IBM Prerequisite Scanner Version 1.2.0.18 Quick Start Guide

Translated versions: To obtain the Quick Start Guide in other languages, access the PDF files from IBM Support Portal.

Tool overview

Prerequisite Scanner is a scanning tool that performs identification, checking, and verification of prerequisites for specified software before the actual deployment takes place. It scans for hardware and software prerequisites based on the values set for prerequisite properties. The tool displays the results of the scan in the command-line interface and also saves the results to text and optionally XML files. It also writes informational and debugging messages to log files.

Step 1: Access your software and documentation

Prerequisite Scanner can be packaged with your offering’s media, or the latest version of the tool can be downloaded from IBM Support Portal (http://www-933.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/swg/selectFixes?product=ibm/Tivoli/Prerequisite+Scanner&release=1.2.0.18&platform=All&function=all). You need to provide your IBM ID and password to download it.

Each package contains a readme file that outlines what’s new in the release, new or modified prerequisite properties, new or modified configuration files, and any deprecated features.

For the tool’s documentation, see the Prerequisite Scanner page at Tivoli® Documentation Central (https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#!/wiki/Tivoli%20Documentation%20Central/page/IBM%20Prerequisite%20Scanner)

Step 2: Evaluate your hardware and system configuration

Prerequisite Scanner runs on all hardware and operating systems of the supported offerings.

Step 3: Install Prerequisite Scanner

If you downloaded the tool from IBM Support Portal, extract the contents of the compressed file for the relevant platform to preferred location, referred to as ips_root. You must extract the contents of the compressed file on each target system that you intend to install your offering.

Step 4: Run Prerequisite Scanner

You can run Prerequisite Scanner from the command line. The Prerequisite Scanner script, prereq_checker, takes a set of required and optional parameters and a command flag for additional optional parameters.

1. Open the command window and change to the ips_root directory.
2. If your offering uses environment variables to indicate to Prerequisite Scanner which component is planned for installation on the target computer, set the value for relevant environment variable to True, for example:
   • On Windows systems: set ENV_NAME=True
   • On UNIX systems: export ENV_NAME=True
   Note: Jazz™ for Service Management Version 1.1.0.1 and later fix packs also use an environment variable to indicate whether it is a fresh Jazz for Service Management installation, JazzSM_FreshInstall=True, or an update to an existing Jazz for Service Management installation, JazzSM_FreshInstall=False.
3. Run the Prerequisite Scanner script file, prereq_checker, with the relevant parameters. For more information about the full set of parameters and valid product codes, see Parameters and Product codes reference.

   Windows

   prereq_checker.bat 
   "Product_Code [Product_Version][,Product_CodeN [Product_VerN]...]" 
   [outputDir="ips_output_dir"]
   [xmlResult]
   [configHomeDir="config_files_home"]
   [detail|detail -s|detail -a]
   [prereq_checker.bat version |-listcodes]

   UNIX

   ./prereq_checker.sh 
   "Product_Code [Product_Version][,Product_CodeN [Product_VerN]...]" 
   [outputDir="ips_output_dir"]
   [xmlResult]
   [configHomeDir="config_files_home"]
   [detail|detail -s|detail -a]
   [prereq_checker.bat version |-listcodes]

Example 1

It also sets the home location of the configuration files to the config_files_home path that is specified by the optional configHomeDir parameter.

Windows

 prereq_checker.bat 
"KZE 06020300" 
outputDir="%TEMP%\ips"
configHomeDir="C:\MyCfgFiles\cfgfiles"
detail -s

UNIX

./prereq_checker.sh 
"KZE 06020300" 
outputDir="/tmp/ips"
configHomeDir="/usr/myname/MyCfgFiles/cfgfiles"
detail -s

The tool outputs the result.txt file and precheck.log files to the following locations:

• On Windows systems: D:\temp\ips where TEMP is environment variable for the temporary folder.
• On UNIX systems: /tmp/ips

Example 2

You can run the tool to check prerequisites for multiple offerings, for example, IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager and IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact, by specifying multiple product codes.

