Installation and upgrade for customers running on Portal 8.5 on WAS 8.5/9.0 and Java SDK 7.0

This guide shows how to upgrade your HCL Portal 8.5 environment to HCL Portal 9.5 and either staying at IBM WebSphere Application Server ND 8.5.x or migrating the WAS layer to IBM WebSphere Application Server ND Version 9.0.5.

Preparing the environment

Before you install HCL Digital Experience, review the hardware and software requirementsto ensure that you have the supported versions of prerequisite and co-requisite software and the required hardware.

Make sure to also review the detailed requirements article to ensure that your system meets or exceeds the minimum requirements provided by HCL.

B. Preparing your operating system for installation

Getting the software

Product software can be obtained from the HCL Software Licensing Portal.

Additional guidance is available here: Step-by-step guide on downloading HCL Digital Experience products.
  1. Sign into the HCL Software Licensing Portal.
  2. Identify the Portal 9.5 offering you wish to install.
    Note: There are several different Portal 9.5 offerings. Your license determines which offerings you will see listed as available to download.
    Example package names for the different Portal 9.5 offerings are:
    • HCL Portal Express v9.5 Multiplatform
    • HCL Portal Server v9.5 MP
    • HCL Portal Enable v9.5 Multiplatform
    • HCL Portal Extend v9.5MP

    In this example, we will use HCL Portal Enable v9.5 Multiplatform.

  3. Click on the HCL Portal Enable v9.5 Multiplatform package.
  4. On the package page, you will see a long list of parts/components. But you only need to download the following four (4) files:
    • HCL-Portal-95_Enable_SETUP-01.zip
    • HCL-Portal-95_Enable_SETUP-02.zip
    • HCL-Portal-95_Enable_SETUP-03.zip
    • HCL-Portal-95_Enable_SETUP-04.zip
    Note: The zip files above contain all the software required to install Portal 9.5 including Installation Manager, WebSphere Application Server, Portal CF17, etc.

Preparing the files for install

Once you have the parts downloaded, create a parent folder wherein the files are to be extracted. You can name it as portal95binaries as shown in the example below:
Extract the .zip files to the created parent folder. Once all four (4) files are extracted, you should have a folder called SETUP under your parent folder as shown below:
Navigate to the SETUP folder, there should be a Product folder that holds the files and repositories for WAS 9.0.x, JDK 8.0.x, Portal 8.5.0.0, CF17 for Portal 8.5, Portal 9.5, and iFix PI59896.

Use Installation Manager to upgrade HCL Portal 8.5 to CF17 or a later CF

Read the installation instructions and additional system consideration before applying a cumulative fix to a stand-alone, cluster, remote search and farm portal installation or to roll back the cumulative fix.
Note: There are several different methods to install the cumulative fix as stated on Combined Cumulative Fix Strategy page. The sample procedure below is using a Graphical User Interface.

Portal now needs to be upgraded to CF17 to support the installation of HCL Portal 9.5.

We will need to stop the Portal Server and ConfigWizard to allow us to proceed with the upgrade.
  1. Open a Command Prompt and navigate to <wp_profile_root>/bin.
  2. Run:
    stopServer.bat HCL Portal and HCL Web Content Manager
  3. Enter Portal credentials when prompted.
  4. Navigate to <AppServer_root>/profiles/cw_profile/bin.
  5. Run:
    stopServer.bat server1
  6. Enter ConfigWizard credentials when prompted.
    Before proceeding, HCL highly recommends that you take a backup of your system. Please review the following links for further details.
  7. Open IBM Installation Manager (IIM) and under File > Preferences > Repositories, add the following repository as shown in the image below:
    Reminder: Remove the previous repository entries.
    Select OK.
  8. Within IIM, select Update icon, then select the Portal package.
    Select Next.
  9. Select CF17 package.
    Reminder: You will need to stop Portal Server/ConfigWizard to be able to proceed.
    Select Next.
  10. Review validation results. Select Next.
  11. Accept terms of licensing agreement. Then select Next.
  12. Review Features that are going to be installed. Select Next.
  13. Select Update.

At this point ONLY the Portal binaries have been updated to CF17. The IIM only manages the binaries so we will need to run a Portal script to upgrade the profile.

Then, update the profile

  1. Ensure the HCL Portal and HCL Web Content Manager server is stopped on the profile you intend to upgrade.
  2. Execute the following command from within the path of the profile to configure:
    • Unix/Linux: <profile_root>/PortalServer/bin/applyCF.sh -DPortalAdminPwd=<password> -DWasPassword=<password>
    • Windows: <profile_root>\PortalServer\bin\applyCF.bat -DPortalAdminPwd=<password> -DWasPassword=<password>

    Lastly, validate if the server has been updated to CF17 and all is well. Log in and check the about HCL Portal and see if it says CF17.

Use Installation Manager to upgrade HCL Portal 8.5 to HCL Portal 9.5

Make sure the server is stopped before doing the following steps:
  1. Add the HCL Portal 9.5 repositories to IIM.

    In this case, we are using the Enable offering so need the following repo: Server and Enable.

    For the other offerings, this is what you need for each:
    • Enable Offering: needs Server and Enable repo
    • Express Offering: needs Express repo
    • Extend Offering: needs Extend and Server repo
    • Server Offering: needs Server repo
    Reminder: Remove the previous repository
    Select OK.
  2. Within IIM, select Install option. Select both packages.
    Select Next.
  3. Accept terms of licensing agreement. Then select Next.
  4. Use existing Portal 8.5 package.
    Select Next.
  5. Enter Admin user id and password for WebSphere Application Server and Portal Server. Then select Next.
  6. Review Summary. Select Install..
    Note: During the install, a series of ConfigEngine tasks will be run to upgrade Portal 9.0 to 9.5 so upgrading the profile after is not required.
  7. When the installation is finished, you should now be able to verify that you can access your Portal in an internet browser by navigating to: http://myportal.hcl.com:10039/wps/portal.

    Check the About WebSphere Portal portlet to make sure it says 9.5.

This completes the upgrade to HCL Portal 9.5 standalone.

Optional: Migrate your IBM WebSphere Application Server to 9.0.5

WebSphere Application Server 9.0.5 is only supported on HCL Digital Experience 9.5. You must first upgrade to HCL Portal 9.5 before you migrate to IBM WebSphere Application Server 9.0.5.

Refer to Migrating an HCL Digital Experience cluster to IBM WAS 9.0.5 to proceed with the migration process.

Install the latest supported version of IBM WebSphere SDK Java Technology

Starting with HCL Digital Experience Combined fix pack 12, you can change your SDK Java Technology Edition to version 8.0.