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Manually installing a version 11 development and test environment

Technical Blog Post


Abstract

Manually installing a version 11 development and test environment

Body

There is a typical workstation install that automatically sets up a full development and test environment, described in the 'Full development environment install' section of the Installing MDM Workbench v11 post, however this approach has some limitations. For example, it will only work if you do not have any trace of the products it installs on your machine already, there are restrictions on which features can be installed, it is not possible to provide passwords, and so on.

The alternative is to manually install the MDM Workbench for MDM configuration and development, and an Operational Server for test purposes. In this example I will install a full development and test environment on Windows, using a DB2 database. The instructions below assume that you do not have any of the prerequisite software installed but, if you do, just skip the relevant steps.

To avoid problems with path lengths, special characters, or Windows virtualised directories, I installed all the software under a C:\IBM directory.

This blog post is accompanied by a series of videos on YouTube.

 

Downloading and extracting install images

These are all the install images I downloaded. See the Download IBM InfoSphere Master Data Management version 11.0 document for more part numbers and information about downloading from Passport Advantage. I extracted the downloads into the folder structure described in the Setting up the installation media topic, with a couple of additional directories as required. If you don't already have anything that can extract .tar.gz files, you can use the unpack option in download director:

image

 

Important: If you are about to install MDM but downloaded the install images before 17th October 2013, you must download the product refresh first.

Important: The workbench install will fail if the .tar.gz install images are extracted using WinZip. So far it looks like the Download Director unpack option, WinRAR, and 7-Zip all work but please leave a comment if you have problems with any unzip tools and I'll update the list.

 

IBM Installation Manager V1.6.0

This is required to install everything except DB2.

Part number: CIM7CML

 

DB2 Enterprise Server Edition V10.1

I used fix pack 2 to install DB2, available via the DB2 fix pack download page, rather than installing the GA version and upgrading. Alternatively, you could use the following part.

Part number: CI6WEML

 

Installation Startup Toolkit

This provides the scripts required to create an MDM database.

Part number: CIR9WML

 

Master Data Management Standard & Advanced Edition

This is the actual MDM Operational Server install.

Part numbers: CIR9NML, CIR9PML, CIR9QML, CIR9RML, CIR9SML

 

Master Data Management Workbench Standard & Advanced Edition

This is the Rational based workbench used to configure and develop MDM solutions.

Part numbers: CIR9TML, CIR9UML, CIR9VML

 

Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software V8.5.1

I installed the workbench into Rational Application Developer but you could use Rational Software Architect for WebSphere Software instead. In either case you need at least version 8.5.1, however there is a known problem with version 8.5.5.

Part numbers: CIE5FML, CIE5GML, CIE5HML, CIE5IML

 

WebSphere Application Server V8.5.0.2

The minimum version required is 8.5.0 fix pack 2, otherwise the install verification tests will fail. I download WebSphere Application Server Fix Pack 8.5.0.2 from Fix Central. There are known problems if you are planning to use version 8.5.5.

Part numbers: CI6XNML, CI6XPML, CI6XQML

 

Installing Installation Manager

I ran install.exe to install Installation Manager in GUI mode. After installing Installation Manager you can add the required repositories individually before you run each install, as I did in the video series, or you can add all the repositories in one go as follows.

Create a repository.config file in the directory where you extracted the install images. Copy and paste in this content:

LayoutPolicy=Composite
LayoutPolicyVersion=0.0.0.1
repository.url.mdm=./MDM/disk1
repository.url.mdmst=./MDMST/disk1
repository.url.mdmwb=./MDMWB/disk1
repository.url.rad=./RAD/disk1
repository.url.was=./WAS
repository.url.wasfp=./WASFP

Edit any paths based on the directories you used before saving the file. Now you can add this single repository using the Installation Manager repository preferences and all the packages will show up on the install page.

For more information about Installation Manager, see the Installation Manager 1.6 documentation.

Note: you may have seen a suggestion to alter Installation Manager's agent data location using the cic.appDataLocation configuration setting, however it is not typically necessary, or a good idea, to change this setting.

 

Installing the workbench

Installing the workbench is straightforward once you've added the Rational Application Developer and workbench repositories to Installation Manager. Pick a suitable install location, for example C:\IBM\SDP, and you can accept the defaults for everything else.

