IBM® Installation
Manager is a common installer for many IBM software
products. You can use Installation Manager to install and manage the
product lifecycle of WebSphere® Application
Server Liberty Core.
Before you begin
Installation Manager is a single installation program that
can use remote or local software flat-file repositories to install,
modify, or update WebSphere Application
Server products. It determines and shows available packages - including
products, fix packs, interim fixes, and so on - checks prerequisites
and interdependencies, and installs the selected packages. You also
use Installation Manager to easily uninstall the packages that it
installed.
Restrictions: - If you have an earlier Alpha or a Beta version of WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core installed,
uninstall it before installing this version.
If a non-administrator installs WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core on
a Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 operating system into
the Program Files or Program Files
(x86) directory with User Account Control (UAC) enabled, WebSphere Application Server
Liberty Core will
not function correctly.UAC is an access-control mechanism that
allows non-administrative users to install a software product into
the Program Files or Program Files
(x86) directory; but it then prohibits any write access
to that directory after the installation has completed.
To resolve
this issue, perform one of the following actions:
- Install the offering into a directory other than Program
Files or Program Files (x86).
For
example:
C:\IBM\WebSphere\Liberty
- Disable UAC.
- When you install an offering using Installation Manager with local
repositories, the installation takes a significantly longer amount
of time if you use a compressed repository file directly without extracting
it.
Before you install an offering using local repositories, extract
the compressed repository file to a location on your local system
before using Installation Manager to access it.
Important: Do not transfer the content of
a repository in non-binary mode and do not convert any content on
extraction.
Tip: Although almost all of the instructions in this section of the documentation work
with earlier versions of IBM Installation Manager, this
information is optimized for users who installed or upgraded to Installation Manager Version 1.6.2
or later. Version 8.5.5.4 and later of Liberty require Installation Manager Version 1.6.2 or
later.
Tip: ![[Updated in July 2015]](../delta.gif)
Different users can use WebSphere Liberty by using two different methods.
- Install a new WebSphere Liberty instance for each user. Each WebSphere Liberty install is a new
user profile.
- Create multiple servers with different users. Each user should be part of a group that has
access to the wlpdirectory and java_home used.
If you use option two, run the command to create the server as the user who will run the
server and create the server in the user's home directory. If you are using Linux, the command is
similar to su user1 export WLP_USER_DIR=/home/user1 server create
Server1.
Setting WLP_USER_DIR in the user's shell profile makes
it easy to ensure that all Liberty commands act on the correct user directory.
![[Updated in July 2015]](../deltaend.gif)
Important: Installation Manager can install any fix-pack level
of the offering directly without installing the intermediate fix packs;
in fact, Installation Manager installs the latest level by default.
For example, you can skip fix-pack levels and go from Version 8.5.5.1
directly to Version 8.5.5.5. Keep in mind, however, that later you
can not roll back to any level that was skipped. If you directly
install to Version 8.5.5.5, for example, you cannot roll back to Version
8.5.5.4. If you skip from Version 8.5.5.1 to Version 8.5.5.5, you
can only roll back to Version 8.5.5.1. You should plan your installations
accordingly.
About this task
Prepare your system as described in Installing Installation Manager and preparing to install Liberty.
Perform
one of these procedures to install or uninstall WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core using
Installation Manager.
Procedure
Results
Notes on
logging and tracing: - An easy way to view the logs is to open Installation Manager and
go to File > View Log. An individual log file
can be opened by selecting it in the table and then clicking the Open
log file icon.
- Logs are located in the logs directory of Installation
Manager's application data location. For example:
Administrative installation: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\IBM\Installation Manager
Non-administrative installation: C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\IBM\Installation Manager



Administrative installation: /var/IBM/InstallationManager



Non-administrative installation: user_home/var/ibm/InstallationManager
- The main log files are time-stamped XML files in the logs directory,
and they can be viewed using any standard web browser.
- The log.properties file in the logs directory
specifies the level of logging or tracing that Installation Manager
uses.
Notes on
troubleshooting:
When you attempt to launch Installation Manager
from a DVD that was mounted using the CD-ROM file system (CDFS) on
an HP-UX operating system, it might fail to launch and point to a
log file that contains an exceptions similar to one of the following:java.util.zip.ZipException: Exception in opening zip file:
org.osgi.framework.BundleException: Exception in
org.eclipse.update.internal.configurator.ConfigurationActivator.start()
or bundle org.eclipse.update.configurator.
This issue might
be caused by Installation Manager reaching the upper limit of number
of descriptors that can be opened on a CDFS-mounted device. This
upper limit is determined by the value for the tunable kernel parameter
ncdnode, which specifies the maximum number of CDFS nodes that can
be in memory at any given time. To resolve the problem, change the
ncdnode system kernel setting to 250. If the problem persists, increase
the setting.
By default, some HP-UX systems are configured
to not use DNS to resolve host names. This could result in Installation
Manager not being able to connect to an external repository. You
can ping the repository, but nslookup does not return anything.
Work
with your system administrator to configure your machine to use DNS,
or use the IP address of the repository.
- In some cases, you might need to bypass existing checking mechanisms
in Installation Manager.
- On some network file systems, disk space might not be reported
correctly at times; and you might need to bypass disk-space checking
and proceed with your installation. To bypass disk-space checking,
add cic.override.disk.space=true to the config.ini file
in IM_install_root/eclipse/configuration and
restart Installation Manager.
- To bypass operating-system prerequisite checking, add disableOSPrereqChecking=true to
the config.ini file in IM_install_root/eclipse/configuration and
restart Installation Manager.
If you need to use any of these bypass methods, contact IBM Support for assistance in developing
a solution that does not involve bypassing the Installation Manager
checking mechanisms.
- For more information on using Installation Manager, read the IBM Installation
Manager Information Center.
- If a fatal error occurs when you try to install the offering,
take the following steps:
- Make a backup copy of your current installation directory in case IBM support needs to review it later.
- Use Installation Manager to uninstall everything that you have
installed under the installation location (package group). You might
run into errors, but they can be safely ignored.
- Delete everything that remains in the installation directory.
- Use Installation Manager to reinstall the offering to the same
location or to a new one.
If you are installing WebSphere Application Server Liberty Version 8.5.5.1
in console mode, you might receive warning messages similar to the following
example:No "conClass" attribute in "commonPanel" element of panel com.ibm.was.liberty.userdata.panel.UserData in com.ibm.was.liberty.userdata.panel.
This
problem is caused by an IBM Installation Manager API which is deprecated in Version 1.6.2. These
warning messages can be ignored. No action is required.