Planning to install WebSphere Portal

Before installing IBM® WebSphere® Portal in a production environment, you need to assess your hardware and software needs, possible database configurations, security options, and LDAP server options. Skipping this important step can lead to unexpected results and costly delays.

About this task

Restriction: z/OS® does not support the Multiple Profile feature because each IBM WebSphere Application Server instance has a single profile. However, it is possible to install multiple HFS product instances that point to the same set of binary files in the SMP/e space. This effectively achieves the same result as having multiple profiles. See "Installing code through SMP/e" for information about installing coexisting WebSphere Portal instances.
  • System requirements
    Before installing IBM WebSphere Portal, review the hardware and software requirements to ensure you have the supported versions of prerequisite and corequisite software as well as the required hardware.
  • Release notes
    Known issues and problems are centrally available on the support page. Links into the support knowledge base are integrated throughout the information center to make sure you have the most current information. Before you start the installation process, check the IBM Support site for the most current information about known limitations or issues. Use the following dynamic queries to find late breaking information about this release.
  • WebSphere Portal Support Statement
    This support statement proposes a revision to the definition of "supported" and "unsupported" with respect to the various products of which IBM WebSphere Portal depends on for proper operation.
  • User IDs and passwords
    Understanding character limitations for user IDs and passwords is important because they are used throughout the system to provide access and secure content. The character limitations provided here apply to the IBM WebSphere Portal administrator, IBM WebSphere Application Server administrator, database administrator, LDAP server administrator, and user IDs. Database and LDAP servers can have more restrictive limitations than provided here. Therefore you should check the database and LDAP server product documentation for restrictions. Failure to correctly define user IDs and passwords during the installation process can result in installation failure. In addition, your company may have more restrictive user ID and password requirements that you must also follow.
  • Server topologies
    Topology diagrams help you visualize different configurations that you can set up to support various user and system load requirements. The topology diagrams are representative of basic configurations.
  • Web Content Manager environments
    To use a Web Content Manager system, you will need to deploy a set of Web Content Manager environments within your overall WebSphere Portal system. Reviewing the Web Content Manager environments help you understand what happens in each environment and how you may want to setup your physical severs. Web Content Manager is installed using the WebSphere Portal installation user interface.
  • Stand-alone roadmap
  • Horizontal cluster roadmap
  • Vertical cluster roadmap
  • Port assignments
    Before you install IBM WebSphere Portal, you must plan the port assignments for your system to ensure that you do not have a port conflict.
  • Web servers
    By default IBM WebSphere Portal uses the internal HTTP transport within IBM WebSphere Application Server to handle requests. However, because WebSphere Application Server also supports the use of an external web server, you can access WebSphere Portal from your web server. You can use a local web server on the same machine as WebSphere Portal or you can use a remote web server on a different machine. A remote web server is typical for a production environment or other high-traffic configuration and is also typically placed in demilitarized zones (DMZ) outside a firewall to protect portal ports.
  • Database considerations
    A simple development environment can rely on the out-of-box database configuration using Apache Derby. Installing with Derby lets you quickly get IBM WebSphere Portal installed and running in a proof-of-concept environment. For a production environment, you must use one of the other supported Database Management Systems.
  • User registry considerations
    A user registry or repository authenticates a user and retrieves information about users and groups to perform security-related functions, including authentication and authorization.
  • Cluster considerations
    To increase capacity and availability, multiple portal servers can be clustered with IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment. In a cluster, the portals share a common configuration and the load is distributed evenly across all cluster instances.
  • Virtual environment overview
    You can use virtualized environments, for example VMWare ESX, to meet your business needs such as production server consolidation, centralized management, or dynamic test environments. The virtual environment provides transparency to the operating systems, applications, and middleware that it uses.
  • Multiple profile support
    IBM WebSphere Portal creates an application server configuration profile to represent its application server configuration, such as datasource definitions, web application and portlet deployments, and Java virtual machine configuration. A configuration profile represents the full configuration of a single portal instance. Multiple profiles give you the ability to have multiple, independently configured portal instances running from the same installation. Before WebSphere Portal Version 7, there was only one configuration profile per installation, which was typically named wp_profile.
  • Parent topic: Installing