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Distributing WebLogic Server

Instead of requiring your customers to purchase, install, and maintain both your application and a J2EE application server, you can bundle BEA's core technologies with your application and distribute both items as a single product. The plug-and-play environment of WebLogic Server makes it an ideal choice for integration with your product.

To distribute WebLogic Server, you must obtain and install a special license called an ISV license. (You do not need an ISV license to develop your application or to configure WebLogic Server.) Installing an ISV license for a WebLogic Server modifies the server and inextricably links files. Your distribution must include these modified WebLogic Server files.

To set up a WebLogic Server that you can distribute, complete the following tasks:

- Upgrade an ISV License for Distributing a Newer Release of WebLogic Server

- Enroll in the BEA Partner Program

- Install the Partner Development Kit

- Install the ISV License

- Distribute Files

Upgrade an ISV License for Distributing a Newer Release of WebLogic Server

If you distributed an older version of WebLogic Server, complete the following steps to upgrade your existing ISV license:

1. Send an email to licensing@bea.com. In the email, request a new ISV license and attach the isv.jar file that contains your old license. If you are upgrading from WebLogic Server release 5.1, attach your old license file.

2. Install the WebLogic Server 6.1 Partner Development Kit.

3. After you receive your new isv.jar file from BEA, install the new ISV license as described in Install the ISV License.

Update your installer to include the new WebLogic Server files.

Enroll in the BEA Partner Program

BEA Systems, Inc. manages its relationships with Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Application Software Providers (ASPs) through the Partner Program. If you have not already enrolled in the BEA Partner Program:

1. Verify that your target platforms are certified for use with WebLogic Server by referring to the BEA WebLogic Server Platform Support page, http://e-docs.bea.com/wls/certifications/certifications/index.html.

2. Visit the BEA Partner Program Web site to learn about the program and to enroll. You can use the following URL to access the site: http://www.bea.com/partners

Install the Partner Development Kit

After you enroll in the program, BEA ships a CD collection of all major BEA products. When the Partner Development Kit arrives, install the software from the CDs. For information on installing WebLogic Server, refer to the Installation Guide on the BEA documentation Web site, http://edocs.bea.com.

Caution: If you already have BEA products installed on the computer that you want to host your distributable WebLogic Server, back up your current BEA_HOME\license.bea file before installing the Partner Development Kit. For more information about the BEA home directory and the license.bea file, refer to BEA Home Directory in the Installing BEA WebLogic Server guide.

Instead of waiting for the CDs, you can download BEA software from the BEA Systems Download Center, http://commerce.beasys.com. If you have an active WebSUPPORT account, you can use your WebSUPPORT login password for software downloads.

Install the ISV License

After verifying your eligibility for the Partner Program, BEA sends an email that includes your customized ISV license in an attached file named isv.jar. This section describes how to install the ISV license file for WebLogic Server version 6.1 only. If you are installing an ISV license for other versions of WebLogic Server, please consult the relevant installation instructions for your software version.

There are three main steps to installing an ISV license:

- Step 1: Preparing to Install an ISV License

- Step 2: Extracting the License Data and Linking WebLogic Server Files

- Step 3: Updating the WebLogic Server License

Step 1: Preparing to Install an ISV License

Before you install an ISV license file, do the following:

1. If you have not already done so, install WebLogic Server as described in the previous section, Install the Partner Development Kit.

   Note the location of the BEA home directory that the BEA installer uses. It contains a license.bea file, which will be updated in subsequent steps of this process. For more information about the BEA home directory and the license.bea file, refer to BEA Home Directory in the Installing BEA WebLogic Server guide.

2. Copy the isv.jar file from your email to the BEA home directory that the installer used.

3. Open a command shell and change directories to BEA_HOME, where BEA_HOME is the name of your BEA home directory.

4. Add isv.jar to the computer's CLASSPATH by entering the following command:

   set CLASSPATH=.\isv.jar;%CLASSPATH% (Windows systems)
   export CLASSPATH=./isv.jar:$CLASSPATH (UNIX systems)

5. Add the WebLogic Server JDK to the computer's PATH by entering one of the following commands:

   - set PATH=.\jdk131\bin;%PATH% (Windows systems)

   - export PATH=./jdk131/bin:$PATH (UNIX systems)

You are now ready to extract the ISV license data and link it to WebLogic Server files.

Step 2: Extracting the License Data and Linking WebLogic Server Files

To extract the ISV license data and link it to WebLogic Server files, enter the following command from BEA_HOME:

java -Xmx128m -Dbea.home=BEA_HOME
-Dbea.jar=WL_HOME\lib\weblogic.jar install

where BEA_HOME is an absolute pathname for your BEA home directory, and
WL_HOME is an absolute pathname for the directory in which you installed WebLogic Server.

Caution: Do not interrupt this process once it has started.

The command generates a file named BEA_HOME\license_isv.bea, which contains the ISV license data. It also links files within the WL_HOME directory to the specific ISV license. Only the files in the WL_HOME directory that you specified will be able to use the ISV license data that you extracted to license_isv.bea.

Note: With some platforms and JDKs, you might encounter an "Out of Memory Error." To address this error, increase the value for the -Xmx argument (which sets the maximum heap size in megabytes) and run the command again. For example, -Xmx150m increases the default heap size to 150 megabytes.

To complete the process for installing an ISV license, you must update the Weblogic Server license with the data in license_isv.bea.

Step 3: Updating the WebLogic Server License

To update the license.bea file with the newly generated license_isv.bea file, enter one of the following commands from BEA_HOME:

- UpdateLicense license_isv.bea (Windows systems)

- sh UpdateLicense.sh license_isv.bea (UNIX systems)

The UpdateLicense command merges the license_isv.bea file with the license.bea file. After you run UpdateLicense, you do not need to keep the license_isv.bea file.

Next Steps: Configuring Your Application and WebLogic Server

After you install your ISV license, start the ISV-licensed WebLogic Server, deploy your application, and configure the server components. For more information, refer to the following topics (available from http://edocs.bea.com):

- Starting and Stopping WebLogic Servers in the WebLogic Server Administration Guide.

- The Administration Console Online Help

- Using WebLogic JMX Services, which provides detailed information and code samples for working with the WebLogic Server management system.

- The remaining sections of this document, which provide development tips that are specific to ISVs.

Distribute Files

When you are ready to distribute WebLogic Server with your application, you must make sure that your installer includes the BEA license file (BEA_HOME\license.bea) and the WL_HOME\lib\weblogic.jar file that you specified in Step 3: Updating the WebLogic Server License.

If you do not install both of the files that you specified, your embedded WebLogic Server will not start.

You can use this same license.bea-weblogic.jar pair for all of your licensed installations.For information on using the WebLogic Server silent install process, see Installing WebLogic Server Using Silent Installation.

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