so long InfoCenters, welcome KnowledgeCenter

I was stoked 5 minutes ago when I spotted in an article that the well known IBM Infocenters will probably fade away. How come such big news for IBM techies did NOT get noticed ? Almost everyone I know in IBM's world complained about the Infocenter, not necessary it's looks, but mostly it's content (and I might add Chrome browser compatibility)

No matter what IBM's product you were faced to learn/master, you'd have to know what Infocenter means. It's almost a brand, they should keep it :)

The good news is that the new Knowledge Center seems faster: http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter

About the content quality and breadth ... we'll have to see, I maintain my confidence in the power of community contributing to DevWorks and Portal wikis

Worklight 6.1 Studio - linux drill

With my recent downfall into Worklight and understanding the mobile landscape, I installed Worklight 6.1 Studio on my Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 32bit.

After the install ( Eclipse Juno and WL 6.1 plugins ) I started to look around and here's the picture I've got:

a) Eclipse Juno, WL 6.1, WAS LP 8.5.x, IBM's JDK 1.6 forms the local environment which allows one developer to do the work.

Then the developer discovers Google's ADT, ADB and wonders how the heck can he build the Android .apk for the Worklight application

b) Enter ADT plugin for Eclipse, which brings in Adroid SDKs and Android Virtual Devices, with it's tooling. But these require (Sun) Oracle JDK.

So the dilemma here is: how can one developer keep Eclipse Juno with IBM's JDK, while building the Android app with Oracle JDK.

One solution might be creating two Eclipse Juno environments, one with WL 6.1 Studio, another with ADT plugin, both loading the same project. I am yet to test this.

The frustrating thing for Linux Eclipse Juno users (where I discovered the solution in a forum) is that eclipse.ini has to specify Oracle's JDK this form, and this form only [notice the lack of java binary]

-vm
/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0_51/bin

when IBMIM fails updating

worth checking this note: https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21424419

I just solved an issue of upgrading my RSA install to 8.0.4.1 performing the update as described in that note, which is basically saying to start it as


/path_to/InstallationManager/eclipse# ./IBMIM -vmargs -Dcic.doNotReconcile=true

OSGI / Eclipe / WAS 8

Someone challenged me today into asking: what is OSGI ?

That reminded me that I didn't read enough to better answer this question. For that reason, here's a list of links I make as well to myself and to others curious enough to learn further:

http://www.osgi.org/

http://eclipse.org/osgi/

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/was/features/


and the search for osgi keyword through the ibm's site, which recently got an redesing, which I kinda like:

http://www.ibm.com/search/csass/search?sn=mh&q=osgi&lang=en&cc=us&en=utf

happy reading !

WAS 8 for Developers - yes it's free

It might be that IBM's announcements are not targeting prospective customers or students that much, since I do encounter people saying WAS is not free to use for development and learning activities.

Yes it is, go get it: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/downloads/ws/wasdevelopers/index.html

IBM WebSphere clip

Didn't knew WebSphere emerged in 1998, the year I started my career in IT.

However, WebSphere is currently laying around in most IBM products, across all IBM brands. Such examples I'm aware of: WebSphere Portal, WebSphere Process Server, Tivoli Access Manager, DB2 CM, FileNet.

One good piece of technology which worth the learning effort. Java developers will eventually hit some WebSphere install to code against. And when they do, they usually have a steeper learning curve, where is the point to guide them towards InfoCenters and Redbooks :)

update: right, just related to above paragraph, any java dev can use it, for fun or business.

was recommended readings

I just found this list of developerworks articles and redbooks:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/techarticles/0305_issw/recommendedreading.html

Something struck me on the article: "Date: Dec 2010 (Published 25 Feb 2003)" ... pretty impressive, isn't it ?

