Completing an unattended installation on AIX or Linux

If you have more than one system to install, and you already know the installation options that you want to use, you might want to use the unattended installation process. The unattended process uses a response file to complete installations without any user interaction.

Before you begin

Note: From service refresh 8, fix pack 20 onwards, InstallAnywhere (.bin and archive.bin) packages of IBM® SDK, Java™ Technology Edition are discontinued and interim fixes (ifixes) for earlier releases also are not supported. On Linux® systems, you can install the SDK from an RPM package or extractable tarballs. On AIX® systems, you can continue to use the installp packages or use the extractable tarballs.

Check the conditions that are documented in Completing an attended installation on AIX or Linux.

About this task

Before you use the unattended installation process, you must accept the terms of the license agreement. You can do this by running an attended installation to generate a new response file that sets a specific value, or by reading the license agreement and manually updating an existing response file. More information is provided in the first step.

Procedure

To create a new response file, complete an attended installation. Use one of the following options:
- Use the GUI and specify that the installation program creates a response file. The response file is called installer.properties, and is created in the installation directory.
- Use the command line and append the -r option to the attended installation command, specifying the full path to the response file. For example:
```
./package -r /path/installer.properties
```
Example response file contents:
```
INSTALLER_UI=silent 
USER_INSTALL_DIR=/my_directory
LICENSE_ACCEPTED=TRUE
```
In this example, /my_directory is the target installation directory that you chose for the IBM SDK.
Note: The value LICENSE_ACCEPTED=TRUE is added when you create the response file by running an attended installation and accepting the license agreement. If you edit an existing response file, you must read the license agreement and include this line to confirm your license acceptance, or the installation fails.
Optional: If required, edit the response file to change options.
If you are creating more than one response file, each with different installation options, specify a unique name for each response file, in the format myfile.properties.
Optional: Generate a log file.
Because you are installing silently, no status messages are displayed at the end of the installation process. To generate a log file that contains the status of the installation, complete the following steps:
1. Set the required system properties by using the following command.
```
export _JAVA_OPTIONS="-Dlax.debug.level=3 -Dlax.debug.all=true"
```
2. Set the following environment variable to send the log output to the console.
```
export LAX_DEBUG=1
```
Start an unattended installation by running the package installer with the -i silent option, and the -f option to specify the response file.
For example:
```
./package -i silent -f /path/installer.properties 1>console.txt 2>&1
```
```
./package -i silent -f /path/myfile.properties 1>console.txt 2>&1
```
You can use a fully qualified path or relative path to the properties file. In these examples, the string 1>console.txt 2>&1 redirects installation process information from the stderr and stdout streams to the console.txt log file in the current directory. Review this log file if you think there was a problem with the installation.
Note: If your installation directory contains multiple response files, the default response file, installer.properties is used.