Preparing to Install WebLogic Server

Service Packs and rolling patches, if any, are included in the latest distributions of WebLogic Server, which are available as described in WebLogic Server Distribution Methods. If you have not already installed WebLogic Server, you should install the latest distribution.

If you already have WebLogic Server installed and if you have a BEA eSupport account, you can upgrade your software in one of the following ways:

If you do not have a BEA eSupport account, you can register for one at on the BEA Customer Support Web site at http://support.bea.com.

Table 1-1 WebLogic Server System Requirements

Component	Requirement
Certified server platform	A certified WebLogic Server platform. See the Supported Configurations page at http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E13222_01/wls/certifications/certifications/index.html. This page includes the recommended Java run-time environment versions and, when appropriate, other prerequisites or recommendations, such as operating system patches, kernel configuration values, and performance packs. For more information about performance packs, see "Using WebLogic Server Performance Packs" in the Performance and Tuning Guide.
Hard disk drive	For a WebLogic Server 8.1 installation on a Windows system—about 195 MB^* free storage space for the installed product and about 180 MB of temporary storage space required by the installer (for either the net installer or the package installer). For a WebLogic Server 8.1 installation on a UNIX system— about 250 MB^** free storage space for the installed product and about 180 MB of temporary storage space required by the installer.
Memory	For a Windows or UNIX system, 256 MB of RAM minimum; 512 MB or more is recommended.
Color bit depth display	For graphical-mode installation, 8-bit color depth (256 colors). For console-mode and silent-mode installation, there is no color bit depth requirement.
* Includes 47 MB for the JVM and 27 MB for examples and samples. ** Includes 81 MB for the Java 2 SDK and 50 MB for examples and samples.

The BEA installation program uses a temporary directory in which it extracts the files necessary to install WebLogic Server on the target system. During the installation process, your temporary directory must contain sufficient space to accommodate the compressed Java Runtime Environment (JRE) bundled with the installation program and an uncompressed copy of the JRE that is expanded into the temporary directory. The extracted files are deleted from the temporary directory at the end of the installation process. As a general rule, installation programs require approximately 2.5 times the amount of temporary space the installed files require.

Note: If there is not enough temporary space to run the installation program, you are prompted to specify an alternate directory or exit the installation program.

To ensure there is adequate temporary space, you may want to allocate an alternate directory for use as a temporary directory for the installation. To do so, follow the instructions provided in Table 1-2.

Table 1-2 Meeting Temporary Space Requirements

On this platform . . .	Perform this step . . .
Windows	Do one of the following: Set the TMP system variable to a directory of your choice. If starting the installation program from the command line, enter the -Djava.io.tmpdir=tmpdirpath option on the command line. In this option, tmpdirpath is the full path of the directory that you want to use to temporarily store files used by the WebLogic Server installation program.
UNIX	Enter the following option on the command line when you start the installation program: -Djava.io.tmpdir=tmpdirpath Where tmpdirpath is the full path of the directory that you want to use to temporarily store files used by the WebLogic Server installation program.

On this platform . . .

Perform this step . . .

Windows

Do one of the following:

Set the TMP system variable to a directory of your choice.

If starting the installation program from the command line, enter the -Djava.io.tmpdir=tmpdirpath option on the command line. In this option, tmpdirpath is the full path of the directory that you want to use to temporarily store files used by the WebLogic Server installation program.

UNIX

Enter the following option on the command line when you start the installation program:

-Djava.io.tmpdir=tmpdirpath

Where tmpdirpath is the full path of the directory that you want to use to temporarily store files used by the WebLogic Server installation program.

During installation, the installer optionally installs the WebLogic Server Node Manager as a Windows service. When the Node Manager is installed as a Windows service, it starts automatically each time you boot your Windows system.You must have Administrator privileges to install the Node Manager as a Windows service.

Also, if you choose to run the Configuration Wizard to create user domains, you can install the server as a Windows service. When a server is installed as a Windows service, it starts automatically each time you boot your Windows system.You must have Administrator privileges to install the server as a Windows service.

