Preparing Solaris systems for installation

This topic describes how to prepare Solaris systems for the installation of IBM WebSphere Application Server, Version 6 products.

Before you begin

The installation uses an InstallShield MultiPlatform (ISMP) wizard. You can use the graphical interface of the wizard. You can also use the wizard in silent mode.

Silent mode is a command line invocation with a parameter that identifies an options response file. Edit the options response file 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.

About this task

Preparing the operating system involves such changes as allocating disk space and installing patches to the operating system. IBM® tests WebSphere® Application Server products on each operating system platform. Such tests verify whether an operating system change is required for WebSphere Application Server products to run correctly. Without the required changes, WebSphere Application Server products do not run correctly.

Procedure

  1. Log on to the operating system.

    Log on as root. You cannot install the product correctly as a non-root user.

    If you create a copy of the product CD-ROM or DVD, do so as root. Copies made from non-root users do not preserve the correct file attributes and do not work.

    Select a umask that allows the owner to read/write to the files, and allows others to access them according to the prevailing system policy. For root, 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
  2. Select the Entire Group option on the Select Solaris Software Group panel.
  3. Optional: Download and install the Mozilla Web browser so that you can use the launchpad application on the product disc.

    If you do not have the Mozilla Web browser, download and install the browser from http://www.mozilla.org.

  4. Optional: Export the location of the supported browser.

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

    If the Mozilla package is in the /opt/bin/mozilla directory, for example, use the following command:
    export BROWSER=/opt/bin/mozilla
  5. Optional: Configure Hummingbird Exceed to disable Automatic Font Substitution.

    Font changes occur when using the Hummingbird Exceed package and invoke the Profile Creation wizard. When you use the Hummingbird Exceed package to connect to a machine running the Solaris operating system, and then invoke the Profile Creation wizard, some font sizes and styles display differently than when doing the same operation from the native Solaris display.

    The font sizes and style changes are based on the font selections in the bundled Java Runtime Environment (JRE).

    To prevent the various font changes, configure Hummingbird Exceed to disable Automatic Font Substitution:

    1. From the Hummingbird Exceed user interface, click Xconfig > Font > Font Database > Disable ( Automatic Font Substitution).
    2. Click OK.
    3. Restart the Hummingbird Exceed package.
  6. Stop all WebSphere Application Server-related Java™ processes on the machine where you are installing the product.
  7. Stop any Web server process such as the IBM HTTP Server.
  8. Provide adequate disk space.

    Attention:

    The base WebSphere Application Server product requires the following disk space:

    930 MB for the app_server_root directory
    The installation root directory includes the core product files. This size includes the Sample applications. This size includes space for the default application server profile for the server1 process. The requirement does not include space for applications that you might install.

    Each application server profile requires approximately 200 MB plus 40 MB of temp space, and space for any applications that you develop and deploy.

    100 MB for the /tmp directory
    The temporary directory is the working directory for the installation program.
    1030 MB total requirement
    This amount is the total space requirement when installing the product from a CD-ROM or DVD.

    The IBM HTTP Server product requires the following space:

    763 MB total requirement
    This estimate includes:
    • The /opt/IBM/HTTPServer directory
    • The IBM Global Security Kit (GSKit) gskit_root directory
    • The Web server plug-ins for WebSphere Application Server, including the /opt/IBM/WebSphere/plugins directory
    On SPARC 32-bit platforms, the following space is required for the IBM WebSphere Application Server Clients:
    150 MB for the app_client_root directory

    The amount of space required to install the application clients is actually less than 150 MB. The amount of space depends on the clients that you install as features.

    The following space is required for the Update Installer:
    200 MB for the /opt/IBM/WebSphere/UpdateInstaller directory

    The installation wizard for each component displays required space on the confirmation panel before you install the product files and selected features. The installation wizard also warns you if you do not have enough space to install the product.

    If you plan to migrate applications and the configuration from a previous version, verify that the application objects have enough disk space. As a rough guideline, plan for space equal to 110 percent of the size of the application objects:
    • For Version 4.0.x: The size of enterprise archive (EAR) files
    • For Version 5.0.x: The size of EAR files
  9. Set kernel values to support Application Server. Several Solaris kernel values are typically too small.

    The instructions in this step apply to the Solaris SPARC (32-bit and 64-bit) operating system only. For Solaris x64 processor-based systems, see How to Get Started with IBM WebSphere Application Server on Solaris 10 and Zones. The article was written for Solaris 10 on SPARC but the principles apply equally to x64.

    Before installing, review the machine configuration:
    sysdef -i
    The kernel values are set in the /etc/system file, as shown in the following example.
    set shmsys:shminfo_shmmax = 4294967295
    set shmsys:shminfo_shmseg = 1024
    set shmsys:shminfo_shmmni = 1024
    set semsys:seminfo_semaem = 16384
    set semsys:seminfo_semmni = 1024
    set semsys:seminfo_semmap = 1026
    set semsys:seminfo_semmns = 16384
    set semsys:seminfo_semmsl = 100
    set semsys:seminfo_semopm = 100
    set semsys:seminfo_semmnu = 2048
    set semsys:seminfo_semume = 256
    set msgsys:msginfo_msgmap = 1026
    set msgsys:msginfo_msgmax = 65535
    set rlim_fd_cur=1024
    

    You can change kernel values by editing the /etc/system file then rebooting the operating system. For more information about setting up the Solaris system, see the Sun Microsystems documentation. For example, the Solaris Tunable Parameters Reference Manual.

  10. Verify that prerequisites and corequisites are at the required release levels.

    Although the installation wizard checks for prerequisite operating system patches with the prereqChecker application, review the prerequisites on the Supported hardware and software Web site if you have not done so already.

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

  11. Verify the system cp command when using emacs or other freeware.
    If you have emacs or other freeware installed on your operating system, verify that the system cp command is used.
    1. Type which cp at the command prompt before running the installation program for the WebSphere Application Server product.
    2. Remove the freeware directory from your PATH if the resulting directory output includes freeware. For example, assume that the output is similar to the following message: .../freeware/bin/cp. If so, remove the directory from the PATH.
    3. Install the WebSphere Application Server product.
    4. Add the freeware directory back to the PATH.

    If you install with a cp command that is part of a freeware package, the installation might appear to complete successfully, but the Java 2 SDK that the product installs might have missing files in the app_server_root/java directory.

    Missing files can destroy required symbolic links. If you remove the freeware cp command from the PATH, you can install the Application Server product successfully.

  12. Verify that the Java 2 SDK on the installation image disc is functioning correctly, if you created your own disc.

    For example, you might have downloaded an installation image from Passport Advantage®, or you might have copied an installation image onto a backup disc. In either case, perform the following steps to verify that the disc contains a valid Java 2 software development kit (SDK).

    1. Change directories to the /mnt/JDK/repository/prereq.jdk/java/bin directory on the product CD-ROM or DVD. For example:
      cd /mnt/JDK/repository/prereq.jdk/java/bin
    2. Verify the Java 2 SDK version. Type the following command:
      ./java -version

      The command completes successfully with no errors when the Java 2 SDK is intact.

Results

This procedure results in preparing the operating system for installing the product.

What to do next

After preparing the operating system for installation, you can install the WebSphere Application Server product.

See Preparing to install the base product on a Solaris system for the next step in the overall procedure, which is selecting the type of installation to perform.




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Last updated: Aug 29, 2010 5:25:00 PM CDT
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