The installer program for WebSphere Process Server uses the InstallShield MultiPlatform (ISMP) program to install code. The .nifregistry and vpd.properties files list program components that are currently installed. The file helps ISMP and the installer programs of WebSphere Process Server recognize previous installations of WebSphere Process Server and control options for new installations.
Location of the .nifregistry file
The location of the .nifregistry file varies per operating platform:
* Icon indicating AIX platforms On AIX® platforms: The root directory /usr/.ibm/.nif/.nifregistry or the non-root directory
* Icon indicating HP-UX platforms On HP-UX platforms: The root directory /opt/.ibm/.nif/.nifregistry or the non-root directory
* Icon indicating i5/OS platform only On i5/OS® platforms: The root directory /QIBM/WAS/.ibm/.nif/.nifregistry
* Icon indicating Linux platforms On Linux® platforms: The root directory /opt/.ibm/.nif/.nifregistry
* Icon indicating Solaris platforms On Solaris platforms: The root directory /opt/.ibm/.nif/.nifregistry or the non-root directory
* Icon indicating Windows platforms On Windows® platforms: The root directory C:\Windows\.nifregistry
For example:
NON-ROOT user: fvttest
NON-ROOT-HOME: /home/fvttest .nifregistry dir: /home/fvttest/.ibm/.nif/.nifregistry
Examples of the .nifregistry file
For a particular product the .nifregistry file contains one entry (line) each for every PAK that gets installed and one entry (line) for the product offering (e.g. WebSphere® Business Integration, Enterprise Service Bus, and so on).
The following line shows an example of a PAK entry in the .nifregistry file:
wbi.primary.pak" productid="WBI"/
The following line shows an example of a product offering entry in the .nifregistry file:
Cleaning up the .nifregistry file after a failed uninstallation
For these steps to clean the .nifregistry file after a failed uninstallation:
1. Backup the .nifregistry file.
2. Open the .nifregistry file in a text editor (ensure that line wrapping is turned off).
3. Search and delete all lines that have the
4. Save the .nifregistry file and close the text editor.
Icon indicating HP-UX platforms Icon indicating Solaris platforms Operating system exceptions for using the vpd.properties file
* ISMP uses the vpd.properties file to track WebSphere products that it installs on all platforms but Solaris and HP-UX.
* ISMP uses native operating system registration on these platforms when installing as root, and does not create a vpd.properties file.
When installing as a non-root installer, the installer programs create a vpd.properties file on all platforms, including Solaris and HP-UX.
Situations that require you to edit the vpd.properties file
Certain situations require you to edit the vpd.properties file before reinstalling WebSphere Process Server. The uninstaller programs for WebSphere Process Server edit the vpd.properties while uninstalling a product, to remove entries for the product and any of its features that might have entries in the file.
Some situations that occur require you to manually remove product entries from the vpd.properties file before you can reinstall a product. These situations include:
* Bypassing the uninstaller program to uninstall a product manually
* Uninstalling a product manually when the uninstaller program is not present or is not working
If the vpd.properties file has entries for a product that you uninstalled, you must edit the file and remove the entries. If you do not edit the vpd.properties file to remove entries for a product or features of a product, you cannot reinstall the product into the same directory structure. If product entries in the vpd.properties file are present, the installer program reads the vpd.properties file, determines that the product is already installed, and displays the panel that prompts you to install additional features into the existing product or to install the binaries a second time. Unfortunately, the existing binaries might not be valid at that point. The installer program does not verify the products that it finds listed in the vpd.properties file.
Location of the vpd.properties file
The location of the vpd.properties file varies per operating platform:
* Icon indicating AIX platforms On AIX platforms: The root directory or the usr/lib/objrepos directory
* Icon indicating i5/OS platform only On i5/OS platforms: /InstallShield/VitalProductData/vpd.properties
* Icon indicating Linux platforms On Linux platforms: The root directory
* Icon indicating Windows platforms On Windows platforms: Installation directory of the operating system, such as the C:\WINNT directory or the C:\windows directory
Example of the vpd.properties file
The following example shows the entry for the vpd.properties file for Version 6.1.0.0 of the WebSphere product on a Windows platform. The example shows entire lines but wraps each line for formatting purposes.
WSEAA61|6|1|0|0|6.1.0.0|1=IBM WebSphere Process Server|IBM WebSphere Process Server|
IBM WebSphere Process Server V6.1.0.0|IBM|http://www.ibm.com|6.1.0.0|C:\Program Files\
IBM\WebSphere\ESB1|0|0|1|WSEAA61|6|1|0|0|6.1.0.0|1|0|false|"_uninst" "uninstall.jar" "
uninstall.dat" ""|true|3|WSEAA61|6|1|0|0|6.1.0.0|1
Identifying entries in the vpd.properties file
Use the following table to help identify product entries.
Table 1. Identifer in the vpd.properties file for WebSphere productsIdentifier Product
WSE...61 All version 6.1 products use this identifier to identify the core product files:
* WebSphere Process Server, Version 6.1
* WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus, Version 6.1
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