IBM WebSphere Application Server 7.0

Building an IBM WebSphere Application Server 7.0 for Developers image.

IBM's official Docker build only supports WebSphere Application Server 8.5.5+. However, sometimes you can't really get rid off something for a while.

Prerequisites

You have to download WebSphere Application Server v7.0 installation package and updates from IBM as following.

Download installation files into source folder

1. Download was.7000.wasdev.nocharge.linux.amd64.tar.gz form IBM WebSphere Application for Developers page (link from this StackOverflow answer), and place into source folder.

2. Download IBM Update Installer for WebSphere Software for Linux form IBM web site (IBMid required), or direct download from IBM's FTP. Place the download file 7.0.0.*-WS-UPDI-LinuxAMD64.tar.gz into source folder.

Download updates into udpate folder

Choose desired fix pick version and download from IBM web site (IBMid required), or link to IBM's FTP navigate to cf700*/LinuxX64/ and download WAS and WASSDK fix pack.

Take Fix Pack 21 for example, the direct download location is:

• ftp://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/websphere/appserv/support/fixpacks/was70/cumulative/cf70021/LinuxX64/7.0.0-WS-WAS-LinuxX64-FP0000021.pak
• ftp://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/websphere/appserv/support/fixpacks/was70/cumulative/cf70021/LinuxX64/7.0.0-WS-WASSDK-LinuxX64-FP0000021.pak

Resulting directory structure

If you choose to build image for Fix Pack 21, make sure your diretory structure looks like:

├── source
│   ├── 7.0.0.21-WS-UPDI-LinuxAMD64.tar.gz
│   └── was.7000.wasdev.nocharge.linux.amd64.tar.gz
└── update
    ├── 7.0.0-WS-WAS-LinuxX64-FP0000021.pak
    └── 7.0.0-WS-WASSDK-LinuxX64-FP0000021.pak

Build image

After manually download all required files and updates, run following command to build image:

docker image build -t websphere:7 .

A WebSphere 7.0 installation with AppSrv01 profile will then be created and exposing 9060 port for admin console, and 9090 port for web application server HTTP access.

Run container

Run following command to start container:

docker container run -p 8880:8880 -p 9060:9060 -p 9080:9080 --name was7 websphere:7

Navigate to http://localhost:9060/ibm/console/ for the admin console, enter any username and you can then confugre your application server or install applications.

Accessing WebSphere CLIs

If you need do some configuration using wsadmin or some other WebSphere's CLIs, execute following command while container is running:

docker container exec -it -e COLUMNS=$COLUMNS -e LINES=$LINES -e TERM=$TERM was7 bash

Or run as root user:

docker container exec -it -u 0 -e COLUMNS=$COLUMNS -e LINES=$LINES -e TERM=$TERM was7 bash

In the container's shell interpretor, you can access WebSphere Application Server's admin scripts from any directoy, like:

wsadmin.sh -lang jython -javaoption "-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8" -f my_admin_script.py