IBM Installation Manager

IBM® Installation Manager is a program that installs z/OS® Explorer and other packages on your workstation. It also updates, modifies, and uninstalls these and other packages that you install. A package can be a product, a group of components, or a single component that is designed to be installed with the Installation Manager.

For the most current information about the IBM Installation Manager, see the Installation Manager product documentation.

Installation Manager is an installation management tool that has several time-saving features. It helps you install, update, modify, and uninstall product packages on your computer. It keeps track of what you are about to install, as well as what you have already installed and what is available for you to install. It searches for updates so that you know that you are installing the latest version of a package. It also provides tools for managing licenses for the packages it installs, and for updating and modifying packages.

For information about how to deploy z/OS Explorer to many users, see the information available in the Enterprise installation articles section of the Installation Manager product documentation.

Use the six wizards in Installation Manager to maintain a package through its lifecycle, as follows:
  • The Install wizard walks you through the installation process. You can install a package by accepting the defaults, or you can change the default settings to customize an installation. Before you install a package, you see a summary of your selections throughout the wizard. Using the wizard, you can install one or more packages at one time.
  • The Update wizard searches for available updates to packages that you have installed. An update might be a released fix, a new feature, or a new version of the product. Details of the contents of the update are provided in the wizard. You can decide whether to apply an update.
  • With the Modify wizard, you can change certain elements of a package that you have installed. During the first installation of the package, you select the features to install. If you require other features later, you can use the Modify wizard to add the features. You can also remove features.
  • The Manage Licenses wizard helps you set up the licenses for your packages. Use this wizard to change a trial license to a full license, to set up the servers for floating licenses, and to select the type of license to use for each package.
  • The Import wizard adds packages that were installed by using installation tools other than Installation Manager to the list of installed packages.

    Installation Manager tracks the products that it installs, including selectable features and maintenance updates for products. Earlier versions of some products that can be installed with Installation Manager might have been installed with different installation technology. Installation Manager must import information about existing installations of these products before Installation Manager can modify and update the products.

    Note: This wizard is available only after Installation Manager detects a package in a repository that requires this feature.
  • The Roll Back wizard enables you to revert to a previous version of a package.
  • The Uninstall wizard removes a package from your computer. You can uninstall more than one package at a time.