Installing an IBM product using the IBM Installation Manager

To install a product such as WebSphere Application Server 8.5.5.5 Liberty Profile we first need to install IBM Installation Manager (IM). WAS 8.5.5 required a minimum of IM version 1.6.2, but below I have chosen to use the latest version of IBM Installation Manager which we can locate via this main IM support landing page, mentioned in the next section

You can get the PDF version here: Command line install for IBM Installation Manager

Installing Installation Manager

Most of the core reference documentation can be located at dedicated support URLs for any given product, or you can refer to the product sections of the IBM Knowledge Centre. IBM has improved and restricted its support documentation presentation. In fact, it is really good now and much easier to navigate around than ever before.

I have recently noticed, that most IBM products now have a dedicated support landing page. An example is the URL below, which is the main support page for IBM Installation Manager.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27025142

Also on this page we also find the download for the IBM Packaging Utility, which we will cover later in this guide, where we explain how you can use a web source to acquire the files required for your installation and have then downloaded into a local repository that IM can access.

• Click on the link Download Document to navigate to the download landing page.
  

• Click on the FC link to navigate to Fix Central location
  

Select the Installer that’s meets your operating system, I have chosen the Linux X86_64 as I am using CentOS 7 as my preferred OS. Now CentOS 7 is not a supported platform, so please refer to the Appendix to add the required dependencies to ensure that IM will install and also run.

• Select the download and click Continue
  

You will be presented with a page that will launch the IBM Download Manager which will manage the download.

• Click Download Now
  

The IBM Download Manager will launch and the file called agent.installer.linux.gtk.x86_64_1.8.1000.20141126_2002.zip will be downloaded.

Copy the zip file to your appropriate installation store on your Linux Server/Desktop

I unpacked the zip file using the CentOS unzip command into a folder called /var/apps/installs/IM1.8.1

But you can use whatever standard that is appropriate to your requirements. Typically organizations have a standard approach to manageable/extendable virtual file-systems

Now that you have the installation kit expanded, you will need to choose the syntax, depending on the security requirements of your Linux OS.

Note: The -dataLocation option is required for group mode when you install Installation Manager. The installed instance of Installation Manager uses the stored location each time you start Installation Manager. This stored location was specified by the -dataLocation option during the installation. You do not need to use the -datalocation option to start Installation Manager in group mode.

Use the -installationDirectory directory option to specify a non-default installation directory. For Group mode, specify a directory as described in Group mode roadmaps and silent installations.

An example syntax is displayed below

• Run the required installc command as root. (We are using a root user in this document).
  

This command installs and logs to a file called /im_1.8.1_install_log.xml in a logs folder within the installation kit directory.

Result:

I often to a quick cat of the logs to ensure not errors are logged. See an example below.

Generally a successful installation of IM will create the following example log contents in the log file

Now since we have used root, we presume that this is allowed by the system admins. Often organizations, will lock down the OS and you will have to either have sudo rights, or use a predefined non admin account/group. For example wasadmin:wasadmin or equivalent.

If you have a Linux desktop ie XSession capability, I would not try and run the IM as a GUI, but there is no need if you have no desktop.

Example of verifying the running of IM as a GUI

We have now completed the installation of IBM Installation Manager, now we can install WAS silently etc.

In the modern world of 2015, I must say I am impressed by IBMs new approach to Knowledge access. Their new Knowledge Centre design is awesome to say the least!, Useful and the search works. Must because Lotus/Domino is not used! It is a wicked new upgrade to accessing information and I am very happy. Everyone knows how hard I am to please when it comes to IBM LOL. I think this is what we have been looking for as Middleware professionals using IBMs products.

CRIMA1151E ERROR: The “core.feature” feature cannot be found in package

While running a command line install of WebSphere Liberty Profile 8.5.5, we get the following error reported by IBM Installation Manager.

[root@localhost tools]# ./imcl install com.ibm.websphere.liberty.BASE.v85_8.5.5000.20130514_1313,core.feature,liberty,com.ibm.sdk.6_64bit -installationDirectory /var/apps/was8.5.5_LP -sharedResourcesDirectory /var/IM/im-shared -repositories /var/apps/installs/WAS_Liberty_8.5.5 -acceptLicense -showProgress -log /var/log/ibm/install/was8.5.5_LP.xml -preferences com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.keepFetchedFiles=false,com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.preserveDownloadedArtifacts=false

CRIMA1151E ERROR: The “core.feature” feature cannot be found in package com.ibm.websphere.liberty.BASE.v85 (IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty 8.5.5.0).

