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HCL Digital Experience Product Documentation
Welcome to the product documentation for HCL Digital Experience. Find information about how to install, configure, maintain, and use HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend solutions.
HCL Digital Experience 8.5
Learn how to install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain, and use Version 8.5 of HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend.
Installing
HCL Digital Experience provides flexible deployment options that range from proof-of-concept where you can examine and test functionality to a highly available and scalable production environment. Review the planning information to learn more about hardware and software requirements, high availability, scalability, supported topologies, and much more. Select your operating system and then select the installation pattern that most reflects your business needs.
Planning to install HCL Digital Experience
Before you install HCL Digital Experience in a production environment, you need to assess your hardware and software needs, possible database configurations, security options, and LDAP server options. Skipping this important step can lead to unexpected results and costly delays.
Cluster considerations
To increase capacity and availability, multiple portal servers can be clustered with IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment. In a cluster, the portals share a common configuration and the load is distributed evenly across all cluster instances.
Limitations for setting up a cluster
Certain limitations apply when you set up an HCL Portal cluster.

HCL Digital Experience Product Documentation
Welcome to the product documentation for HCL Digital Experience. Find information about how to install, configure, maintain, and use HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend solutions.
- HCL Digital Experience 9.5
- HCL Digital Experience 9.5 [Legacy Content]
- HCL Digital Experience 9.0
  Learn how to install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain, and use Version 9.0 of HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend.
- HCL Digital Experience 8.5
  Learn how to install, configure, troubleshoot, maintain, and use Version 8.5 of HCL Web Content Manager and HCL Portal Server, Enable, and Extend.
  - Overview
    HCL Digital Experience (formerly IBM WebSphere Portal and IBM Web Content Manager) empowers you to create, manage, and deliver engaging omnichannel digital experiences to virtually all audiences with responsive content, targeted offers, seamlessly integrated applications, and consistent branding across channels (web, mobile. and hybrid mobile/web applications and more).
  - Roadmaps to deploy your system
    Review the roadmaps to understand the common deployment, configuration, migration, and integration patterns.
  - Roadmaps to create your website
    Review the roadmaps to understand how to create your website.
  - Online Help
    This Online Help is made available in the HCL Digital Experience Help Center for quick references on how to install, configure, maintain, and use HCL Digital Experience.
  - Installing
    HCL Digital Experience provides flexible deployment options that range from proof-of-concept where you can examine and test functionality to a highly available and scalable production environment. Review the planning information to learn more about hardware and software requirements, high availability, scalability, supported topologies, and much more. Select your operating system and then select the installation pattern that most reflects your business needs.
    - Planning to install HCL Digital Experience
      Before you install HCL Digital Experience in a production environment, you need to assess your hardware and software needs, possible database configurations, security options, and LDAP server options. Skipping this important step can lead to unexpected results and costly delays.
      - System requirements
        Before you install HCL Digital Experience, review the hardware and software requirements to ensure that you have the supported versions of prerequisite and co-requisite software and the required hardware.
      - Program Requirements
      - User IDs and passwords
        Understanding character limitations for user IDs and passwords is important because they are used throughout the system to provide access and secure content. The character limitations provided here apply to the HCL Digital Experience administrator, IBM WebSphere Application Server administrator, database administrator, LDAP server administrator, and user IDs. Database and LDAP servers can have more restrictive limitations than provided here. Therefore, check the database and LDAP server product documentation for restrictions. Failure to correctly define user IDs and passwords during the installation process can result in installation failure. In addition, your company might have more restrictive user ID and password requirements that you must also follow.
      - Web Content Manager environments
        To use a Web Content Manager system, you need to deploy a set of Web Content Manager environments within your overall HCL Portal system. Reviewing the Web Content Manager environments help you understand what happens in each environment and how you might want to set up your physical severs. Web Content Manager is installed by using the HCL Portal installation user interface.
      - Database
        HCL Portal includes an Apache Derby database that is configured and ready for immediate use. As a result, you have a running portal that is ready for exploration or portlet and theme development. But for a production environment or any environment for HCL Web Content Manager, you must use one of the other supported database management systems.
      - User registry considerations
        A user registry or repository authenticates a user and retrieves information about users and groups to do security-related functions, including authentication and authorization.
      - HCL Digital Experience high availability
        HCL Digital Experience is licensed for use in a single-server configuration and might not be used in either a cloned configuration or a clustered configuration except when implementing idle standby for the purpose of failover.
      - Cluster considerations
        To increase capacity and availability, multiple portal servers can be clustered with IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment. In a cluster, the portals share a common configuration and the load is distributed evenly across all cluster instances.
        Guidelines for setting up a cluster
        When you set up an HCL Portal cluster, you must consider any planning that is required for the WebSphere Application Server nodes. If you are not familiar with WebSphere Application Server clustering, find resources here to help you get started.
        Limitations for setting up a cluster
        Certain limitations apply when you set up an HCL Portal cluster.
        HTTP session failover
        In a clustered environment, all requests for a particular session are directed to the same server instance in the cluster. In other words, after a user establishes a session (for example, by logging in), the user is served by the same server instance during the session. To verify which server is handling user requests for a session, you can view the global settings portlet. This portlet displays the node name of the server handling requests. If one of the servers in the cluster fails, the request is rerouted to another server in the cluster. If distributed sessions support is enabled, the new server can access session data from the database or another server instance.
        Setting up an IBM i database in a cluster
        To communicate with a database, servers that run IBM i can use either of two JDBC drivers: the IBM Toolbox for Java JDBC driver or the IBM Developer Kit for Java JDBC driver (also referred to as the native JDBC driver). Which JDBC driver you must use depends on how you are setting up your clustered environment.
        Security options
        The security model in IBM WebSphere Application Server and HCL Digital Experience affects the planning and implementation of security in a cluster. Security is enabled by default for the WebSphere Application Server deployment manager. HCL Digital Experience does not attempt to change the security settings in the deployment manager cell whenever a node is federated. Therefore, any existing security configuration of a stand-alone HCL Portal is replaced with the security settings of the deployment manager cell when it joins that cell. If you remove the node from the deployment manager cell, the original security settings are reinstated.
