing the operating system, you can install WebSphere ESB. See Installing the software for descriptions of the various installation alternatives available.


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Timestamp icon Last updated: 21 June 2010


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