Silently install InterimFix Application Support

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Installing the application support for an ITM Agent InterimFix is usually straightforward and quite easy.
The readme file of the maintenance package explains how to do it: just run the itmasi.sh or itmasi.bat (depending if you are on Unix or Windows) and then a user-friendly
GUI will help you selecting all the necessary information before completing the process.

What about if the target machine is a Unix/Linux and it does not have an X server or if you cannot export the display to have the Gui of the installer being opened in your workstation ?

If the maintenance package includes this option (it should be clearly mentioned in the readme file), you can install the application support silently, using a response file and
invoking the itmasi.sh with the "-silent" option, for example:

/itmasi.sh -h /opt/IBM/ITM630FP2 -silent -r response.txt.

Anyway, if the target machine is a Linux platform, before running the above command successfully, you need to perform the action requested in this technote:

/support/pages/node/313647

Theoretically for AIX it should not be needed, but it happened that the out-of-the-box installation script,
that leverages on java to perform the requested task also in case of silent installation, fails due to environmental glitches.
In that case you have the chance to use the same solution available for Linux platform.

Basically you need to download a binary file and copy it into the CD-ROM directory that is created when you un-package the application support tar file.
The name of the binary varies depending on the platform, it is setupaix.bin for AIX, setupLinux.bin for Linux.
Once you copied the file into the CD-ROM directory and double checked it has the proper permissions, you can execute above command to install application support silently.
This option anyway works fine on Linux, but in some cases it does not work on AIX.
It happened to me for example while installing silently the application support for the Citrix XenApp Agent.
Why did it fail ?
The reason is quite clear looking at the itmasi.sh script that is delivered with the package.
When the script is invoked with the -silent option, the code enter in a branch where it
then checks for platform architecture.

if [[ "$cArch" = li+([0-9]) ]]

In case it is a linux, it executes the line:

$PWD/setupLinux.bin -silent -options $RESPONSE

It finds the setupLinux.bin file in case you remembered to download it as requested by the prerequisite action, and the installation process completes smoothly.
If instead it is an AIX, it goes in the "else" branch, that instead executes:

$JAVAHOME/bin/java -jar setup.jar -silent -options $RESPONSE

In the itmasi.sh delivered with IF 7.2.0-TIV-ITM_CTXA-IF0007, this is at line 189.

The code is not invoking setupaix.bin as expected.
If you downloaded setupaix.bin and copied it into CD-ROM directory, you also need to be sure that the itmasi.sh starts using it...
You must change the line that shows:

$JAVAHOME/bin/java -jar setup.jar -silent -options $RESPONSE

(in my case the one at line 189, that is reached if the installation is silent and if the platform is different than Linux)

with line:

$PWD/setupaix.bin -silent -options $RESPONSE

Version of the itmasi.sh may vary depending on the maintenance package where it is contained, so be careful and be sure you perform the changes on the correct line.

Beside of this, you must be also sure that the response file invoked by the installer contains the proper information.
Double check the value specified for:

-W Directories.itmhome=
and
-W Directories.mediaLocation=

This second parameter usually contains a default path, for example:
-W Directories.mediaLocation="/7.2.0-TIV-ITM_CTXA-IF0007/CD-ROM"

If you have extracted the application support package in a different path, please correct this parameter accordingly.

This should be enough to have IF application support being silently installed also on AIX platform.

Thanks for reading.

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