Using the updated IBM Content Templates Catalog application and the newly released IBM WebSphere Portal Solution Installer ...

Following on from earlier blog posts here and here and here, I have spent some time today looking at the updated IBM Content Templates Catalog asset in the Catalog as the asset has been updated to support WebSphere Portal v7.

One other major change is that the CTC asset is now installable using the new Portal Solution Installer solution: -

The IBM WebSphere Portal Solution Installer is a utility for installing, uninstalling and updating solutions or applications to an instance of WebSphere Portal Server. The basis of the Solution Installer is a standard format for application distribution, the Portal Application Archive (PAA) format. This will make it more straightforward to install Portal Applications without the need for custom installation scripts.

The Solution Installer should be used to install applications which are in the PAA format and  can be used by application developers to prepare their applications to be distributed in the PAA format.

The asset can be downloaded from the Greenhouse here.

Having downloaded the Solution Installer package ( as SolutionInstaller.zip ), you can expand it: -

cd /tmp
unzip /home/hayd/Downloads/SolutionInstaller.zip

and then customise it to support WebSphere Portal 7 - it defaults to version 6: -

cd /tmp/SolutionInstaller/components/SolutionInstaller/
cp SolutionInstaller.properties SolutionInstaller.properties.original
fromdos SolutionInstaller.properties                            - I needed to perform this step as the file had been formatted with CR/LF characters from Windows Notepad or similar
vi SolutionInstaller.properties

by changing: -

portal_version=6

to: -

portal_version=7

Once done, copy it to the Portal Server directory: -

cp -Rf /tmp/SolutionInstaller/ /opt/IBM/WebSphere/PortalServer/

and install it using ConfigEngine: -

cd /opt/IBM/WebSphere/wp_profile/ConfigEngine/
./ConfigEngine.sh -install -assemblyRoot /opt/IBM/WebSphere/PortalServer/SolutionInstaller -installPath /opt/IBM/WebSphere/PortalServer -user wpsadmin -pwd passw0rd -hostname dmhw500.uk.ibm.com -port 10025 -offeringName PortalServer -assemblyName SolutionInstaller -expandBinaries false

On completion, you should validate the installation: -

cat /opt/IBM/WebSphere/wp_profile/ConfigEngine/registry.xml | grep SolutionInstaller

and check for the following lines: -

<snip>
...
    <assembly xmi:id="Assembly_1286957656418" assemblyName="SolutionInstaller" installLocation="/opt/IBM/WebSphere/PortalServer/SolutionInstaller" lastModified="10/13/2010" version="6.1.0.0">
      <component xmi:id="Component_1286957656506" compName="components/SolutionInstaller" installLocation="/opt/IBM/WebSphere/PortalServer/SolutionInstaller/components/SolutionInstaller" version="6.1.0.0"/>
...
</snip>

Add passwords ( WasPassword and PortalAdminPwd )  to the ConfigEngine properties file: -

vi /opt/IBM/WebSphere/wp_profile/ConfigEngine/properties/wkplc.properties

Setup the Solution Installer

./ConfigEngine.sh si-setup

and look for the "BUILD SUCCESSFUL" message.

Download the CTC from here and unpack it: -

cd /tmp
unzip /home/hayd/Desktop/1WP1002G6.zip
unzip 1WP1002G6_7.zip
cd 1WP1002G6

and then install it using the newly installed Solution Installer: -

ConfigEngine.bat install-paa -DPAALocation=/tmp/1WP1002G6/wp.ctc.paa

and check for the "BUILD SUCCESSFUL" message.

Once this has completed, run the following command to complete the registration of the CTC asset: -

./ConfigEngine.sh deploy-paa -DappName=wp.ctc

Again, this should completed with a "BUILD SUCCESSFUL" message - for me, this took 23 minutes on a Thinkpad W500 dual core with 8 GB RAM. WARNING, YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY !!

Post installation, I accessed my portal server via the normal URL, and see the purty loveliness that is the CTC content.

Enjoy !

PS For me, on my Ubuntu box, I hit the "Too many open files" exception when I initially ran this command, so I needed to: -

(a) Stop WebSphere Portal
(b) Increase the hard/soft files handle limit using the command ulimit -n 10240
(c) Start WebSphere Portal
(d) Re-run the deploy-paa command again

I'll fix the ulimits permanently at a later date ...