IBM WebSphere Application Server uses IBM Installation
Manager for product installation and lifecycle management. Installation
Manager accesses source repositories that contain the content for
a software product installation. Repositories are available on product
media, in IBM-hosted web-based repositories, and from Passport Advantage.
IBM Packaging Utility can help you create and customize enterprise
repositories that contain the right combination of products and maintenance
levels needed for all aspects of your business.
About this task
You use Installation Manager to connect to an Installation
Manager repository (or set of repositories) to find products and service
updates that are available to you for installation. An Installation
Manager repository is simply a tree-structured file folder that includes
product payload and metadata. You can install the software products
that you need directly from an IBM web-based service repository or
download and unpack compressed files from Passport Advantage and install
the products from the resulting unpacked file folders. The result
of unpacking the files is also considered to be an Installation Manager
repository. Like any Installation Manager repository, these unpacked
files can be hosted on an internal HTTP server, FTP server, or network
mount in order to make them available to the organization.
Packaging
Utility is a companion tool for Installation Manager with which you
can create and manage custom Installation Manager repositories for
your organization. You can copy multiple packages, maintenance levels,
and fixes into a single repository. Packaging Utility copies from
source repositories to your target custom repositories. Source repositories
can include any accessible Installation Manager repository, including
IBM web-hosted product repositories and unzipped Passport Advantage
downloads.
For more information on Packaging Utility, go to
the IBM Packaging Utility Information Center.
- Use Packaging Utility to create custom or “enterprise”
Installation Manager repositories that contain specific products and
maintenance levels that fit the needs of your business.
As
an administrator, you can control the content of your enterprise repository,
which then can serve as the central repository to which your organization
connects in order to perform product installations and updates.
Packaging
Utility essentially copies from a set of source Installation Manager
repositories to a target repository and eliminates duplicate artifacts,
helping to keep the repository size as small as possible. You can
also delete (or “prune”) a repository, removing maintenance levels
or products that are not needed.
You can download the latest
version of Packaging Utility from the IBM Support Portal.
Like Installation
Manager, Packaging Utility has GUI and command-line interfaces. You
must specify repository URLs for Installation Manager repositories
that contain the offerings that you wish to copy.
Installation
Manager repository URLs follow this pattern:
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/offering_name
Note: This
location does not contain a web page that you can access using a web
browser.
For example, WebSphere Application Server Version
8.5 product repositories are located at the following URLs:
- WebSphere Application Server Base Version 8.5
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
- WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Version 8.5
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.ND.v85
- WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Trial Version
8.5
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.NDTRIAL.v85
See
Online product repositories for WebSphere Application Server offerings for additional
product repositories.
The target repository that you create
with Packaging Utility will always support a full installation; therefore,
you cannot use Packaging Utility to create a repository that is only
a copy of a fix pack. You can, however, create a repository that contains
the minimum content to support direct installation to a fix-pack level.
Consider the following two examples that use the Packaging Utility
command-line interface (PUCL.exe) that is available
in the Packaging Utility installation folder.
- Example 1
Note: Note that you must read the license agreement
that you can find with the product files and then signify your acceptance
of the license agreement by specifying -acceptLicense in
the command as described below.
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
–repositories
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
-target D:\WASBase_version
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
Since no version number is specified with the offering
name, this command will create a new repository that supports direct
installation to the latest fix-pack level for WebSphere Application
Server Base Version 8.5. This new repository does not support the
installation of Version 8.5.0.0, but it does support the update from
an existing Version 8.5.0.0 installation to the latest version.
- Example 2
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85_8.5.0.20110503_0200
–repositories
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
-target D:\WASBase
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85_8.5.1.20110829_1838
–repositories
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
-target D:\WASBase
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
The first command creates a target repository
with WebSphere Application Server Base Version 8.5.0.0. The second
command adds the Version 8.5.0.1 fix pack to the same repository.
You can now use this resulting repository to install Version 8.5.0.0,
install Version 8.5.0.1, or update from Version 8.5.0.0 to Version
8.5.0.1.
