Preparing to run the installation program

Before you run the installation program to create an installation or add product modules or tiers, make sure that the computers are ready for installation. Also back up critical data.

Before you begin

AIX® Linux®
Db2 requires that the 32-bit Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) be installed on the metadata repository tier computer for access to the libpam library.
Windows
Verify that you have a valid installation of the Windows Script Engine. See the Microsoft documentation for more information. Additionally, ensure that the following directories are in your system path, and exist on the target computer. Remove any paths to Java™ executables from the system PATH.
  • %SystemRoot%\
  • %SystemRoot%\system32
  • %SystemRoot%\system32\wbem

Procedure

Follow this procedure for each target computer:

  1. Log in to the target computer.
    Operating system Description
    AIX Log in as the root user.
    Linux Log in as the root user.
    Windows Log in as a local administrator or as a local or domain user who is directly assigned to the local Administrators group.
  2. Back up your systems.
    1. Back up all critical data.
    2. Back up existing instances of IBM® InfoSphere® Information Server if your computer already hosts an instance.
    3. Back up the following directories.
      Operating system Directories
      AIX /etc/services, /etc/inittab, /etc/passwd, and /etc/group
      Linux /etc/services, /etc/inittab, /etc/passwd, and /etc/group
      Windows Microsoft Windows registry and the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
  3. If you removed a previous installation of InfoSphere Information Server on the computer, reboot the computer before continuing.
  4. The installation program writes required temporary files to a location that is defined by the following environment variable.
    Operating system Environment variable
    AIX TMP
    Linux TMP
    Windows %temp%

    There must be roughly 2.5 GB of temporary space available.

    You can redirect most of the temporary files to a different directory if desired. If you do this, about 1.5 GB will be redirected to the specified directory, but 1 GB will still be required in the directory specified above.

    If you want to redirect 1.5 GB of temporary files to a different temporary directory, create a new file called .jvm_args in the root installation directory and add the following line with the new temporary directory:
    -Djava.io.tmpdir=installation_program_tempdir

    After the installation completes, do not delete the installation log files that are in the temporary directory. Preserve these files for troubleshooting and verification purposes.

  5. Linux: Because WebSphere® Application Server is not compatible with Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux), disable SELinux or set it to permissive mode before installing InfoSphere Information Server. For more information about how to disable SELinux, see the Linux documentation.
  6. The Advanced Security option is not supported on Oracle database systems. If this option is turned on, turn it off before installing InfoSphere Information Server.
  7. Windows: For a client tier or engine tier installation, if you installed the MKS Toolkit software for UNIX and Linux compatability, uninstall it and reboot the computer before you run the InfoSphere Information Server installation program.
  8. Windows: Ensure that the length of your system PATH environment variable will not exceed 2047 characters after installation.
    Note: The installation of IBM InfoSphere Information Server will add approximately 600 characters to the PATH system environment variable if you accept the default directory paths. Therefore, to avoid potential problems with installation, ensure that the length of your PATH prior to installation does not exceed 1447 characters. For more information, refer to the Microsoft documentation, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2685893.
  9. Windows: To import metadata by using bridges and connectors with InfoSphere Metadata Asset Manager, take the steps in the following table.
    Option Description
    To use bridges with InfoSphere Metadata Asset Manager and Import Export Manager
    1. Remove any existing installations of bridges from the client tier Microsoft Windows computer before you run the InfoSphere Information Server installation program. For detailed instructions, see the system requirements for bridges: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?&uid=swg27037866.
    2. When you run the installation program, for the client tier select Metadata interchange agent and bridges.
    To use connectors with InfoSphere Metadata Asset Manager When you run the installation program, install InfoSphere DataStage® and QualityStage® on the engine tier.
  10. If you are installing an instance of InfoSphere Information Server on a computer with an existing instance, disable all scheduled jobs, scheduled tasks, scheduled reports, and enabled IBM InfoSphere Information Services Director applications.
  11. Disable firewall software and antivirus software before starting the installation.
  12. For an installation that involves WebSphere Application Server clustering:
  13. If the WebSphere Application Server processes or node agents are currently running under a non-root user, there is no longer a need to change them to run as root before running the installation or uninstallation program. However, after running the program, the application server will have been switched to run as root. Therefore, if you want to run it as non-root again, you will need to switch it to run as the non-root user afterward.


    Note: To resolve the PAM authentication issues, see PAM configuration for ValidateUser and Permission Denied.