IBM Installation Manager – History and Overview IBM Installation Manager product was originally introduced to support the installation of IBM Rational desktop products. Currently adopted by multiple products across IBM – A single instance of IBM Installation Manager can manage the product lifecycle for any IBM Installation Manager based product, from WebSphere, Rational, Lotus, or any other brand within IBM. Provide full product install lifecycle management – Install/Uninstall – Update/Rollback (Fixpacks and iFixes) – Modify (Add/Remove features) IBM Installation Manager supports – Full Graphical User Interface (GUI) – Command Line (IMCL) mode and response file IBM Installation Manager can install the product directly from – Product (DVD) media – IBM Passport Advantage web site – Customer internal enterprise intranet
IBM Installation Manager - Repository Contain one or multiple product offerings that have both meta-data and actual payload for the offerings Meta-data describes such aspects of the offering as – Name, version, supported platforms, etc – Components of the offering (optional/required feature) – Relationships between offerings and features of the offerings Repository normally contains full content required to install certain offering of various platforms, operating systems, etc. Different IBM Installation Managers on different machines can reference the same repository. Repository topologies can be generalized in the following 3 categories – Public repository (accessible to general public using URL) – Enterprise repository (located behind the firewall, accessed by multiple machines within the enterprise) – Local repository (used by single user, not shared with others) Tools are provided to copy offerings from one repository to another.
IBM WebSphere Application Server Product Packages IBM WebSphere Application Server V8.0 has multiple product offering packages. – e.g. ND, Base, Express, HTTP Server and etc These product packages are packaged in the product DVD media and also available in IBM Passport Advantage site. IBM Installation Manager V1.4.3 or later is required to install IBM WebSphere Application Server V8.0. – Early Versions of Rational Application Developer Shipped with IM V1.4.2 Same product offering package can be used to install or any supported distributed platforms.
IBM WebSphere Application Server GUI installation flow Install IBM Installation Manager Install IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Modify (add or remove) optional features Uninstall IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment
Install WebSphere Application Server Silently IBM Installation Manager also provides command line interface. The command line interface can be used for basic install/modify/update/uninstall operations. IBM Installation Manager also have the capability to record an install response file. The install operations can be rerun with the command line interface and the install response file.
