Before you install maintenance to your WebSphere® product,
you should be familiar with the following important considerations
and precautions.
Overview of the installation procedure
The Update Installer wizard is an InstallShield
for Multiplatforms wizard that runs in silent mode with a response file.
- Ensure that the Update Installer for WebSphere Software is installed on your
system. The Update installer can be installed from the WebSphere for IBM® i supplements disk,
which is included with the installation media. Additionally, when
you apply the latest WebSphere Application Server
for IBM i group PTF,
the current level of the Update Installer is installed if it is not
already installed on the system. The default install location for
the Update Installer is /QIBM/ProdData/WebSphere/UpdateInstaller/V7/UPDI.
For more information, see the documentation on installing the Update
Installer.
- Download the most current version of the interim
fix, fix pack, or refresh pack file from the Support site into the updi_root /maintenance directory.
Note:
- The WebSphere Application Server for IBM i group PTF always
includes the most recent fix pack or refresh pack for the product.
If you have applied the group PTF, there is no need to download the
current fix or refresh pack level.
- If you have not installed features, such as language packs and
samples, consider installing the features if there is a chance you
might use them in the future. If you choose not to install the features
and then later install maintenance, you will have to uninstall all
maintenance, install the features, and then reapply all maintenance
or the features might be corrupted.
- Use the Update Installer to install the interim
fix, fix pack, or refresh pack.
The Update Installer creates a
backup file in the
app_server_root/properties/version/nif/backup directory.
Note:
- The WebSphere Application Server group PTF
includes the most current fix or refresh pack for the product along
with required PTFs for other products that Websphere relies on. For
more information refer to Installing the WebSphere Application Server group PTF on IBM i.
- The group PTFs do not contain any feature pack related items.
You can download these items from the support site.
Permissions
Permissions can only be given
to one user account. To install and launch the Update Installer, use
the same user account that installed WebSphere Application
Server, or give permission to another user. If permission is given
to a non-root user, then the non-root user should give permission
to the root user when finished installing maintenance. If the non-root
user does not return permission to the root user, then the root user
cannot read or write to the file system.
- To use the updi_root location,
user accounts other than the account used to install WebSphere Application
Server must have reading and running access. These accounts must also
have writing access to the updi_root/logs directory
and its subdirectory.
- To update the target WebSphere Application Server
product location, user accounts other than the account used to install WebSphere Application Server must have
full access (reading, writing, and running) to the target location
where a maintenance package is to be applied. For example, if the
user account does not have write access to updi_root/logs,
then you might see the following exceptions from the standard output:
W -1 mkdirs failed for: file:/home/nonroot/IBM/WebSphere/UpdateInstaller1/logs/tmp1
java.io.IOException: mkdirs failed for: file:/home/nonroot/IBM/WebSphere/UpdateInstaller1/logs/tmp1
at com.ibm.ws.install.ni.framework.io.DiskFileSystem.mkdirs(DiskFileSystem.java:369)
at com.ibm.ws.install.ni.framework.io.FileSystemEntry.mkdirs(FileSystemEntry.java:399)
at com.ibm.ws.install.ni.framework.logging.TextLoggingBridge.createLogger(TextLoggingBridge.java:159)
at com.ibm.ws.install.ni.framework.logging.TextLoggingBridge.init(TextLoggingBridge.java:45)
at com.ibm.ws.install.ni.framework.plugin.NIFPlugin.createPlugin(NIFPlugin.java:782)
- Ensure that processes from users are not locking files in the
target location of a maintenance package.
Updating existing profiles in WebSphere Application
Server products
The Update Installer updates the core product
files in a WebSphere Application Server product. Service
in a maintenance package might update the following files in the installation
root directory:
- JAR files in the lib directory
- Scripts in the bin directory
- Profile templates
Updating cluster members
Apply the same
maintenance packages to all of the WebSphere Application
Server installations in a cluster. When all of the cluster members
are not at the same service level, the following exception can occur:
DRSCacheApp E DRSW0008E:
Exception is: com.ibm.disthub.impl.jms.JMSWrappedException:
{-1361012295|unknown|java.io.OptionalDataException|}
This
error can cause memory replication to function improperly.