Installing Liberty on distributed operating systems using response files

You can install WebSphere® Application Server Liberty using Installation Manager response files.

1. Optional: Record a response file to install the offering.

   On one of your systems, perform the following actions to record a response file that will install the offering.

   1. From a command line, change to the eclipse subdirectory in the directory where you installed Installation Manager.
   2. Start Installation Manager from the command line using the -record option.
      For example:

      • Administrator or non-administrator:

        IBMIM.exe -skipInstall "C:\temp\imRegistry" 
          -record C:\temp\install_response_file.xml

      • Administrator:

        ./IBMIM -skipInstall /var/temp/imRegistry 
          -record /var/temp/install_response_file.xml

      • Non-administrator:

        ./IBMIM -skipInstall user_home/var/temp/imRegistry 
          -record user_home/var/temp/install_response_file.xml

      Tip: When you record a new response file, you can specify the -skipInstall parameter. Using this parameter has the following benefits:

      • No files are actually installed, and this speeds up the recording.
      • If you use a temporary data location with the -skipInstall parameter, Installation Manager writes the installation registry to the specified data location while recording. When you start Installation Manager again without the -skipInstall parameter, you then can use your response file to install against the real installation registry.

        The -skipInstall operation should not be used on the actual agent data location used by Installation Manager. This is unsupported. Use a clean writable location, and reuse that location for future recording sessions.

      For more information, read the IBM® Installation Manager product documentation.

   3. Follow the instructions described in Installing Liberty on distributed operating systems by using the GUI.
2. Optional: If you are using an authenticated remote repository, create a credential-storage response file for installation.
   Tip: In a credential-storage file, you can store credentials for URLs that require authentication, such as your remote repositories.
3. Use the response files to install the offering.
   1. Optional: Use the response file to install the credential-storage file.

      Go to a command line on each of the systems on which you want to install the offering, change to the eclipse/tools subdirectory in the directory where you installed Installation Manager, and install the credential-storage file.

      For example:

      • Administrator or non-administrator:

        imcl.exe -acceptLicense 
          input C:\temp\credentialstorage_response_file.xml 
          -log C:\temp\credentialstorage_log.xml

      • Administrator:

        ./imcl -acceptLicense 
          input /var/temp/credentialstorage_response_file.xml 
          -log /var/temp/credentialstorage_log.xml

      • Non-administrator:

        ./imcl -acceptLicense 
          input user_home/var/temp/credentialstorage_response_file.xml 
          -log user_home/var/temp/credentialstorage_log.xml

   2. Use the response file to install the offering.

      Go to a command line on each of the systems on which you want to install the offering, change to the eclipse/tools subdirectory in the directory where you installed Installation Manager, and install the offering.

      For example:

      • Administrator or non-administrator:

        imcl.exe -acceptLicense 
          input C:\temp\install_response_file.xml 
          -log C:\temp\install_log.xml 
          -secureStorageFile C:\IM\credential.store -masterPasswordFile C:\IM\password_file.txt

      • Administrator:

        ./imcl -acceptLicense 
          input /var/temp/install_response_file.xml 
          -log /var/temp/install_log.xml 
          -secureStorageFile /var/IM/credential.store -masterPasswordFile /var/IM/password_file.txt

      • Non-administrator:

        ./imcl -acceptLicense 
          input user_home/var/temp/install_response_file.xml 
          -log user_home/var/temp/install_log.xml 
          -secureStorageFile user_home/var/IM/credential.store -masterPasswordFile user_home/var/IM/password_file.txt

      Notes:

      • The relevant terms and conditions, notices, and other information are provided in the license-agreement files in the lafiles or offering_name/lafiles subdirectory of the installation image or repository for this offering.
      • The program might write important post-installation instructions to standard output.

      Read the IBM Installation Manager product documentation for more information.

Example

The following is an example of a response file for installing the offering.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<agent-input clean="true" temporary="true">
<server>
<repository location="http://www.ibm.com/software/repositorymanager/com.ibm.websphere.liberty.ND" />
</server>
<install modify='false'>
<offering id='com.ibm.websphere.liberty.ND' 
  profile='WebSphere Liberty' 
  features='embeddablecontainer' installFixes='none'/>
</install>
<profile id='WebSphere Liberty' 
  installLocation='C:\Program Files\IBM\WebSphere\Liberty'>
</profile>
</agent-input>

Tips:

• New: By default, all Liberty features that apply to your product edition are installed when you install Liberty.
  Rather than installing all features, you can install a custom set of Liberty addons and features by specifying them on the user.addon and user.feature properties, as shown in the following example. Note the feature short names or symbolic names must be separated by double commas.
  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'/>
  

  Important: If you do not want to install Liberty addons or features, specify empty values for the user.addonuser.feature properties:

  <data key='user.feature' value=''/>
  <data key='user.addon' value=''/>

  For more information, see the following topics:

  • Installing Liberty Repository assets
  • Liberty features
  • Liberty Repository
• You can install assets from instances of the Liberty Asset Repository Service 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.ND" />
  <repository location="https://your_onprem_asset_repo_url" />
  <repository location="D:\IBM\LocalAssetRepo" />
  <repository location="D:\IBM\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'/>

• Installation Manager automatically chooses the architecture of the installation package based on your operating system architecture. On 64-bit systems, you can specify a 32-bit installation by setting the following preference to the 32-bit architecture value for your operating system:

  <profile>
  ...
  <data key='cic.selector.arch' value='x86'/>
  ...
  </profile>

  For a list of the architecture values for cic.selector.arch, see the Command-line arguments for the imcl command table in the Installation Manager product documentation.

• To disable remote searches for updates in the response file, set the following preferences to false:
  • offering.service.repositories.areUsed

    Used for searching remote repositories for updates to installed offerings

  • com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.searchForUpdates

    Used for searching for updates to Installation Manager

  For example:

  <preference value='false' name='offering.service.repositories.areUsed'/>
  <preference value='false' name='com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.searchForUpdates'/>
  

  You can find more details on silent preference keys in the IBM Installation Manager product documentation.

• To install multiple copies of this offering, specify a different installation location and a new package group for each installation. For example, to install a second copy of the offering into the C:\Program Files\IBM\WebSphere\Liberty_1 directory and create the WebSphere Liberty_1 package group. For example, replace

  <profile id='WebSphere Liberty' 
    installLocation='C:\Program Files\IBM\WebSphere\Liberty'>

  with

  <profile id='WebSphere Liberty_1'
    installLocation='C:\Program Files\IBM\WebSphere\Liberty_1'>

• 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.ND' 
    profile='WebSphere Liberty'
    features='embeddablecontainer' installFixes='none'/>

  Note: A removal notice was issued for the embeddable EJB container and JPA client feature as of the 16.0.0.2 fix pack, so the feature is eligible for future removal. For more information, see Removal notices.
• Installation Manager can save earlier versions of a package to roll back to if you experience issues later. When Installation Manager rolls back a package to a previous version, the current version of the files are uninstalled and the earlier versions are reinstalled. If you choose not to save the files for rollback, you can prevent the files from being saved by changing the following preference in your response file:

  <preference name='com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.preserveDownloadedArtifacts' value='true'/>

  to this:

  <preference name='com.ibm.cic.common.core.preferences.preserveDownloadedArtifacts' value='false'/>

  For more information on setting your Installation Manager preferences, see the IBM Installation Manager product documentation.

  Tip: Even if you choose not to preserve files locally for rollback with this option, you can still roll back to any previously installed level by accessing the appropriate product repository.