Installation Guide

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Preparing for Installation

This section discusses the following topics:

 


Installation Overview

This guide describes how to use the BEA Products installation program to install BEA Products.

Installation Modes

The BEA Products installation program can be used in the following modes:

 


Installable Product Components

The installable product components vary depending on the installer that you are using. For example, the WebLogic Platform installer includes the following components:

 


Product Distribution Methods

Your BEA software is distributed on both the BEA Web site and DVD.

Web Distribution

You can download your software from the BEA Web site.

DVD Distribution

You will find the following items in the product box:

 


Installation Prerequisites

The following sections describe the installation prerequisites:

System Requirements

The system requirements for running the installation program are listed in the following table.

Table 2-1 System Requirements 
Component
Requirement
Platform configuration
A supported configuration of hardware, operating system, JDK, and database specific to the product you are installing. See Supported Configurations.
The Supported Configurations document specifies other prerequisites and recommendations, such as recommended versions of the JDK.
Processor
1-GHz CPU
Hard disk drive
A complete installation requires approximately 3.5 GB of disk space.
Memory
A Minimum of 1 GB RAM, although BEA recommends 2 GB of RAM.
Color bit depth display and size
For Graphical User Interface (GUI) mode installation, 8-bit color depth (256 colors) is required.
For console-mode and silent-mode installation, there is no color bit depth requirement.
JDK
The BEA Products installation program requires a Java run-time environment (JRE) to run. A JRE is bundled in the Windows installation program and in some UNIX installation programs (those with filenames ending in .bin). For other UNIX platforms, the installation program does not install a JDK. Filenames for these installation programs end in .jar. To run the .jar installation programs, you must have the appropriate version of the JDK installed on your system, and include the bin directory of the JDK at the beginning of the PATH variable definition. It is important that you use a JDK because the installation process assigns values to JAVA_HOME and related variables to point to the JDK directory.

Temporary Disk Space Requirements

The BEA installation program uses a temporary directory into which it extracts the files necessary to install the software on the target system. During the installation process, your temporary directory must contain sufficient space to accommodate the compressed Java Run-time 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. The files in the temporary directory require approximately 2.5 times the space that is ultimately required for the installation.

By default, the installation program uses the following temporary directories:

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

To make sure that you have adequate temporary space, you may want to allocate an alternate directory for this purpose. To do so, follow the instructions provided in the following table.

Table 2-2 Setting Up the Temporary Directory
Platform
Perform this step . . .
Windows
Do one of the following:
  • Set the TMP system variable to a directory of your choice.
  • If you run the installation program from the command line, include the -Djava.io.tmpdir=tmpdirpath option, replacing tmpdirpath with the full path of the directory that you want to designate as a temporary storage area for the BEA Products installation program.
  • For example, to set up the temp directory while installing WebLogic Platform, execute this command: platform1020_win32.exe -mode=console -Djava.io.tmpdir=D:\Temp

UNIX
Enter the following option on the command line when you start the installation program:
-Djava.io.tmpdir=tmpdirpath
Here tmpdirpath is the full path of the directory that you want to designate as a temporary storage area for the BEA Products installation program.

Administrator Privileges

When you are installing the software as a user with Administrator privileges, you are presented with the option to create the Start menu shortcuts in the All Users folder, or in the Local User’s Start menu folder. The following table describes the options available.

If you select . . .
The following occurs . . .
All Users
All users registered on the machine are provided with access to the installed software. Subsequently, if users without Administrator privileges use the Configuration Wizard from this installation to create domains, Start menu shortcuts to the domains are not created. In this case, users can manually create shortcuts in their local Start menu folders, if desired.
Local user
Other users registered on this machine will not have access to the Start menu entries for this installation.

If a user without Administrator privileges installs the software, the Start menu entries are created in the user’s local Start menu folder.

 


Selecting Directories for Installation

During the installation process, you need to specify locations for the following directories:

Choosing a BEA Home Directory

When you install your BEA software, you are prompted to specify a BEA Home directory. This directory serves as 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 all 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 facilitate checking of cross-product dependencies during installation.

Note: On some UNIX platforms, the installation program does not install the JDK.

When you are installing your BEA software, 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 installation program automatically creates it for you.

Installation Considerations

Functions of the BEA Home Directory

The directories in the BEA Home directory vary depending on the installer that you are using. For example, the WebLogic Platform installer creates the directories listed in the following table.

