Installing and uninstalling the product on IBM i operating systems

IBM® Installation Manager is a common installer for many IBM software products that you use to install or uninstall this version of WebSphere® Application Server.

Before you begin

New feature New feature: WebSphere Application Server Version 8.0 is the first full version to be installed by Installation Manager rather than by the programs that are used to install, update, and uninstall previous versions. Installation Manager is a single installation program that can use remote or local software repositories to install, modify, or update new WebSphere Application Server products. 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 the packages that it installed.
Restrictions:
  • Do not use the same response files that are used with WebSphere Application Server Version 7.0 or earlier to install or uninstall Version 8.0 and later; use response files that are based on Installation Manager to install, update, or uninstall Version 8.0 and later.
  • 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. You 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 Version 1.4 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 that are installed at a single location.

How many Installation Managers do you 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 your system, you 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, you must 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.

Accessing 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, you can choose from any of the available product levels in any accessible repository.

Installing the product: After you have created an Installation Manager and have access to all necessary product repositories, you can use Installation Manager command-line commands or response files to perform the actual product installations. When you 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 you can select at installation time or a list of optional supported language packs from which you can select.

Working with installed products: You can use Installation Manager commands to list installed products and product levels. You can also obtain this information for installed copies of WebSphere Application Server Version 8 products by issuing the versionInfo command from the product file system. You 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.

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Restrictions:
  • You must have Java SE 6 32 bit (option 11 of the IBM Developer Kit for Java) installed on your IBM i system before installing WebSphere Application Server Version 8.0. For more information, read IBM i prerequisites.
  • Installation Manager console mode, which is included in Installation Manager Version 1.4.3 and later, does not work with WebSphere Application Server Version 8.0 offerings.
  • Do not transfer the content of a repository in non-binary mode and do not convert any content on extraction.
[Fix Pack 1 or later] Important: Before you update your installation to the WebSphere Application Server Version 8.0.0.1 fix pack or roll it back from the Version 8.0.0.1 fix pack using Installation Manager, you must perform the following actions if you have any global (*SYS) environment variables defined on your IBM i system that start with the $ character:
  1. Sign on to the IBM i system.
  2. Remove any global (*SYS) environment variables defined on your IBM i system that start with the $ character.
  3. Sign off and then sign back on to the IBM i system.
  4. Perform the update to or rollback from the WebSphere Application Server Version 8.0.0.1 fix pack as described in the appropriate article of this information center.
  5. After the update or rollback completes successfully, you can redefine the environment variables that you removed.
If you do not perform this procedure before an update or rollback, you might see this message in the installation log after the update or rollback:
env_var: 0402-026 The specified data is not a valid identifier.
and any of your custom updates to the shell scripts or configuration files in the product binary location might be lost.

About this task

For more information on using Installation Manager, read the IBM Installation Manager Version 1.4 Information Center.

Perform one of these procedures to install, update, rollback, or uninstall the product using Installation Manager.

Note: Before using Installation Manager to install a product, you might want to back up your Installation Manager configuration using the instructions in the IBM Installation Manager Version 1.4 Information Center if the possibility of corruption is a concern.

Procedure

Results

Note: The versionInfo and historyInfo commands return version and history information based on all of the installation, uninstallation, update, and rollback activities performed on the system.



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Last updatedLast updated: Sep 20, 2011 12:38:36 AM CDT
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