High availability (active-passive configuration) installation checklist

Use this checklist to complete a new installation of a two-server active-passive configuration where all components can fail over from one server to the other.

Complete the following steps:

Plan and build your topology
Prepare to install the software
Install and configure high availability cluster management software
Install and configure the metadata repository tier, services tier, and engine tier within the two-server configuration
Install the client tier
Test the installation
Perform postinstallation configuration tasks

To complete these steps, use the task lists in the following sections.

Plan and build your topology

To plan and build your topology, follow the steps in the following task list.

Table 1. Topology planning and building tasks
Description	For more information	Record your information
Review the system requirements.	Reviewing system requirements and release notes
Learn about tiers and components.	Tiers and computers
Learn about the topology of the active-passive high availability configuration.	Active-passive topology
Determine whether to preinstall your database system.	Options for installing the database software
Determine whether to preinstall IBM® WebSphere® Application Server or preconfigure an existing installation of WebSphere Application Server.	Determining how to install the application server software

Prepare to install the software

To prepare your computers to install the product software, complete the steps in the following task list.

Table 2. Software planning tasks
Description	For more information	Record your information
Configure the servers, the network, and the storage device.	AIX Setting up the servers, network, and storage (Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms example) Linux Setting up the servers, network, and storage (Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms example) Windows Setting up the servers, network, and storage (Microsoft example)
Obtain the InfoSphere® Information Server software and any applicable fix packs.	Obtaining IBM InfoSphere Information Server software
On both computers, verify name resolution, and open TCP ports for InfoSphere Information Server across any applicable firewalls.	Configuring your network
AIX® Update the kernel parameters and user limits on both computers.	Modifying kernel parameters and user limits (AIX )
Linux Update the kernel parameters and user limits on both computers.	Modifying kernel parameters and user limits (Linux®)
Prepare each tier computer to run the InfoSphere Information Server installation program, and back up any critical data on the computers.	Preparing to run the installation program

Preparing and installing the tiers

The servers will accommodate the metadata repository tier, services tier, and engine tier. For this reason, run the IBM InfoSphere Information Server installation program only once to install the software on SAN storage. Then run the installation program on each client tier computer to install the client tier software.

To manage the cluster and enable failover, install high availability software such as IBM Tivoli® System Automation for Multiplatforms.

InfoSphere Information Server metadata repository, services, and engine tier software installation task list

To prepare your tier software for installing the product, follow the steps in the following task list.

Table 3. Preparation tasks: metadata repository, services, and engine tiers
Description	For more information	Record your information
Acquire and install high availability cluster management software on both engine tier servers, and set up the cluster.	Refer to the documentation for your high availability cluster management software. For example configurations, see the following topics: AIX Installing the high availability software (Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms example) Linux Installing the high availability software (Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms example) Windows Setting up the cluster (Microsoft example)
Set the service IP address.	Refer to the documentation for your high availability cluster management software. For example configurations, see the following topics: AIX Setting up the virtual IP address (Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms example) Linux Setting up the virtual IP address (Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms example) Windows Setting up the virtual IP address (Microsoft example)
AIX Linux Define and start a resource group.	Refer to the documentation for your high availability cluster management software. See Defining and starting the resource group (Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms example).
AIX Linux For non-English locales, make sure that the locale and encoding are set correctly.	Setting the locale and character encoding for the engine tier target computer
Set up administrator and component owner accounts on the shared storage device.	Setting up administrator and component owner accounts
If you decide to preinstall Db2 or another supported database system, install and configure the database system now by using scripts.	Installing the database server software
Preinstall WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment on the shared storage device, if you decide not to use the InfoSphere Information Server installation program to install it. When creating a profile during the installation, make sure to disable administrative security.	Preinstalling IBM WebSphere Application Server
Preconfigure the IBM InfoSphere QualityStage® Match Designer database.	Creating the IBM InfoSphere QualityStage Match Designer database
Run the installation program: In the High Availability Server Cluster Configuration page, click Server cluster configuration. In the Virtual host name field, enter the virtual host name that was created when the HA software was configured. Whenever prompted for an installation directory, specify a path on the shared storage device.	For example configurations, see the following topics: AIX Linux Installing IBM InfoSphere Information Server in the cluster (Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms example) Windows Installing IBM InfoSphere Information Server in the cluster (Microsoft example)
Set up the resource agent scripts.	Go to the documentation for your high availability cluster management software. For example configurations, see the following topics: AIX Linux Setting up the high availability control scripts (Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms example) Windows Setting up the engine and services tier resources for high availability (Microsoft example)
Test the high availability configuration.	Simulate active cluster node failures and network failures and observe the results. For an example based on Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms, see Testing the configuration (Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms example).

Client tier installation task list

To configure your client tier, follow the steps in the following task list.

Note: If you are creating a configuration with more than one client computer, repeat these steps for each client computer.

Table 4. Installation tasks: client tier
Description	For more information	Record your information
Run the installation program. In the Tier Selection page, choose Client only.	Installing IBM InfoSphere Information Server software

Test the installation

After you install the software, complete the following tasks to test and validate your installation.

Table 5. Testing the installation tasks
Description	For more information	Record your information
Test the IBM InfoSphere Information Services Director installation (if installed).	Testing the IBM InfoSphere Information Services Director installation
Run the IBM Support Assistant Lite for InfoSphere Information Server tool to verify the installation.	See Installation verification and troubleshooting
Test the engine tier failover function.	Go to the documentation for your high availability cluster management software. For example configurations, see the following topics: AIX Linux Testing the configuration (Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms example) Windows Testing the configuration (Microsoft example)

Perform post-installation configuration tasks

After you run the InfoSphere Information Server installation program for each tier, perform these tasks:

Table 6. Postinstallation configuration tasks (all tiers)
Description	For more information	Record your information
Windows If necessary, set up explicit firewall exceptions for client-side executable files that require network access.	Setting up firewall exceptions
Configure security within InfoSphere Information Server: Choose a user registry and configure it for InfoSphere Information Server. Create users and groups in the user registry. Assign security roles to users and groups. Configure InfoSphere Information Server engine security. Map credentials if necessary. Assign project roles if required by the installed suite components. Optionally, also: Configure IBM WebSphere Application Server for non-root administration. Configure InfoSphere Information Server agents for non-root administration. Configure the Auditing service.	Configuring security for IBM InfoSphere Information Server
Configure IBM InfoSphere DataStage® and IBM InfoSphere QualityStage (if installed): If you installed globalization support (NLS), ensure that IBM InfoSphere DataStage users have the correct settings specified for localization. Configure access to ODBC data resources. Windows: For systems that have large numbers of simultaneously connected users or large numbers of simultaneously running jobs, tune the server engine. Optional: Configure the parallel processing environment. Migrate jobs that you created in an earlier version of InfoSphere DataStage to the current version. Configure the IBM InfoSphere QualityStage Match Designer. Set up the application server to run SQA or investigation reports. Test the installation.	Configuring IBM InfoSphere DataStage and IBM InfoSphere QualityStage
Configure IBM InfoSphere Information Analyzer (if installed).	Configuring IBM InfoSphere Information Analyzer
Configure IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog (if installed).	Configuring IBM InfoSphere Business Glossary