Running the Installation Program in Silent Mode

The following sections describe how to run the installation program in silent mode:

What Is Silent-Mode Installation?

Silent-mode installation is a way of setting installation configurations only once and then using those configurations to duplicate the installation on many machines. During installation in silent mode, the installation program reads the settings for your configuration from an XML file that you create prior to beginning the installation. The installation program does not display any configuration options during the installation process. Silent-mode installation works on both Windows and Linux systems. Using silent-mode installation implies that you consent to the BEA License Agreement. You neither see a copy of the BEA Software License Agreement nor have any means of accepting the terms of the agreement.

The instructions in this section are based on the assumption that you have already acquired the installation program, either on CD or from the BEA Web site. For more information, see Product Distribution Methods.

Using Silent-Mode Installation: Main Steps

Create a silent.xml file that defines the configuration settings normally entered by a user during an interactive installation process, such as graphical-mode or console-mode installation. For example, values for the BEA Home directory, the product directory, and the components to be installed are supplied in a silent.xml file.

For a detailed procedure, see Creating a silent.xml File for Silent-Mode Installation. For a sample silent.xml file, see Sample silent.xml File for Silent-Mode Installation.

Start the silent-mode installation process using the values specified in the silent.xml file.

For details on starting the installation in silent mode, see Starting the Installation Program.

Important Considerations for Silent-Mode Installation

When you are performing an installation in silent mode, keep in mind the following considerations:

Silent-mode installation requires the same amount of temporary disk space and uses the same temporary storage directories as a standard installation. For more information, see Temporary Disk Space Requirements. The installation program does not alert you if there is not enough space in the temporary directory.
A silent-mode installation takes the same amount of time as a standard installation. At the beginning of a silent-mode installation, an initial installation program window or message is displayed briefly, indicating that the installation has started. No messages are displayed to indicate that the installation is in progress or has completed successfully.
Incorrect entries in the silent.xml file can cause installation failures. To help you determine the cause of a failure, we recommend that you create a log file when you start the installation. For more information, see Generating a Verbose Installation Log.
The XML definition (<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>) must be at the very beginning of the silent.xml file. There cannot be any spaces or line breaks before the XML definition.
You cannot reinstall any BEA product on top of a previously installed version of the same product—in the same BEA Home directory or in the same file location. You can, however, add products and product components to an existing installation. For example, you can install WebLogic Server during one installation, and AquaLogic Service Bus during a separate installation. However, to reinstall the same version of one of the products, you must first uninstall the previously installed instance of it, as described in Uninstalling the Software, or install the new instance in another location.

Creating a silent.xml File for Silent-Mode Installation

When you install your WebLogic Real Time in silent mode, the installation program uses an XML file (silent.xml) to determine which installation options should be implemented. Therefore, before you can run the installation program in silent mode, you must first create a silent.xml file in which you specify the installation options that you want to have invoked.

To create a silent.xml file for use in the silent-mode installation process, follow these steps:

In a supported browser, display the sample silent.xml file for silent-mode installation. The sample file is available later in this chapter. See Sample silent.xml File for Silent-Mode Installation.
Save the sample XML file, with the name silent.xml, in the same directory that contains the installation program.

Note: The XML definition (<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>) must be at the very beginning of the silent.xml file. There cannot be any spaces or line breaks before the XML definition.

In the silent.xml file that you saved on your system, edit the values for the keywords shown in Table 5-1 to reflect your configuration.

Note: You must follow XML guidelines for characters when modifying values. That is, you cannot use characters reserved for use in XML, such as <, >, [, and ].

For this data-value name . . .

Enter the following value . . .

BEAHOME

The full pathname for the BEA Home directory of your choice. For details about the BEA Home directory, see Choosing a BEA Home Directory.

USER_INSTALL_DIR

The full pathname for the directory where you want to install your WebLogic Real Time software. For details, see Choosing a Product Installation Directory.

