1 Preparing for Installation

This section discusses the following topics:

• Installation Modes

• Installable Product Components

• Product Distribution

• Installation Prerequisites

• Selecting Directories for Installation

• Choosing the Type of Installation

• Generating a Verbose Installation Log

Installation Modes

The installation program can be used in the following modes:

• Graphical mode

  Graphical-mode installation is an interactive, GUI-based method for installing your software. It can be run on both Windows and UNIX systems. For installation procedures, see Chapter 3, "Running the Installation Program in Graphical Mode."

  
  

  Note: To be able to run the installation program in graphical mode, the console attached to the machine on which you are installing the software must support a Java-based GUI. All consoles for Windows systems support Java-based GUIs, but not all consoles for UNIX systems do. If you attempt to start the installation program in graphical mode on a system that cannot support graphical display, the installation program automatically starts console-mode installation.

  
  

• Console mode

  Console-mode installation is an interactive, text-based method for installing your software from the command line, on either a UNIX system or a Windows system. For information about using this method, see Chapter 4, "Running the Installation Program in Console Mode."

• Silent mode

  Silent-mode installation is a non-interactive method of installing your software that requires the use of an XML properties file for selecting installation options. You can run silent-mode installation from either a script or from the command line. Silent-mode installation is a way of setting installation configurations only once and then using those configurations to duplicate the installation on many machines. For more information about the silent mode installation, see Chapter 5, "Running the Installation Program in Silent Mode."

Installable Product Components

The product components that you can install vary depending on the installer that you are using.

For example, the Oracle WebLogic Server net installer for Windows includes the following components:

• Oracle WebLogic Server

  • Core Application Server

  • Administration Console

  • Configuration Wizard and Upgrade Framework

  • Web 2.0 HTTP Pub-Sub Server

  • WebLogic SCA

  • WebLogic JDBC Drivers

  • Third Party JDBC Drivers

  • WebLogic Server Clients

  • WebLogic Web Server Plugins

  • UDDI and XQuery Support

  • Server Examples

• Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse

For more information about the product components, see "Selecting the WebLogic Server Components" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Getting Started With Installation for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Note: As of WebLogic Server 11g Release 1 Patch Set 1 (10.3.2), Workshop no longer ships with WebLogic Server. Oracle recommends that you use JDeveloper instead.

Product Distribution

You can download your software from the http://edelivery.oracle.com/ Oracle Web site.

The following types of installers are available for download:

• Net installer (recommended): This type downloads a small setup file that enables you to select the components to install on your system. The installer then downloads only the components you select. The net installer eliminates the need to download the entire product before installing it, and thereby reduces the time needed to complete the download, the disk space, and the RAM required for installation.

  The net installer enables you to avoid installing the components that are not required in the specific environment in which the product is being used.

  For example, an experienced developer who has Eclipse and a suitable Java Runtime may need only the Core Application Server, the WebLogic JDBC drivers, and the examples. An administrator may choose to install only the Core Application Server, Administration Console, Configuration Wizard and Upgrade Framework, Web Server plug-ins, the third-party JDBC drivers, and the JRockit JDK.

  Before the download begins, the net installer prompts you to provide the following information:

  • Storage directory: The installation program downloads an archive file to your system for each component that you choose to install. By default, these archive files are downloaded to the temporary directory on your system. You can specify an alternate directory on your system for these files; they need not be collocated with the installation setup file, or with the installed software. If you do not specify an alternate directory, your temporary directory must have sufficient space to accommodate the archive files and the installation program. For more information about temporary space required by the installation program, see Temporary Disk Space Requirements. To conserve disk space, you can also specify that the downloaded files should be removed from your system after the installation is complete.

  • HTTP Proxy: If you want to download these files using an HTTP proxy, you must specify the host address and port numbers for the proxy server.

  • Proxy authentication: If the HTTP proxy you are using requires server-side HTTP authentication, you must enter your username and password.

    The net installer supports standard resume processing in the case of interrupted downloads. If the download is interrupted for any reason, either manually or by an unplanned network interruption, you can resume the download from the point at which it was interrupted. When the download is complete, the installation program performs an integrity check on the archive files that were downloaded to your system to verify that the files are downloaded correctly.

• Package installer: This type of installer downloads a standalone version of the installation program.

  For example, the Oracle WebLogic Server with Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse installer contains Oracle WebLogic Server and related samples, Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse, and the JRockit SDK and Sun JDK (for Windows and Linux platforms only).

  
  

  Note: If you are planning to install the software in silent mode, you must download the package installer. Silent-mode installation is not supported by the net installer.

  
  

• Generic installers (net and package): This type of installer is a .jar file. It is the same as the package and net installers, except that it does not include JDKs. You can use this type of installer to install the product on UNIX machines on which Java is already installed. For more information, see Starting the Installation Program on UNIX Using .jar Installers.

Installation Prerequisites

The following sections describe the installation prerequisites:

• System Requirements

• Temporary Disk Space Requirements

• Administrator Privileges

System Requirements

The system requirements for running the installation program are listed in Table 1-1.