I'll parse the list, could it be something I didn't knew ? :)

ibm's java troubleshooting blog

pass on the news. Via this Dave Hay's post, I found out about the new IBM's JVM related blog

Be it WebSphere or Tivoli line of products, all of them embeds WebSphere App Server, thus IBM's JVM. Do you work on something WebSphere or Tivoli ? You work on IBM's JVM.

For me, I'll follow the blog to see who to contact internally at the next big performance issue :) Finding expertise even when you're on IBM's internal network is no easy thing to do. With 400.000 people, go figure ...

partnumber zip files from Passport IBM SW Catalog

Scenario: suppose you are a new IBM customer. Or, suppose you work for an IBM Business Partner. Either way, suppose you have access to the SW Catalog Downloads of IBM. And you want to get your brand new packages for WebSphere Portal. Version 6.1, Extended. And final supposition: you want to download and install/test Portal on Linux, then on AIX.

So far, so good. You access the Catalog, search for Portal 6.1 and get a whole bunch (more than 100) of packages to download, worth several tens of GB. Not good.

First piece of advice: search for 'Portal 6.1 for AIX', or 'Portal 6.1 for Linux'. Do not search for 'Portal 6.1 for Windows' :) Portal on Win is not a good choice, and this comes from experience ... boinc ...

But, before cursing IBM for tens of partnumbers instead of a clean *.tar file containing all you need, think about this:

- Your IBM software runs on 10 platforms (you'll count them below)
- You are just about one of IBM's several thousands customers, and IBM needed a way to package SW for below 10 platforms.
- Have some patience and I'll explain in short my revelation, so you'll find it a little more comfortable to download and prepare your packages.
- I think IBM has special services attending the needs for packaging. So if you want DVD's with everything packed and ready to go, search and call these IBM services.

Following are my considerations:
- Download the partnumbers files and keep them as they are.
- Because some of these are mixed and contains components for different platforms. You need C1U2WML.zip for Linux and for AIX as well.

Before the final consideration, I'd say that RTFM, occasionally, is useful. At least, seems to me that InfoCenter (for Portal) gets better and fills new and useful information, not only for the current version but for previous versions as well.

- In InfoCenter you'll (re)discover how to organize and unpack these partnumbers zips in order to perform your install for either AIX or Linux, as you wish. And here comes the quote:

"Copy CD content to a file server
This option has the following benefits and is best if installing on multiple machines:
Installing from a network drive may be faster than from a CD-ROM drive; review your network and hardware options to determine the best choice
The installation program finds the CDs it needs
Perform the following steps to copy CD content to a file server:
1. Create a directory for the product; for example, /wpversion_number
2. Copy the contents of each CD into its own directory; for example:
/wpversion_number/OS_code-Setup
/wpversion_number/OS_code-1
/wpversion_number/OS_code-2

The operating system codes are:
AIX (32-bit and 64-bit) = A
HP-UX (32-bit) = H
HP-UX (64-bit) = HI
i5/OS = I
Intel Linux (32-bit and 64-bit) = IL
PowerPC Linux (32-bit and 64-bit) = PL
zLinux (64-bit) = ZL
Solaris (32-bit and 64-bit) = SS
Solaris (64-bit) = SO
Windows (32-bit and 64-bit) = W
Note: (UNIX only) After copying the content, set read and execute permissions for users doing the installation. "

And final thought: how would you organize SW packages and different components (WAS, WASND, Forms, Sametime, Edge Components, TDS, and all other stuff coming into Portal Extended) for 10 platforms ? What if you want to offer another dimension, like Server, Enable and finally Extended ? hmmm ... tough, ain't it ?

Would you go for each platform to offer a single *.tar or *.zip ? If so, you'd multiply the storage to host this amount of space by 10. And what about the three licensing options ? ... even tougher ...

