12 Agent Non-Interactive Silent Installer

The Configuration Change Console Silent Installer installs an agent on your system without displaying any installation screens or requiring any user interaction. Note that an exception occurs in the Windows platform where the initial installer screen will appear shortly before the installation turns to silent mode. The installer does not inform you when the installation process is completed. The service will automatically start if you configure the agent for auto start.

Prerequisites and System Requirements

Refer to the prerequisites for each platform documented above for specific patches and other system requirements.

The following files are required to execute the silent installer:

  • The agent installer. The executable that installs the agent. The actual executable file will be specific to the platform. For example, for a Windows platform, the agent executable will be agent-win32.exe; on a 32-bit Linux system, the agent executable will be agent-linux-x86-32bit.bin.

  • agent.properties. The text file used to configure the installation. Note that the agent.properties file must match the name of the executable. For instance, for an agent-win32.exe executable, the respective .properties file should be agent-win32.properties.

  • install.bat (Windows platform) or install.sh (UNIX platform). The installation batch script that will run the installer and perform any customized work required for a particular installation. This script will be created by an administrator based on your specific environment needs and requirements.

Note:

The above files should all be stored in the same directory.

See Appendix A for an example agent.properties file for doing a silent installation.

Installing the Agent

To install the agent, do the following:

  1. Configure the agent.properties file

    Under the agent installation directory, create a properties file with the same name as the agent executable file. For example, if the executable file is agent-win32.exe, create a properties file with the name agent-win32.properties. The agent.properties file should contain configuration details specific to the installation environment. Refer to Appendix A for a sample agent.properties file.

    The agent.properties contains the configurable fields described in the table below. All other fields should not be modified.

    Table 12-1 agent.properties Field Values

    Field Description

    USER_INSTALL_DIR

    This is the installation directory for the application. Note that for Windows, the line is escaped. All spaces, colons, and back slashes must be properly escaped with a "\" preceding.

    For example:

    \=\\

    :=\:

    For installation to a Program Files in Windows, the proper configuration would be:

    USER_INSTALL_DIR=C\:\\Program Files\\ConfigurationChangeConsoleAgent

    ESCAPED_USER_INSTALL_DIR

    This value is the escaped version of the USER_INSTALL_DIR. For all escaped "\", escape again.

    For example:

    \=\\\\

    For installation to a Program Files in Windows, the proper configuration would be:

    ESCAPED_USER_INSTALL_DIR=C\:\\\\Program Files\\\\ConfigurationChangeConsoleAgent

    JAVA_HOME

    The agent has is bundled with its own JRE(1.5.0_15). This is the path the agent will use to find its JRE.

    PATH_SEPARATOR

    The OS specific separator. The default is to Windows.

    In UNIX, it is:

    PATH_SEPARATOR=//

    AUTOSTART_*

    The agent has an option of automatically starting the service after the installation completes.

    The values are:

    "0=do not start the service

    "1=automatically start the service

    JNDI_PROVIDER_URL

    JNDI_PROVIDER_URL is the connection URL for the agent to connect to the messaging broker servers. If you have a nonclustered environment, the value for this field will be of the format t3s://host:port where host is the hostname or IP of the primary server and port is the secure port of the primary server (443 by default). If you have a clustered environment, the value will be like:

    t3s://host1:port1,host2:port2,host3:port3 where ach host/port combination is for one of the messaging broker servers

    EXTRA_*

    This applies to UNIX environments only. These are additional paths used by the agent during run time to find specific libraries and binaries.

    EXTRA_PATH should point to the bin directory.

    EXTRA_LD_LIBRARY_PATH should point to the lib directory.

    AUDIT_ENABLED

    This field indicates whether auditing is enabled on the server.

    The values are:

    "1=Audit is enabled

    "0=Audit is disabled

    The default value is 1.

    AUTHENTICATE_USER

    The user name on the server to use for authenticating this agent install.

    AUTHENTICATE_PW

    The password for the user used for authentication.

    Note: Since the response file has the PW stored as plain text, you must be sure to remove this response value or the response file itself immediately after installing. Also, you may consider changing the user's password that did the installation after performing installs to ensure the security of this account.


  2. Configure the install.bat/install.sh file

    Create an install.bat or install.sh file in the same directory where the agent executable and agent.properties files are stored. At minimum, it should contain the following:

    @echo off rem run the silent installer agent.exe

    Where agent.exe is the specific agent executable for your platform, for example agent-win32.exe for Windows based platforms.

    Additional customization may be required depending on your specific environment needs.

Generating a Response File

Instead of manually creating a response file, you can have a response file generated for you automatically by going through a normal interactive install (graphical or console). When launching the installer, add the -r flag, for example:

./agent-aix.bin -i console -r

After the installation is done, a file, install.properties, will be created in the same directory from which the installer was launched. You can use this as a response file for installers by following the steps in the previous section.

Uninstalling the Agent

If the agent was installed silently, the uninstaller will uninstall the agent silently, as well. Refer to the sections on uninstalling the agent for your specific platform, documented earlier in this document.