Before you can install IBM®
WebSphere®
Application Server products on an AIX® system, you must take steps to prepare the operating system.
Before you begin
Note: WebSphere
Application Server prevents users from installing to a non-empty directory. If WebSphere Application Server is
installed to a directory with a lost+found
subdirectory, you will be prompted to
use an empty directory. If you still want to install to this directory, then you can delete the
lost+found
directory. However, the next time fsck
is executed, the
lost+found
directory will be created. This should not have any effect on an
existing installation; during uninstallation, however, this directory will not be removed.
Restriction: There are known issues with using Cygwin/X to run Eclipse-based
applications on remote AIX machines. This affects your use of the Profile Management Tool. With Cygwin/X on remote
AIX, for example, a
splash screen for the Profile Management Tool appears but the Profile Management Tool never actually
comes up. For details of existing Bugzilla reports on these issues, see the information at
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36806. If a different X server is used, these
problems might not occur.
About this task
Preparing the operating system involves such changes as allocating disk space
and installing patches to the operating system. IBM tests WebSphere Application Server products on each operating
system platform. Such tests verify whether an operating system change is required for WebSphere Application Server products to run correctly.
Without the required changes, WebSphere Application
Server products do not run correctly.
Procedure
-
Log on to the operating system.
You can log on as root or as a nonroot installer.
Select a umask that allows the owner to read/write to the files, and allows others to access them
according to the prevailing system policy. For root, a umask of 022 is recommended. For nonroot
users a umask of 002 or 022 can be used, depending on whether the users share the group. To verify
the umask setting, issue the following command:
umask
To set the umask setting to 022, issue the following command:
umask 022
-
Stop all Java™ processes related to WebSphere Application Server on the machine where you are installing the
product.
-
Stop any web server process such as the IBM HTTP
Server.
-
The product requires IBM SDK, Java Technology Edition, Version 8.
-
To test whether this Java SDK is supported on a specific
System p
system, at the system prompt
type:
lscfg -p | fgrep Architecture
You should receive the reply: Model Architecture: chrp
. Only Common Hardware
Reference Platform (chrp) systems are supported.
- The environment variable
LDR_CNTRL=MAXDATA
is not supported for 64-bit
processes.
- If you are using one of the supported non-UTF8 CJK locales, you must install one of the
following file sets. The installation images are available on the AIX base discs; updates are available from the Fix Central
website.
X11.fnt.ucs.ttf
(for ja_JP or
Ja_JP)
X11.fnt.ucs.ttf_CN
(for zh_CN or
Zh_CN)
X11.fnt.ucs.ttf_KR
(for
ko_KR)
X11.fnt.ucs.ttf_TW
(for zh_TW or Zh_TW)
- To support the graphical user environment on AIX for IBM Installation Manager and WebSphere GUIs, install the
following.
X11.fnt.coreX
X11.fnt.iso.T1
-
Use the System Management Interface Tool (SMIT) to display packages that are installed to
determine whether you must update packages that are described in the following steps.
-
Download the most current version of the Info-ZIP product to avoid problems with zipped
files.
-
Provide adequate disk space.
The amount of disk space required varies with the number of features or products installed.
If you are installing the product using Installation Manager, the installation summary panel
indicates the approximate amount of disk space required based on the features and products that you
have selected.
Installing all features and products requires approximately 2 GB of disk space.
This estimate includes the following products, components, and features:
- Main application server product installation
- Profiles
- Sample applications
- IBM HTTP Server
- Web Server Plug-ins
- Application Client for WebSphere Application
Server
With the JFS file system on AIX, you can allocate expansion space for directories. If Installation Manager
does not have enough space, it issues a system call for more space that increases the space
allocation dynamically.
If you plan to migrate applications and the configuration from a previous version,
verify that the application objects have enough disk space. As a rough guideline, plan for space
equal to 110 percent of the size of the applications.
-
Unmount file systems with broken links to avoid java.lang.NullPointerException errors.
Unmount file systems with broken links before installing.
Installation can fail when broken links exist to file systems.
