Installing Liberty by using downloaded archives

You can quickly install Liberty by extracting an archive file on all supported platforms except z/OS®.

Before you begin

Your system must meet the operating system and Java™ requirements for using Liberty. See WebSphere Application Server detailed system requirements.

For IBM i platformsFor the IBM® i platform, install the minimum supported Java level at one of the following locations:
  • /QOpenSys/QIBM/ProdData/JavaVM/jdk_version/32bit
  • /QOpenSys/QIBM/ProdData/JavaVM/jdk_version/64bit

About this task

For IBM i platformsFor distributed platforms

To use Liberty in a production environment with guaranteed service levels and IBM support, you must purchase WebSphere® Application Server (base), WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment, or WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core. Liberty is included with these editions, and can also be downloaded separately, as an edition-specific archive file, from Passport Advantage® online. The associated service is available from Fix Central. If you download and install Liberty from an unsupported JAR or ZIP file, you can later purchase a supported edition and upgrade the license for your existing installation.

The following table lists where you can download each type of installation archive file.
Table 1. Installation archive file locations
File Content Passport Advantage Online IBM Fix Central
JAR files for installing a supported edition-specific Liberty runtime environment

Example: wlp-nd-all-16.0.0.x.jar

Runtime
Edition-specific, fix pack 8.5.5.8 or later.
Features
All features that apply to that edition.
 ✔ ✔
ZIP files for installing an unsupported Liberty runtime environment with a limited production license

Can be upgraded to a supported edition by using the license upgrade JAR file.

Example: wlp-webProfile7-16.0.0.x.zip
Runtime
Fix pack 8.5.5.6 or later.
Features
Optional Java EE 7 feature sets
SDK
Optional IBM Java 8 SDK
   ✔
JAR files for installing an edition-specific Liberty runtime environment

The unsupported JAR file can be upgraded to a supported edition by using the license upgrade JAR file.

Example: wlp-nd-runtime-16.0.0.x.jar

Note: A removal notice for this JAR was issued as of the 16.0.0.2 fix pack. The file is eligible to be removed starting with the 18.0.0.2 fix pack.
Runtime
Edition-specific, fix pack 8.5.5.1 or later.
Features
Up to the latest levels of the 8.5.5.2 feature set
   Fully supported JAR files
JAR files for license upgrades:
  • Upgrade trial or unsupported editions to supported editions
  • Upgrade supported editions to other supported editions with more functionality.

Example: wlp-nd-license.jar

 No runtime environment or features ✔ ✔

Procedure

  1. Download the archive from one of the following sites.
  2. Extract the archive to your preferred directory.
    All of the application server files are stored in subdirectories of the wlp directory.
  3. Optional: Set the JAVA_HOME property for your environment.

    Liberty requires a Java runtime environment (JRE) or Java SDK in which to run. You can specify the Java SDK or JRE location by using the JAVA_HOME property in the server.env file, as described in Customizing the Liberty environment. When you set the JAVA_HOME property in the server.env file, Liberty uses the same Java runtime location regardless of the user profile that the Liberty server runs under.

    For IBM i platformsOn the IBM i platform, setting the JAVA_HOME property as a system-level environment variable is not recommended. The IBM i platform is a shared environment, and changing system-level environment variables might affect other applications.

    For distributed platformsOn Linux® or UNIX systems, you can instead set JAVA_HOME in the user .bashrc file, or append the JDK or JRE path to the PATH environment variable. On Windows systems, you can instead set JAVA_HOME as a system environment variable, or append the JDK or JRE path to the PATH system variable. For example, on Windows systems you can use the following commands to set the JAVA_HOME property, and to add the Java /bin directory to the path:
    set JAVA_HOME=C:\Progra~1\Java\JDK8
set PATH=%JAVA_HOME%\bin;%PATH%
    Note: The Liberty runtime environment searches for the java command in this order: JAVA_HOME property, JRE_HOME property, and system PATH property.

    For more information about supported Java environments and where to get them, see Minimum supported Java levels.