WebSphere Application Server is a family of similar products designed to deliver the right combination of economy and application serving power for your business demands. The contents of the product packages are similar, but each package has unique elements. Use this topic to familiarize yourself with the various products so that you can determine the offering that best fits your needs.
The WebSphere software platform for e-business starts with a foundation that is formed from Web application serving and integration. IBM WebSphere Application Server software provides the core software to deploy, integrate, and manage your e-business applications.
WebSphere Application Server software supports custom-built applications that are either based on integrated WebSphere software platform products or on other third-party products. Such applications can range from dynamic Web presentations to sophisticated transaction processing systems.
The management interface for all WebSphere Application Server product offerings includes a scripting interface and the administrative console, which is a Web application.
The scripting interface and the administrative console of the deployment manager are enhanced for managing all of the Application Server nodes in a distributed network cell. From the single point of control of the deployment manager, you can define servers, Web server processes, and clusters. You can start and stop servers and cluster members and deploy applications anywhere in the cell.
This product is an affordable solution for creating, running and managing Web sites. The Express product provides a full J2EE application server. The runtime environment addresses standards-based programming for Web and component-based programming, as well as Web services.
The administration model for this offering is a single-server environment without clustering and without centralized administration of multiple server instances.
The development environment offering is the Application Server Toolkit and a trial version of Rational Application Developer. These products have an integrated development environment (IDE) with a graphical interface for developing code artifacts, assembling the code artifacts into various archives (modules) and configuring related J2EE deployment descriptors. They are built using Eclipse Version 3.2.1 technology.
This product offering addresses the basic programming and runtime needs of desktop developers and single-server production scenarios. The runtime environment addresses standards-based programming for Web and component-based programming, as well as Web services.
The administration model is a single-server environment without clustering and without centralized administration of multiple server instances.
The development environment offering is the Application Server Toolkit and a trial version of a Rational Tool product.
See Planning to install WebSphere Application Server for diagrams of topologies that support the base WebSphere Application Server environment.
In Version 6.x, the core product binary data is separate from the data that you create as you define and customize your WebSphere Application Server runtime environment. You can have multiple sets of customized runtime environments. Each environment is known as a profile.
Application server environments that are created during product installation
Product | Default environments | Application server processes created during installation |
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WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Application Server - Express | One standalone application server profile and the Profile Management tool for creating other application server profiles on the same machine. | server1 |
Network Deployment | One cell that contains a deployment manager profile and a federated application server profile and the Profile Management tool for creating other profiles. |
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The launchpad is the focal point for installing from the product compact disc or DVD media, with important guidance for creating typical topology scenarios. Diagrams help you identify the types of systems that you can create. The launchpad is in the root directory of the product disc.
The launchpad works on installable components in the primary packet of discs. Select and launch any of the components on the product disc or view their HTML documentation on the disc.
See Using the launchpad to start the installation for more information.
Launch command | Documentation | Name of installable component |
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WAS/install | WAS/readme/readme_en.html WAS/docs/InstallGuide_en.html The Getting Started guide contains these HTML files. The guide is also available in Adobe PDF format. Viewing the PDF format requires that you have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is a free download from the Adobe Acrobat Web site. Download the guide from: ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/software/webserver/appserv/library/. |
The name of the component varies per product
offering:
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IHS/install | IHS/readme/readme_en.html IHS/docs/InstallGuide_en.html The IBM HTTP Server tolerates a non-root installation, but you cannot install the Global Security Kit 7 (GSKit 7) that is required for HTTPS security. You can install IBM HTTP Server as a non-root user, then log on as root to install the GSKit program from the directory on the product disc. |
IBM HTTP Server |
plugin/install | plugin/readme/readme_en.html plugin/docs/InstallGuide_en.html See Plug-ins configuration for an overview of how Web server configuration works. |
Web server plug-ins for WebSphere Application Server |
AppClient/install | AppClient/readme/readme_en.html AppClient/docs/InstallGuide_en.html |
Application Client for WebSphere Application
Server Available on 32-bit operating system platforms only. Not available on Linux for zSeries (31–bit kernel). |
InstallationFactory/compressed file Decompress the file onto your system to install the Installation Factory. |
InstallationFactory/readme/readme_en.html InstallationFactory/docs/InstallGuide_en.html |
IBM Installation Factory for WebSphere Application Server |
UpdateInstaller/install | UpdateInstaller/readme/readme_en.html UpdateInstaller/docs/InstallGuide_en.html |
IBM Update Installer for WebSphere Software |
ISA/install | ISA/readme/readme_en.html ISA/docs/InstallGuide_en.html |
IBM Support Assistant |
install_root/WAS/install.exe
install_root/win_ia32/WAS/install.exe
Other directories on the product and supplements discs contain components that are automatically installed during one or more of the installation procedures for the installable components.
Each product package contains several Compact Discs, or CDs. You can also order Digital Versatile Discs, or DVDs, which can hold more information. The DVD product package contains fewer discs by placing the content of multiple CDs into subdirectories on a single DVD. The subdirectory names assigned to each platform are listed in the tables below.
The product discs are always in the primary disc packet.
Each product package and its installable components are described in detail in Packaging information for IBM WebSphere Application Server.
The product disc for the WebSphere Application Server product is in the primary package.
Discs in the primary Application Server packet
Disc label | Versions of the disc | Comments |
---|---|---|
WebSphere Application Server (32-bit) |
CDs are available for the following 32-bit platforms: (Platform specific DVDs are also available. Each DVD contains the product and supplements disc content.)
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Each 32-bit platform-specific image contains the following installable components:
Use the launchpad application in the root directory to install and view information about any of the installable components in the primary packet. |
WebSphere Application Server (64-bit) |
CDs are available for the following 64-bit platforms: (Platform specific DVDs are also available. Each DVD contains the product and supplements disc content.)
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Each 64-bit platform-specific image contains the following installable components:
Use the launchpad application in the root directory to install and view information about any of the installable components in the primary packet. |
WebSphere Application Server Supplements (31-bit) |
A CD is available for the Linux for zSeries 31–bit operating system. |
The following installable components are
included:
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WebSphere Application Server Supplements (32-bit) |
CDs are available for the following 32-bit platforms: (Platform specific DVDs are also available. Each DVD contains the product and supplements disc content.)
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Each platform-specific image
contains the following installable components:
In the CD package, the Application Server Toolkit is on separate CDs in the primary packet. The Application Server Toolkit is also available on a separate DVD. Install the Update Installer into the root directory of the product that you intend to update. For example, install the Update Installer into the app_server_root to use it to install maintenance for the WebSphere Application Server product. Use the migration tools from the disc image, or copy the tools to your system. The IBM Support Assistant has its own installation program. The fonts mentioned below are on available on their own CD. They are also available on the Linux DVDs Use your Linux system utilities to install the World Type fonts or the Devanagari fonts. Use your operating system utilities to install the Devanagari fonts on other operating systems. The fonts support Hindi, Sanskrit and some other languages. The launchpad application in the root directory of the disc lets you install and view information about the components on the disc. |
WebSphere Application Server Supplements (64-bit) |
Several 64-bit platform-specific CDs are available, or one DVD with platform-specific directories:
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WebSphere Application Server Application Server Toolkit |
Two different 32-bit platform versions of this CD are available, or one DVD with platform specific directories:
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The Application Server Toolkit is an Eclipse-based tool for deploying and debugging applications on WebSphere Application Server. Application Server Toolkit contains a subset of the function provided in the Rational Application Developer tool that is included with this product. The difference is that the license for the Application Server Toolkit is an unlimited use license whereas the Rational Application Developer is a trial license for a single user. |
Discs in the supplemental packet
Disc label | Versions of the disc | Comments |
---|---|---|
DB2 Universal Database Express Edition V8.2 (32-bit) Developer use only |
Three 32-bit platform-specific CDs are available:
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IBM DB2 Universal Database Express Edition is the lowest-priced, full-function relational database. DB2 UDB Express Edition is designed to meet the needs of small and medium businesses. DB2 UDB Express Edition features self-tuning and self-configuring capabilities for ease of manageability, Linux or Windows platform choices, and support for transparent installation with business partner applications. See IBM DB2 Universal Database Express Edition for more information. The IBM DB2 Universal Database Express Edition included with this product has a restricted use license. You are authorized to install and use one copy of DB2 Express for use only as a data repository for data generated and managed by WebSphere Application Server. |
DB2 Universal Database Express Edition V8.2 (64-bit) Developer use only |
Two 64-bit platform-specific CDs are available:
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Rational Application Developer Trial for WebSphere Application Server |
Eight 32-bit platform CDs are available for
two operating system platforms:
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Rational Application Developer is the next generation of the award-winning IBM WebSphere Studio Application Developer. Rational Application Developer is a comprehensive integrated development environment for visually designing, constructing, testing, and deploying Web services, portals, and Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) applications. Rational Application Developer accelerates J2EE development with a complete set of high-productivity tools, templates, and wizards. See the Application Server Toolkit in the primary package for an integrated development environment that includes an unlimited use license. |
Rational Agent Controller |
One CD that provides support for each of
the following 32-bit operating system platforms:
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The Rational Agent Controller provides a technology for problem determination. The Rational Agent Controller is an enhancement to the Agent Controller from the Autonomic Computing Toolkit, which IBM donated in large part to the Hyades Project. Install the Rational Agent Controller on one of the supported machine environments. Another machine (perhaps an administrator workstation) can use the Log and Trace Analyzer to establish communication with the agent on the remote machine. The Analyzer can request a specific log file from the Rational Agent Controller. The agent uses the appropriate log file parser to normalize the native log to a Common Base Event format and transfers the log file to the Log and Trace Analyzer. Create log file parsers for the Rational Agent Controller with the Common Base Event model builder, which is included in the Autonomic Computing Toolkit. |