Installing the Enabler for WebSphere Application Server

Prerequisites

  • You are familiar with your particular version of WebSphere. If you are uncertain of how to achieve a particular task, consult your version specific WebSphere documentation.
  • A Silver Fabric broker is running with at least one engine installed, and that you have the broker's hostname, a username, and password for the Silver Fabric Administration Tool. If this is not true, see the TIBCO Silver Fabric Installation Guide, or contact your administrator.
  • For the latest prerequisites required for this enabler, see the included TIBCO Silver Fabric Enabler for IBM WebSphere Application Server Readme file.
  • You are aware of the most basic IBM WebSphere concepts. For more information about IBM WebSphere concepts, see the "Understanding WebSphere concepts" topic in IBM documentation.

Procedure

  1. Get the required Grid Libraries for the installation.
    You need the Silver Fabric Enabler for WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere Distribution, and IBM SDK 8 gridlibrary (optional). The enabler contains configuration details for the WebSphere Application Server, and the distribution is a package that contains the application server binaries used by the enabler.
    Enabler grid libraries are downloaded from the TIBCO download site: edelivery.tibco.com.
    Note that distribution grid libraries are not provided by TIBCO. For information about how to create a distribution grid library, see section Creating Distribution Grid Libraries
    The required Grid Libraries for each version of the WebSphere are listed as follows:
    WebSphere Version Required Grid Libraries

    8.5.0

    TIB_websphere_8.5-platform-distribution-gridlib.zip

    TIB_sfws_6.0.0_websphere_dm_enabler.tar.gz

    TIB_sfws_6.0.0_websphere_enabler.tar.gz

    ibm-j2sdk-platform-1_6_0-gridlib.zip

    ibm-j2sdk-platform-1_7_0-gridlib.zip

    8.5.5

    TIB_websphere_8.5.5-platform-distribution-gridlib.zip

    TIB_sfws_6.0.0_websphere_dm_enabler.tar.gz

    TIB_sfws_6.0.0_websphere_enabler.tar.gz

    ibm-j2sdk-platform-1_6_0-gridlib.zip

    ibm-j2sdk-platform-1_7_0-gridlib.zip and

    ibm-j2sdk-platform-1_8_0-gridlib.zip

    To run the enabler on multiple platforms, you must deploy a platform specific IBM SDK grid library. The variable platform in the preceding table indicates the Operating System on which the Silver Fabric Engine running the WebSphere Component is installed.

    Silver Fabric Enabler for WebSphere Application Server version 8.5.0 supports Java 6 and Java 7. Silver Fabric Enabler for WebSphere Application Server version 8.5.5 supports Java 6, Java 7 and Java 8. Please note that, WebSphere Application Server version 8.5.5 does not work with Java 6 on Windows Platform, if used with SSL configuration. It works only with Java 7 and Java 8 in that case.

  2. Copy the desired WebSphere grid library files to the SF_HOME/webapps/livecluster/deploy/resources/gridlib directory in the following order:
    • Distribution
    • IBM SDK grid library
    • Enabler
    Note: Copying the grid library files to this directory also extracts them to the expanded directory SF_HOME/webapps/livecluster/deploy/expanded/. This overwrites any changes to the existing Grid Library in the staging directory.

    TIBCO Silver® Fabric installs into a directory within TIBCO_HOME. This directory is referenced in documentation as SF_HOME. The default value of SF_HOME depends on the operating system. For example on Windows systems, the default value is C:\tibco\fabric. TIBCO_HOME refers to a common location where TIBCO products are installed.

    If engines running the WebSphere Application Server instances are configured to use alternate shared grid library locations, those engines must have write access to a directory named 'temp_jars' at the same level as that of the alternate gridlibray location directory. For more information about the use of an alternate shared grid library location, see “Resource Synchronization” in the TIBCO Silver Fabric Installation Guide.

  3. To verify successful installation, select Stacks > Enablers in the Silver Fabric Administration tool and ensure that the enabler is displayed in the list.
    Note:

    To use Java version 1.7 or higher, you must set the JDK_VERSION runtime variable first. Also, the IBM 1.7 or higher Java SDK is not available for every platform supported by Silver Fabric. See IBM’s web site for availability.