The WebLogic Server software cannot be used without a valid license. When you install WebLogic Server, the installation program creates a 90-day evaluation license with access for up to 20 client connections. After the 90-day trial period, you can purchase a development or production license.

Licenses for pre-8.1 versions of WebLogic Server will not work with WebLogic Server 8.1. You must upgrade your license to an 8.1 license.bea format. Procedures for upgrading a license file and installing permanent licenses are provided in Installing and Updating a WebLogic Server License.

Secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption software is available with two levels of encryption: 56-bit and 128-bit. Licenses for the 128-bit client version of SSL are available in the United States and Canada. With proper authorization, customers outside the United States and Canada may also acquire licenses with 128-bit encryption enabled.

A WebLogic Server license comes with 56-bit encryption enabled by default. Enabling 128-bit encryption for SSL requires that a 128-bit encryption license be present in the license.bea file of the target BEA Home directory before you install the WebLogic Server software.

During installation of WebLogic Server, you need to specify locations for the following directories:

When you install WebLogic Server, you are prompted to specify a BEA Home directory. The BEA Home directory is a repository for common files that are used by multiple BEA products installed on the same machine. For this reason, the BEA Home directory can be considered a "central support directory" for the BEA products installed on your system.

The files in the BEA Home directory are essential to ensuring that BEA software operates correctly on your system. They perform the following types of functions:

The structure of a sample BEA Home directory created by the WebLogic Server installer program is shown in the following illustration.

This illustration depicts only the files and directories required in the BEA Home directory. If you choose the default product installation directory, you will see additional directories in the BEA Home directory, such as weblogicXXX (the WebLogic Server installation directory, where XXX represents the product version number) and user_projects (a folder for WebLogic domains that you create). Although the default location for the WebLogic Server installation directory is within the BEA Home directory, you can select a different location outside the BEA Home directory. See Understanding the WebLogic Server Directory Structure.

Note: For some UNIX platforms, the WebLogic Server installation program does not install the JVM.

During installation of WebLogic Server, you are prompted to choose an existing BEA Home directory or specify a path to create a new BEA Home directory. If you choose to create a new directory, the WebLogic Server installation program automatically creates the directory for you.

Note: For a BEA Home directory, you are allowed to install only one instance of each version of a BEA product that uses the BEA Home directory convention. For example, you can install only one instance of WebLogic Server 8.1 in a BEA Home directory, but that BEA Home directory may also contain an instance of WebLogic Server 7.0.

Table 1-3 BEA Home Directory Description

Component	Description
jvm directory	Contains the software for the JVM installed with WebLogic Server. The JVM provides the Java run-time environment (the JRE) and tools for compiling and debugging Java applications. Options include: jdk141—(the default) the 1.4.1 version of the Java 2 Software Development Kit (J2SDK) jrockitXXX—The WebLogic JRockit JVM. JVM options vary by hardware platform. For some UNIX platforms, the WebLogic Server installation program does not include a JVM.
logs directory	Contains a history file of installation and uninstallation for the BEA Home directory.
utils directory	Contains utilities that support the installation of all BEA WebLogic Platform products. The utils.jar file contains code that supports the UpdateLicense utility.
license.bea file	An XML-format license file that contains the license keys for all BEA WebLogic Platform products installed on your system that use the BEA Home directory convention. The format of this license has changed in WebLogic Server 8.1. To convert a pre-8.1 license.bea file to a WebLogic Server 8.1 license.bea file, refer to the procedures in Upgrading Licenses from WebLogic Server 6.x and 7.x. To add a non-expiring (permanent) license or to update a license file for additional functionality, you must update the license.bea file using the UpdateLicense utility. For details, see Updating Your license.bea File. Note: Do not edit this file manually. Doing so may cause operating problems for the currently installed BEA products, or result in installation problems when installing future BEA products or maintenance upgrades.
registry.xml file	A registry file that contains a persistent record of all BEA products installed on the target system. This registry contains product-related information, such as version number, Service Pack number, and installation directory. Note: Do not edit this file manually. Doing so may cause operating problems for the currently installed BEA products, or result in installation problems when installing future BEA products or maintenance upgrades.
UpdateLicense (.cmd/.sh)	A command file (Windows) or a shell script (UNIX) that updates the current license.bea file with new license information. For details about using the UpdateLicense utility, see Updating Your license.bea File.