So, you need modular approach. Here you go, you've got your modules. They're the partnumber zip files :)

websphere diagnostics starters

for those of you starting to mock with the WebSphere performance issues, start by understanding the underlying IBM JVM which is by default used in all WebSphere products. There's a 'java diagnostics guide' for each version. The same is true for SUN's virtual machine, but here's the link to the IBM's diagnostics guides:

Diagnosis Documentation

when in doubt, check the source

sorry for the absence. I've been busy. Now that I somehow managed to get into the winter holidays, though some would have argued (I really didn't knew until yesterday that I will be able to take this vacation), I have a little story to share.

It's about the source of not some genius program. And not Domino. But WebSphere. Actually, the startup script of a WebSphere. startServer.sh

I learn all the time. And I lost a day, just to figure out the difference between AIX and Linux, or between WAS5 and WAS6 (does not matter) with regard to above mentioned script.

How do I start a WAS server, named server1:

AIX / WAS6:
> pwd
/
>/usr/ibm/websphere/appserver/startServer.sh server1
starting ......

So you see, I got used to call the startup script on AIX (or WAS6) from no matter what location in the file-system.

Guess what: on a Linux customer, or perhaps because they are still using WAS5, this didn't worked :) It just happened it didn't worked when I was following a federation operation. And failed. And questions came, because it threw errors about input/output/redirection files not being there, not accessible, not having permissions. Did I do something wrong with the federation, did I not set some parameters .... what happened ? Try again, scratch the head, then again, then the day was lost.

Next day:
Environment for WAS is loaded with setupCmdLine.sh script. Errors because the environment not loaded. OK. WHY ?

Answer:
because startServer.sh needs to run on Linux from the /bin folder of WAS, so it can find the setupCmdLine.sh script

So, above sequence of starting:
Linux / WAS5:
> pwd
/
>cd /bin
>./startServer.sh server1
starting ......

And I found this only after actually looking into the startServer.sh script, just to see that it does a 'dirname' command and expects to load the WAS environment, otherwise default OS JAVA is used, which gets errors not even close to the actual problem.

So, if such a thing happens to you, check the source :)

piece of Portal 6.0.x I learned today

sometimes I have to dig/test/dig some more/test again/curse a little/ to get something done with this piece of Portal.
But when it's done, it's done. And little lessons can be added to this blog :)

So, what did I learned today ? That you actually need to perform a check-out/check-in ant tasks for WMM (WebSphere Member Manager) in order to have your changes effective.

I wanted to change the LDAP login attribute from 'cn' to 'uid' for a Portal Cluster install I'm working with right now. So I found this note:

Which is pretty explanatory, except for the fact that it didn't said you need to do these steps, in order:

> ./WPSconfig.sh check-out-wmm-cfg-files-from-dmgr

within /wmm/wmm.xml, change userSecurityNameAttribute from "cn" to "uid".

> ./WPSconfig.sh check-in-wmm-cfg-files-to-dmgr

Of course that's not all the story, but the part dealing with WMM should at least be listed as above. Which reminds me how poor these Infocenters are designed. All the information is there, but in pieces scattered within hundred of pages.

hmmm ...

LTPA between WebSeal and WebSphere Portal

As usually, I find things on my own, the hard way. If you are trying to set-up LTPA SSO between the WebSeal reverse proxy controlled by TAM and WebSphere Portal, check this technote: http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21198736

What are they trying to say in above article, is that if you use 'WPSConfig enable-security-wmmur-ldap', you'd better be aware that LTPA keys exported from Portal's WAS in order to be imported in other places (Domino, WebSeal, whatever) needs a modification:

from com.ibm.websphere.ltpa.Realm=null to com.ibm.websphere.ltpa.Realm=WMMRealm

If you want to change this permanently, then follow the article to set that property to WMMRealm for good, so that other exports of LTPA keys from WAS would keep it in the file.