        Security Scenarios
        Setting up a clustered environment requires that you consider two security scenarios. The first scenario is out-of-box security that is used when you first set up the cluster environment where the deployment manager is not configured for security. The second scenario is when an existing deployment manager is already configured for security before a node joins the cell.
        Using external security managers in a cluster
        If you are configuring security for HCL Digital Experience with an external security manager, review some additional considerations, depending on the external security manager that you are using. Complete any configuration for an external security manager after you have completed all other setup, including ensuring that the HCL Portal cluster is functional. In addition, review the "Systems requirement" file to ensure you are using a supported level of the external security manager software.
        Planning for multiple clusters
        Get an overview of the concepts associated with setting up multiple clusters. Multiple clusters are sets of servers that are managed together within a single administrative domain that is known as a cell, and participate in workload management.
        Dynamic clusters
        You can create a dynamic cluster to run HCL Digital Experience.
        Cluster maintenance
        Maintaining HCL Digital Experience in a cluster typically means applying corrective services (fix packs and interim fixes) or updating the software release level on each node in the cluster. Instructions for applying corrective service to an HCL Portal cluster are provided with the corrective service package. Before you apply any maintenance, analyze any user impact. Ensure that you are able to provide uninterrupted service (also referred to as 24x7 availability), even during the maintenance phase.
      - Virtual environment overview
        You can use virtualized environments, for example VMWare ESX, to meet your business needs such as production server consolidation, centralized management, or dynamic test environments. The virtual environment provides transparency to the operating systems, applications, and middleware that it uses.
      - Multiple profile support
        HCL Digital Experience creates an application server configuration profile to represent its application server configuration, such as data source definitions, web applications, portlet deployments, and Java virtual machine configuration. A configuration profile represents the full configuration of a single portal instance. Multiple profiles give you the ability to have multiple, independently configured portal instances that run from the same installation. Before HCL Portal Version 7, there was only one configuration profile per installation, which was typically named wp_profile.
    - Getting the software
      New and existing users need to register at the HCL Software Licensing Portal and download their entitled HCL Digital Experience software package(s).
    - Installing and preparing the prerequisite software
      Before you install the digital experience software, make sure that the prerequisite software is installed and configured. Depending on your environment, you might already have the prerequisites, such as a database server and user registry. Verify that the prerequisite software is the correct version, has the required fix packs applied, and is configured to work with the digital experience software.
    - Installing the HCL Digital Experience software
      The HCL Digital Experience is designed to help create, manage, simplify, and integrate your processes into an engaging online experience. HCL Portal and HCL Web Content Manager are a part of the HCL Digital Experience package. The product documentation uses HCL Digital Experience as a shorthand for HCL Portal and HCL Web Content Manager.
    - Installing add-ons
      You can use the Solution Installer through the Configuration Wizard to install and uninstall add-ons to an HCL Portal server instance. The Solution Installer uses the Portal Application Archive (PAA) format as the standard format for application distribution. Portal Application Archive (PAA) updates are not supported in the Configuration Wizard currently. For more information about updating add-ons using a command prompt, see the Managing your existing PAA file section.
    - Uninstalling the Digital Experience software
      Uninstalling the Digital Experience software is a multiple-step process and the method you use is dependent upon your configuration. Removing HCL Portal in a single-server configuration is different from removing HCL Portal from a cluster. Manual uninstallation instructions are provided for a single-server configuration in case of an error situation.
  - Configuring
    Run the following tasks after you install and deploy HCL Digital Experience. They address tasks that are typically run one time and have a global effect. Some configuration changes are made more frequently or do not have a global effect. These tasks are addressed in the Administering section.
  - Backup and restore
    Backup and recovery of data files and databases is an essential operation for any business system, particularly for data and applications that run in production environments. Create and follow a plan for backing up and recovering data on all tiers of your HCL Digital Experience deployment. IBM Installation Manager must also be included in backup and recovery planning. If you back up the HCL Portal file structure and then install a fix pack, your HCL Digital Experience and IBM Installation Manager become out of sync after you restore the HCL Portal file system. This condition is not recoverable.
  - Migrating
    Successful migration requires significant planning and preparation, understanding the tools that are involved, and careful execution of the appropriate steps in the order provided.
  - Integrating
    Integrate HCL Digital Experience with software such as HCL Sametime to enable your users to collaborate more easily. You can also use the unified task list portlet to integrate HCL with your backend business process software, such as IBM Process Server.
  - Administering
    Use the administration tools that are provided with the portal to do various day-to-day administration tasks. There are two methods for editing portal setup: using the administration portlets or the XML configuration interface. The administration portlets are a convenient way to make real-time updates to the portal's configuration. While the XML configuration interface is suited to more advanced administration, including batch processing of updates.
  - Securing
    Security tasks include setting up property extension databases and custom user repositories, configuring and activating SSL, and configuring authentication. In addition, tasks such as activating Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) and NIST SP800-131a security modules and configuring external security managers such as Security Access Manager might be required to secure your portal environment.
  - Monitoring
    HCL Portal includes tools and features to help you monitor the portal site.
  - Setting up a website
    Setting up a website includes, creating pages, adding navigation, setting up search, and adding content to the site. Themes are used to customize the portal's look-and-feel. Out-of-the-box templates and the site wizard can help you set up your portal site faster. You can add wikis and blogs to your site and let users tag and rate content on your site.
  - Staging to production
    During portal solution development, the solution is initially developed, tested, and refined on one server or a limited number of servers. The solution is deployed later on live systems, referred to as the production environment. The process of moving the solution from the development environment to the production environment is called staging.
  - Developing
    This section includes developer documentation on extending applications and development assets for HCL Portal and HCL Web Content Manager.
  - Troubleshooting
    This section helps you resolve problems, use diagnostic tools and tracing to capture HCL Digital Experience system errors.
  - Reference
    View information that can help you use the Digital Experience Help Center including directory conventions, terms of use, trademarks, a glossary, and more.
  - Glossary
    This glossary includes terms and definitions for HCL Digital Experience.
  - Content Template Catalog 4.4
    The Content Template (CTC) is a set of templates that accelerate the process of building a website.

