Silently installing packages using Installation Manager

Use Installation Manager in silent mode to install product packages from a command line.

Before you begin

About this task

After you install Installation Manager, use it in silent mode to install packages. This file explains how to install packages using the Installation Manager.

To run Installation Manager in silent mode, run the following command from the eclipse subdirectory in the directory where you installed Installation Manager:

For Windows: imcl.exe input response_file_path_and_name -log log_file_path_and_name –acceptLicense. For example: imcl.exe input c:\mylog\responsefile.xml -log c:\mylog\silent_install_log.xml –acceptLicense
For other platforms: imcl input response_file_path_and_name -log log_file_path_and_name –acceptLicense. For example: imcl input /root/mylog/responsefile.xml –log /root/mylog/silent_install_log.xml –acceptLicense

The following table describes the arguments that are used with the silent installation command:

Argument	Description
-vm	Specifies the Java™ launcher. In silent mode, always use java.exe on Windows, and java on other platforms.
-nosplash	Specifies that the splash screen should be suppressed.
--launcher.suppressErrors	Specifies that the JVM error dialog should be suppressed.
-silent	Specifies that the Installation Manager installer or Installation Manager should be run in silent mode.
input	Specifies an XML response file as the input to Installation Manager installer or the Installation Manager. A response file contains commands that installer or Installation Manager runs.
-log	(Optional) Specifies a log file that records the result of the silent installation. The log file is an XML file. If your silent installation session is successful, the log file will contain just the root element of `<result> </result>`. However, if errors occur during the installation, the silent install log file will contain error elements and messages.
updateAll	(Optional) Specifies that all available updates are installed.
installAll	(Optional) Specifies that all available products are installed.
–acceptLicense	Include the -acceptLicense option in your command to accept the licensing agreement of the package you want to install.
-showProgress	Displays a progress bar to the console.
-ShowVerboseProgress	Displays progress text to the console. For example, the text "Rebooting the computer to complete the install" is displayed when a reboot is required.
-accessRights	Specifies whether the Installation Manager operates in admin or nonAdmin mode. For nonAdmin mode, this argument should always be used with the 'nonAdmin' parameter: -accessRights nonAdmin For admin mode, this argument should be used with the 'admin' parameter: -accessRights admin If this argument is not used, the default value is set based on current user permissions. Note: For Windows XP users who are members of Administrator group, the default is always `-accessRights admin`. For these users to run in nonAdmin mode, the `-accessRights nonAdmin` argument should be passed explicitly.

The Installation Manager has an initialization or .ini file silent-install.ini that includes default values for the arguments in the table. For example, the silent-install.ini file might look something like this:

-accessRights
admin
-vm
C:\Program Files\IBM\Installation Manager\eclipse\jre_5.0.2.sr5_20070511\jre\bin\java.exe
-nosplash
--launcher.suppressErrors
-silent
-vmargs
-Xquickstart
-Xgcpolicy:gencon

Results

If the installation is successful, it will return a status of "0" an unsuccessful operation will return a non-zero number.

When Installation Manager installer is run, it reads the response file and (optionally) writes to a log file to the directory specified. If you specified a log file and directory, the log file will be empty if operation was successful, for example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<result>
</result>

The log file will contain an error element if the operation was not completed successfully.

A log file for Installation Manager is also available. The default locations for the Installation Manager log file are

For Windows as non-admin: C:\Documents and Settings\<my id>\Application Data\IBM\Installation Manager\logs
For Windows as admin: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\IBM\Installation Manager\logs
For other platforms: /var/ibm/InstallationManager/logs

Feedback