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.

Note:

Liberty on the IBM i platform uses the system-wide version of Java. To install Java on IBM i, follow these guidelines:

• Install the minimum supported Java level or later.
• Although you can install WebSphere® Liberty from a ZIP file on IBM i, you cannot install Java from a ZIP file on IBM i.
• Ensure that you installed the latest Java group PTF. For more information, see Java products and options on IBM i

For more information, see Installing Java on your IBM i server.

About this task

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	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	✔	✔

1. Download the archive from one of the following sites.
   • Passport Advantage Online
   • IBM Fix Central
   • If you want to use an IBM SDK, download from IBM Java SDKs for WebSphere Liberty.
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.

   On 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.

   On 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.