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.
IBM WebSphere Application
Server - Express, WebSphere Application Server, and WebSphere Application
Server Network Deployment are incrementally related. As you scale up your
e-business demand, you can also scale up your e-business capability by moving
from one product to the next.
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.
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 for this offering is a single-server environment without clustering and without centralized administration of multiple server instances.
The Express package provides two development environments for Windows and Linux systems, Application Server Toolkit and 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 the Rational Application Developer product. Both tools run on Windows and Linux workstations. The Rational Application Developer is an enhanced version of the WebSphere Studio Application Developer in Version 5.
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 |
---|---|---|
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. |
|
Product | Default environments | Application server processes created during installation |
---|---|---|
WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Application Server - Express | One standalone application server profile named default. | server1 |
Network Deployment | A default runtime environment is created that contains
two profiles:
After the installation has completed, you can use the addNode command or the deployment manager administrative console to add the default profile to the cell managed by the dmgr profile. Install the Network Deployment product on each machine in a multiple-machine, distributed environment to give each server process access to a local copy of the core product files. |
|
Use the launchpad to install the
WebSphere Application Server base product, Express, Network Deployment, or
a supplemental product. You cannot use the launchpad to install the Feature
Pack for Web Services since it is not available on disc. You must download
feature pack installable images.
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 |
---|---|---|
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:
|
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
|
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 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. Some of the ancillary products in the DVD package are still on CDs.
The product discs are always in the primary disc packet.
Each product package contains several discs. Use the following link to view packaging information for each available product: Packaging Information for IBM WebSphere Application Server for i5/OS.