INSTALL_NODE_MANAGER_SERVICE

(Windows platforms only)

yes to install the WebLogic Server Node Manager as a Windows service. See About Installing Node Manager as a Windows Service.
no to skip the installation of the WebLogic Server Node Manager as a Windows service. The default is no.

Note:

You must have Administrator privileges to install Node Manager as a Windows service.

NODEMGR_PORT

The Node Manager listen port.

If you do not specify a port number, the installer uses the default port 5556.

If the port number is in use, the installer scans for the next available port and assigns it to the Node Manager.

Note: The INSTALL_NODE_MANAGER_SERVICE option must be set to yes.

At the completion of the installation process, the Node Manager is started using the port specified.

INSTALL_MERCURY_PROFILING_TOOLS

true, or yes, to install the Mercury profiling tools. The default is true.
false, or no, to skip the installation of the tools.

Selecting true or yes implies that you consent to the Mercury Tools License Agreement.

Note:

For more information about the Mercury profiling tools, see WebLogic Real Time.

INSTALL_SHORTCUT_IN_ALL_USERS_FOLDER

true, or yes, to create the shortcuts in the All Users folder. The default is true.
false, or no, to create the shortcuts in the local users folder.

The user performing the installation must have Administrator privileges to install the Start menu shortcuts in the All Users folder. For more information, see Administrator Privileges.

COMPONENT_PATHS

Specify the components and subcomponents you want to install on your system:

To install WebLogic Real Time (required), use the following values:

WebLogic Real Time Real Time

To install WebLogic Server (optional), use the following values:

WebLogic Server Server Server Examples Web Server Plug-Ins

Note:

The Web Server Plug-Ins subcomponent is not installed by default with WebLogic Server. You must specify the component/subcomponent combination to install them.

For additional information about entering these values, see Guidelines for Component Selection.

Note:

If you are using the BEA Products installation program for WebLogic Server, you can specify the WebLogic Server components only.

Guidelines for Component Selection

Use the following guidelines when you specify values for the COMPONENT_PATHS data-value name:

When you specify a product component to be installed, all subcomponents that are installed by default in a complete installation are also installed. For example, the following entry installs both WebLogic Server and the examples:

<data-value name="COMPONENT_PATHS" value="WebLogic Server" />

Note:

The Web Server Plug-Ins subcomponent is not installed by default. You must specify the component/subcomponent combination to install them.

To install multiple components, separate the components with a bar (|). Do not leave a space before or after the bar. For example, to install WebLogic Real Time, WebLogic Server, and the subcomponents that are installed by default, enter the following line in the file:

<data-value name="COMPONENT_PATHS" value="WebLogic Real Time|WebLogic 
Server" />

To specify subcomponents, you must specify a component/subcomponent combination for each entry. For example, to install all of the subcomponents of WebLogic Server, including the Web Server Plug-Ins, use the following entry:

<data-value name="COMPONENT_PATHS" value="WebLogic Real Time/Real 
Time|WebLogic Server/Server|WebLogic Server/Server Examples|WebLogic 
Server/Web Server Plug-Ins" />

If you do not include the COMPONENT_PATHS data-value name in the silent.xml file, the complete WebLogic Real Time and WebLogic Server products are installed. The Web Server Plug-ins subcomponent of WebLogic Server is not installed by default.

WARNING:

You can clear the "WebLogic Real Time" component and proceed with only "WebLogic Server" selected. However, selecting only "WebLogic Server" will result in the installation of WebLogic Server with JRockit, but without the WebLogic Real Time sample scripts. If this occurs, run the Uninstall program and manually remove the remaining WebLogic Real Time files. Then repeat the installation procedure, making sure that "WebLogic Real Time" is selected.

Sample silent.xml File for Silent-Mode Installation

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Silent installer option: -mode=silent -silent_xml=C:\bea\silent.xml -->

<!-- Specify values for each data-value name as follows: 
 
     BEAHOME            Complete pathname to the BEA Home directory that 
                        will contain this installation.
 
