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Installation Factory
The Installation Factory is an Eclipse-based tool that allows the creation of WebSphere Application Server installation packages in a reliable and repeatable way tailored to your needs.
The Installation Factory can produce two types of packages:
Customized Installation Packages (CIP)
A WebSphere Application Server CIP package includes a WebSphere Application Server product, product maintenance, profile customization, enterprise archives, other user files as well as user-defined scripting.
Integrated Installation Packages (IIP)
An IIP can be used to install a full WebSphere software stack including Application Servers, feature pack, and other user files and might even contain multiple CIPs.
The Installation Factory allows you to create one installation package to install the full product stack you need to run your applications. Using the scripting interface you can ship and install components not related to the WebSphere installation process.
Depending on the platform on which you are running the Installation Factory, you can build installation packages for operating systems other than the one on which the Installation Factory is running. The Installation Factory running on AIX, HP-UX, Linux, and Solaria operating systems can create installation packages for all supported platforms. The Installation Factory running on Windows can create installation packages for Windows and i5/OS.
The CIP or IIP can be installed on the target system through two methods:
Installation wizard
Silent installer using a response file
The benefit of the Installation Factory is mainly in terms of installation time (fix packs, for example, are directly incorporated into the installation image) and in consistency and repeatability of the installations. This gives you a quick pay-back for the time required to build the CIP and IIP.
You can also use Installation Factory to create CIM repository and add additional installation packages to your Central Installation Management repository:
Centralized installation manager (CIM)
The CIM allows you to install and uninstall WebSphere Application Server binaries and maintenance patches from a centralized location (the deployment manager) to any servers in the network.
CIM is a new feature added in WebSphere Application Server V7.0. CIM is supported on the following operating systems:
Unix-based systems
Windows
IBM System i
Using CIM, the following tasks can be performed:
Installation of WebSphere Application Server V7.0 and creation of a managed profile that gets federated to the deployment manager automatically.
Installation of the Update Installer for WebSphere Application Server V7.0.
Installation of a customized installation package (CIP) as created using the Installation Factory.
Central download of interim fixes and fix packs from the IBM support side. The downloaded packages are stored in the installation manager's repository.
Installation of fixes and fix packs on nodes within the deployment manager's cell.
The repository for the CIM can either be created during the installation of WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V7.0 or afterwards using the Installation Factory. The installation using the CIM provides a good approach to perform centralized remote installations and upgrades. The drawback is that you cannot control the naming of the profiles created when performing standard installation. This problem can be avoided by using custom installation packages created through the installation manager.
Managing installation targets
You can add or remove an installation target, which is the workstation on which selected software packages might be installed. You can also edit the configuration of an existing installation target, and store the administrative ID and password of each target for later use when installing or uninstalling packages.
From the "Installation Targets" page in the administrative console, you can add additional installation targets that are located outside of the cell. For example, you can install the middleware agent on a node that is running other middleware servers that were created outside of the product cell by adding the remote workstation as a new installation target. Other tasks that you can complete to further manage your installation targets include removing installation targets, editing the configuration of installation targets, and installing a Secure Shell (SSH) public key on installation targets. To access this page, click "System administration > Centralized Installation Manager > Installation targets".
To add additional installation targets that are located outside of the cell, click "Add Installation Target". The configuration page is displayed next.
Provide the host name and platform of the installation target, and optionally specify the administrative ID and password, which the centralized installation manager later uses to install one or more packages on the installation target.
Optional: Click "Test Connection" to test the connection using the administrative ID and password that you provide.
Click "OK" after you specify the configuration settings to return to the "Installation targets" page. The new installation target is now displayed in the table.
