Installing Older Versions on WebSphere

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The official documentation is at: http://docs.alfresco.com

Installation2.1

This information applies to Alfresco Version 2.1. For current versions see Installing on WebSphere.

Table of Contents

• 1 Important Note!


• 2 Alfresco 2.1 on WebSphere 6.1
  
  
  
  • 2.1 Introduction
  
  
  • 2.2 Configuration
  
  
  • 2.3 Enabling WCM
  
  
  • 2.4 Work around for issues loading libraries bundled with the JRE
  
  
  • 2.5 Known JDK issues
  
  
  • 2.6 Known / Old / Resolved issues
  
  

Important Note!

Websphere is not currently tested or certified for use with Alfresco Enterprise (see http://www.alfresco.com/services/support/stacks/ for the full list of supported stacks).

Alfresco 2.1 on WebSphere 6.1

Introduction

This page is a guide to installing Alfresco 2.1 on WebSphere 6.1 running on Fedora Core 6 and to track the current issues. Some issues will be common to installation on other platforms.
Note, the same instructions are valid for Windows platforms too.

The WAS documentation can be found at http://www-306.ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/was/library.

Configuration

1. Add the jar to support your database connection to {WebSphereInsatllDir}/{AppServerName}/lib.
   
2. Install Alfresco webapp using the Websphere console.
   
3. Set the Classloader properties for the Alfresco Enterprise Application to be:
   
   • Classes loaded with the application class loader first
     
   • Single class loader for application
     
4. Create a Shared Library reference for the Database Connector in the Websphere console
   
   • Enterprise Application -> alfresco_war page
     
   • References - Shared Library references link
     
   • tick the alfresco... app, then click the Reference Shared Libraries button
     
   • click New to create a new shared lib ref
     
   • give it a name, and in the classpath section add the full path to the Database's JDBC jars
     
5. Modify the Java Heap size so that you don't get any out of memory problems
   
   • Servers -> Application Servers -> Server1 -> Process Definition (in Java and Process Management) -> Java Virtual Machine
     
   • Set min and max heap sizes
     
   • Can also set -XX:MaxPermSize=128m (or any other value) in the Generic JVM Args field.
     
6. Rename / remove the xml-apis.jar file from the deployed Alfresco application's WEB-INF/lib dir
   
   • this resolves conflicts with the Enterprise License component of Alfresco
     
7. The Alfresco extension files should be placed in one of the paths included in the 'ws.ext.dirs' setting.
   
   • e.g. {WebSphereInsatllDir}/{AppServerName}/lib.
     
   • The file structure would then look like: {WebSphereInsatllDir}/{AppServerName}/lib/alfresco/extension
     

If configured correctly, the alfresco.log will contain a warning that both the MyFaces and RI implementations of JSF have been found on the classpath.

Enabling WCM

You will need the WCM bootstrap context on the class path.

Copy root/projects/installer/wcm-bootstrap-context.xml to {WebSphereInsatllDir}/{AppServerName}/lib/alfresco/extension or some other suitable location on the classpath.

Work around for issues loading libraries bundled with the JRE

Edit /etc/sysconfig/selinux

Make sure SELINUX is set to disabled ....

SELINUX=disabled

Reboot

Your class loading issues should be solved

Known JDK issues

There have been issues with nio not writing content to the index info files.
This has been seen on AIX and now FC6 in vmware. Others have not seen this issue.

There are some details on the forums.

This seems to be down to the JDK.

Upgrading to WAS 6.1.0.7 and then upgrading the embedded JRE seems to have resolved this issue. This updates to 1.5.0 SR4. The unit test seem to be fine with 1.5.0 SR3.

Known / Old / Resolved issues

WCM

Mixed JSTL and JSP pages may be broken e.g the end of the create web site wizard

MyFaces

Using default deployment configurations there can be clashes with the MyFaces libs. There are at least four solutions

1. Follow the steps documented above!
   
2. Follow the IBM guide to use myfaces using a shared library http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21243668
   
3. Configure class loading to use the application libraries first. There is no need to copy files to {WebSphereInsatllDir}/{AppServerName}/lib or delete jsf files from the war.
   
4. Following the myfaces guide to installation on WAS and articles oni the forum. See  http://wiki.apache.org/myfaces/Websphere_Installation?highlight=%28websphere%29 and the forum discussion http://forums.alfresco.com/viewtopic.php?t=6659.
   
   • Copy the following files from the alfresco distribution (alfresco.war /WEB_INF/lib in the alfresco war) to {WebSphereInsatllDir}/{AppServerName}/lib. I also fixed all the jar permissions to match those already in the lib area.
     
     • commons-beanutils-1.7.0.jar
       
     • commons-codec-1.3.jar
       
     • commons-collections-3.1.jar
       
     • commons-digester-1.6.jar
       
     • commons-el.jar
       
     • commons-lang-2.1.jar
       
     • jstl-1.1.0.jar
       
     • myfaces-api-1.1.5.jar
       
     • myfaces-impl-1.1.5.jar
       
   • Note, there seems to be no need to copy the files below into {WebSphereInsatllDir}/{AppServerName}/lib. WAS includes an embedded version of  xalan and modified javax.xml.* in deploy.jar.
     
     • serializer.jar
       
     • xalan.jar
       

If configured correctly, the alfresco.log will contain a warning that both the MyFaces and RI implementations of JSF have been found on the classpath.

AJAX clashes between Websphere and Alfresco

• Rename / remove the ajax.jar files from Websphere (or follow the steps above!)
  

WAS related fix ups

1. WAS includes its own modifications to commons logging. So it is necessary to remove WEB-INF\lib\commons-logging.jar (or follow the steps above!)
   

Logging

Configure logging. After removing the logging jar alfresco specific logs are  reported but there is a bit too much logging from other embedded areas.