IBM WebSphere Application Server uses IBM Installation
Manager for product installation and lifecycle management. Installation
Manager accesses source repositories that contain the content for
a software product installation. Repositories are available on product
media, in IBM-hosted web-based repositories, and from Passport Advantage.
IBM Packaging Utility can help you create and customize enterprise
repositories that contain the correct combination of products and
maintenance levels needed for all aspects of your business.
About this task
You use Installation Manager to connect to an Installation
Manager repository (or set of repositories) to find products and service
updates that are available to you for installation. An Installation
Manager repository is simply a tree-structured file folder that includes
product payload and metadata. You can install the software products
that you need directly from an IBM web-based service repository or
download and unpack compressed files from Passport Advantage and install
the products from the resulting unpacked file folders. The result
of unpacking the files is also considered to be an Installation Manager
repository. Like any Installation Manager repository, these unpacked
files can be hosted on an internal HTTP server, FTP server, or network
mount in order to make them available to the organization.
Packaging
Utility is a companion tool for Installation Manager with which you
can create and manage custom Installation Manager repositories for
your organization. You can copy multiple packages, maintenance levels,
and fixes into a single repository. Packaging Utility copies from
source repositories to your target custom repositories. Source repositories
can include any accessible Installation Manager repository, including
IBM web-hosted product repositories and unzipped Passport Advantage
downloads.
For more information on Packaging Utility, go to the IBM Packaging Utility documentation.
Procedure
- Use Packaging Utility to create custom or enterprise Installation Manager
repositories that contain specific products and maintenance levels that fit the needs of your
business.
As an administrator, you can control the content of your enterprise repository, which then can
serve as the central repository to which your organization connects in order to perform product
installations and updates.
Packaging Utility essentially copies from a set of source Installation Manager repositories to a
target repository and eliminates duplicate artifacts, helping to keep the repository size as small
as possible. You can also delete (or prune) a repository, removing maintenance levels
or products that are not needed.
You can download the latest version of Packaging Utility from the IBM Support Portal.
Like Installation Manager, Packaging Utility has GUI and command-line interfaces. You must
specify repository URLs for Installation Manager repositories that contain the offerings that you
wish to copy.
Installation Manager repository URLs follow this pattern:
https://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/offering_name
Note: This
location does not contain a web page that you can access using a web browser.
For example, WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5 product repositories are located at the
following URLs:
- WebSphere Application Server Base Version 8.5
https://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
- WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Version
8.5
https://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.ND.v85
- WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Trial Version 8.5
https://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.NDTRIAL.v85
See
Online product repositories for WebSphere Application Server offerings for additional product repositories.
The target repository that you create with Packaging Utility will always support a full
installation; therefore, you cannot use Packaging Utility to create a repository that is only a copy
of a fix pack. You can, however, create a repository that contains the minimum content to support
direct installation to a fix-pack level. Consider the following two examples that use the Packaging
Utility command-line interface (PUCL.exe) that is available in the Packaging
Utility installation folder.
- Example 1
Note: Note that you must read the license agreement that you can find with the
product files and then signify your acceptance of the license agreement by specifying
-acceptLicense in the following
command.
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
-repositories
https://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
-target D:\WASBase_version
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
Since
no version number is specified with the offering name, this command will create a new repository
that supports direct installation to the latest fix-pack level for WebSphere Application Server Base
Version 8.5. This new repository does not support the installation of Version 8.5.0.0, but it does
support the update from an existing Version 8.5.0.0 installation to the latest version.
- Example
2
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85_8.5.0.20110503_0200
-repositories
https://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
-target D:\WASBase
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85_8.5.1.20110829_1838
-repositories
https://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
-target D:\WASBase
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
The
first command creates a target repository with WebSphere Application Server Base Version 8.5.0.0.
The second command adds the Version 8.5.0.1 fix pack to the same repository. You can now use this
resulting repository to install Version 8.5.0.0, install Version 8.5.0.1, or update from Version
8.5.0.0 to Version 8.5.0.1.
