IBM Websphere Portal installation still going strong

by Volker Weber

IBM has fixed the installation guide for Websphere Portal 6. They have removed the redundant chapter and the title page. The guide is now only 1034 pages long. We are on page 203 and invite you to read along:

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Run the following commands on the DB2 server machine to create the necessary databases:

Notes:


db2 "CREATE DB dbname using codeset UTF-8 territory us COLLATE USING UCA400_NO PAGESIZE 8192"
db2 "UPDATE DB CFG FOR dbname USING applheapsz 4096"
db2 "UPDATE DB CFG FOR dbname USING app_ctl_heap_sz 1024"
db2 "UPDATE DB CFG FOR dbname USING stmtheap 8192"
db2 "UPDATE DB CFG FOR dbname USING dbheap 2400"
db2 "UPDATE DB CFG FOR dbname USING locklist 1000"
db2 "UPDATE DB CFG FOR dbname USING logfilsiz 1000"
db2 "UPDATE DB CFG FOR dbname USING logprimary 12"
db2 "UPDATE DB CFG FOR dbname USING logsecond 20"
db2 "UPDATE DB CFG FOR dbname USING logbufsz 32"
db2 "UPDATE DB CFG FOR dbname USING avg_appls 5"
db2 "UPDATEDBCFGFORdbnameUSINGlocktimeout30"


On the DB2 server machine, run the following commands, where:

db2 "update db cfg for jcrdb using sheapthres_shr 50000"
db2 "CONNECT TO jcrdb USER icmadmin USING dbpassword"
db2 "CREATE BUFFERPOOL ICMLSFREQBP4 SIZE 1000 PAGESIZE 4 K"
db2 "CREATE BUFFERPOOL ICMLSVOLATILEBP4 SIZE 8000 PAGESIZE 4 K"
db2 "CREATE BUFFERPOOL ICMLSMAINBP32 SIZE 8000 PAGESIZE 32 K"
db2 "CREATE BUFFERPOOL CMBMAIN4 SIZE 1000 PAGESIZE 4 K"
db2 "CREATE REGULAR TABLESPACE ICMLFQ32 PAGESIZE 32 K MANAGED BY SYSTEM USING (’ICMLFQ32’) BUFFERPOOL ICMLSMAINBP32"
db2 "CREATE REGULAR TABLESPACE ICMLNF32 PAGESIZE 32 K MANAGED BY SYSTEM USING (’ICMLNF32’) BUFFERPOOL ICMLSMAINBP32"
db2 "CREATE REGULAR TABLESPACE ICMVFQ04 PAGESIZE 4 K MANAGED BY SYSTEM USING (’ICMVFQ04’) BUFFERPOOL ICMLSVOLATILEBP4"
db2 "CREATE REGULAR TABLESPACE ICMSFQ04 PAGESIZE 4 K MANAGED BY SYSTEM USING (’ICMSFQ04’) BUFFERPOOL ICMLSFREQBP4"
db2 "CREATE REGULAR TABLESPACE CMBINV04 PAGESIZE 4 K MANAGED BY SYSTEM USING (’CMBINV04’) BUFFERPOOL CMBMAIN4"
db2 "CREATE SYSTEM TEMPORARY TABLESPACE ICMLSSYSTSPACE32 PAGESIZE 32 K MANAGED BY SYSTEM USING (’icmlssystspace32’) BUFFERPOOL ICMLSMAINBP32"
db2 "CREATE SYSTEM TEMPORARY TABLESPACE ICMLSSYSTSPACE4 PAGESIZE 4 K MANAGED BY SYSTEM USING (’icmlssystspace4’) BUFFERPOOL ICMLSVOLATILEBP4"
db2 "DISCONNECT jcrdb"
db2 "TERMINATE"

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Are you still wondering why a team of three IGS consultants with the installation guide on their laps fail to get this up and running within three days?

Comments

One installation guide for three laps is a bit tight, isn't it? ;-) One hopes that one of the three will be scripting above rubbish since IBM doesn't appear able to...

Jan-Piet Mens, 2006-08-07

I've seen things like that around all 'bigger' IBM Middleware solutions:
CommonStore, Workplace, Portal...

