2 Starting the Installation Program

The following sections describe how to start the installation program on Windows and UNIX platforms:

Before You Start the Installation Program
Starting the Installation Program on Windows
Starting the Installation Program on UNIX

Before You Start the Installation Program

Before you start installing the software, review the following information:

Make sure that you are installing your product on a supported hardware or software configuration. For more information, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations page at http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/ias/files/fusion_certification.html document.
Read Chapter 1, "Preparing for Installation."
You cannot reinstall a product on top of a previously installed version of the same product—in the same home directory or in the same file location. You can, however, add products and product components to an existing installation.

For example, you can install WebLogic Server during one installation, and Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse during a separate installation. However, to reinstall the same version of a product, you must first uninstall the previous installation, as described in Chapter 7, "Uninstalling the Software."
If you are adding components to an existing installation of WebLogic Server, you should shut down any running servers before starting the installation.

Starting the Installation Program on Windows

The following sections describe how to start the installation program on a Windows platform:

Starting the Installation Program in Graphical Mode
Starting the Installation Program in Console Mode
Starting the Installation Program in Silent Mode

Note:
If you are installing the software on a Windows system that supports more than one monitor, you must disable all but one monitor before starting the installation program.

Starting the Installation Program in Graphical Mode

To start the installation program in graphical mode on a Windows platform, follow these steps:

Log in to the Windows system.
Go to the directory that contains the installation program.
Double-click the installation file.

For example, the name of the installation program for the Oracle WebLogic Server package installer for Windows is wls1032_win32.exe.

The installation program begins to install the software.
Proceed to Chapter 3, "Running the Installation Program in Graphical Mode."

Starting the Installation Program in Console Mode

To start the installation program in console mode on a Windows platform, follow these steps:

Log in to the target Windows system.
Open a command prompt window.
Go to the directory that contains the installation program.
Launch the installation by entering the name of the installation program.

For example, to start the Oracle WebLogic Server package installer for Windows in console mode, enter
```
wls1032_win32.exe -mode=console
```
Note:
You can include the -log=full_path_to_log_file option in the command line to create a verbose installation log.
For more information, see Generating a Verbose Installation Log.

After a few moments, the installation program begins to install the software.
Proceed to Chapter 4, "Running the Installation Program in Console Mode."

Starting the Installation Program in Silent Mode

For information about silent-mode installation, see What Is Silent-Mode Installation?

Note:

You must use the package installer for silent-mode installation. Silent-mode installation is not supported with the net installer.

To start the installation program in silent mode on a Windows platform, follow these steps:

Log in to the Windows system.
Create a silent.xml file that defines the configuration settings normally entered by a user during an interactive installation process, such as graphical-mode or console-mode installation. For information about creating a silent.xml file, see Creating a silent.xml File for Silent-Mode Installation.

Note:
Incorrect entries in the silent.xml file can cause installation failures. To help you determine the cause of a failure, we recommend that you create a log file when you start the installation.
Open a command prompt window.
Go to the directory that contains the installation program.
Start the installer.

For example, to launch the Oracle WebLogic Server installer on Windows, enter:

wls1032_win32.exe -mode=silent -silent_xml=path_to_silent.xml

Here, path_to_silent.xml is the full path of the silent.xml file.

Note:
You can include the -log=full_path_to_log_file option in the command line to create a verbose installation log.
For more information, see Generating a Verbose Installation Log.

An Oracle Installer window is displayed, indicating that the files are being extracted. No other prompt or text is displayed.

For more information, see Chapter 5, "Running the Installation Program in Silent Mode."

Starting the Installation Program on UNIX

The installation program requires a Java run-time environment (JRE) to run. A JRE is bundled in the Windows installation program, and in some UNIX installation programs (those with file names ending in .bin). For other UNIX platforms, the installation program does not include a JRE. File names for these installation programs end in .jar. To run the .jar installation programs, you must have an appropriate version of a JDK installed on your system, and include the bin directory of the JDK at the beginning of your PATH system variable.

Note:

It is important that you use a JDK because the installation process assigns values to JAVA_HOME and related variables to point to this directory. All scripts installed by your installation program use this JDK by default, including scripts to start sample applications, the Configuration Wizard, and other development tools.

To run graphical-mode installation, your console must support Java-based GUIs. If the installation program determines that your system cannot support Java-based GUIs, it automatically starts running in console mode.

Starting the Installation Program on UNIX Using .bin Installers

The following sections describe how to start the installation program on UNIX platforms, by using files with the .bin extension:

Starting .bin Installation Programs in Graphical Mode

To start the graphical-mode installation process with .bin installation files, follow these steps:

Log in to the target UNIX system.
Go to the directory that contains the installation program.
Launch the installation by entering the following command:

chmod a+x file_name.bin ./file_name.bin

file_name.bin is the name of your installation program. For example, for Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3.2, the name of the package installer file for Solaris is wls1032_solaris32.bin.

The installation program begins to install the software.
Proceed to Chapter 3, "Running the Installation Program in Graphical Mode."