Although it is possible to create more than one BEA Home directory, BEA recommends that you avoid doing so. In almost all situations, a single BEA Home directory is sufficient. There may be circumstances, however, in which you prefer to maintain separate development and production environments, each containing a separate product stack. With two directories, you can update your development environment (in a BEA Home directory) without modifying the production environment until you are ready to do so.

The product installation directory contains all the software components that you choose to install on your system, including program files and examples. During installation, you are prompted to choose a product installation directory. If you accept the default, the WebLogic Server software is installed in the following directory:

where c:\bea is the BEA Home directory and weblogicXXX is the product installation directory. (XXX refers to the version of WebLogic Server that you are installing and varies from release to release.) However, you can specify any name and location on your system for your product installation directory; there is no requirement that you name the directory weblogicXXX, or create it under the BEA Home directory.

The installer uses the product installation directory as the WL_HOME directory and installs the software components under this directory. See Files and Directories Installed for more information.

In a custom installation (see Custom Installation), the WebLogic Server installation program prompts you to select a Java virtual machine (JVM) to install with the WebLogic Server software. WebLogic Server runs on the JRE in the JVM that you select. The following options are displayed. Options vary by the hardware platform on which you are installing.

Table 1-4 lists the JVM installed by default on various operating systems. If you choose the typical installation, the installation program installs the JVM listed. In a custom installation, the JVM listed is selected by default.

Table 1-4 Default JVM, by Operating System

Operating System	Default JVM
Windows	Sun Java 2 SDK 1.4.1
Solaris	Sun Java 2 SDK 1.4.1
Linux	WebLogic JRockit 8.1 Beta
HP-UX	Sun Java 2 SDK 1.4.1

By default, WebLogic Server runs on the JRE in the JVM that you select. You can change the JVM on Which WebLogic Server runs. For details, see "Changing the JVM That Runs a WebLogic Server Instance" in the WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help .

For some UNIX platforms, the WebLogic Server installation program does not include a JVM in the installation program (filenames ending in .jar). To run these installation programs, you must first include the bin directory of a supported JVM installed on your system at the beginning of your PATH variable definition. After installation, WebLogic Server will run on this JVM.

When installing WebLogic Server on a Windows platform, you can optionally install the WebLogic Server Node Manager as a Windows service. The WebLogic Server Node Manager is used to start and stop managed servers in a domain; monitor the self-reported health of managed servers and automatically kill server instances whose health state is "failed"; and automatically restart managed servers that have the "failed" health state, or have shut down unexpectedly due to a system crash or reboot.

In a typical installation (see Typical Installation), the WebLogic Server installer installs the Node Manager as a Windows service. In a custom installation (see Custom Installation), you can optionally install the Node Manager as a Windows Service. In a production environment, you usually install the Node Manager only on server machines that host managed server instances of WebLogic Server.

The Node Manager is installed as a Windows service only under the following conditions:

After you install the Node Manager as a Windows service, the service is started after the next time you reboot the system. You can also manually start the service from the Windows Services control panel.

Note: The BEA Node Manager service is linked to a BEA Home directory. If you have multiple BEA Home directories on your server and you uninstall WebLogic Server in the BEA Home linked to the Node Manager service, the uninstaller will uninstall the service. If you have other instances of WebLogic Server that rely on the Node Manager, you must manually start the Node Manger or reinstall the Node Manager service. See "Configuring, Starting, and Stopping Node Manager" in Configuring and Managing WebLogic Server.