A First Look at Solution Installation for Autonomic Computing

A First Look at Solution Installation for Autonomic Computing

by Bart Jacob, Sudipto Basu, Amit Tuli, Patricia Witten
Released July 2004
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: None

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Book description

This IBM Redbooks publication provides a first look at the Solution Installation capability that is a key component of the IBM Autonomic Computing initiative. Autonomic computing technologies enable complex computing systems to be self-configuring, self-healing, self-optimizing, and self-protecting. One aspect of this is the ability to automate the change management processes associated with deploying and managing software required for business solutions.

The Solution Installation technologies that are described are evolving and will be enhanced over time. This publication provides the reader with an opportunity to understand the underlying concepts and facilities. This publication is based on Version 1.2 of the Solution Installation toolkit and describes both architectural concepts as well as specific examples that apply to the current version. We attempt to make clear when a key architectural concept is not fully implemented at this time.

Readers of this book will gain an understanding of the basic concepts, and how the architecture described will provide business value as it becomes fully implemented and utilized by IBM and other software vendors.

Please note that the additional material referenced in the text is not available from IBM.

Table of contents

  1. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  2. Preface
    1. The team that wrote this redbook
    2. Become a published author
    3. Comments welcome
  3. Chapter 1: Autonomic computing
    1. What is autonomic computing
      1. Guiding principles
    2. Autonomic computing concepts
      1. Managed resources
      2. Autonomic manager
    3. Value of autonomic computing
      1. Software vendors
      2. Enterprises
    4. Core capabilities
      1. Solution Installation
      2. Common systems administration
      3. Problem determination
      4. Autonomic monitoring
      5. Complex analysis
      6. Policy-based management
      7. Heterogeneous workload management
    5. Summary
  4. Chapter 2: Introduction to Solution Installation
    1. Software install complexities
    2. Solution Installation basics
      1. Concepts and components
      2. Descriptors
      3. Change manager
      4. Dependency checker
      5. Installation database (Registry)
      6. Touchpoints
      7. Installation program
    3. Flow and relationship between components
    4. Who can/should use it and how
    5. Solution Installation contents
      1. Obtaining the toolkit
      2. Toolkit contents
      3. Current capabilities and limitations
    6. Summary
  5. Chapter 3: Descriptors and artifacts
    1. Introduction to deployment descriptors
      1. Schema file overview
      2. Deployment descriptor structure
      3. Root installable unit
      4. Installable unit elements
      5. IUDefinition (1/2)
      6. IUDefinition (2/2)
      7. Variables element
      8. Unit element
      9. Topology element
      10. RootInfo element
      11. File and files elements
      12. Feature element
      13. Installation groups
      14. Updates and fixes
    2. Media descriptor
      1. Media descriptor information
    3. Artifacts
      1. Action artifacts
      2. Configuration artifacts
    4. Summary
  6. Chapter 4: Solution Installation operations
    1. Operations
    2. Operations usage
    3. Summary
  7. Chapter 5: Touchpoints and hosting environments
    1. Hosting environments
    2. Touchpoint interfaces
    3. Touchpoint portTypes
      1. portTypes for all touchpoints
      2. Operating system touchpoint
      3. WebSphere cell touchpoint
    4. Summary
  8. Chapter 6: Creating an installation program
    1. Basic flow
      1. Common terms
      2. Installation process
    2. Writing a custom installer
      1. Checking the environment as defined by the software package
      2. Obtaining user input and overriding default values
      3. Obtaining and validating the dependencies of the package
      4. Installing the package
      5. Registering the installable units
    3. Interfacing with ChangeManager and other classes
      1. com.ibm.ac.si.mr.MediaInfo
      2. com.ibm.ac.si.checker.DependencyChecker
      3. com.ibm.ac.si.checker.CheckerUtil
      4. com.ibm.ac.si.checker.PropertySelection
      5. com.ibm.ac.si.checker.SoftwareSelection
      6. com.ibm.ac.si.instances.ParameterOverrides
      7. com.ibm.ac.si.selections.FeatureSelectionInput
      8. com.ibm.ac.si.instances.SoftwareInstance
      9. com.ibm.ac.si.cm.CreateOperation
      10. com.ibm.ac.si.cm.DeleteOperation
      11. com.ibm.ac.si.cm.ChangeRequest
      12. com.ibm.ac.si.cm.IChangeManager
    4. Sample installation program
      1. Manifest files
      2. Installation program (1/2)
      3. Installation program (2/2)
      4. Setup of installation program
    5. Feature selection example
      1. Manifest files (1/2)
      2. Manifest files (2/2)
      3. Installation program
      4. Payload
      5. Response file
      6. Execution
      7. Output
    6. Summary
  9. Chapter 7: Creating and finalizing the installation package
    1. Components of a package
    2. Conventions to arranging files in a package
      1. root(/) directory
      2. META-INF sub-directory
      3. FILES sub-directory
    3. Types of package bundles
      1. Fixed-size removable media
      2. Single zip file
      3. Self-extractable single executable
      4. Network download
      5. Combination of formats
    4. Summary
  10. Chapter 8: Step-by-step example
    1. Installation objectives
      1. Prerequisites of the package
      2. Folder structure
      3. Features
      4. Payload files
    2. Creating the descriptors and artifacts
      1. Deployment descriptor
      2. Artifact files
    3. Installation program
    4. Packaging
    5. Running the sample
    6. Summary
  11. Appendix A: Additional material
    1. Locating the Web material
    2. Using the Web material
      1. System requirements for downloading the Web material
      2. How to use the Web material
  12. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Online resources
    3. How to get IBM Redbooks
    4. Help from IBM
  13. Index (1/2)
  14. Index (2/2)
  15. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: A First Look at Solution Installation for Autonomic Computing
  • Author(s): Bart Jacob, Sudipto Basu, Amit Tuli, Patricia Witten
  • Release date: July 2004
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: None