Use the
df -k command to check for broken links to file systems. Look for file
systems that list blank values in the
1024-blocks size column. Columns with a
value of "-" (dash) are not a problem. The following example shows a problem with the
/dev/lv00 file system:
> df -k
Filesystem 1024-blocks Free %Used Iused %Iused Mounted on
/dev/hd4 1048576 447924 58% 2497 1% /
/dev/hd3 4259840 2835816 34% 484 1% /tmp
/proc - - - - - /proc
/dev/lv01 2097152 229276 90% 3982 1% /storage
/dev/lv00
/dev/hd2 2097152 458632 79% 42910 9% /usr
iw031864:/cdrom/db2_v72_eee_aix64_sbcs
The
/proc file system is not a problem. The
iw031864:/cdrom/db2_v72_eee_aix64_sbcs file system is a definite problem. The
/dev/lv00 file system is also a likely problem. Use one of the following
commands to solve this problem:
> umount /cdrom/db2_v72_eee_aix64_sbcs
> umount /cdrom
Start the installation again. If the problem continues, unmount any file systems that have blank
values, such as the /dev/lv00 file system in the example. If you cannot solve
the problem by unmounting file systems with broken links, reboot the machine and start the
installation again.
-
Verify that prerequisites and corequisites are at the required release levels.
Although Installation Manager checks for prerequisite operating system patches, review the
prerequisites on the Supported hardware and software website if you have not
already done so.
For non-IBM prerequisite and corequisite products, see
their documentation to learn how to migrate to their supported versions.
Important: To run GUI tools, such as IBM
Installation Manager and WebSphere Customization
Toolbox, you must install GTK+ 2.24 or later and its dependencies from the
AIX Toolbox for Linux. GTK+ 3 and Motif are not supported, and packages from other sources will cause
errors.
If you do not have the GTK installed, you receive an error similar to the following
message:
Eclipse:
An error has occurred. See the log file
/workspace/.metadata/.log.
-
From the AIX Toolbox for Linux website,
install the
yum
bundle on your AIX
system.
When you install the tool, carefully follow the steps in the readme file.
Note: If the
gettext
RPM package is already installed on the AIX system, exclude the gettext
RPM package when you install the
yum
bundle to avoid conflicts.
-
Install the latest
gettext
RPM package and its dependencies by running the
following command.
-
Install the latest
gtk2
RPM package and its dependencies by running the
following command.
-
Verify the system cp command when using emacs or other freeware.
If you have emacs or other freeware installed on your operating system, verify that the system
cp command is used.
- Type the following command prompt before running the installation program for the WebSphere Application Server
product.
which cp
- Remove the freeware directory from your PATH if the resulting directory
output includes freeware. For example, assume that the output is similar to the
following message: .../freeware/bin/cp. If so, remove the directory from the
PATH.
- Install the WebSphere Application Server
product.
- Add the freeware directory back to the PATH.
If you install with a cp command that is part of a freeware package, the
installation might appear to complete successfully, but the Java 2 SDK that the product installs might have missing files in the
app_server_root/java directory.
Missing files can destroy required symbolic links. If you remove the freeware
cp command from the PATH, you can install the application server product
successfully.
-
Verify that the Java SDK on the installation image disk
is functioning correctly if you created your own disk.
For example, you might have downloaded an installation image from Passport Advantage®, or you might have copied an installation
image onto a backup disk. In either case, perform the following steps to verify that the disk
contains a valid Java software development kit (SDK).
-
Change directories to the
/JDK/jre.pak/repository/package.java.jre/java/jre/bin directory on the product
disk.
For
example:
cd /JDK/jre.pak/repository/package.java.jre/java/jre/bin
-
Verify the Java version.
Type the following command:
./java -version
The
command completes successfully with no errors when the SDK is intact.
- Optional:
Prepare a Workload Partition (WPAR).
If you are going to install the product on a WPAR, you must make sure that the WPAR has private
and writable versions of the /usr and /opt file systems.
If you do not have this type of WPAR, create a new WPAR using the following steps:
-
Choose a name for the WPAR that maps to an IP address for your network, or add an entry for the
new WPAR in the /etc/hosts file. Make sure you know the subnet IP address as
well.
-
Use the following command to create the WPAR:
mkwpar -n <wpar_name> -h <host_name> -N netmask=<A.B.C.D> address=<A.B.C.D> -r -l
Note: The -l
parameter creates private and writable versions of the
/usr and /opt file systems.
What to do next
For optimal performance, tune the Java environment
for your operating system. For more information, see the Java
tuning information for your specific AIX operating system
version.
After verifying prerequisites, verifying the product disk, and setting your installation
goals, you can start installing. Use one of the following installation procedures: