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.
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
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.
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: |
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 |
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.