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 correct 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, see the Installation Manager documentation.
- 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.
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 following
command.
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v90
–repositories
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v90
-target D:\WASBase_version
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
Because
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 9.0. This new repository does not support the
installation of Version 9.0.0.0, but it does support the update from an existing Version 9.0.0.0
installation to the latest version.
- Example
2
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v90_9.0.0.20160503_0200
–repositories
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v90
-target D:\WASBase
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v90_9.0.1.20160829_1838
–repositories
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v90
-target D:\WASBase
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
The
first command creates a target repository with WebSphere Application Server Base Version 9.0.0.0.
The second command adds the Version 9.0.0.1 fix pack to the same repository. You can now use this
resulting repository to install Version 9.0.0.0, install Version 9.0.0.1, or update from Version
9.0.0.0 to Version 9.0.0.1.
- Use IBM Packaging Utility Version 1.8.5 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.v90_9.0.0.20160503_0200
–repositories
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v90
-target D:\WASBase_Linux
–platform os=linux,arch=ppc64
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
This
command will create a new repository for installation to WebSphere Application Server Version
9.0.0.0 on Linux Power. You can then add the Version 9.0.0.1 fix pack for Linux to the same
repository:
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v90_9.0.1.20160829_1838
–repositories
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v90
-target D:\WASBase_Linux
–platform os=linux,arch=ppc64
-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.v90
–repositories
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v90
-target D:\WASBaseV9
–platform os=linux,arch=ppc64
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v90
–repositories
http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v90
-target D:\WASBaseV9
–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_64 os=win32
|
Windows 64 bit |
Linux
Intel |
os=linux,arch=x86_64 |
Linux
Intel 64 bit |
Linux
Power® |
os=linux,arch=ppc64 |
Linux
Power 64 bit |
zLinux |
os=linux,arch=s390x |
zLinux 64 bit |
AIX® |
os=aix,arch=ppc64 os=aix
|
AIX 64 bit |
Solaris Sparc |
os=solaris,arch=sparc64 |
Solaris Sparc 64 bit |
Solaris Intel |
os=solaris,arch=x86_64 |
Solaris Intel 64 bit |
HP-UX Itanium |
os=hpux,arch=ia64 |
HP-UX Itanium 64 bit |
IBM i |
os=os400,arch=ppc64 os=os400
|
IBM i |
z/OS® |
os=zos,arch=s390x 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 9.0.0.0 into Windows
folder C:\WASND9000 and then you unpack the Version 9.0.0.1 ZIP files to
C:\WASND9001, for example, you would next create a Windows repository for
Version 9.0.0.0 with the following command:
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.ND.v90_9.0.0.20160503_0200
–repositories C:\WASND9000
-target C:\WASND_Windows
–platform os=win32,arch=x86_64
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
and
then add the fix pack, specifying both source repositories:
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.ND.v90_9.0.1.20160829_1838
–repositories C:\WASND9000,C:\WASND9001
-target C:\WASND_Windows
–platform os=win32,arch=x86_64
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense