General installation and upgrade guidelines

Before you install Sterling B2B Integrator or upgrade to a newer version, go through the following guidelines for installation.

Note: The general installation guidelines apply to all operating systems. You must also refer to the additional guidelines for specific operating systems and for the clustered environment.

Installation Methods

Use one of the following methods to install your system:
  • IBM Installation Manager (Graphical User Interface)
  • IBM Installation Manager (Response file)

General installation guidelines

General installation guidelines include the following:
  • CAUTION:
    Sterling B2B Integrator should be installed behind a company firewall for security purposes. See the Perimeter Server and Security topics in the Sterling B2B Integrator documentation library for more information on secure deployment options.
  • <install_dir> refers to the installation directory where the new software will be installed. Do not create the installation directory manually before the start of the installation. If you create the installation directory before you begin, the installation will fail. The directory name provided during the installation process is used to create the new installation directory.
  • If you are upgrading, do not use any preexisting directory name or an old version of the Sterling B2B Integrator installation directory. If you do, you could inadvertently overwrite the existing installation.
  • <parent_install> is the directory one level above the <install_dir> directory.
  • Ensure that the <parent_install> directory has the proper read/write permissions.
  • The server on which you are installing must have adequate free disk space.
  • The directory path to the SI_<build_number>.jar file cannot include any spaces.
  • When creating a name, such as an account name, permissions name, profile name, or database name, use only valid alphanumeric characters and -, :, $, &, or _. Do not use spaces or apostrophes.
  • If you are using FTP to copy the files, verify that your session is set to binary mode.
  • To install more than one instance of Sterling B2B Integrator on the same application server, install the second instance in a different directory.
  • If you are installing Sterling B2B Integrator on VMware, provide the IP address of the virtual machine, not the IP address of the VMware host. For example, if 10.251.124.160 is the IP address of the VMware host and 10.251.124.156 is the IP address of the Windows 2003 server it is hosting, you should use 10.251.124.156 as the correct IP address to install Sterling B2B Integrator.
  • Sterling B2B Integrator does not support IPv6 installation on Windows.
  • For IPv6 installation on Unix/Linux, see IPv6 capabilities and Guidelines for IPv6 addresses.
  • The installation creates subsequent ports based on the initial port number. For all of the port assignments, see the \<install_dir>\properties\sandbox.cfg file.
  • If you are running the upgrade on an active installation of Sterling B2B Integrator, you must run the soft stop command to gracefully stop traffic. For more information, see Stopping Sterling B2B Integrator in a Windows environment or Stopping Sterling B2B Integrator in a Unix/Linux environment.

Guidelines for Windows

  • The name of the directory cannot include spaces and must be less than 30 characters long excluding separators. Using a directory name of more than 30 characters could create an install that is impossible to delete. An example of an installation directory is C:\SI_52.
  • The installation creates subsequent ports based on the initial port number. For all of the port assignments, see the \<install_dir>\properties\sandbox.cfg file.

Guidelines for Unix/Linux

  • Install and run Sterling B2B Integrator as a non-root user.
  • Do not use any soft/symbolic links in the path to the installation package file.
  • If you are using AIX with the DB2 database, the directory path cannot be longer than 108 bytes.
  • If you are installing on an AIX server, use the jar xvf command to decompress the installation media (Media_IM_version_number.zip) file.
  • The installation creates subsequent ports based on the initial port number. For all of the port assignments, see the /<install_dir>/properties/sandbox.cfg file.

Additional guidelines for a clustered environment

  • All nodes must use the same database.
  • All nodes must use the same passphrase.
  • All nodes must use the same operating system.
  • When installing nodes on different machines, the initial port numbers must be the same. Installing nodes are different machines helps you take advantage of cluster features such as, reliability, availability, scalability, and failover.
  • When installing nodes on the same machine, you must install node 2 and higher in different directories. Each initial port must be at least 200 higher or lower than the initial port for the other nodes.
  • Nodes must be installed sequentially, one at a time, starting with the first node.
  • After installing all of the nodes, nodes must be started sequentially, one at a time, starting with the first node.