Reason:

This error occurs when you are using a WAS 8.5.5 Liberty Profile download, and so since you do not have a full version of WAS as well, you cannot install the core feature, so remove this element and re-issue the silent imcl command line.

CWWKE0701E: com.ibm.ws.security.AccessIdUtil

Error occurs when modifying server.xml of a Liberty Profile Runtime server 8.5.5.4. We have a server, and we have modified the server.xml with a new feature, the console.log reports the following output:

Note: The features being added was the new Admin Center, but it is not related to this error as such.

After some research I found a document on IBM:

PI31809: CWWKE0701E WHEN SECURITY ID VALUE IS NULL

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1PI31809

This is a code error, and will be fixed in Liberty Profile Runtime version 8.5.5.5

Error when trying to log into the Liberty Profile Admin Center

Solution

Add the following to the server.xml

Option a)

Option b)

Create a quick start user, that is not part of a role-based registry

Below is a glossary of terms which serves to clarify some of the product names and tags that people often interchange. So I have added this table to clear any misunderstandings about Liberty Core/Runtime, Liberty Profile Vs WAS Base and WAS ND.

While installing IBM SDK 7.0 to be able to run WAS Liberty, you get the following error.

Reason, you are installing into a directory that does not contain a Liberty product, installation_directory, specify the appropriate WebSphere Application Server installation path on which to install IBM WebSphere SDK Java Technology Edition Version 7.0 or 7.1.

Correct Command:

When adding the Admin Center to a WAS ND Profile you get the error CWWKF1203E: Unable to obtain the following features: [adminCenter-1.0], this is because the version of Liberty Profile for WAS is < than 8.5.5.4

Install a newer fixpack ie use Google to search for WAS Liberty 8.5.5.4 fixpack and follow the links to download and install using IM (IBM Installation Manager). If you have not installed WAS Liberty with IM, then you will have to install a new extracted version of WAS Liberty 8.5.5.4 and migrate the appropriate folders from the  existing instance into the new instance.

Since in this guide we installed WAS ND Liberty Profile using IM, we will use IM to uninstall. Navigate to the IM eclipse/tools directory

Prepare the imcl command using the following suntax

Run the uninstall action

Result:

OR

Reasons:

We have applied a fixpack and we have also applied an SDK

To uninstall using IM, we would need to do things in reverse order i.e. remove the fixpack, then the IBM SDK update, then we can remove your Liberty Installation.

Alternatively, don’t use IBM installation manager, however this is a process where you would need to maybe use installation manager to produce a golden copy, then distribute via archive. This is only important when using Liberty Profile, if you are using Liberty Runtime, then your approach would be for extraction/archive as you are dealing only with applications that need a Web Profile and so the installation footprint is circa 50-60 MB.

Error when joining a member to the collective for WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Liberty Profile.

For example the join member command is run with the following parameters

Result:

Explanation:

The SSL configuration contains attributes that are used to control the behavior of the server SSL transport layer.

The default SSL configuration settings are that When using the IBM JRE the SSL_TLS protocol will used. When using the Oracle JRE is used the SSLv3 protocol is used.

Since we are in this case using CentOS 7, we have the OpenJDK installed and is the default system JRE.

Because the JAVA_HOME variable is not set for the running collective, the OpenJDK is being used. Even though the server version command option reports something like:

We have an issue because, the server knows about the IBM SDK, but when it is running, it is using the JAVA_HOME of the environment, which is OpenJDK.

Solution:

The best way to solve this is to JAVA_HOME is to create a server.env file in the ${server.config.dir} where server.xml is residing and add JAVA_HOME as in entry in that file.

OR

Use .bashrc and add a JAVA_HOME variable, but the problem with this is that multiple servers on the same machine will all reference the same actual location and this may not be want you wish. You want multiple servers on the same machine to use different SDKs.

Below is a glossary of terms which serves to clarify some of the product names and tags that people often interchange. So I have added this table to clear any misunderstandings about Liberty Core/Runtime, Liberty Profile Vs WAS Base and WAS ND.

JEE Web Profile

The JEE Web Profile as defined by Wikpedia at the following URL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_Platform,_Enterprise_Edition#Web_profile

This guide explains How to install the IBM SDK or JRE using the public downloads.

It is possible to acquire the IBM SDK from the following URL, though you will need to register before downloading.

