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