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Tech Tip: Installing IBM Web Content Manager and Portal on IBM i

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The documentation for WCM and Portal on IBM i is a little hairy, so we'll go through the installation step by step here.

 

Must things be so difficult? No! They don't need to be! Clear documentation would make things a lot simpler, but since that wasn't available to me, I decided to make my own after I did the install. I hope this article saves you from some headaches.

 

IBM Web Content Manager is a web development and content publishing tool designed to allow users to update their own content while IT maintains control. Essentially, you can give users content publishing rights within a controlled and easy-to-use sandbox, allowing them to maintain a website for public or internal purposes.

 

To begin the process, I downloaded the following five images from IBM Passport Advantage. All these images need to be consolidated in a single repository, and I'll explain that later in the article.

 

  • CI7N3MLIBM WebSphere Portal and Web Content Manager Install V8.0 (1 of 5) Multiplatform Multilingual
  • CI7N4MLIBM WebSphere Portal and Web Content Manager Install V8.0 (2 of 5) Multiplatform Multilingual
  • CI7N5MLIBM WebSphere Portal and Web Content Manager Install V8.0 (3 of 5) Multiplatform Multilingual
  • CI7N6MLIBM WebSphere Portal and Web Content Manager Install V8.0 (4 of 5) Multiplatform Multilingual
  • CI7N7MLIBM WebSphere Portal and Web Content Manager Install V8.0 (5 of 5) Multiplatform Multilingual

 

In actuality, once downloaded, these first five zip files above are labeled as 1 of 7, 2 of 7, etc., so there's some confusion there. I spent some time wondering where the two I missed were. But I didn't miss any. There are only five.

 

The next five images you need to download are the following:

 

  • CI7VIMLIBM Web Content Manager Setup V8.0 (1 of 2) Multiplatform Multilingual
  • CI7VJMLIBM Web Content Manager Setup V8.0 (2 of 2) Multiplatform Multilingual
  • CI7N8MLIBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V8.0.0.3 (1 of 3) Multiplatform Multilingual
  • CI7N9MLIBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V8.0.0.3 (2 of 3) Multiplatform Multilingual
  • CI7NAMLIBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V8.0.0.3 (3 of 3) Multiplatform Multilingual

 

Under CI7N3ML and CI7N4ML, there are two Setup folders (one for Installation Manager, and one for WASFixes). Also, under CI7VIML, there's a Setup folder for the WCM.

Let's Do It!

Now that you know what the puzzle pieces are, let's talk about what to do with them.

 

Create a Portal8 folder, which will be our installation repository comprised of all the different images I downloaded earlier. There is no documentation showing what the final installable directory should look like, so here's how I built my directory.

 

Installable Directory                      Source Media

Portal8/Portal/disk1                         CI7N5ML

Portal8/Portal/disk2                         CI7N6ML

Portal8/Portal/disk3                         CI7N7ML

Portal8/WAS/disk1                           CI7N8ML

Portal8/WAS/disk2                           CI7N9ML

Portal8/WAS/disk3                           CI7NAML

Portal8/WCM                                   CI7VJML

Portal8/Setup/IIM                            CI7N3ML

Portal8/Setup/WASFixes                  CI7N4ML and CI7VIML

Portal8/Setup/Components              CI7VIML

Portal8/Setup/eimage                     CI7VIML

Portal8/Setup/IBMPU                      CI7VIML

Portal8/Setup/launchpad                 CI7VIML

Portal8/Setup/quickstart                 CI7VIML

Portal8/Setup/repository                CI7VIML                                                           

Portal8/Setup/autorun.inf               CI7VIML

Portal8/Setup/setup64.exe             CI7VIML

Portal8/Setup/setup64.ini               CI7VIML

Portal8/Setup/setup.exe                 CI7VIML

Portal8/Setup/setup.ini                  CI7VIML

Portal8/Setup/setup.sh                  CI7VIML                                            

Portal8/Setup/responsefiles            CI7VIML

 

 

Create a folder on the IFS called InstallPortal, share it via NetServer, and copy the customized Portal8 folder to it.

 

Install IBM Installation Manager via the following steps:

 

  1. Sign onto a 5250 session.
  2. Start Qshell by typing Qsh on a command line and pressing Enter.
  3. Change the working directory to the Installation Manager install directory: cd /InstallPortal/Portal8/Setup/IIM/os400
  4. Run the Installation Manager installer: installc -acceptLicense
  5. While in Qshell, change your working directory to the newly created Installation Manager directory and encrypt your wpadmin password. Copy the password when the command finishes and paste it somewhere handy.

 

cd /qibm/proddata/InstallationManager/eclipse/tools

imutilsc encryptString insertpasswordhere

 

I changed the response file /InstallPortal/Portal8/Setup/responsefiles/iseries/wcm_standalone_full.xml repository location parameters to point at /InstallPortal/Portal8/Setup/eimage/repository.config and /InstallPortal/Portal8/Setup/WASFixes/8.0.0.3-WS-WAS-i5OSPPC-IFPM59405.zip.

 

While you're in there, you should update two other parameters. The first parameter is the web address of the server. Before changing this, I created a new IP interface on IBM i and assigned a host table entry for www.yourwebservername.com to it. If you have other web servers on your IBM i partition running HTTP/HTTPs, it's a good idea to give each web service a dedicated IP address so that you won't run into port conflicts.

 

Once you can ping the host, change the following parameter with that host address:

data key="user.wp.hostname,com.ibm.websphere.PORTAL.SERVER.v80" value="www.yourwebservername.com" />

 

The second parameter is for the encrypted password you created earlier. Copy and paste it in.

 

Save the file.

 

Now we're ready to install Portal and WCM.

 

Back in Qshell, your directory should still be /qibm/proddata/InstallationManager/eclipse/tools, so you can run the installation procedure from there:

 

imcl -acceptLicense input

 

/InstallPortal/Portal8/Setup/responsefiles/iseries/wcm_standalone_full.xml -log /portal8install          

 

The install log will be generated as the stream file /portal8install. If you have any errors, they'll be in there.

 

Once the install is finished, assuming you had no errors, you should be able to launch WCM and access it via a web browser at the web address you specified earlier.

 

Now that wasn't so hard, was it?

 

Steve Pitcher
Steve Pitcher works with iTech Solutions, an IBM Premier Business Partner. He is a specialist in IBM i and IBM Power Systems solutions since 2001. Feel free to contact him directly This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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