• I have chosen to downloaded the 64 Bit version for the IBM 8 SDK/JRE
  

Note: It all depends on your requirements i.e. the application requirements to decide what SDK is required. In this example, I have used the IBM 8 SDK/JRE to demonstrate that Liberty can run in IBM 8 JRE

• I was then prompted to register with IBM before I can continue.
  

• Once I located the actual download page, I selected all the SDK options for example JDK and JRE and samples just in case I need them at another stage.
  

For Liberty we would only actually require the JRE to replace the standard default OpenJDK on CentOS for example.

In this example we will only install the IBM 8 JRE the file is:

To do this we follow these steps:

Copy the JRE download to an appropriate folder for example:

Modify to be able to run the bin file:

• Select the default options
  

Result:

We now have installed IBM 8 JRE into:

To change the JRE current version or use a different vendor i.e. in our case we wish to use IBM’s JRE as opposed to the default CentOS JRE, we can choose one of several options:

• Use JAVA_HOME
  
• Use a server.env file
  

Using JAVA_HOME in .bash_profile

JAVA_HOME will ensure that the current logged in user will use the specified JRE when several applications/products on the same machine refer to JAVA_HOME, this may not be what you want. But if this machine is only for Liberty then this is an easy choice.

Steps:

• First we will verify the current JRE that is set for your environment, so we can test later that it has been changed.
  

Result:

We will now need to set our environment buy editing .bash_profile

We want to set JAVA_HOME to where we have our JDK installed for example:

If JAVA_HOME/bin is not in the PATH, add it to the path:

• Edit your local bash profile (~/.bash_profile) and add two lines:
  

Example .bash_profile

We can either logout and re-login for the changes to take effect or we can source (execute) .bash_profile from our current session:

• Now check what JRE is running for example:
  

Result:

• We can now start an existing Liberty Server for example we have a liberty instance installed in /var/apps/wasnd855_lp/ and we have created a server called server1
  

We can see that JRE used by looking at console.log for example:

Result:

We can now see that Liberty is now using the IBM JRE as opposed to the default CentoOS OpenJDK, but the issue is that now IBM JRE will be used for all application/software that refer to Java_HOME, and we may not want this. We may wish to have only Liberty use the IBM JRE. To do this we must refer to a server.env file.

Specifying JAVA_HOME using server.env

Before we do this, we will remove the edits made to .bash_profile to ensure that JAVA_HOME is not set as an environment variable.

We can see above that the JAVA_HOME variable is not set, and the PATH specifies /user/bin for example:

Result:

Result:

We can use server.env files at the install and server levels to specify environment variables such as JAVA_HOME, WLP_USER_DIR, and WLP_OUTPUT_DIR. These files support only KEY=value pairs. Shell and variable expansion are not supported.

The server management script will search for server.env files in two locations, ${wlp.install.dir}/etc/server.env and ${server.config.dir}/server.env. If both files are present, the contents of the two server.env files will be merged, with values in the the server-level file taking precedence over values in the runtime-level file.

Steps:

We will use a variable fro JAVA_HOME in a file called server.env, in this example it will be placed in the <installroot/>etc/server.env for example: /var/apps/wasnd855_lp/etc

• Stop the server.
  
• Create a file called /var/apps/wasnd855_lp/etc/server.env
  

• Edit the file with your favourite editor (I just logged in using WinSCP an used the default text editor) and set the JAVA_HOME variable to point to the JRE you want to use for example:
  

• Close the file and save your changes.
  
• Start the server
  

• Check the console.log
  

Result:

Note that the version of the JRE listed in the console window now references the IBM 8 JRE Java version, as opposed to the current shell’s Java version.

When running a Jython script to control the state of an Application Deployed to a Standalone Liberty Profile server, we get the following error:

TypeError: javax.management.remote.JMXServiceURL(): 3rd arg can't be coerced to int

