Rational Automation Framework 3.0.0.2

This release is a full product download and includes the capability to update from versions 3.0 and 3.0.0.1.

• For a detailed list of problems (APARs) solved in this Fix Pack, review the Fix List in the Problems solved section below.

Use Rational Automation Framework to automate the management of supported middleware products such as IBM WebSphere Application Server. The product includes a server that can be accessed from a command line interface, a web client, and optionally, an Eclipse client. From the server, run the supplied actions to install and configure software, and to deploy applications on one or more managed systems.

Note: Rational Automation Framework was formerly known as Rational Automation Framework for WebSphere.

You can install this release of Rational Automation Framework in the following ways:

• Install as a new product.
• Upgrade from version 3.0. or version 3.0.0.1

To upgrade from Rational Automation Framework for Websphere releases 7.1.2.2 and earlier, you must first upgrade to Rational Automation Framework version 3.0, then upgrade to Rational Automation Framework version 3.0.0.2.

When you install this version or upgrade to it, a new instance of IBM Rational Build Forge® version 7.1.3.2 is also installed. For upgrades, it replaces the previous version (7.1.2.3). For information about Rational Build Forge version 7.1.3.2, see the release notes on jazz.net at https://jazz.net/downloads/rational-build-forge/releases/7.1.3.2?p=news

Important: If you are using Apache and have customized versions of the httpd.conf and php.ini files, then before you upgrade, back up these files. After the upgrade is complete, merge your customized files with the current files.

Feature updates

This release of Rational Automation Framework contains the following updates:

• Updated support of WebSphere products: The following products are now fully supported:
  WebSphere Application Server Version 8.0
  • IBM WebSphere Portal Version 7.0
  • IBM WebSphere Virtual Enterprise Version 7.0
• WebSphere Application Server version 8: There are special considerations for installing version 8 of WebSphere Application Server.
  • In order to install WebSphere Application Server version 8 and later, a non-administrative installation of IBM Installation Manager is performed. IBM Installation Manager is used to install WebSphere Application Server.
  • If you plan to use IBM Installation Manager to install more than one product on the same target system, you must provide the same values every time you complete the following fields in the Environment Generation wizard: Installation Manager Home (IM_HOME) and Installation Manager Cache Directory (IM_CACHE). Each node in the wizard requests this information, even if all of the nodes are located in the same logical server. The values must be the same for all instances of IM_HOME and IM_CACHE.
• Federated Security
  : New support has been added for federated security.
  • Action commands:
    was_common_configure_security_federated_all
    was_common_configure_security_federated_entitytypes
    was_common_configure_security_federated_entrymapping
    was_common_configure_security_federated_propertyextension
    was_common_configure_security_federated_realms
    was_common_configure_security_federated_repositories
    was_common_configure_security_federated_ur
  • Tutorial on adding an LDAP user repository to your federated security repository. See Tutorials.
• PMI Request Metrics: The following actions were added to support PMI Request Metrics at the cell scope:
  • was_common_configure_pmi_request_metrics: Manages PMI Request Metrics. This supports import, execute, promote and compare. The results are stored in pmi.xml This is also invoked by configure_all.
  • was_common_configure_server_pmi_module: Manages the custom PMI module settings for servers. This supports import, execute, promote and compare. The results are stored in server.xml This is invoked by server_all

  See the Action command help.

• OSGI Support: The following actions were added to support OSGI:
  • was_common_configure_osgi_external_repositories: Maps to Environment > OSGI bundle repositories > External bundle repositories.
  • was_common_configure_osgi_internal_repositories: Maps to Environment > OSGI bundle repositories > Internal bundle repositories.

  See the Action command help.

• SIBus security: The was_common_configure_sibus_security action was added. It configures security settings for the bus, including general bus security, permitted transports, users and groups, and access roles.

  See the Action command help.

• Multiple private SSH keys: On Linux and UNIX systems, you can set up each environment to use different SSH credentials. See Configure password or public key authentication for target systems.
• Installer parsing: The installer now uses Java regular expressions rather than Perl regular expressions when parsing the merge.list and preserve.list files. This item affects only IBM partners who redistribute this product.

Known Issues

• Unsuccessful service start after installation: When you specify Start Build Forge in Service Mode in the installer, the Rational Automation Framework service does not start and logs a number of errors to the Apache Tomcat catalina log. The login page does not load.

  Workaround: Restart the Rational Automation Framework service.

• Eclipse client does not start on Linux: The symptom is a segmentation fault in libxul.so (as listed in the javacore log). Some distributions of Linux systems, including Red Hat Linux 5 and 6, recently changed their support of xulrunner to a version that is not supported by the Eclipse client.

  Workaround:

  1. Download and install version 1.9.x of xulrunner from eclipse.org. Put it outside of the Rational Automation Framework installation directory.
  2. In the root directory where you installed the Eclipse client, edit the rafui.ini file and add the following line at the end.

     -Dorg.eclipse.swt.browser.XULRunnerPath=<path>
     

     Replace <path> with the absolute path to the directory where you installed xulrunner.

• Error on upgrade: If you get the error "Action 'was_common_configure_start_dmgr' does not exist in the specified scope," see Technote 1580412. This error normally occurs only if you use a custom environment template to generate managed cells.