     USER_INSTALL_DIR   Complete pathname to the product installation 
                        directory in which to install the software.
 
     INSTALL_MERCURY_PROFILING_TOOLS 
                        Optionally install Mercury profiling tools.
                        Possible values are "true","yes","false" 
                        and "no". The default is "true".
 
     INSTALL_NODE_MANAGER_SERVICE  Install Node Manager as a Windows 
                                   service. The default is "no".
                                   Requires Administrator privileges.
 
     NODEMGR_PORT       Node Manager listen port number. If none specified,
                        installer uses default port 5556. 
                        INSTALL_NODE_MANAGER_SERVICE must be set to "yes"
 
     COMPONENT_PATHS    Components and subcomponents to be installed.
                        To install multiple components, separate the components
                        with a bar (|).
                        To install subcomponents, specify a 
                        component/subcomponent combination. For example, 
                        to install Web Server Plug-Ins, 
                        use "WebLogic Server/Web Server Plug-Ins".
 
     INSTALL_SHORTCUT_IN_ALL_USERS_FOLDER   
                        The Windows Start menu folder in which you want the 
                        Start menu shortcuts created.
                        The user performing the installation must have 
                        Administrator privileges to install the shortcuts 
                        in the All Users folder.
                        Possible values:
                        true/yes  The shortcuts are created in 
                                  the All Users folder (default)
                        false/no  The shortcuts are created in 
                                  the local user's folder    
     See the Installation Guide for more information.                --> 
 
<bea-installer> 
  <input-fields>
      <data-value name="BEAHOME"                  value="C:\bea" />
      <data-value name="USER_INSTALL_DIR"         value="C:\bea\realtime10" />
      <data-value name="INSTALL_MERCURY_PROFILING_TOOLS" value="true"/>
      <data-value name="INSTALL_NODE_MANAGER_SERVICE"   value="yes"  />
      <data-value name="NODEMGR_PORT"                   value="5559" />
      <data-value name="COMPONENT_PATHS" value="WebLogic Real Time/Real Time|WebLogic Server/Server|WebLogic Server/Server Examples|WebLogic Server/Web Server Plug-Ins" />
      <data-value name="INSTALL_SHORTCUT_IN_ALL_USERS_FOLDER"   value="yes"/>
</input-fields> 
</bea-installer>

Returning Exit Codes to the Console

When run in silent mode, the installation program generates exit codes that indicate the success or failure of the installation. These exit codes are shown in the following table.

Table 5-2 Exit Codes
Code	Description
0	Installation completed successfully
-1	Installation failed due to a fatal error
-2	Installation failed due to an internal XML parsing error

If you are launching the silent-mode installation process from a script, you can choose to have these exit codes displayed on the console. Listing 5-1 provides a sample command file that invokes the installation program in silent mode and echoes the exit codes to the console from which the script is executed.

What's Next?

By default, WebLogic Platform uses the development license file installed in the BEA Home directory so that you can start using the product immediately. However for WebLogic Real Time 1.0, access to the BEA JRockit 5.0 Deterministic Garbage Collection option requires an additional evaluation or production license key to replace the empty license.bea file in the BEA_HOME/jrockit-realtime1.0_XXX/jre/ directory. For instructions on updating the BEA JRockit license file, see Updating Your BEA JRockit License for the Deterministic Garbage Collector.

The Spring 1.2.6 Framework for BEA is fully supported with WebLogic Platform 1.0 and can be downloaded from the WebLogic Platform Product download page. Spring 1.2.6 is also distributed with the WebLogic Platform CD-ROM kit when the media is ordered. For more information about Spring and WebLogic Real Time, see Introduction to WebLogic Real Time at


 http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E13221_01/wlrt/docs10/wlrt_intro/understa.html

For specific information about your software release, such as using the Configuration Wizard to create a WebLogic Real Time domain, see the appropriate release notes: