The installver command performs two main functions. The tool computes a checksum on the installed files and compares the checksum to the shipped bill of materials for the product. The installver command can also compute a new baseline checksum for each file in the inventory of a configured system to use to identify file changes in later comparisons.
This topic describes the location of the command file, command syntax, and links to task information about using the tool.
The default log file is the app_server_root/logs/installver.log file. You can redirect the output using the -log parameter and an argument. Use the -log parameter without the file argument to generate the default log file.
Computing the checksum
The installver tool computes a checksum for each installed file in the product. The tool compares each computed checksum to the correct checksum for the file. The correct checksums are shipped in the bill-of-material files. One bill-of-materials file exists for each component.
The tool parses the bill-of-materials file for each component to find the correct checksum value for each file in the component. Each product file has an entry in some bill-of-materials file. The entry for a product file lists the product file path and the correct checksum value.
Shipped bill-of-material files
Each bill-of-materials file is named files.list. Each component has one files.list file. Each files.list file is in one of the app_server_root/properties/version/install/6.1.0.0/backup/component_name directories. A component_name directory exists for each component.
For instance, the files.list file for the activity component is in the app_server_root /properties/version/install/6.1.0.0/backup/activity directory. The file resembles the following example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <componentfiles componentname="activity"> <file> <relativepath>properties/version/activity.component</relativepath> <checksum>1a20dc54694e81fccd16c80f7c1bb6b46bba8768</checksum> <permissions>644</permissions> <installoperation>remove</installoperation> </file> <file> <relativepath>lib/activity.jar</relativepath> <checksum>2f056cc01be7ff42bb343e962d26328d5332c88c</checksum> <permissions>644</permissions> <installoperation>remove</installoperation> </file> </componentfiles>
Comparing the computed checksum to the correct checksum
As the tool processes each product file in each bill-of-materials file, the tool also computes the actual checksum value of the corresponding installed product file. The tool then compares the checksum of the product file to the correct checksum value in the bill-of-materials file. The tool then reports any differences.
Location of the command file
Change directories to the bin directory to start the installver tool from the command line. The tool runs on any supported operating system except z/OS.
./installver.sh
Use the following command syntax to automatically check the bill of materials against the installed file system.
See Verifying against the bill of materials for examples of using the command to compare the installed files to the product bill-of-materials files.
See Comparing specific file and component checksums for examples of using the command to compare only files or components that you specify.
See Excluding files from a checksum comparison for examples of using the command to exclude files from the comparison.
The following parameters are associated with the command when comparing product file checksums to the correct checksums in the bill of material files.
Use the following syntax to create and compare an inventory of configured files to the currently installed files.
Create an inventory list of the files that are currently installed in the installation root directory
Compare the inventory list to files that are currently installed in the installation root directory
Compare and display trace results
The following parameters are associated with this command.
First use the -createinventory parameter to create an inventory list. Then use the -compare parameter to compare the inventory list to the actual files that exist in the system at the time of the comparison.
The result of the comparison shows changed classes, changed files, missing files, and added files. Such a comparison is very useful for verifying the absence of virus files, for example.
You can point the installver tool at any directory. The default directory is the installation root directory.
You can exclude files or components from the inventory.
The installver tool computes a checksum for each file. Each file entry in the inventory has the following general pattern:
checksum|relativepath/file_name|file_size|last_modfiied_time
After creating an inventory list, use the -compare parameter to compare the list to the actual files that exist in the system at the time of the comparison.
Use a semi-colon (;) or a colon (:) to delimit file names.
Use a semi-colon (;) or a colon (:) to delimit file names.
The default log file is the app_server_root/logs/installver.log file. You can redirect the output using the -log parameter and an argument.
The following examples show issues that might occur when you run the installver command to compare checksums.
Ignore entries for checksum mismatches that you introduce on purpose, such as might occur when you extend a component
I CWNVU0470I: [ivu] Starting to analyze: regularcomponentsample I CWNVU0440I: [ivu] The following file is different: lib/different.jar I CWNVU0410I: [ivu] fc19318dd13128ce14344d066510a982269c241b is the checksum in the bill of materials. I CWNVU0420I: [ivu] 517d5a7240861ec297fa07542a7bf7470bb604fe is the checksum on the file system. I CWNVU0390I: [ivu] Component issues found : 1 I CWNVU0480I: [ivu] Done analyzing: regularcomponentsample
Ignore issues that are obvious informational (I) messages
I CWNVU0360I: [ivu] The following bill of materials issue is found for component nullvaluesample: Hash must not be null or an empty string.
Overlapped files are either a potential product issue or potential tampering with the IBM provided bill of materials
I CWNVU0470I: [ivu] Starting to analyze: overlapbinarycomponentsample W CWNVU0422W: [ivu] The following file is overlapped: lib/binaryTest.jar W CWNVU0425W: [ivu] The overlap is caused by: _binarycomponentsample I CWNVU0390I: [ivu] Component issues found : 1 I CWNVU0480I: [ivu] Done analyzing: overlapbinarycomponentsample
Contact IBM support for the following issue
W CWNVU0280W: [ivu] Component mismatch: expected ... but found ...
WebSphere Application Server is officially
supported on the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Version 11 operating
system. However, the installver command might report issues with some
files in the samples or FEP_staging directories. You can ignore these
issues because they do not affect the operation of the product.
For current information available from IBM Support on known problems and their resolution, see this IBM Support page.
IBM Support has documents that can save you time gathering information needed to resolve this problem. Before opening a PMR, see this IBM Support page.
If you do not see a known installation problem that resembles yours, or if the information provided does not solve your problem, contact IBM support for further assistance.
After verifying your installation, you can create profiles or deploy an application on an existing application server profile.
After installing, updating, and verifying, the next step is to use the product. Start the application server to use the administrative console to deploy an existing application. See Fast paths for WebSphere Application Server for more information.