Gather information and software before you install WebSphere Portal.

1. Check requirements.
   • Documentation resource: Detailed system requirements
2. Get the software.
   • Download the appropriate SETUP e-image from Passport Advantage.

You can use existing prerequisite software installations. Verify that your existing version is supported. If it is not, upgrade to the appropriate version. Otherwise, install a web server, database server, and user registry server. Typically the database and user registry servers are already installed and configured. However, there might be specific configuration steps that are required to integrate them with the portal server.

1. Install a web server.
   • Documentation resource: Preparing a remote web server
2. Prepare a database server.
   • Documentation resource: Installing and preparing the database software
3. Prepare a user registry.
   • Documentation resource: Preparing the user registry software

Installing WebSphere Portal V9.0 involves starting the launchpad that steps you through installing V8.5, upgrading to the latest CF level, and then installing V9.

1. Prepare your operating system.
   • Documentation resource: Preparing your system for installation
2. Start all servers and applications that require a port number to avoid port conflicts when installing WebSphere Portal.
3. Type ping yourserver.yourcompany.com on a command line to verify that your fully qualified host name is properly configured.
4. Type ping localhost on a command line to verify that your network is properly configured.
5. If you are installing on a server with a firewall, antivirus, screen saver, or desktop search engine that is enabled, disable them before you install. If you do not disable them and the installation program detects them, a warning message displays during the installation or the installation might fail.
   Note: If you are using Windows Defender, it can cause installation failures. To avoid errors, add the C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Temp\ directory to the ignore list. If you use a different temp directory for your installation, add that directory to the ignore list.
6. Optional: Complete the following steps to install as a non-root user:
   1. Log in to the operating system as the root user.
   2. Open a command line.
   3. Use the appropriate system commands to create the following items:
      • Non-root user, including password
      • Group
      • Directory, used when you install IBM Installation Manager and WebSphere Portal
   4. Set the user profile for the number of open files. Set the value to ulimit -n 10240.
   5. Add the non-root user to the new group.
   6. Run the following task to change the owner of the directory to the non-root user:

      chown user:group /directory

   7. Run the following task to change permissions for the directory:

      chmod 755 /directory

   8. Log in as the non-root user.
   9. Use the following command to install IBM Installation Manager:

      ./userinst 

      Set the IBM Installation Manager installation location to /directory/IBM/InstallationManager.

7. Go to the root Setup directory.
8. Start the launchpad.
   Attention: The launchpad requires Firefox ESR 45 or earlier.
   • AIX®: setup.sh
   • Linux: setup.sh
   • Windows: setup64.exe
9. Review the welcome and product information panels.
10. Install the prerequisite WebSphere Portal V8.5 software.

    When the IBM Installation Manager launches, click Install to install WebSphere Portal V8.5.

11. Update WebSphere Portal to the latest combined cumulative fix level.

    When the IBM Installation Manager launches, click Update to install the combined cumulative fix.

12. Open a command prompt and run the applyCF task to configure the WebSphere Portal profile with the latest combined cumulative fix.
13. Install WebSphere Portal V9.0.

    When the IBM Installation Manager launches, click Install to install WebSphere Portal V9.0.

14. Review the list of next steps and perform the necessary steps to configure WebSphere Portal.

Start the configuration wizard to set up your stand-alone server. First, transfer your database. The Database Transfer configuration option in the Configuration Wizard assigns users and permissions, creates databases, obtains support for database collation, and transfers your database. After you transfer your database, enable your federated LDAP user registry.

http://hostname.example.com:10039/wps/portal,
where hostname.example.com is the fully qualified
host name of the server where Portal is running and 10039 is
the default transport port that is created by WebSphere Application Server. The port
number might be different for your environment.

1. To get the latest updates for the wizard, apply the most recent Combined Cumulative Fix. For more information about applying the latest fix pack, see WebSphere Portal and Web Content Manager V8.5.0.0 Combined Cumulative Fix overview.
   Note: Skip this step, if you have the most recent fix pack applied.
2. Access the Configuration Wizard. Go to http://your_server:10200/ibm/wizard.
   Restriction: There is a known issue with Chrome version 45.x and the Configuration Wizard. If you are experiencing difficulties, use a different browser when you access the wizard.
3. Log in to the Configuration Wizard with the administrative ID for the configuration wizard profile, cw_profile.
   Note: The wizard user interface might not be available in all languages. If the language is not currently supported, you might see the English version. For details on the supported languages for all of the WebSphere Portal user interfaces, see Supported languages.
4. Select Set Up a Stand-alone Server > Database Transfer.
5. Provide information about your environment.
6. Save your configuration settings.
7. Choose one of the following options:
   • Click Download Files to run the steps remotely.
   • Click Run All Steps to run the steps locally.
8. Optional: If you changed the context root during the installation or configuration of IBM WebSphere Portal, then you must complete the optional next step from the Configuration Wizard to update parameters with the new context path after you complete the Create a Deployment Manager configuration option. For more information about this configuration option and completing the next steps, see Create a deployment manager.
9. Log in to WebSphere Portal to verify that you have a working portal server.
10. Select Set Up a Stand-alone Server > Enable Federated Security.
    Note: If you set Use Administrator IDs stored in your LDAP user registry to yes, the WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Portal user IDs and passwords are changed to the LDAP user ID and password. If you do not want to change both user IDs and passwords to match the LDAP user ID and password, set this value to no. After you configure your LDAP user registry, you can manually change the user IDs and passwords.

    • Documentation resource: Updating user ID and passwords
11. Provide information about your environment.
12. Save your configuration settings.
13. Choose one of the following options:
    • Click Download Files to run the steps remotely.
    • Click Run All Steps to run the steps locally.
14. Log in to WebSphere Portal to verify that you have a working portal server.
15. Optional: If you want to shorten your site URL for search engine optimization benefits, you can modify your context root and remove navigational state information from your URL by using the Modify Site URLs for Search Engine Optimization configuration option.
    • Documentation resource: Configuration Wizard instructions: Modify site URLs for search engine optimization

Tuning the servers is important to the performance of your portal environment. WebSphere Portal is not tuned for a production environment after installation and deployment. Your database needs tuning for improved performance. You can organize your database now or soon after you finish your configuration. You need to tune and maintain your database on a regular basis.

1. Run the performance tuning tool to complete an initial tuning of your servers.
   • Documentation resource: Portal server performance tuning tool
2. Check the tuning guide for more instructions. Use the tuning guide for the previous product version when the tuning guide for the current release is unavailable.
   • Documentation resource: Performance tuning guide