Possible barriers when using Packaging Utility to install multiple iFixes for BPM 855

Installing multiple iFixes is always a topic we deal with in Support. There are several ways to install many BPM iFixes at one time, like "Install Multiple Interim Fixes Together Using imcl Command Silently" and "An efficient update strategy for large IBM Business Process Manager installations." If you are using Windows and you are used to installing an iFix with GUI, the Packaging Utility (PU) is a good choice. By using PU, there will be a single package generated after copying all the iFixes you want to install. You may install the only generated package by installation manager. Compared with using installation manager or command, it's simple and just one more step you need to take. In this article, I have listed some barriers you may encountered during the PU copying the iFix.

Firstly there's something to be pointed out for iFix on IID 855. There are several iFixes that are for the WebSphere Java SDK fixpack, like JR52950 and JR53201 are for SDK 7.0.8010 and 7.0.9000. Java SDK is a single product so you cannot update it to 2 versions; that will cause the error of "Cannot complete the install because of a conflicting dependency." So before installing multiple iFixes, please make sure that you have only one SDK fixpack copied by PU. If more than one Java SDK version is selected, PU will report the error as shown below.

The Java fixes contain the entire Java so installing the latest one will contain fixes for the previous defects as well. So it is recommended to install the latest Java SDK fixpack. So we'd suggest to install JR55223 which is the latest one. So after removing the duplicated Java SDK iFixes, there's still some iFixes that cannot be copied from PU, like JR55223 and JR54738. The error would be similar to what is shown below.

From the error message, the PU is trying to find some files that are not expected in this certain iFix and the files are of long lists. We were trying to copy iFix of Java SDK 7.0.9.0, so why is PU trying to find files from SDK version 7.0.0? Also it's a Windows machine and the PU is trying to find some files on AIX. Of course they cannot be found and it will not be useful for the iFix installation. The error message indicates this inconsistency. After some investigation, we've found that it's because the PU GUI does not support fixes that are platform specific. Since the Java fixes are platform specific, the PUCL command line must be used with the "platform" option to create a repository scoped to the platform and organization that you use. For more information of this command, you can check the product documentation topic "Creating custom installation repositories with IBM Packaging Utility."

After using the command line to install the iFix, the only outstanding issue now is with the JR54738 fix, a non-Java SDK iFix, which is not working on either the GUI or the command line interface.

Error logs from PUCL command line:
ERROR: Copying fix JR54738 1.0.0.20151208_1555.
  WARNING: Copied fix applies to multiple offerings. The method used for such fixes is always "all". Specified method="minimal" is ignored.
  ERROR: Problems locating artifacts to copy for JR54738
1.0.0.20151208_1555
    CRIMC1020E ERROR: feature
com.ibm.rational.ttt.feature.pseudo_8.2.101.v20151120_1623 not found
      ERROR: 'feature
com.ibm.rational.ttt.feature.pseudo_8.2.101.v20151120_1623' does not
exist in D:\IID_Fixpacks\WINDOWS\8.5-WS-IID-IFJR54738.zip (
at
features/com.ibm.rational.ttt.feature.pseudo_8.2.101.v20151120_1623.jar)
......
Error from GUI:
Copying fix JR54738 1.0.0.20151208_1555.
   Problems locating artifacts to copy for JR54738 1.0.0.20151208_1555
      feature
com.ibm.rational.ttt.feature.pseudo_8.2.101.v20151120_1623 not found
         'feature
com.ibm.rational.ttt.feature.pseudo_8.2.101.v20151120_1623' does not
exist in D:\IID_Fixpacks\WINDOWS\8.5-WS-IID-IFJR54738.zip (at
features/com.ibm.rational.ttt.feature.pseudo_8.2.101.v20151120_1623.jar)
.......

For this certain iFix, you can check the technote for JR54738. There's a note regarding installing this iFix using PU ‐ "Note: You cannot copy this fix by using IBM Packaging Utility. You must install this fix separately." So please pay attention to this note for the iFix of JR54738 for BPM 855; you cannot install it using PU, you can install this one iFix separately using installation manager.

In summary, there are more than 300 iFixes on BPM 855. Using PU to install many iFixes at one time is a good choice. You might encounter some errors during the package copying using PU. Here are some suggestions:

1. Just install the latest version of the Java SDK version iFix.
2. Copy Java iFixes using command with the "platform" option.
3. Install JR54738 separately using installation manager.