WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Administration and Configuration Guide for the Full Profile

1002 WebSphere Application Server V8.5 Administration and Configuration Guide for the Full Profile

29.1 The centralized installation manager prerequisites

To avoid issues when using the centralized installation manager, ensure that your platform

satisfies the requirements listed in this section.

29.1.1 Linux and UNIX target requirements

The centralized installation manager, through RXA, uses SSH Version 2 to access UNIX and

Linux target workstations. This usage requires using either OpenSSH 3.6.1 (or, if accessing

AIX targets, OpenSSH 4.7) or Sun SSH 1.1 on the target hosts.

Note that OpenSSH 3.7.1, or higher, contains security enhancements not available in earlier

releases, and is recommended.

Using the SSH protocol

RXA does not supply SSH code for UNIX operating systems. You must ensure that SSH is

installed and enabled on any target that you want to access using centralized installation

manager.

In all UNIX environments, except Solaris, the Bourne shell (sh) is used as the target shell. On

Solaris targets, the Korn shell (ksh) is used instead because of problems encountered with sh.

To communicate with Linux and other SSH targets using password authentication, you must

edit the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file on the targets and set the following property:

PasswordAuthentication yes

The default value for the PasswordAuthentication property is no.

After changing this setting, stop and restart the SSH daemon using either of the following

commands sequences:

 stopsrc -s sshd

startsrc -s sshd

 /etc/init.d/sshd stop

/etc/init.d/sshd start

Installing a secure shell public key to access remote targets

UNIX platforms generally support the use of SSH protocol. To use the SSH public/private key

as an authentication method for accessing remote workstations, SSH must be installed and

enabled on the installation target system. On AIX and Linux systems, issue the following

command to ensure that SSH is enabled on the installation target:

ps -e | grep sshd

You can generate an RSA private key and its corresponding public key using the ssh-keygen

command, as shown in the following example:

ssh-keygen t rsa

Using OpenSSH: OpenSSH Version 4.7.0.5302 for IBM AIX Version 5.3 is not compatible

with Remote Execution and Access Version 2.3. If your target systems are running AIX

Version 5.3 with OpenSSH Version 4.7.0.5302 installed, the file transfer might stop in the

middle of the transfer. To avoid this problem, revert the OpenSSH version from Version

4.7.0.5302 to Version 4.7.0.5301

Chapter 29. Managing an environment with the centralized installation manager 1003

Take the default location for storing the private key and make note of it. If you specify a

non-empty string for the passphrase prompt, make sure that you remember the string

because you need it when you want to use the generated private key.

Additionally, you must know the location of the SSH public key file on the deployment

manager and the administrative ID and password for the installation target. This information is

the same administrative ID and password that you use later to install or uninstall software

packages on the same installation target.

29.1.2 Windows target requirements

Many RXA operations require access to resources that are not generally accessible by

standard user accounts. Therefore, the account names that you use to log in to remote

Windows system targets must have administrative privileges.

To ensure that your Windows system targets cooperate with the centralized installation

manager, configure the following components:

 Simple file sharing

 Firewall

 Administrative sharing, if the target is Windows Vista 7 or 2008

For more information about Windows system targets configuration, refer to the following

website:

http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v8r5/topic/com.ibm.websphere.installatio

n.nd.doc/ae/cins_cim_rxa_requirements.html

29.1.3 IBM i targets

Use of SSH public/private key authentication is not supported on IBM i platforms.

For information about the IBM i targets pre-configuration, refer to the following website:

http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v8r5/topic/com.ibm.websphere.installatio

n.nd.doc/ae/tins_cim_gettingstarted.html

29.1.4 Additional requirements

Before using the centralized installation manager to install or uninstall maintenance on IBM

AIX operating systems as a non-root user, you must install and configure

sudo, an

open-source tool, on the target AIX operating systems.

To install and configure sudo, download sudo from the IBM AIX Toolbox for Linux Applications

official download website:

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/software/aix/linux/toolbox/date.html

After sudo is downloaded, log on to the target system as root and issue the following

command to install sudo:

rpm -i sudo-*.rpm

If your AIX system does not already have

rpm installed, you can download an AIX installp

image for the rpm package manager for IBM POWER® from the following website:

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/software/aix/linux/toolbox/download.html