Installing IBM WebSphere Portal 8

I’ve started experimenting with the new IBM WebSphere Portal 8 (Enable version).  My first adventure that I’d like to share with you was downloading and installing this new version.  I’ve installed previos versions of Portal many, many times starting with version 5.0.  So I jumped onto the IBM website, found the install images and started up the download.

First, the download is bigger than in previous versions.  In previous versions, I downloaded 6 images for a total of around 4gb.  With this version, I had to download 10 images (2 for IBM Installation Manager, 3 for WebSphere, and 5 for Portal Enable) that took up almost 7gb.  I uncompressed all the files into one directory as required, which I called Portal8.

I was installing this on a VMWare server running Windows 2003, which I previously used.  That server had 20gb allocated to it. Well, with Windows taking several gb and the downloaded images expanding to over 8gb, I was under the recommended available disk size for the installation (8gb).  As you’ll see in reading the rest of this port, at this point I should have gone back and checked the system requirements closer.  But I was too excited to start the installation, and unfortunately it takes longer to request a change to VM disk space than I was willing to wait.  I knew that I could run the install from a network drive, but our network seemed really slow for these VMs.

To try to get enough disk space for the install, I decided to install just IBM Installation Manager (IIM) first (146mb on disk), then remove the IIM installation software, which included zip files for all the supported operating systems. On a side note, it would be nice to not have to download all that extra software for Linux, Solaris, zOS, etc. when all I want is a Windows version!  I ended up deleting just enough to get me the available space I needed.

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After installing IIM, I had to point to the repository configurations for WebSphere, Portal, and Enable using IIM’s preferences dialog.  Each repository configuration is in a file in the main directory for these components.

I started the installation through IIM, selected WAS, Portal, and Portal Enable to install, and then selected the WAS fixpacks to install from a list IIM presented to me. Funny thing is, IIM showed me fixpacks for all operating systems, not just the one I was running.

Once I deciphered what was targeted for Windows, I clicked next and encountered my first real problem.  I got this message: “A supported operating system was not detected.”

I immediately went to the info center to look at the system requirements.  Sure enough, Windows 2003 is no longer supported.  Windows 7, Windows 2008, and Windows Vista Enterprise are the only versions supported in WebSphere Portal 8.   I guess I should have read the requirements more closely!  (Yes, I’m laughing at me too.)

So its back to square one.  I’ll request an updated VM from my IT people.  This time, I’ll get more disk space along with the correct operating system.  I’ll also make sure they add more memory as the Info Center says that 4GB is now the minimum amount.

Just so you don’t get stuck in this same situation, I’ve summarized the new requirements here.

For the update to this post, where I actually installed Portal 8, see Part 2!