Installing Edge Components with IBM Installation Manager

IBM Installation Manager is a common installer for many IBM software products that you use to install this version of Edge Components.

New Feature: Edge Components Version 8.0 is the first full version of the product to be installed by Installation Manager rather than the programs that are based on InstallShield MultiPlatform (ISMP) or native packages that are used to install, update, and uninstall previous versions. Installation Manager is a single installation program that can use remote or local software flat-file repositories to install, modify, or update the products. It determines and shows available packages -- including products, fix packs, interim fixes, etc. -- checks prerequisites and interdependencies, and installs the selected packages. You also use Installation Manager to easily uninstall the packages that it installed.

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 graphical user interface (GUI) or 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 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 that are installed at a single location.
Installation Manager modes
IBM Installation Manager can be installed in one of the following three modes:
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.
Getting the Installation Manager installation kit
IBM Installation Manager comes in the form of an installation kit, which contains a set of Installation Manager binaries and a flat-file repository for the Installation Manager product. The installation kit is only used for setup and maintenance of the Installation Manager.
Installing Installation Manager
When the installation kit is available on your system, you can install Installation Manager. 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 installing 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 installc, userinstc, or groupinstc command from the appropriate user ID to install Installation Manager.
Accessing product repositories
All software materials that will be installed with IBM Installation Manager are stored in flat-file 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 ifixes. 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 installed 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 the 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.
Using the IBM Packaging Utility
With the Packaging Utility, you can create and manage packages for installation repositories. You can copy multiple packages into one repository or copy multiple disks for one product into a repository. You can copy packages from Passport Advantage into a repository, for example. For more information on the Packaging Utility, go to the IBM Installation Manager Version 1.4 Information Center or the IBM Installation Manager Version 1.5 Information Center.
Restrictions

New Feature: In addition to the GUI and silent methods described in this information, you can also use Installation Manager to manage installation using the Installation Manager imcl installation command. For information on using Installation Manager using this method, read the Installation Manager Information Center.

Perform the following tasks:

  1. Ensure that any previous versions of the product are uninstalled. You must uninstall previous versions of Edge Components through the native installation program or system package tools.

    Read Uninstalling previous versions of Edge Components for instructions.

  2. Perform the tasks in Installing IBM Installation Manager, which includes adding the product repositories for the Edge Components products.
  3. Install the product:
  4. To update your products, read Installing fix packs to Edge Components.

If you need to uninstall the product through IBM Installation Manager, perform one of the following tasks:

After installing the product, be aware of the following notes for logging, tracing, and troubleshooting:

Notes on logging and tracing
Notes on troubleshooting
Note on version and history information
The versionInfo and historyInfo commands return version and history information based on all of the installation, uninstallation, update, and roll back activities performed on the system.