Table 1-1 System Requirements

Component	Requirement
Platform configuration	A supported configuration of hardware, operating system, JDK, and database specific to the product you are installing. For information about other prerequisites and recommendations, such as recommended versions of the JDK, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations page at http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/ias/files/fusion_certification.html document.
Processor	1-GHz CPU
Memory	A Minimum of 1 GB RAM, although we recommend 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 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 file names ending in .bin). For other UNIX platforms, the installation program does not install a JDK. File names 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 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 after 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:

• Windows platforms: directory referenced by the TMP system variable

• UNIX platforms: system-dependent temporary directory

  
  

  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 Table 1-2.

Table 1-2 Setting Up the Temporary Directory

Platform	Procedure
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 you want to designate as a temporary storage area for the installation program. For example, to set up the temp directory while running the Oracle WebLogic Server net installer for Windows, execute this command: net_wls1031_win32.exe -mode=console -Djava.io.tmpdir=C:\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 you want to designate as a temporary storage area for the 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.

Table 1-3 describes the available options.

Table 1-3 Available Shortcut Options

Option	Behavior
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 do 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 must specify locations for the following directories:

• Choosing a Home Directory

• Choosing a Product Installation Directory

Choosing a Home Directory

When you install your WebLogic software, you are prompted to specify a home directory. This directory serves as a repository for common files that are used by multiple WebLogic products installed on the same machine. For this reason, the home directory can be considered a central support directory for all the WebLogic products installed on your system.

The files in the home directory are essential to ensuring that WebLogic software operates correctly on your system. They facilitate checking of cross-product dependencies during installation.

When you are installing WebLogic software, you are prompted to choose an existing home directory or specify a path to create a home directory. If you choose to create a directory, the installation program automatically creates it for you.

Installation Considerations

Oracle recommends the following:

• Do not exceed a maximum of 12 characters when naming your home directory. If the name of this directory has more than 12 characters and if there are spaces in the directory name, the CLASSPATH may not be resolved properly.

• You can install only one instance of each version of a WebLogic product in a single home directory.

  For example, you can install only one instance of the current version of Oracle WebLogic Server in a home directory, but that home directory may also contain an instance of a previous version of Oracle WebLogic Server.

• If the home directory is not empty and it does not contain registry.xml, or if any of the product installation directories are not empty, one of the following messages is displayed:

  • For home directory selection task: Middleware home directory is not empty. Proceed with installation?

  • For product installation directory selection task: One or more installation directories are not empty. Proceed with installation?

Functions of the Home Directory

The directories in the home directory vary depending on the installer that you are using.

For example, the Oracle WebLogic Server with Workshop for WebLogic installer creates the directories listed in the following table if you have selected all the components for installation.

Table 1-4 Directory Description for Middleware Home

Component	Description
jdkversion	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.
jrockit_version (Windows and Linux only)	Contains the software for the JRockit JDK installed with your software. The JDK provides the Java run-time environment (JRE) and tools for compiling and debugging Java applications.
logs	Contains a history file that contains information about installation and uninstallation for the home directory.
modules	Contains the modules installed in the Home Directory.
utils	Contains utilities that are used to support the installation of all WebLogic installed in this home directory. For more information on installing patches and maintenance packs, see Oracle Smart Update Installing Patches and Maintenance Packs.
wlserver_version	This directory contains the following directories: common samples server uninstall
workshop_version	This directory contains the following directories: common Samples uninstall weblogic-beehive workshop4WP
.home	Contains the information about the home directory.
ocm.rsp	The response file that contains information about the Oracle Configuration Manager (OCM) installation.
registry.xml	A registry file that contains a persistent record of all WebLogic 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 WebLogic products, or result in installation problems when future products or maintenance upgrades are installed.
registry.dat	This is an encrypted version of the registry.xml file.

Note: The user_projects folder is created in the middleware home directory only when you create domains and it is the default location for your domain files.

Creating Multiple home Directories

Although it is possible to create more than one home directory, Oracle recommends that you avoid doing so. In most situations, a single 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 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 directory for Oracle WebLogic Server is C:\MW_HOME\wlserver_version.

The installation program installs the software components in a product installation directory represented by the MW_HOME variable (the default is Oracle\Middleware.

Choosing the Type of Installation

The installation program provides two types of installation: Typical and Custom.

• In a typical installation, all of the components that are included in the installation program are installed.

• In a custom installation, you can choose the software components you want to install on your system.

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

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

On Windows and Linux systems, two JDKs are installed: the JRockit 1.6.0 JDK and the Sun JDK 1.6.0.

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 (informational, warning, error, and fatal) about events that occur during the installation process. This type of file can be especially useful for silent installations.

Note: You may see a few warning messages in the installation log. However, unless a fatal (irrecoverable) 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.

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 for the Oracle WebLogic Server net installer for Windows, enter:

net_wls1031_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.