- Use IBM Packaging Utility Version 1.5.2 or later with the –platform option
(sometimes called "platform slicing") to create a repository that
is scoped to the platforms and architectures that are used by your
organization.
Note: Your repository can be scoped for platforms
other than the one on which it is created or stored. For example,
you can run Packaging Utility on a Windows system to create a repository
with the content needed to install on a Linux system. During installation
on Linux, you point Installation Manager to your custom repository.
This
feature is available in command-line mode by specifying the
–platform option
with the
os and
arch arguments as
shown in the following example:
- Example 3
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85_8.5.0.20110503_0200
–repositories
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
-target D:\WASBase_Linux
–platform os=linux,arch=ppc
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
This command will create a new repository for installation
to WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5.0.0 on Linux PPC. You
can then add the Version 8.5.0.1 fix pack for Linux to the same repository: PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85_8.5.1.20110829_1838
–repositories
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
-target D:\WASBase_Linux
–platform os=linux,arch=ppc
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
You can also create a repository for direct installation
to any fix-pack level for a particular platform.
After creating a repository for a particular platform,
you can add content for additional platforms. In the following example,
the first command creates a Linux repository for direct installation
to the latest fix pack for WebSphere Application Server. The second
command adds the content for AIX. The delta for adding the additional
platform content should be relatively small because much of the installation
content is common across platforms.
- Example 4
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
–repositories
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
-target D:\WASBaseV8
–platform os=linux,arch=ppc
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
–repositories
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
-target D:\WASBaseV8
–platform os=aix
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
Notice that you do not need to specify both the os and arch options
to the –platform argument. In the last command, only os=aix is
specified.
You should be aware of these known issues if you decide
to use this function:
- If you specify unsupported operating-system and architecture combinations
for WebSphere Application
Server offerings when you use the -platform option
of the Packaging Utility copy command, unusable
local repositories might be created. The following table lists valid
combinations for creating a local WebSphere Application
Server offering repository that is sliced by operating system and
architecture.
Table 1. Valid combinations for creating a local WebSphere Application Server
offering repository using the Packaging Utility copy commandPlatform |
Options |
Resulting Repository |
Windows |
os=win32,arch=x86 os=win32
|
Windows 32
bit and 64 bit |
Linux Intel |
os=linux,arch=x86 |
Linux Intel 32 bit and 64 bit |
Linux Power® |
os=linux,arch=ppc |
Linux Power 32 bit and 64 bit |
zLinux |
os=linux,arch=s390 |
zLinux 32 bit and 64 bit |
AIX® |
os=aix |
AIX 32
bit and 64 bit |
Solaris Sparc |
os=solaris,arch=sparc |
Solaris Sparc 32 bit and 64 bit |
Solaris Intel |
os=solaris,arch=x86 |
Solaris Intel 64
bit |
HP-UX Itanium |
os=hpux |
HP-UX Itanium 64
bit |
IBM i |
os=os400 |
IBM i |
z/OS® |
os=zos |
z/OS |
Restriction: When using the Packaging
Utility command-line interface (PUCL.exe) that is
available in the Packaging Utility installation folder, you can only
specify the -platform parameter once.
- If you create a platform-specific repository from Passport Advantage
and Fix Central fix-pack ZIP files that are first downloaded and unpacked,
you must then reference both repositories when copying platform-specific
maintenance into your target repository. If you unpack the Passport
Advantage ZIP files for WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment
Version 8.5.0.0 into Windows folder C:\WASND8500 and
then you unpack the Version 8.5.0.1 ZIP files to C:\WASND8501,
for example, you would next create a Windows repository for Version
8.5.0.0 with the following command:
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.ND.v85_8.5.0.20110503_0200
–repositories C:\WASND8500
-target C:\WASND_Windows
–platform os=win32,arch=x86
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
and then add the fix pack, specifying both source repositories: PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.ND.v85_8.5.1.20110829_1838
–repositories C:\WASND8500,C:\WASND8501
-target C:\WASND_Windows
–platform os=win32,arch=x86
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense