WebSphere Application Server Update Installer fails to install a fix pack due to a "mkdirs failed for", "failed to delete", "text file busy", or "Error 79 -- Unable to open destination file" error on Windows

Symptom

The WebSphere Application Server Update Installer utility is responsible for installing and uninstalling fix packs and interim fixes on WebSphere Application Server V7.0, V6.1, and V6.0 products. Any fix that the Update Installer attempts to install or uninstall is referred to as a "maintenance pack". During the process of installing a maintenance pack, the Update Installer might modify existing product files, or it might delete existing product files then replace the deleted files with new ones.

If any product files are locked by another process, then the Update Installer utility will not be able to modify or delete those files during an installation or uninstallation process. If the Update Installer encounters any files which it cannot update, it will abort the process and report a failure.

Locate the Update Installer logs and determine the cause of the failure
When the Update Installer reports a failure, review the Update Installer log file to determine the cause of the error.

If the Update Installer was instructed to install a single maintenance pack, then the logs for that installation are named "updatelog.txt" and would be located in a directory following this convention:

WAS_HOME/logs/update/<name_of_fixpack>.install

If the Update Installer was instructed to install multiple maintenance packs in a single session, then the logs would be located in a directory following this convention:

WAS_HOME/logs/update/install

If the Update Installer encountered a prerequisite error and did not attempt to install any fix data, or if the Update Installer utility crashes, then the logs would be located in a directory following this convention:

UPDATEINSTALLER_HOME/logs/tmp#

Once the directory containing the logs is located, review the file named "updatelog.txt".


Identify the error which caused the failure
Typically, when the Update Installer fails to install a maintenance package, it will print an error message near the bottom of the log file. Often, the error message is accompanied by a Java stack trace.

This technote discusses situations where the Update Installer reports that it is unable to modify a particular file. There are several different error messages which can indicate this kind of issue:

• mkdirs failed for: file:<directory name>
  The file <filename> could not be replaced.
  
  
• Failed to delete: file:<filename>
  com.ibm.ws.install.ni.framework.NIFException: Failed to delete: file:<filename>
  at com.ibm.ws.install.ni.framework.install.NIFPackageApplicationPlugin.
  backupIfNecessary(NIFPackageApplicationPlugin.java:421)
  ...
  Caused by: java.io.IOException: Failed to delete: file:<filename>
  
  
• Caused by: java.io.IOException: <filename> (Text file busy)
  
  
• Error 79 -- Unable to open destination file:<filename>
  
  
• The requested operation cannot be performed on a file with a user-mapped section open
  
  

The actual error messages have much longer stack trace information. The messages above were abbreviated for readability.

Make note of the file name reported in the error message. The particular file can determine which action needs to be taken.