Installing and Uninstalling IBM Connections 3 using response files

I know that I'm way behind the curve, but I've been getting to grips with the methods available to automate IBM Connections deployments, using IBM Installation Manager (IIM), which was introduced with IBM Connections 3 in late 2010 :-)

This will be of use for future blog posts, especially as more IBM products are now using IIM, including WebSphere Portal 8.

So the trick is to create your response files, which is useful in helping one understand how IIM works.

IBM Connections DOES come with a sample response file; for me, it was located here: -

/tmp/ic3/Lotus_Connections_Install/LotusConnections/LC.rsp

once I unpacked IBM_Connections301_LinAIX_CI3XPML.tar.

However, I chose to record a response file of my very own, for three reasons: -

(a) Education

(b) To reinstall the product using a different Deployment Topology ( Small rather than Medium )

(c) I'll surely need to use a response file in the future, where a GUI is not available to me e.g. at a customer site only using SSH/Telnet

The second point related to my wish to install everything ( Connections, DB2, TDI, WAS etc. ) on a single VM, *but* being constrained by VMware Fusion's 8 GB RAM limit ( 8 GB per VM ).

This caused problems: using the Medium Topology gave me three clusters, each of which were quite memory-hungry, causing the VM to start swapping RAM to disk, which made my MacBook an unhappy camper.

Having uninstalled the product, initially using the GUI, I then set about recording a new response file ( for Small rather than Medium ).

Response file recording requires the GUI, so it's not always achievable :-(

This is how I started the recording ( bearing in mind that IIM was already installed ): -

$ /opt/IBM/InstallationManager/eclipse/IBMIM -record ~/LC_small.rsp -skipInstall skip

The -skipInstall skip parameter tells IIM to ONLY generate the response file, and not install the products. Otherwise, you can do BOTH, which gives you a response file for future use.

Once recorded, the response file can be used as follows: -

$ /opt/IBM/InstallationManager/eclipse/IBMIM -silent -input ~/LC_small.rsp

Upon completion, I ended up with a working IC3 environment, and the following messages: -

...

java.util.NoSuchElementException
at java.util.StringTokenizer.nextToken(StringTokenizer.java:347)
at com.ibm.connections.install.BasicLogChecker.loadCheckPoints(BasicLogChecker.java:166)
at com.ibm.connections.install.BasicLogChecker.execute(BasicLogChecker.java:80)
at com.ibm.connections.install.ResultPanel.checkInstallLog(ResultPanel.java:34)
at com.ibm.connections.install.ResultPanel.checkInstallOperationLog(ResultPanel.java:402)
at com.ibm.connections.install.ResultPanel.run(ResultPanel.java:95)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:79)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:618)
at com.ibm.cic.agent.core.commonNativeInstallAdapter.Invoke$InvokeRunnable.run(Invoke.java:189)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:810)

( repeating x 13 )

The following repositories are not connected:-/tmp/installerRepository30746.tmp

Install results : 
News installed successfully.
Search installed successfully.
Profiles installed successfully.
Activities installed successfully.
Blogs installed successfully.
Communities installed successfully.
Bookmarks installed successfully.
Files installed successfully.
Forums installed successfully.
Home page installed successfully.
Wikis installed successfully.
Mobile installed successfully.
Moderation installed successfully.

...

Not yet too sure what java.util.NoSuchElementException pertains to, but that's one for another day. It's worth noting that the error appeared 13 times, which is one per Connections service.

I also checked the installation logs here: -

/opt/IBM/LotusConnections/logs

but there were no obvious exceptions. Each of the 13 logs ended with: -

...

     [exec] action-post-config:
     [exec] Mon Aug 06 16:03:14 BST 2012
     [exec]      [echo] executing post-configuration tasks
     [exec] 
     [exec] BUILD SUCCESSFUL
     [exec] Total time: 2 minutes 13 seconds
     [exec] isIseries currently set to: null
...

Two final points: -

(a) If IIM is not yet install, you can generate the response file thusly: -

$ /tmp/ic3/Lotus_Connections_Install/IM/linux/generate_install_responsefile.sh

(b) Again, installing using the response file BEFORE IIM is installed goes something like this: -

$ /tmp/ic3/Lotus_Connections_Install/IM/linux/install.silent.sh -log -inpt ../../LotusConnections/LC_small.rsp 

On a related note, I did have an issue where I'd chosen an inappropriate node name, as per my blog post here. Having an uninstall response file helped, as I went back and forth through the install/uninstall process until I finally sorted it out.