Before installing

Prerequisites

1. Check the Release notes for late-breaking issues.
2. Install all the required fixes for WebSphere® Application Server that are listed in the IBM® Connections Software Requirements web page. If you are migrating from an earlier release or updating a release, verify that you have upgraded to the supported versions of all required software and all required fixes. Requirements have changed since the previous release.
3. If you previously installed IBM® Installation Manager (IIM), update it to the prerequisite version listed in the software requirements. For more information, go to the IBM® Installation Manager updates web page.
   Note: Use the same user account to install IBM® Installation Manager and IBM® Connections.
4. Plan which of three deployment options makes the most sense for your IBM® Connections implementation. For more information about these options, Refer to the Deployment options topic.
   Note: The IBM® Connections installation process supports the creation of new server instances and clusters. Do not use existing clusters to deploy IBM® Connections.
5. Complete the Pre-installation tasks.
6. Install IBM® WebSphere® Application Server Network Deployment (Application Server option) on each node. IBM® Connections is installed on the system where WebSphere® Application Server Deployment Manager is installed. For more information, see the Installing IBM® WebSphere® Application Server topic.
   Restriction: If you plan to install Connections Content Manager as part of this deployment, make sure that you do NOT configure WebSphere Application Server to use Java 8 now. Switching to Java 8 must be done after completing Connections installation and all other post-installation tasks.
7. Back up the profile_root/Dmgr01 directory.
8. Configure WebSphere® Application Server to communicate with the LDAP directory. For more information, see the Setting up federated repositories topic.
9. Prepare directories to use as content stores. You need to provide shared content stores on network share devices and local content stores on each node. Both shared and local content stores must be accessible using the same path from all nodes and from the Deployment Manager.
10. Set the system clocks on the Deployment Manager and the nodes to within 1 minute of each other. If these system clocks are further than 1 minute apart, you might experience synchronization errors.
11. Copy the JDBC files for your database type to the Deployment Manager (DM) and then from the DM to each node. Place the copied files in the same location on each node as their locations on the DM. If, for example, you copied the db2jcc4.jar file from the C:\IBM\SQLLIB directory on the DM, place the copy in the C:\IBM\SQLLIB directory on each node.
12. If IBM Docs clusters are running, shut them down.

• If you want to enable IBM® Connections Content Manager with an existing FileNet® deployment, make sure the FileNet® server is ready before installing IBM® Connections.
• If you are going to use a trusted SSL certificate, ensure it is available before you begin the installation.
• If you do not plan to deploy IBM® Cognos® Business Intelligence now to support Metrics, you can still install the Metrics application along with the other IBM® Connections applications. This enables Connections to begin collecting event data immediately and store it in the Metrics database for migration to Elasticsearch later, when it is available to provide reports..
• (Microsoft™ Windows™) You must use an administrator account to install IBM® Connections on Windows™. If you are installing on Windows™ Server 2008, you must use a local administrator account. If you use a domain administrator account, the installation might fail.

Linux™ and AIX® considerations

• (Linux™ only) If you receive an error message after attempting to start IBM® Installation Manager, you might need to install additional 32-bit libraries. For more information about required Linux™ libraries, see the Linux™ libraries topic. For more information about IBM® Installation Manager errors, go to the Unable to install Installation Manager on RHEL 6.0/6.1 (64-bit) web page.
• (AIX® and Linux™) Ensure that the directory paths that you enter contain no spaces.
• (AIX®, IBM®i, and Linux™) Ensure that the Open File Descriptor limit is 8192. For information about setting the file limit, go to the Installation error messages topic and search for error code CLFRP0042E.
• (AIX® only) IBM® Installation Manager requires additional libraries for the AIX® operating system. For more information, go to the Required filesets on AIX® for Installation Manager web page.
• (AIX® only) IBM® Installation Manager requires additional 64-bit AIX® libraries to support the graphical user interface. For a complete list of libraries, refer to AIX® libraries.
• (AIX® only) If IBM® Installation Manager hangs while being installed on your system, you might need to update your version of the software. For more information, read the IBM® Installation Manager hangs on 64-bit AIX® systems technote.
• (AIX® only) If you are downloading IBM® Installation Manager, the TAR program available by default with AIX® does not handle path lengths longer than 100 characters. To overcome this restriction, use the GNU file archiving program instead. This program is an open source package that IBM® distributes through the AIX® Toolbox for Linux™ Applications at the IBM® AIX® Toolbox website. Download and install the GNU-compatible TAR package. You do not need to install the RPM Package Manager because it is provided with AIX®.

  After installing the GNU-compatible compression program, change to the directory where you downloaded the IBM® Connections tar file. Enter the following command to extract the files from the file:

  gtar -xvf Lotus_Connections_wizard_aix.tar

  This command creates a directory named after IBM® Installation Manager.

• You can install IBM® Connections with either root or non-root accounts on AIX® and Linux™. For more information, see the Installing as a non-root user topic.