Table 2-3 BEA Home Directory Description for WebLogic Platform 
Component
Description
jdk<version> directory
Contains the software for the Sun JDK if it is installed with your software. The JDK provides the Java run-time environment (JRE) and tools for compiling and debugging Java applications. In this directory name, xxx indicates the version of the Sun JDK installed on your system, for example jdk150_11.
jrockit_<version> directory
(Windows and Linux only)
Contains the software for the BEA JRockit JDK installed with your software. The JDK provides the Java run-time environment (JRE) and tools for compiling and debugging Java applications. In this directory name, xxx indicates the version of the JRockit JDK installed on your system, such as jrockit_150_11.
logs directory
Contains a history file that contain information about installation and uninstallation for the BEA Home directory.
modules directory
Contains the modules installed in the BEA Home Directory.
utils directory
Contains utilities that are used to support the installation of all BEA products installed in this BEA Home directory.
wlserver_<version>
This directory contains the following directories:
  • beehive
  • cm
  • common
  • eclipse
  • javelin
  • platform
  • portal
  • samples
  • server
  • uninstall
  • workshop
wli_<version>
This directory contains the following directories:
  • adapters
  • bin
  • common
  • dbscripts
  • docs
  • eclipse
  • egs
  • lib
  • samples
  • uninstall
  • upgrade
workshop_<version>
This directory contains the following directories:
  • common
  • uninstall
  • weblogic-beehive
  • workshop4wp
workSpaceStudio_<version>
This directory contains the following directories
  • uninstall
  • workSpaceStudio
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 location of the 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 future BEA products or maintenance upgrades are installed.

For more information about the BEA registry file, see “ Using the BEA Registry API” in ISV Partners’ Guide
patch_<product>
For Example:
patch_wls1001
This directory contains the following directories:
  • backup
  • patch_jars
  • profiles
  • registry

Note: The directory user_projects does not contain anything when the product is installed on the disk. It is used as the default location for your files when you create domains at the location.

Creating Multiple BEA Home Directories

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, with a separate product stack for each. 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.

Choosing a Product Installation Directory

The product installation directory contains all the software components that you choose to install on your system, including program files and examples.

For example, the default installation directories for components of WebLogic Platform are shown in the Table 2-4

Table 2-4 Default Product Installation Directories for WebLogic Platform
Product
Product Installation Directory
BEA WebLogic Server
C:\bea\wlserver_<version>
BEA Workshop for WebLogic
C:\bea\workshop_<version>
BEA WebLogic Integration
C:\bea\wli_<version>

The installation program installs the software components in a product installation directory represented by the WL_HOME variable. If, during your initial installation, you choose to install WebLogic Server only, and not all of the products available for installation, and you later decide to install additional products, such as Workshop for Weblogic (using the same BEA Home directory), you are not prompted, during the subsequent installations, to specify a product installation directory. The installation program detects the WL_HOME directory and installs the additional products under it.

 


Choosing the Type of Installation

The BEA Products installation program provides two types of installation: Complete and Custom.

For a description of the software components provided with your product distribution, see Installable Product Components.

Note: Installers for other BEA Products install additional components. For more information about the installable product components, refer to the respective installation guides.

Sample domains preconfigured to use the PointBase database are created only for the installed components.

On Windows systems two JDKs are installed: the BEA JRockit 1.5.0 JDK and the Sun JDK 1.5.0.

 


Generating a Verbose Installation Log

If you launch the installation from the command line or from a script, you can specify the -log option to generate a verbose installation log. The installation log stores messages about events that occur during the installation process, including informational, warning, error, and fatal messages. This type of file can be especially useful for silent installations.

Note: You may see some warning messages in the installation log. However, unless a fatal error occurs, the installation program completes the installation successfully. The installation user interface indicates the success or failure of each installation attempt, and the installation log file includes an entry indicating that the installation was successful.

Syntax

To create a verbose log file during installation, include the -log=full_path_to_log_file option in the command line.

For example, to create a verbose log file in WebLogic Platform, enter:

platform1020_win32.exe -log=C:\logs\server_install.log

The path must specify a file. You cannot create a folder simply by including a name for it in a pathname; your path should specify only existing folders. If your path includes a nonexistent folder when you execute the command, the installation program does not create the log file.


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