If we're on the subject, be aware as well that accessing WebSphere Portal through WebSeal is done via:
http://{webseal_host}/{junction}/wps/myportal

instead of the default Portal url:

http://{portal_host}:port/wps/portal

Once you get through WebSeal, you need to access the private place of the Portal, which is /myportal, by default. If you are accessing /portal, you're prompted for login, even though you're already authenticated.

fixing was and portal (continued)

following my previous post on this topic, the following story is something we found by trial and error actions at a customer site. Actually, the story is about what to do in order to make sure that fixes are applied successfully on WebSphere Portal 6.0.x

We'll see if this process has been improved in WebSphere Portal 6.1, when it will be out and I will get the opportunity to play with it.

So, turns out that you'd be better applying e-fixes by hand, manually, one by one, from the command line. Forget the Java Wizard of UpdateInstaller for Portal, and forget the fix-packs, for instance the installing script for fix-pack 6.0.1.3 which is supposed to apply about 100 patches does not get the job done, properly. This is because fix-pack is trying to start/stop/start/stop the Portal itself several times and probably it gets something wrong on the way.

As such, load yourself with patience, plan for 2 man/day effort and proceed as following:
1. Get all your fixes from Fix Central site. Usually, if using IBM's DownloadDirector, you'll have several zip files downloaded on your folder.
2. Get the Portal UpdateInstaller, unzip it and place it under . On my install, I have this under d:\ibm\WebSphere\PortalServer\UpdateInstaller
3. Create your fix folder as in d:\ibm\WebSphere\PortalServer\fix
4. Then, do the following: read each of the fixpack readme :) Yes, really, do that :) Because some have other fixes as required for successful installation, then you might need to run for certain fixes commands like 'WPSconfig.bat apply-pk35496'
5. So, if you decide to apply a fix, copy its jar file into the d:\ibm\WebSphere\PortalServer\fix folder.
6. Decide how many fixes you want to apply, copy their jar files into the fix folder, making sure required other fixes are already applied or installed in the same run of UpdateInstaller.bat
7. The command line to apply a set of fixes is, from the UpdateInstaller folder, as seen below:

D:\ibm\WebSphere\PortalServer\UpdateInstaller>updatePortal.bat -install -installDir "d:\ibm\WebSphere\PortalServer" -fix -fixDir "d:\ibm\WebSphere\PortalServer\fix" -fixes PK35276 PK37018 PK32211 PK32501 PK32562 PK32570 PK32573 PK32626 PK33082 PK33379 PK33783 PK34220 PK34611 PK34624 PK34828 PK35170 PK35496

Happy patching :)

little story about wmm_cfg.xml:512

Guess how did I spend the last three days ? I tried to get passed the WebSphere Portal Installation Wizard on Windows, on subsequent attempts to install it on my machine.

After the first successful install, I upgraded to 6.0.1.3, but I had the impression that Portal is hanging on the Internationalization service. This was not the case as it turned out, I still have to figure why Portal is spending almost 15 minutes to this point, when starting. But this is another story, I'm working on it :)

So I said, I upgraded without thinking, my Portal is not starting. OK ! Let's approach the Microsoft way of doing things ! uninstall, then reinstall !

Uninstall from Add/Remove ... waiting another hour or so .... then delete everything under d:\ibm\ (didn't deleted the ibm folder and this is the trick which perhaps is the explanation why I failed) .... reboot the machine, start over, wait another 2 hours or so for the Wizard .... and bang ! the error message that script wmm_cfg.xml:512 line didn't executed.

hmmm .... start searching on net .... some other folks complained about the same error, but could not found an explanation.

good. ok, this happens from time to time. I found that Portal actually was installed but at that moment it was trying to enable global security on WAS. I tried manually with WPSConfig, I managed to do it but I had no idea what password it had set on cloudscape, so I lost all access to WAS and Portal :)

So, instead of mocking around with it (I think I'm getting older for this), I started again, with the wizard, but this time I made sure I deleted ALL the installation path. That is, including the ibm folder.

And, to my surprise, this time it got through. The installation wizard for the Portal showed the 'successful message'.

