Upgrading a WebSphere Liberty Profile

Update

Please use these new instructions for CLM/ELM versions 6.0.6.1 and higher.

Original Article

There are several reasons you might need to upgrade your WebSphere Liberty Profile, and doing so is very straight forward. The WebSphere knowledge center provides a lot of detailed information about applying updates. There is one key piece of information you require to be successful, and that is the location on disk where your WebSphere Liberty Profile (WLP) is.

The WebSphere team releases Liberty quarterly and the CLM team tests each release to ensure that it works with the currently supported products.

Note: This is not intended to be exhaustive. It is intended to help you understand the typical cases. The WebSphere documentation and release notes will provide definitive guidance and should be your single point of truth.

WebSphere Liberty Download Package

For end users, WebSphere Liberty can be installed using IBM Installation Manager, or by downloading an archive file. Because the Liberty profile embedded in CLM installations was not originally installed with Installation Manager, you must use an archive file to install a new version.

As explained in Installing Liberty by using downloaded archives, there are both Java jar archives and zip archives available. However, only jar archives contain the correct configuration of Liberty features required by CLM. Therefore, you must use the jar archive format.

Installing Liberty by extracting a Java archive file has links to where Liberty fixpacks can be downloaded from (IBM Fix Central and Passport AdvantageŽ online). Recommended updates for WebSphere Application Server also lists the latest available fixes. There are several editions of WebSphere Liberty; the edition that you are entitled to as part of your purchase of CLM is the WebSphere Liberty Core Edition. You should be selecting the wlp-core-all-<fix-pack>.jar archive, described in List of installation Java archive files as "The WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core runtime environment and all Liberty features that apply to the edition" download.

WebSphere Liberty Install Location

By default, we install WebSphere Liberty in the server subfolder under our root CLM installation location. It will look something like this:

<JazzInstallLocation>/server/liberty/wlp

In the remainder of this document, this location is referred to as "the WLP location".

When applying fixes or updates, you need to determine whether you are installing a fixpack (complete Liberty distribution), or an interim fix (typically one or more Liberty features).

Installing a fixpack

A Liberty fixpack is a complete Liberty distribution, which will replace the one embedded in CLM. This will require deleting the old WLP directory and replacing it with a new one. Applying a fix pack to a Liberty Java archive installation documents the general procedure. The basic procedure for Liberty in CLM is:

1. Read the accompanying readme.txt file
2. Stop the Liberty Server(s)
3. Backup the WLP directory
4. Delete the existing WLP directory
5. Execute the Liberty fixpack jar with a Java command, specifying the parent of the WLP location in the CLM installation
6. Start the server

You can use the Java command that is included in the CLM installation to execute the fixpack jar. For example, in a Windows command shell with the working directory set to the server folder in a CLM installation, you could execute a command like this:

> jre\bin\java -jar wlp-core-all-18.0.0.2.jar

After prompts about license terms, the prompt "Target directory for product files?" will be displayed. Enter the parent of the WLP location - that is, just "liberty". Since the shell working directory is the server folder, this will cause the fixpack to be installed in server\liberty\wlp.

Applying an interim fix

Applying an interim fix updates an existing Liberty installation, so it should not be deleted first. It also requires you to execute a Java jar and supply the location of your parent WLP location so the program can move the necessary files into the Liberty Profile. The programs do not provide backup/restore features, so you should always backup your WLP directory before applying interim fixes. Applying an interim fix to a Liberty archive installation documents the general procedure. The basic procedure for Liberty in CLM is:

1. Read the accompanying readme.txt file
2. Stop the Liberty Server(s)
3. Backup the WLP directory
4. Execute the interim fix jar with a Java command, specifying the parent of the WLP location in the CLM installation
5. Start the server with the --clean argument

As in the fixpack case, you can use the Java command that is included in the CLM installation to execute the fixpack jar. For example, in a Windows command shell with the working directory set to the server folder in a CLM installation, you could execute a command like this:

> jre\bin\java -jar 18002-wlp-archive-ifolgh4402.jar

The prompt "Target directory for product files?" will be displayed. Enter the parent of the WLP location - that is, just "liberty". Since the shell working directory is the server folder, this will cause the fix to be applied to the Liberty installation in server\liberty\wlp.

Additional Information

Related topics: Deployment web home

• Installing Liberty by using downloaded archives
• Installing Liberty by extracting a Java archive file
• List of installation Java archive files
• Applying a fix pack to a Liberty Java archive installation
• Applying an interim fix to a Liberty archive installation

External links:

• WebSphere Application Server Liberty knowledge center
• IBM

Additional contributors: Michael Saylor