Packaging a Liberty profile server from the command prompt

From the command prompt you can create a compressed file containing a Liberty profile runtime environment, the files in the shared resources directory, a specific server, and the applications that are embedded in the server. You can also choose to exclude the runtime binaries from the compressed file.

About this task

The Liberty server is lightweight, therefore you can easily package a server installation in a compressed file. You can then store this package, distribute it to colleagues, use it to deploy the installation to a different location or to another machine, or even embed the installation in a product distribution.

Note: The resulting file is created by using UTF-8 encoding for entry names, so the tool that you use to open the file must be able to use UTF-8 encoding for entry names. The jar command in a Java™ SDK uses this format.

To package a Liberty profile server from the command prompt, complete the following steps:

1. Open a command prompt, then change directory to the wlp/bin directory.
   
2. Stop the server.
3. Package the server.

   Run the following command. If you do not specify a server name, defaultServer is used. If you do not specify the --archive parameter, the value of server_name is used for package_file_name, and the compressed file is created in the ${server.output.dir} directory.

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     server package server_name --archive=package_file_name.zip --include=all

     where package_file_name.zip is a file name that you choose. This file name can include a full path name. If the full path is omitted, a compressed file called package_file_name.zip is created in the ${server.output.dir} directory.

   You can also use the --include option with this command. For example, the --include=all option packages the runtime binaries and the relevant files in the ${WLP_USER_DIR} directory; the --include=usr option packages only relevant files in the ${WLP_USER_DIR} directory, effectively excluding the runtime binaries from the compressed file.

   If you use the --include=minify option, the server command packages only those parts of the runtime environment, and files in the ${WLP_USER_DIR} directory, that are required to run the server. This option significantly reduces the size of the resulting archive.

   The parts of the runtime environment that are retained by the minify operation depend on the features that are configured in the server that you are packaging. Only those features that are required to run the server are retained, and the remaining features are removed. Therefore, you cannot subsequently enable a feature that has been removed. For example, if only the servlet-3.0 feature is retained, you cannot subsequently enable the jpa-2.0 feature.

   You can repeat the minify operation to further reduce the size of the archive if the configuration is changed. There is, however, no reverse operation for the minify operation, so if you later require one or more features that have been removed, you must begin again with a complete Liberty profile server.

   While the minify operation is running, the server is temporarily launched, and you will see associated messages. For this reason, you cannot use the --include=minify option with a server that is not able to be launched, but you can package it with the --include=all or --include=usr options.

   You can specify the operating systems that you want the packaged server to support by using the --os option with the --include=minify option.

   For example, to package a server with z/OS® support removed, use the following command:

   server package --archive="nozos.zip" --include=minify --os=-z/OS

   To package a server with OS/400® support retained, but z/OS support removed, use the following command:

   server package --archive="small.zip" --include=minify --os=OS/400,-z/OS

   To package a server that supports only Linux, use the following command:

   server package --archive="linux.zip" --include=minify --os=Linux