============================================ Informix LIGHTWEIGHT INSTALLER README v2.2.3 ============================================ Last modified: 10/20/2008 DESCRIPTION =========== The lightweight installer (lwt_install) is a free tool designed to support embedding IBM Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) on Windows platforms. It can be used as a deployment tool to redeploy pre-configured IDS instances (INFORMIXDIR and optional data spaces). Similar to the IDS installer, the lightweight installer supports certain customizations during deployment - the key difference is that the lightweight installer is designed to deploy pre-configured instances rather than set them up from scratch at install time. It can also serve as a data server instance manager (for example to clone and create new instances on the same machine - see example 4 below). The lightweight installer is a command line utility designed to be called programmatically or from a script as part of an application installation, and therefore supports completely silent IDS deployment. To allow better control of deployed instances and post-deployment ease-of-use, the lightweight installer takes a number of parameters from the command line. Editing the onconfig file gives the most granularity in configuring an IDS instance. In essence,lwt_install is a lightweight alternative to the IDS silent installation mechanism for deployment. Note that the lightweight installer does not start an IDS instance after deployment - this will be added as an option to a later version. To start the IDS installation from an install script call: %INFORMIXDIR%\bin\starts %INFORMIXSERVER% and add any command line options (such as -iy to initialize the disk), or programmatically send a start service command to the Service Control Manager. Usage: ------ lwt_install [-f ] [-p password|-system] [-l ] [-silent] [-wow6432] [-port ] [-protocol ] [-servernum ] [-unzip ] [-verbose] [-force] [-y] Options Description ------------------- -f Specify the full/relative path to the location of the archive. -force Overwrite existing environment variables/configuration settings. -installdrive Specify the drive for IFMXDATA directory containing dbspace. -log Send progress messages to the file specified by - (default C:) -p Informix user password used to create IDS service. -port SQLHOSTS service port for server instance - (default: 9088). -protocol Specify SQLHOSTS protocol for database connectivity - (default: olsoctcp). -servernum Specify the server number for the instance - (default: 0). -silent Actions are performed in silent mode. -system Create IDS service as local system user. -unzip Specify command to expand the IDS archive - (default: assumes presence of 7-zip on the machine) -verbose Verbose mode. -wow6432 Used to redirect registry access to 32 bit registry view. Use this option when deploying 32bit IDS onto a 64bit machine. -y Do not prompt for confirmation. ON A TEMPLATE MACHINE --------------------- To use the Lightweight Installer to deploy an IDS instance, first use the regular IDS installer to create an instance on a template machine and configure/customize the instance as required. Configuring the server on the template machine can include modifying ONCONFIG file parameters, creating databases, tables, and loading the database with data. The instance (INFORMIXDIR and optionally dbspaces) should then be archived or copied for deployment (for example create a zip file of the INFORMIXDIR). ON THE TARGET MACHINE --------------------- Prior to running lwt_install on the target machine, set the INFORMIXDIR environment variable to the preferred installation directory and set INFORMIXSERVER environment variable to the preferred server instance name. Run lwt_install.exe with options to deploy an archived IDS instance. Examples -------- Example 1: Deploying IDS in silent mode using the default 7-zip to unarchive the instance - Assumes: - 7-zip is installed on the deployment machine - INFORMIXDIR, INFORMIXSERVER, ONCONFIG environment variables are set lwt_install -p mypassword -y -silent -f idsarchive.zip Note that if the ONCONFIG environment variable is not set, the lightweight installer will assume the onconfig file is: %INFORMIXDIR%\etc\onconfig.%INFORMIXSERVER% Example 2: Deploying IDS instance as local system user, using a preferred unarchiving tool. lwt_install -unzip "C:\mytar\tar.exe idsarchive.tar" -system Note: You cannot use "-p" password command line option along with "-system". Example 3: Deploying IDS specifying a preferred protocol and logging progress messages. lwt_install -protocol onipcnmp -p mypassword -f idsarchive.zip Example 4: Using lwt_install to create a new server instance. lwt_install -silent -y -port 9090 -servernum 2 -log C:\log.txt UNINSTALLING A DEPLOYED IDS INSTANCE ------------------------------------ - Stop all IDS instances (services) associated with the deployed files. - Remove the following registry Values and Keys: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Informix\DBMS\\Install_Dir HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Informix\DBMS\\InstallType HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Informix\DBMS\\Version HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Informix\DBMS\\Security HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Informix\Online\ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Informix\SQLHOSTS\ For example, will be 11.50 for IDS version 11.50 - Remove the service entry from the Service Control Manager database. To do that, run the following command: sc delete - Remove any IDS files which are no longer required (for example INFORMIXDIR, dbspaces). KNOWN LIMITATIONS/PLANNED ENHANCEMENTS -------------------------------------- - Availability of an unarchiving tool on the target machine should be considered when archiving an installation instance to be deployed. That is, an installation instance should be archived using a tool that will be available on the target machine for unarchiving. - This version of lightweight installer does not provide an uninstaller. Therefore, uninstallation of IDS must be performed manually. See UNINSTALLING A DEPLOYED IDS INSTANCE. - lwt_install is currently a Windows-only deployment engine. Efforts are underway to extend it to Unix operating systems. FURTHER ASSISTANCE ------------------ If you have any questions or run into problems - don't give up, send an email to Guy Bowerman (gbowerman@yahoo.com) and Tosin Ajayi (tosin430@yahoo.com).