- Use IBM Packaging Utility Version 1.5.2 or later with the –platform option
(sometimes called "platform slicing") to create a repository that
is scoped to the platforms and architectures that are used by your
organization.
Note: Your repository can be scoped for platforms
other than the one on which it is created or stored. For example,
you can run Packaging Utility on a Windows system to create a repository
with the content needed to install on a Linux® system. During installation
on Linux, you point Installation Manager to your custom repository.
This
feature is available in command-line mode by specifying the
–platform option
with the
os
and
arch
arguments as
shown in the following example:
- Example
3
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85_8.5.0.20110503_0200
-repositories
https://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
-target D:\WASBase_Linux
-platform os=linux,arch=ppc
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
This
command will create a new repository for installation to WebSphere Application Server Version
8.5.0.0 on Linux PPC. You can then add the Version 8.5.0.1 fix pack for Linux to the same
repository:
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85_8.5.1.20110829_1838
-repositories
https://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
-target D:\WASBase_Linux
-platform os=linux,arch=ppc
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
You
can also create a repository for direct installation to any fix-pack level for a particular
platform.
After creating a repository for a particular platform,
you can add content for additional platforms. In the following example,
the first command creates a Linux repository for direct installation
to the latest fix pack for WebSphere Application Server. The second
command adds the content for AIX. The delta for adding the additional
platform content should be relatively small because much of the installation
content is common across platforms.
- Example
4
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
-repositories
https://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
-target D:\WASBaseV8
-platform os=linux,arch=ppc
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
-repositories
https://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v85
-target D:\WASBaseV8
-platform os=aix
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
Notice
that you do not need to specify both the os
and arch
options to
the –platform argument. In the last command, only os=aix
is specified.
You should be aware of these known issues if you decide
to use this function:
- If you specify unsupported operating-system and architecture combinations
for WebSphere Application
Server offerings when you use the -platform option
of the Packaging Utility copy command, unusable
local repositories might be created. The following table lists valid
combinations for creating a local WebSphere Application
Server offering repository that is sliced by operating system and
architecture.
Table 1. Valid combinations for creating a local WebSphere Application Server
offering repository using the Packaging Utility copy command
Platform |
Options |
Resulting Repository |
Windows |
os=win32,arch=x86 os=win32
|
Windows 32
bit and 64 bit |
Linux Intel |
os=linux,arch=x86 |
Linux Intel 32 bit and 64 bit |
Linux Power® |
os=linux,arch=ppc |
Linux Power 32 bit and 64 bit |
zLinux |
os=linux,arch=s390 |
zLinux 32 bit and 64 bit |
AIX® |
os=aix |
AIX 32
bit and 64 bit |
Solaris Sparc |
os=solaris,arch=sparc |
Solaris Sparc 32 bit and 64 bit |
Solaris Intel |
os=solaris,arch=x86 |
Solaris Intel 64
bit |
HP-UX Itanium |
os=hpux |
HP-UX Itanium 64
bit |
IBM i |
os=os400 |
IBM i |
z/OS® |
os=zos |
z/OS |
Restriction: When using the Packaging
Utility command-line interface (PUCL.exe
) that is
available in the Packaging Utility installation folder, you can only
specify the -platform
parameter once.
- If you create a platform-specific repository from Passport Advantage and Fix Central fix-pack
ZIP files that are first downloaded and unpacked, you must then reference both repositories when
copying platform-specific maintenance into your target repository. If you unpack the Passport
Advantage ZIP files for WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Version 8.5.0.0 into Windows
folder C:\WASND8500 and then you unpack the Version 8.5.0.1 ZIP files to
C:\WASND8501, for example, you would next create a Windows repository for
Version 8.5.0.0 with the following command:
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.ND.v85_8.5.0.20110503_0200
-repositories C:\WASND8500
-target C:\WASND_Windows
-platform os=win32,arch=x86
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense
and
then add the fix pack, specifying both source repositories:
PUCL copy com.ibm.websphere.ND.v85_8.5.1.20110829_1838
-repositories C:\WASND8500,C:\WASND8501
-target C:\WASND_Windows
-platform os=win32,arch=x86
-prompt
-showProgress
-acceptLicense