Limitations for setting up a cluster | HCL Digital Experience

Certain limitations apply when you set up an HCL Portal cluster.

You must install HCL Portal as a stand-alone node before you create a cluster. You cannot install HCL Portal into a managed node.
AIX® IBM® i Linux™ Solaris Windows™: Except for the initial setup of the cluster, HCL Portal is not supported on a managed node that is not part of a cluster.
Note: A cluster can be created which contains only one HCL Portal server, enabling a single HCL Portal server to be operational in a managed cell.
You cannot use the Derby database. The HCL Portal databases must be transferred to a supported external database, for example: DB2®, Oracle, or SQL Server .
In a clustered environment, it is not possible to change settings through the Global Settings portlet or the XML configuration interface. These changes must be made by modifying the respective properties in the WebSphere® Integrated Solutions Console.
To support search, you must install and configure a remote search service on an application server node that is not part of the cluster.
Administrative actions for HCL Digital Experience are immediately visible for the user who completes them. However, another user can be assured of seeing the changes only if the user logs out of HCL Digital Experience and then logs back in. This limitation applies to both cluster and non-cluster environments.
When you create a cluster or a cluster member, do not use spaces in the cluster name or the cluster member name.
IBM® i limitations: Installation in a mixed node environment is not supported in an IBM® i environment.
For the deployment manager and each HCL Portal node to be in the cluster, verify that each system clock is set to within 5 minutes of the others or the addNode command fails.
z/OS® limitations: If you choose to install the federated, unclustered production server deployment option, you can install only one node, referred to as the primary node. You cannot install any additional portal nodes.

Restriction: The serverName is hardcoded to HCL Digital Experience. The serverName cannot be changed in a stand-alone environment. If you do change it, the ConfigEngine scripts do not work. For a clustered environment, see Technote 1370392 for options on replacing the HCL Digital Experience JVM.