Installation of WebSphere Application Server V6.1 or V7.0 fails with message "Illegal character in path at index 18" or simply shows an installation failure with a "null" error

Symptom

This issue can affect the WebSphere Application Server V6.1 and V7.0 product installer, as well as the Update Installer V6.1 and V7.0 installer. The product and utility installations can be performed by way of a graphical installation wizard or using a silent response file. The problem described in this article will show different kinds of errors depending on whether the graphical installation wizard or a silent response file is used.

Symptoms of the failure when using the graphical installation wizard
The installation wizard for the installer starts up, and before the user is given the opportunity to do anything, a message similar to the following is displayed:

Installation Complete Failure: The installation of the following product has failed: null Path: /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer For more information, refer to the following log file: /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/logs/install/log.txt Click Finish to exit.

There are several characteristics associated with this problem:

• The installation wizard does not allow the user to do anything. The error occurs immediately after starting the installer.
  
• The directories listed are defaults and not necessarily the directories the user wants. The defaults may not make sense for the current operating system.
  
• The log file mentioned in the error text does not exist at the location specified. See the information further below for details about how to find the log file.

Symptoms of the failure when using silent installation (response file)
The silent installation terminates without actually installing the product, and might not show any kind of error message. See the information further below for an explanation about how to locate a log file to learn more.

Locating the Update Installer installer's log file
When the installer fails and does not create the destination product directory, the installation failure log file is typically moved to a directory named waslogs or updilogs. This directory is created under the current user's home directory.

Due to this error, the log might not show up in one of those directories. This error usually means that the installer was unable to start the proper logging facilities, so the installer might not produce a log file at all. Under some circumstances, the log file be put in the system temporary directory, under a subdirectory named niflogs. The log file name is log.txt. The exact location of this directory depends on the system configuration. Here are some examples of where the log file could be:

• Windows-based system:
  
  

<location of user's home>\Local Settings\Temp\niflogs\log.txt

• AIX and Linux:
  
  

/tmp/niflogs/log.txt

• HP-UX and Solaris:
  
  

/tmp/niflogs/log.txt OR /var/tmp/niflogs/log.txt

Forcing log data to be shown on the console
If the log cannot be located, then attempt to invoke the installer using the -is:javaconsole parameter. For example, in UNIX environments, the installer would be invoked like this:

./install -is:javaconsole

Error shown in the log for the graphical wizard or the silent installation
If a log is produced, it will show the following error:

com.ibm.ws.install.ni.ismp.actions.InstallTypeDetectAction, err, Illegal character in path at index 18: $NIFDEFFSSOURCEURI{source_location/AppServer} com.ibm.ws.install.ni.ismp.actions.SetExitCodeAction, msg1, CWUPI0000I: EXITCODE=1 com.ibm.ws.install.ni.ismp.actions.ISMPLogSuccessMessageAction, msg1, INSTCONFFAILED com.ibm.ws.install.ni.ismp.actions.MoveAndCompressLogsAction, err, Illegal character in path at index 18: $NIFDEFFSTARGETURI{/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer} com.ibm.ws.install.ni.ismp.actions.MoveAndCompressLogsAction, err, Illegal character in path at index 18: $NIFDEFFSTARGETURI{/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer} com.ibm.ws.install.ni.ismp.actions.MoveAndCompressLogsAction, err, java.net.URISyntaxException: Illegal character in path at index 18: $NIFDEFFSTARGETURI{/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer} at java.net.URI$Parser.fail(URI.java:2821) at java.net.URI$Parser.checkChars(URI.java:2994) at java.net.URI$Parser.parseHierarchical(URI.java:3078) at java.net.URI$Parser.parse(URI.java:3036) at java.net.URI.<init>(URI.java:590) at com.ibm.ws.install.ni.ismp.actions.MoveAndCompressLogsAction.execute (MoveAndCompressLogsAction.java:59) at com.installshield.wizard.StandardWizardListener.execute (StandardWizardListener.java:123)

The error message of interest is highlighted in bold text above. That error message is:

Illegal character in path at index 18: $NIFDEFFSSOURCEURI{source_location/AppServer}

The source_location varies depending on the location of the product's installer.