Back in the days when I was a student I wrote installationroutines for Client/Server applications using Installshield. This routines created databases on AS/400 servers depending on options in the setup dialog. This was 1995/96.

I like to know exactly what a install programm does, but I don't want to do it manually.

Tobias Mueller, 2006-08-07

What's the problem? There's no margin for error in there at all!

:-D

Ben Poole, 2006-08-07

This Websphere Portal installation saga is spellbinding and terrifying at the same time. Where will we hide our heads when our clients see this (I guess, in the book...) and ask us to explain (on IBM's behalf, as always). Next time I meet someone that has done the install, I'll just exclaim: Respect.

Adeleida Bingham, 2006-08-07

As a point of comparison, Dante's Inferno is only 528 pages long (in English). And at least it starts with a proper disclaimer: "Abandon All Hope, You Who Enter Here".

By the way, the archway of a gate that contains the engraving of this phrase is also known as the "Portal of Hell". Coincidence? ;-)

Bob Congdon, 2006-08-07

the mother of all manuals...

Armin Auth, 2006-08-07

I sorta suspect that they make the manuals this difficult on purpose - how else can sell the consultants to come along with it to install it ?

Their internal slogan must be : If everybody could do install it, it wouldn't be IBM !

Alex Boschmans, 2006-08-07

You should mention that the Quick Installation steps are only 9 pages, including pictures. I just did it, answered a few questions in the installer, and 2 hours later, it was done, using the default Cloudscape db.

The rest is really a guide around configuration in a real enterprise environment, with multiple possibilities for LDAP or DBs on different operating systems, clustering, etc.

You may still think it's too much, but at least all the info is there.

Chris

Chris Reckling, 2006-08-07

But you would not want to run Portal on a Cloudscape database, or would you?

I don't think anybody is complaining that the information is there. But it would be nice if there was an installation script, wouldn't it?

Volker Weber, 2006-08-07

But you can use the wizards helping to transfer the content to a "real" database, connect to a LDAP ...

The pure installation should be done in one hour (or even less). Depending on the infratructure you will need some more hours / days to configure Portal. Or just call the guys who do this all the time ;-)

But the way there is an installation script or what is wpsconfig.sh? ;-)

Martin

Martin Imbeck, 2006-08-08

The rest is really a guide around configuration in a real enterprise environment

which is pretty much the only useful configuration for most of us in the struggle. ;-)

we've begun writing our own "quick start" docs on installing it WPS; IBM's documentation seems to be ambiguous. I still don't have a straight understanding on how the member manager setup *really* takes place; i've only guessed at it, to partial success--

j(spending my weekend trying to get a portal installation going on a particular dev box that seems to reject it every time. all 6 times...).

jon madison, 2006-11-12

I know that what I am going to say has nothing to do with websphere portal, but still I believe it has alot with IBM.

3 years ago, I was trying to figure out how to deploy (or even develop) EJBs using WSAD 5.0, I read alot of redbooks, later on, I managed to do it myself with no redbook at all, just trial and error and I was able to write a quick walk through the steps that was used later by all members in my company that covers all the cases to develop EJBs(specially entity beans). the wallk through was just around 20 pages (covering all cases, buttom-up, top-down, and meet-in-the-middle including wizard pictures).

same thing happened to me last year trying to configure WAS 5.0 to connect to MQ using its internal MQ-plugin.

Both cases I tried reading tons of redbooks that was at least 500 pages, and alot of articles that was related or not related to the subject.

after all, I mean after more than a year, in each time, I finally find an article from one who had already suffered before, but managed to do it and so he published it.
We can wait till some one take the step and write it, or if some one there knows who knows how to do it, make him take this step.

But in both cases, I belive IBM is not concered with the developers using their products or how much miserable they make our lifes trying to figure out how to install it.

The last thing I saw from IBM, and I am sure it won't be their last, the new WAS 6.0 clustering using Network Deployment Manager.

Hope that they know someday that they are killing us with what they are making, not just adding new values to the product (that if they add..!!)

Mohamed El-Beltagy, 2006-12-27

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