Windows

set TBSM_PREREQ_BOTH=True
set IMPACT_PREREQ_BOTH=True
prereq_checker.bat 
"BSM 06010100,NCI 06010100" 

UNIX

export TBSM_PREREQ_BOTH=True
export IMPACT_PREREQ_BOTH=True
./prereq_checker.sh 
"BSM 06010100,NCI 06010100"

Parameters

You can run Prerequisite Scanner from the command line. The Prerequisite Scanner script, prereq_checker, takes a set of required and optional parameters and a command flag for additional optional parameters. The primary parameters are as follows:

Product_Code [Product_Version][,Product_CodeN [Product_VerN]...]

Required parameter

You must set at least one Product_Code parameter to identify the offering or component for which to run the prerequisite check and the associated configuration file.

The optional Product_Version parameter for the associated Product_Code parameter indicates the version of the offering. It is the 8-digit code to represent the version, release, modification, and level, with 2 digits for each part of the code; for example, 7.3.21 is 07032100.

You can set one or many Product_Code parameters with the optional Product_Version parameter, each separated by a comma.

See Product codes reference.

[detail|detail -s|detail -a]

Optional parameter

The optional parameter and its optional option indicates the detail level of the results in the command window. If you specify the detail parameter, the tool outputs detailed results to the command window, including the overall result and the scan result for each prerequisite property. If you specify the detail parameter with the -s option, the tool outputs the shortened results, including the overall result and only the prerequisite properties with FAIL or WARN results. If you specify the detail parameter with the -a option, the tool hides the aggregation section of the output.

[outputDir="ips_output_dir"]

Optional parameter

It indicates that you want to set the output directory for the scan results and log files for Prerequisite Scanner as specified by the ips_output_dir value.

[xmlResult]

Optional parameter

It indicates that you want to output the results to the XML result file, ips_output_dir/result.xml, in addition to the plain text result file.

[configHomeDir="config_files_home"]

Optional parameter

It indicates the home location of the configuration files, as specified by the config_files_home path. When the tool scans the target environment, it uses the configuration files in this location. If this input parameter is not specified, the following default location is used:

• On UNIX systems: ips_root/UNIX_Linux
• On Windows systems: ips_root\Windows

Attention: The home location can be a mounted CD, DVD, or read-only file system and network drive. You must have read permissions to read from config_files_home; otherwise, Prerequisite Scanner fails. The file names for the configuration files in this home location must follow the standard file naming convention as follows:

product_code[_<version>].cfg

where:

• product_code

  It is the variable to represent a product code on either Windows or UNIX systems. Product codes identify the product and optionally the version of the operating system that is supported by that product. They are stored in the codename.cfg file. A product that supports multiple platforms might have multiple product codes, with each one identifying a product, platform, and version of the operating system as required.

• <version> is the 8-digit code to represent the version, release, modification, and level, with 2 digits for each part of the code; for example, 7.3.21 is 07032100.

[PATH="product_root"]

Optional parameter

It indicates the installation directories for the offerings that will be installed.

If the parameter is not specified, the default path is:

• On UNIX systems: opt/IBM/ITM if the Disk prerequisite property is specified in a configuration file
• On Windows systems: C:\IBM\ITM

version|-v

Required parameter only when checking the tool's version

You must set only this parameter when you want to check the tool's version. If you specify it when you run the tool to scan for prerequisites, the tool runs the scan only. It outputs an information message about the usage of the version input parameter, but it does not output the version details.

UNIX systems

./prereq_checker.sh version

Windows systems

prereq_checker.bat version

For a full list of the parameters, go to the prereq_checker topic in the latest available version of the documentation, which can be accessed from the Prerequisite Scanner page at Tivoli Documentation Central.

Environment variables

More information

For more information, see the following resources:

• Go to IBM Prerequisite Scanner page on IBM Support Portal.
• Go to the Prerequisite Scanner community on Service Management Connect. Feel free to contribute to these topics.