In the MDM Workbench v11 Installation video I chose to install a few additional features from Rational Application Developer, for example 'JSF' for customising UIs. Depending on what work you'll be doing, you may want to do the same, and you can always use Installation Manager to add extra features later on if required.

 

Installing Operational Server prereqs

Before installing the MDM operational server, you need to install DB2 Enterprise Server Edition version 10.1 and WebSphere Application Server 8.5.0.2. In addition, the Installation Startup Toolkit provides the database scripts you'll need to create an MDM database.

You can watch how to run these installs in the MDM v11 Test Environment: Installing Prereq Software video.

 

DB2

Important: you must install DB2 in a directory called SQLLIB, otherwise the operational server install will not work. For example, I installed DB2 to C:\IBM\SQLLIB

I accepted most of the defaults in the DB2 install wizard, except that I chose not to enable email notifications or operating system security since this is for a development environment.

 

WebSphere Application Server and Installation Startup Toolkit

Both of these are installed using Installation Manager so I installed them at the same time. (You could even install them at the same time as the workbench to save time.)

Important: you must install fix pack 2 for WebSphere Application Server 8.5 otherwise the MDM install verification tests will fail.

I changed the install locations, to C:\IBM\AppServer and C:\IBM\MDMStartupKit respectively, but I accepted the defaults for everything else.

 

Preparing to install the Operational Server

There are several advantages to manually installing a development and test environment, however the biggest disadvantage compared to a typical install is that the installer does not create an MDM database or WebSphere profile for you. Instead, you have to prepare the database and prepare the application server before starting the install.

These are the steps I followed, which are covered in the MDM v11 Test Environment: Preparing to Install video.

 

Edit SQL files

There are a couple of SQL files provided in the startup toolkit for creating an MDM database on DB2:

  • CoreData\Full\DB2\Standard\ddl\CreateDB.sql
  • CoreData\Full\DB2\Standard\ddl\CreateTS.sql

Both these files contain placeholders which need to be replaced with suitable values before use. These are the values I used:

 

Placeholder Value
<DBNAME> MDMDB
<TERRITORY> US
<DBUSER> db2admin
<TABLE_MDS4K> TBS4K
<TABLE_SPACE> TBS8K
<TABLE_SPMDS> TBS16K
<INDEX_SPACE> INDEXSPACE1
<LONG_SPACE> LONGSPACE1
<TABLE_SPPMD> EMESPACE1
<TABLE_SPPMI> EMESPACE2

 

Notes: Authority will be granted to the user specified by the <DBUSER> value, so this should be different to the user running the scripts. The database name is easy to specify in the installer but here I used the default. The tablespace names need to match the settings used by the installer, and the easiest way to do that for a development environment is to use the values shown above.

The following PowerShell command will fill in the placeholders and I ran it for CreateDB.sql and CreateTS.sql rather than editing the files by hand:

powershell -command "(Get-Content C:\IBM\MDMStartupKit\CoreData\Full\DB2\Standard\ddl\CreateDB.sql) | Foreach-Object {$_ -replace '<DBNAME>','MDMDB' -replace '<TERRITORY>','US' -replace '<DBUSER>','db2admin' -replace '<TABLE_MDS4K>','TBS4K' -replace '<TABLE_SPACE>','TBS8K' -replace '<TABLE_SPMDS>','TBS16K' -replace '<INDEX_SPACE>','INDEXSPACE1' -replace '<LONG_SPACE>','LONGSPACE1' -replace '<TABLE_SPPMD>','EMESPACE1' -replace '<TABLE_SPPMI>','EMESPACE2' } | Set-Content C:\temp\CreateDB.sql"

 

Create database

After editing the SQL files, I ran them using this command in a DB2 Command Window:

db2 -v -td; -f C:\temp\CreateDB.sql

And the same for CreateTS.sql.

 

Create application server profile

I used the advanced option when creating an application server profile using the Profile Management Tool. I chose not to install the default application, gave the profile a meaningful name and picked the Development tuning setting. Administrative security must be enabled for MDM, and the advantage of creating the profile yourself is that you get to choose the username and password. If you run the Profile Management Tool as administrator, you will also be given the option to run the server process as a Windows process, which isn't necessary for a development environment.

Important: When creating a profile for use with the MDM Workbench, make sure you create it in the default location with a directory name that matches the profile name.