root@node01 standalone]# ./controlApp.sh status HelloWorld-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT
Environment Settings
PATH=/opt/ibm/java-x86_64-80/bin:/usr/lib64/qt-3.3/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/root/bin:/var/apps/jython_2.7.0/bin
WLP_INSTALL_DIR=/var/apps/waslp_DV01/wlp
JYTHON_SCRIPTS=/var/apps/scripts/liberty
CLASSPATH=/var/apps/waslp_DV01/wlp/clients/restConnector.jar
JYTHONPATH=/var/apps/waslp_DV01/wlp/clients/jython:/var/apps/scripts/liberty/lib
script parameters
ACTION=status
APP_NAME=HelloWorld-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT
Server settings..
SERVER_NAME=server1
TRUST_STORE=/var/apps/waslp_DV01/wlp/usr/servers/server1/resources/security/key.jks
TRUST_STORE_PASSWORD=Liberty
HOST=192.168.0.40
PORT=9443
USER_NAME=wasadmin
USER_PASSWORD=wasadmin
Executing CMD: jython controlApp.py status HelloWorld-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT /var/apps/waslp_DV01/wlp/usr/servers/server1/resources/security/key.jks Liberty 192.168.0.40 9443 wasadmin wasadmin
MAIN:BEGIN
varName=controlApp.py
varValue=status
action=%s controlApp.py
appName=%s status
trustStore=%s HelloWorld-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT
trustStorePassword=%s /var/apps/waslp_DV01/wlp/usr/servers/server1/resources/security/key.jks
hostname=%s Liberty
port=%s 192.168.0.40
username=%s 9443
password=%s wasadmin
Connecting to the server...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "controlApp.py", line 57, in <module>
    _mBeanConnection  = getConnection(
  File "controlApp.py", line 21, in getConnection
    connector.connect(hostname, port, username, password)
  File "/var/apps/waslp_DV01/wlp/clients/jython/restConnector.py", line 57, in connect
    self.connectBasic(host, port, args[0], args[1])
  File "/var/apps/waslp_DV01/wlp/clients/jython/restConnector.py", line 76, in connectBasic
    self.connectAdvanced(host, port, map)
  File "/var/apps/waslp_DV01/wlp/clients/jython/restConnector.py", line 65, in connectAdvanced
    url = JMXServiceURL("REST", host, port, "/IBMJMXConnectorREST")
TypeError: javax.management.remote.JMXServiceURL(): 3rd arg can't be coerced to int

The reason for this is the line of code in the Jython script that create a connection to the Liberty Server’s JMX interface (WebSphere:service=com.ibm.websphere.application.ApplicationMBean,name=*) is a string not an int i.e. the port number was passed as string not int

def getConnection(trustStore, trustStorePassword, hostname, port, username, password) :
    JMXRESTConnector.trustStore = trustStore
    JMXRESTConnector.trustStorePassword = trustStorePassword
    
    connector = JMXRESTConnector()
    connector.connect(hostname, port, username, password)
    mconnection = connector.getMBeanServerConnection()
    return mconnection
#endDef

The code was changed from

_mBeanConnection  = getConnection( 
                trustStore, 
                trustStorePassword,
                hostname,
                port,
                username,
                password)

to

_mBeanConnection  = getConnection( 
                trustStore, 
                trustStorePassword,
                hostname,
                int(port),
                username,
                password)

WebSphere Liberty is a fast, dynamic, easy-to-use Java EE application server, the latest Application Server technology from IBM and  today we release the new Liberty Essentials course.

During this course the student will learn how to automate installations and upgrades in a controlled manner using both IBM Installation Manager and the cloud -ready archive approach. Jython scripting is introduced and how to enable JDBC for data-ware applications.

The course covers the following topics:

• Install, upgrade and uninstall WebSphere Liberty Profile using an Archive-Style approach
• Install, upgrade and uninstall WebSphere Liberty Profile using IBM Installation Manager
• Install, upgrade and uninstall WebSphere Liberty Profile using automation scripts
• Build and Deploy a sample Web Application
• Manage features and add ons
• Configure an off-line feature repository to add features even when not connected to internet
• Install and configure the Admin Center to provide a GUI-based admin console
• Enable basic security to secure the Admin Console
• Use JConsole to invoke exposed Management Beans (Mbeans) via JMX
• Install, configure an implement Jython for Jython automation
• Using Jython to manage deployed application-state
• Locating demo /trial software from IBM
• Enable a JDBC Provider and data source for a data-aware application
• Install and configure MYSQL to support your data-aware Java Web-Application

Fully detailed comprehensive course notes are provided as part of the course.

Because Liberty is lightweight in nature it is Ideal for developers during rapid application development cycles but at the same time being ready for full production in cloud or non-cloud environments alike by Administrators.

WebSphere Liberty Profile Essentials

The WebSphere Application Server 8.5.5.x Liberty Profile Essentials Course provides the student with a full set of guides and a set of commercial-grade automation scripts with detailed worked-examples.

Price: $149.99

Price: $49.99