Managing the updates to WDSC across multiple systems (was: Rational Update 1.0 Gig)

> Is there a way to copy down the update for WDSC version 6.0 to a network 

> drive instead of me having to use the updater for the next 6 machines I 
> have to install this on?

Yes, Eclipse provides such a facility.  I have been meaning to write this 
up in a formal document and post it, but I have not had the time.  Here is 
the basic gist of it. 

When you are installing updates, you are talking to an Eclipse "Update 
Site" which is just an XML file which points to the updates that are in 
JAR files.  This is all served via a standard HTTP server.

What you can do is create your own internal update site.  Eclipse then 
provides a facility for mirroring and consolidating one or more remote 
update sites to your update site as well as redirecting the install/update 
mechanism to use this internal site instead of the remote site.

Step 1:  Setup an HTTP Server (on any platform/OS).  I am using my OS/400 
Apache Server.  For reference purposes later on, let's assume you can 
access the folder that this HTTP Server is serving from your PC via the 
UNC path name \\WEBSERVER\web-root

Step 2:  Run Eclipse process to create a mirror of the WDSC update sites. 
I created a batch file for this process which I run regularly.  The 
process is intelligent enough to just grab the latest updates.  This is 
what is in my batch file:

REM Modify these variables as appropriate
set drive=C:
set wdsc=\IBM\WDSC\6.0
set local=\wdsc_site
set remote=\\WEBSERVER\web-root\wdsc6_updates
set url=http://webserver/wdsc6_updates

%drive%
CD %wdsc%\eclipse

REM Get Updates for Product Updater
java -cp startup.jar org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main -application 
org.eclipse.update.core.standaloneUpdate -command mirror -from 
http://www3.software.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/rationalsdp/updater/60/update 
-to %drive%\%local% -mirrorURL %url%/site.xml

REM Get Updates for Rational Web Developer
java -cp startup.jar org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main -application 
org.eclipse.update.core.standaloneUpdate -command mirror -from 
http://www3.software.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/rationalsdp/rwd/60/update 
-to %drive%\%local% -mirrorURL %url%/site.xml

REM Get Updates for WDSC
java -cp startup.jar org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main -application 
org.eclipse.update.core.standaloneUpdate -command mirror -from 
http://www3.software.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/websphere/iseries/wdsc600/update
 
-to %drive%\%local% -mirrorURL %url%/site.xml

REM Copy to Web Server
cd %local%
xcopy . %remote% /S /Y /D

REM End of batch file

To use this batch file you would just need to adjust the set statements at 
the top.  Also, this is only pulling updates for WDSC Standard Edition. It 
could easily be adjusted to update the Advanced Edition by changing the 
IBM URL's being mirrored.

The first time you run this process it has to download nearly 3 GB of 
updates.  It will download them to your local mirror of the update site, 
and then it copies this mirror to your web server.  If you run the Web 
server on Windows, and install Eclipse or WDSC on that server, you could 
avoid having two copies of the mirror.  You could also likely just adjust 
the batch file so that it was mirroring to a mapped network drive that was 
the web server folder.

The Eclipse documentation for the features being used can be found here:
http://help.eclipse.org/help30/index.jsp?topic=/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/reference/misc/update_standalone.html

Step 3:  The above process, in addition to mirroring the update sites, 
creates a file named policy.xml which contains the instructions that tells 
Eclipse to redirect to your local update site.  To make WDSC use this 
file, you need to open the Rational Product Updater on each PC.  Then 
choose Preferences -> Update Sites from its menu and enter this URL in the 
field for the policy file:

http://webserver/wdsc6_updates/policy.xml

Of course update the URL as appropriate.

Once this is done, whenever you check for updates it is checking your 
local web server and installing from it.  You just need to re-run the 
batch file whenever there are some new updates from IBM and it will update 
your local mirror with the latest updates.

This has worked well for us internally.  It may sound daunting and a lot 
of work, but it is a good long term strategy for managing the deployment 
and update of WDSC across multiple systems. 

Mark










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