Installing Liberty fix packs on distributed operating systems using response files

You can update WebSphere® Application Server Liberty Core to a later version using Installation Manager response files. IBM® Installation Manager Version 1.8.5 or later is required to update to Liberty fix pack 16.0.0.2 or later.

Before you begin

Through version 19.0.0.8, the minimum acceptable version of IBM Installation Manager is 1.8.5.

As of version 19.0.0.9, the minimum acceptable version of IBM Installation Manager is 1.9.0.

Important:

Java™ SE 17 is the recommended Java SDK because it provides the latest features and security updates. As an alternative to installing Java SE 17, you can install another supported Java SDK version. Liberty runs on any of the Java SE versions that are listed in the Java SE versions column of the Supported Java Releases table on the Open Liberty website.

The Liberty end of support date for Java SE 11 is October 2026, fix pack 26.0.0.10. The Liberty end of support date for Java SE 8 is October 2026, fix pack 26.0.0.10. The Liberty end of support date for Java SE 17 is October 2027, fix pack 27.0.0.10. For more information, see Removal notices.

If you want to install Liberty assets from local directory-based repositories or an instance of the Liberty Asset Repository Service, configure the repositories. For more information about the Liberty asset repositories, see Installing assets using Installation Manager.

Tip: As an alternative to the procedure that is described in this article, Installation Manager allows you to use the updateAll command in a response file or on the command line to search for and update all installed packages. Use this command only if you have full control over which fixes are contained in the targeted repositories. If you create and point to a set of custom repositories that include only the specific fixes that you want to install, you should be able to use this command confidently. If you enable searching service repositories or install fixes directly from other live web-based repositories, then you might not want to select this option so that you can select only the fixes that you want to install using the -installFixes option with the install command on the command line or the installFixes attribute in a response file.

Procedure

For a list of fix packs that are available for WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core installation and specific information about each fix, perform the following actions.
1. Go to Fix Central.
2. Click Find product.
3. Select WebSphere Liberty as the product group.
4. Select the installed version.
5. Select your operating system as the platform, and click Continue.
6. Select Browse for fixes, and click Continue.
7. Select Fix pack as the fix type, and click Submit.
8. Click More Information under each fix to view information about the fix.
9. Recommendation: Make a note of the name of the fix pack that you would like to install.
Update WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core with the fix pack using one of the following procedures.
- Access the live service repository that contains the fix pack, and use web-based updating.
  Use Installation Manager on your local system to update WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core with the interim fixes from the live web-based service repositories.
  - For the live service repositories, use the same URLs as those used for the generally available product-offering repositories during installation. These URLs are based on the following pattern:
    http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/offering_ID
    where offering_ID is the offering ID that you can find in Liberty product offerings for supported operating systems.
  - These locations do not contain web pages that you can access using a web browser. They are remote web-based repository locations that you specify for Installation Manager so that it can maintain the product.
  Perform the following actions:
  1. Log on to your system.
  2. If you do not already have Installation Manager credential-storage and master-password files containing your IBM software user ID and password, create files that will allow you to access the repository.
    Note: These are the credentials that you use to access protected IBM software websites.
    
    Tip: When creating a credential-storage file, append /repository.config at the end of the repository URL location if the imutilsc command is unable to find the URL that is specified.
  3. Stop all servers and applications on the WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core installation that is being updated.
  4. Change to the Installation_Manager_binaries/eclipse/tools directory, where Installation_Manager_binaries is the installation root directory for the Installation Manager.
  5. Install the fix pack using a response file.
    For example:
    
    Administrator or non-administrator:
    imcl.exe -acceptLicense input C:\temp\update_response_file.xml -log C:\temp\update_log.xml -secureStorageFile C:\IM\credential.store -masterPasswordFile C:\IM\password_file.txt
    
    Administrator:
    ./imcl -acceptLicense input /var/temp/update_response_file.xml -log /var/temp/update_log.xml -secureStorageFile /var/IM/credential.store -masterPasswordFile /var/IM/password_file.txt
    
    Non-administrator:
    ./imcl -acceptLicense input user_home/var/temp/update_response_file.xml -log user_home/var/temp/update_log.xml -secureStorageFile user_home/var/IM/credential.store -masterPasswordFile user_home/var/IM/password_file.txt
- Download the file that contains the fix pack from Fix Central, and use local updating.
  You can download a compressed file that contains the fix pack from Fix Central. Each compressed fix-pack file contains an Installation Manager repository for the fix pack and usually has a .zip extension. After downloading and extracting the fix-pack file, use Installation Manager to update WebSphere Application Server Liberty with the fix pack.
  1. To download the fix pack, perform the following actions:
    
    Go to Fix Central.
    
    Select WebSphere as the product group.
    
    Select the product.
    
    Select the installed version.
    
    Select your operating system as the platform, and click Continue.
    
    Select Browse for fixes, and click Continue.
    
    Select the fix pack that you want to download, and click Continue.
    
    Select your download options, and click Continue.
    
    Click I agree to agree to the terms and conditions.
    
    Click Download now to download the fix pack.
    
    Transfer the compressed file in binary format to the system on which it will be installed.
    
    Extract the compressed repository files to a directory on your system.
  2. Perform the following actions:
    
    Log on to your system.
    
    If the repository requires a username and password, create a credential-storage file to access this repository.
    For more information on creating a credential-storage file for Installation Manager, read the IBM Installation Manager product documentation.
    
    Tip: When creating a credential-storage file, append /repository.config at the end of the repository URL location if the imutilsc command is unable to find the URL that is specified.
    
    Stop all servers and applications on the WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core installation that is being updated.
    
    Change to the Installation_Manager_binaries/eclipse/tools directory, where Installation_Manager_binaries is the installation root directory for the Installation Manager.
    
    Install the fix pack using a response file.
    For example:
    
    Administrator or non-administrator:
    imcl.exe -acceptLicense input C:\temp\update_response_file.xml -log C:\temp\update_log.xml -secureStorageFile C:\IM\credential.store -masterPasswordFile C:\IM\password_file.txt
    
    Administrator:
    ./imcl -acceptLicense input /var/temp/update_response_file.xml -log /var/temp/update_log.xml -secureStorageFile /var/IM/credential.store -masterPasswordFile /var/IM/password_file.txt
    
    Non-administrator:
    ./imcl -acceptLicense input user_home/var/temp/update_response_file.xml -log user_home/var/temp/update_log.xml -secureStorageFile user_home/var/IM/credential.store -masterPasswordFile user_home/var/IM/password_file.txt

Example

The following is an example of a response file for updating the product to a later version.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<agent-input>
<server>
  <repository location='https://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.liberty.CORE.ND'/>
</server>
<profile id='WebSphere Liberty' 
  installLocation='C:\Program Files\IBM\WebSphere\Liberty'>
</profile>
<install modify='false'>
  <offering profile='WebSphere Liberty' id='com.ibm.websphere.liberty.CORE.ND' 
    version='16.0.2.20161025_2108'/>
</install>
<preference name='com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.eclipseCache' value='C:\Program Files\IBM\IMShared'/>
<preference name='com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.connectTimeout' value='30'/>
<preference name='com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.readTimeout' value='30'/>
<preference name='com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.downloadAutoRetryCount' value='0'/>
<preference name='offering.service.repositories.areUsed' value='true'/>
<preference name='com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.ssl.nonsecureMode' value='false'/>
<preference name='com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.http.disablePreemptiveAuthentication' value='false'/>
<preference name='http.ntlm.auth.kind' value='NTLM'/>
<preference name='http.ntlm.auth.enableIntegrated.win32' value='true'/>
<preference name='com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.preserveDownloadedArtifacts' value='true'/>
<preference name='com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.keepFetchedFiles' value='false'/>
<preference name='PassportAdvantageIsEnabled' value='false'/>
<preference name='com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.searchForUpdates' value='false'/>
</agent-input>

Tips:

The profile ID (<profile . . . id='profile_ID' . . . .> and <offering . . . profile='profile_ID' . . . .>) can be found when you run the imcl listInstallationDirectories -verbose command from the eclipse/tools subdirectory in the directory where you installed Installation Manager. It is the same as the package group's name.
The offering ID (<offering . . . id='offering_ID' . . . .>) can be found in Liberty product offerings for supported operating systems.
The version is a specific version of the offering to install (16.0.2.20161025_2108 for example). This specification is optional.
- If version is not specified, the latest version of the offering and all interim fixes for that version are installed.
- If version is specified, the specified version of the offering and no interim fixes for that version are installed.
The offering version can be found attached to the end of the offering ID with an underscore when you run the following command against the repository:
```
./imcl listAvailablePackages -repositories repository_URL_or_path
```
You can also specify none, recommended or all with the installFixes argument to indicate which interim fixes you want installed with the offering.
- If the offering version is not specified, the installFixes option defaults to all.
- If the offering version is specified, the installFixes option defaults to none.
New: When you update Liberty, all installed Liberty addons and features are also updated.

You can install additional features by adding a data element in your response file. To install features, specify the symbolic name or the short name on the user.feature parameter. To install addons, add a data and specify the short name on the user.addon parameter.
The following example installs the Portlet Container feature using the symbolic name, the Portlet Serving feature using the short name, and the Extended Programming Models addon.
```
<data key='user.feature' value='com.ibm.websphere.appserver.portlet-2.0,,portletserving-2.0'/>
<data key='user.addon' value='extendedPackage-1.0'/>
<data key='user.accept.license' value='true'/>
```
You can install assets from instances of the Liberty Asset Repository Service or local directory-based repositories with or without internet access. For more information, see Installing assets using Installation Manager. Add the repository URL, directory, or archive path on repository elements. If Installation Manager does not recognize the repository, point directly to the repository.config file. When you install assets, the repositories are accessed in the order that you specify them.
```
<server>
<repository location="http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.liberty" />
<repository location="https://your_onprem_asset_repo_url" />
<repository location="/QIBM/LocalAssetRepo" />
<repository location="/QIBM/LocalAssetRepo2.zip" />
</server>
```
To enable access to the Liberty Repository, on a data element, set the user.useLibertyRepository parameter to true. The Liberty Repository is the last of the repositories that are accessed during installation.
```
<data key='user.useLibertyRepository' value='true'/>
```
To learn more about the Liberty Repository and the assets it contains, see Liberty Repository.
To add the optional embeddable EJB container and JPA client feature (embeddablecontainer), add the feature in the offering. For example:
```
<offering id='com.ibm.websphere.liberty.CORE.ND' 
  profile='WebSphere Liberty'
  features='embeddablecontainer' installFixes='none'/>
```
If the feature is installed in your existing installation, your response file must contain the feature when you update. If you do not add the feature to your response file, Installation Manager removes it.