Starting .bin Installation Programs in Console Mode

To start the console-mode installation process with .bin installation files, follow these steps:

Log in to the target UNIX system.
Go to the directory that contains the installation program.
Launch the installation by entering the following command:

chmod a+x file_name.bin ./file_name.bin -mode=console
Proceed to Chapter 4, "Running the Installation Program in Console Mode."

Starting .bin Installation Programs in Silent Mode

To start the silent-mode installation process by using .bin installation files, follow these steps:

Log in to the target UNIX system.
Create a silent.xml file that defines the configuration settings normally entered by a user during an interactive installation process, such as graphical-mode or console-mode installation. For information about creating a silent.xml file, see Creating a silent.xml File for Silent-Mode Installation.

Note:
Incorrect entries in the silent.xml file can cause installation failures. To help you determine the cause of a failure, we recommend that you create a log file when you start the installation.
Go to the directory that contains the installation program.
Launch the installation program by entering the following command:

chmod a+x file_name.bin ./file_name.bin -mode=silent -silent_xml=path_to_silent.xml

file_name.bin is the name of the installation file.

path_to_silent.xml is the full path of the silent.xml file.

An Installer window is displayed, indicating that the files are being extracted. No other prompt or text is displayed.

For more information about silent-mode installation, see Chapter 5, "Running the Installation Program in Silent Mode."

Note:

You can include the -log=full_path_to_log_file option in the command line to create a verbose installation log.

For more information, see Generating a Verbose Installation Log.

Starting the Installation Program on UNIX Using .jar Installers

The following sections describe how to start the installation program on UNIX platforms by using generic (.jar) installers:

Starting .jar installation Programs in Graphical Mode

To start the installation program in graphical mode for installation files with names ending in .jar, perform the following steps.

Log in to the target UNIX system.
Add the bin directory of the appropriate JDK to the beginning of the PATH variable definition on the target system.

For example: PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATHexport PATH
Go to the directory where you downloaded the installation program.
Launch the installation program by entering the following command (this example shows the NET installer):

java -jar net_wlsversion_generic.jar

The installation program begins to install the software.

Note:
If you are installing WebLogic Server on a 64-bit platform, see Installing WebLogic Server on 64-Bit Platforms Using 64-Bit JDK, for more information
Proceed to Chapter 3, "Running the Installation Program in Graphical Mode."

Starting .jar Installation Programs in Console Mode

To start the installation program in console mode for installation files with names ending in .jar, follow these steps:

Log in to the target UNIX system.
Add the bin directory of the appropriate JDK to the beginning of the PATH variable definition on the target system.

For example: PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATHexport PATH
Go to the directory where you downloaded the installation program.
Launch the installation by entering the following command:

java -jar file_name.jar -mode=console

file_name.jar is the name of the installation file.

Note:
If you are installing WebLogic Server on a 64-bit platform, see Installing WebLogic Server on 64-Bit Platforms Using 64-Bit JDK, for more information
Proceed to Chapter 4, "Running the Installation Program in Console Mode."

Starting .jar installation programs in Silent Mode

To start the installation program in silent mode for installation files with names ending in .jar, follow these steps:

Log in to the target UNIX system.
Create a silent.xml file that defines the configuration settings normally entered by a user during an interactive installation process, such as graphical-mode or console-mode installation. For information about creating a silent.xml file, see Creating a silent.xml File for Silent-Mode Installation.

Note:
Incorrect entries in the silent.xml file can cause installation failures. To help you determine the cause of a failure, we recommend that you create a log file when you start the installation.
Add the bin directory of the appropriate JDK to the beginning of the PATH variable definition on the target system.

For example: PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATHexport PATH
Go to the directory that contains the installation file.
Launch the installation by entering the following command:

java -jar file_name.jar -mode=silent -silent_xml=/path_to_silent.xml

file_name.jar is the name of the installation file

path_to_silent.xml is the full path to the silent.xml file.

Note:
If you are installing WebLogic Server on a 64-bit platform, see Installing WebLogic Server on 64-Bit Platforms Using 64-Bit JDK, for more information.

An Installer window is displayed, indicating that the files are being extracted.

For more information, see Chapter 5, "Running the Installation Program in Silent Mode."

Notes:

You can include the -log=full_path_to_log_file option in the command line to create a verbose installation log. For more information, see Generating a Verbose Installation Log.

When you run the generic upgrade installer, ensure that the heap size is adequate, by including the -Xmxsize[g|G|m|M|k|K] option in the command.

Installing WebLogic Server on 64-Bit Platforms Using 64-Bit JDK

If you are installing WebLogic Server on a 64-bit platform using a .jar installation program:

Include the -d64 flag in the installation command when using a 32/64-bit hybrid JDK (such as for the HP-PA, HPIA, and Solaris64 platforms. For example, if installing in graphical mode using the package installer:

java -d64 -jar wlsversion_generic.jar
Run the java -version command (or java -d64 -version command on platforms using a 32/64-bit hybrid JDK) to ensure that your JAVA_HOME refers to a 64-bit JDK.