And here comes the thing: appears that this wizard wants to create the install path by itself (as d:\ibm existed when it failed). I don't have another explanation.

fixing was and portal

since I declared that IBM outpaced MS at efixes and fixes for WebSphere and Portal, let's see how do we apply these fixes. Until an equiv "Tools\Windows Update" will be made available for WAS/Portal, applying fixes has to be done manually.

Fortunately, for V6.x version there are two UpdateInstaller programs which should do most of the stuff:
- one UpdateInstaller is for WAS and is usually located into WAS install_path. If it's not, you need to download and install it.
- the second UpdateInstaller is for Portal itself, and make note this is different from the WAS's one, even if we do have the same name.

You most likely need an X server of Unix machines, though I think there are possible solutions to apply fixes from the command line. Still, the UpdateInstaller is a Java app, so you'd be better with an X server on your Unix (use export DISPLAY=your_ip:0.0 if your X is not running on the box).

I will not go into further details, as you need to carefully evaluate your current version of Java, WAS and Portal. I am saying that using WAS UpdateInstaller you can update both Java and WAS on your server, while Portal UpdateInstaller updates your Portal install.

A very useful link is now the Fix Central site, which requires your IBM id.

Instructions for each of fix applied need to be carefully evaluated. For instance, you cannot just upgrade to Portal 6.0.1.3 :) You need to upgrade your Java, then WAS to a certain version, if you want to be successful.

What did I said about similarity between this and the good old days of MS, when one patch depended on another ? :) Here's an area needing improvement on our side ...

first lesson of portal architecture

the first thing that struck me: Edge Components Caching Proxy (CP) is so ignored into our customers solutions, here in .ro

Even when looking and searching for resources world-wide I seem to have a hard time finding any good resources of people trying stuff and sharing with community ...

I am not into the sales/licensing stuff, but I think that any license of WebSphere Portal comes with entitlement to install/use the Caching Proxy.

So, why do I see so ignorance for this product which actually enhance the Portal performance ? How did I see this ? On my own experience, and here's how I saw it:
On my laptop (with 3GB RAM, well..) I installed two Linux virtual machines:
- one has Portal 6.1.0.3
- the other one has IBM HTTP Server with WAS plugin, plus the Edge Caching Proxy. IHS responds on 8080, CP responds on 80 and forward all traffic to IHS.

After I finished the setup (it took me a long time due to other stuff I am dealing with), I noticed a boost in Portal performance when accessed through the Caching Proxy. I mean, the performance is crystal clear visible when accessing: http://my_host_name:8080/wps/portal (without CP), versus http://my_host_name:80/wps/portal (with CP)

And, by no means I am an expert into Caching Proxy stuff, not just yet.
Sure, Portal has several layers of caching, out of which DynaCache is/can/should be used programatically by developers, but usually developers don't bother with it. Or, our developers here in .ro don't bother ...

So, when architectural decisions are in my hand, I am not going without a CP, set-up and used as a reverse proxy for the Portal. I think it should be installed whenever you get the chance, it finally looks good for the Portal solution itself.

more details to come, as I will learn more :)

websphere virtual portal and websphere content manager (WCM)

As I said before, administration of the portal is a pain :)

scenario: you create a virtual portal and want to use WCM.
symptom: no WCM authoring portlets on your new virtual portal. What to do ?
solution: using xmlaccess.sh (for *nix), do this:
>cd PortalInstall/bin
>./xmlaccess.sh -url http://PortalHost:10038/wps/config/VirtualPortalContextURL -in ../wcm/deploy/DeployWcmAuthoringPortletAndPage.xml

where:
PortalInstall for Linux is usually /opt/IBM/WebSphere/PortalServer/
PortalHost could be localhost ar your Portal hostname
10038 is the SOAP port for accessing the configuration of the Portal. Could be different in your environment
VirtualPortalContextURL is the URL context of your virtual portal.