 

Set DB2_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH WebSphere variable

After creating the application server profile you need to set the DB2_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH variable. The value needs to be the path containing the directory where you installed DB2. I installed DB2 in C:\IBM\SQLLIB, so on my system the DB2_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH variable should be set to C:\IBM.

Important: Do not follow the instructions in the description for this WebSphere variable: the operational server install requires a non-standard setting.

 

Installing the Operational Server

Now everything should be ready for a successful MDM install, however the operational server installer does not do many checks so there is still a chance that you could encounter problems. When problems do occur, the install will either roll back, requiring a reinstall, or keep going without reporting any issues until the install verification tests fail. This makes it difficult to track down problems so it's worth taking time to make sure everything is configured correctly before starting the install.

In the MDM v11 Test Environment: Installing the Operational Server video I checked following prereqs that are prone to error.

 

Manual pre-install checks

First I checked that DB2 was installed in a directory called SQLLIB using the db2level command. Next I checked that the required table spaces had all been created using the command below:

db2 -td; CONNECT TO MDMDB && db2 -td; SELECT VARCHAR(TS.TBSPACE,20) AS TABLESPACE, TS.PAGESIZE, VARCHAR(BP.BPNAME,20) AS BUFFERPOOL FROM SYSCAT.TABLESPACES TS, SYSCAT.BUFFERPOOLS BP WHERE TS.BUFFERPOOLID = BP.BUFFERPOOLID

Finally I checked the DB2_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH variable using wsadmin:

wsadmin -lang jython -c "AdminTask.showVariables('[-scope Node -variableName DB2_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH]')"

This should be the parent directory of SQLLIB, which I checked first.

 

Running the install

The MDM Operational Server install is another Installation Manager based install, so add the MDM repository if you haven't already and choose the install option. I changed the installation directory to C:\IBM\MDM to avoid any confusion with the missing space in the default, 'ProgramFiles'.

In the video I chose to install the Business Administration UI feature, and there are other features you may want to select. The remaining panels cover the configuration settings required to set up MDM.

Note: There are several buttons to test connections and retrieve details from the application server during the configuration process which do not report process. It can look like the install has stopped responding but if you use a slightly long single click and wait a few minutes, you should see the status message change when the processing has completed.

 

Configuration settings

On the Database Configuration page, the Database home setting must match the value of the DB2_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH WebSphere variable, for example C:\IBM on my machine. The rest of the settings on this page should match the MDM database you created earlier.

Pick suitable values for your requirements on the History Configuration page.

Select the Base Edition option on the WebSphere Application Server Configuration page. The settings should match the application server profile you created earlier. You'll need to specify the correct SOAP port setting since the default value is wrong. This is likely to be 8880 if the MDM profile was the first profile you created, but you can check using the AboutThisProfile.txt file in the profile logs directory.

Pick suitable values for your requirements on the Application Configuration page.

There may be further configuration panels depending on the features you selected, for example I needed to complete the Business Administration UI settings for my install. There are a collection of worksheets describing all the configuration settings in the Information Center.

When you've completed all the configuration panels you can start the install. This will take some time to complete.

 

Troubleshooting

If the install finishes with no errors and there are no errors reported for the install verification tests, the install was successful. If the install fails for some reason, the installation troubleshooting topic will help you debug known install problems. There are several logs which may help with this process, including Installation Manager logs, application server logs, MDM install logs and install verification logs. For example:

  • C:\ProgramData\IBM\Installation Manager\logs
  • C:\IBM\AppServer\profiles\MdmDev01\logs\server1\SystemOut.log
  • C:\IBM\AppServer\profiles\MdmDev01\logs\server1\SystemErr.log
  • C:\IBM\MDM\mds\logs
  • C:\IBM\MDM\logs\database
  • C:\IBM\MDM\IVT\testCases\xml\response
  • C:\IBM\MDM\IVT\testCases\xml_virtual\response

The exact paths may be different on your system if you chose to install in different locations.

 

Feedback

I hope you find this post useful but if you do spot any errors or omissions, please leave a comment below. Any hints and tips based on your own install experiences would also be great. If you're having problems installing, the best place to ask questions is on the MDM forum.

 

Related information

For an up-to-date* list of install related information, see the following wiki page:

(* Please update it if it's not up-to-date!)

 

Updates:

  • added 'Related information' section (20th January 2014)
  • added warning regarding WinZip issue (11th February 2014)

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ibm11142320