Summary

Synopsis

This article details the process for creating a bundled VM pack.

Discussion

To create a VM pack to use in the Build task, complete the following steps:

For Windows:

1. Zip up the contents of the jre directory. DO NOT USE COMPRESSION and do not retain full path info when creating this zip. Inside the jre directory should be the bin and lib directories, as well as any other files that you know your product requires.
2. Name this zip file: vm.zip

For UNIX (and derivatives):

Create a compressed tarball of the jre directory of your chosen vm (from root). A command such as the following is usually sufficient:

tar -cf /mydir/vm.tar jre && compress vm.tar

This will yield a vm.tar.Z file which can be used in the vm pack. If the compress command is not available, the 'zip' or 'gzip' commands may be used. After compressing the tar file using one of these commands, be sure to rename the file so that it has a .tar.Z extension.

The following pertains to all platforms:

For each vm pack, create a properties file. Examples of possible properties files are below. The property file name must be:

vm.properties

vm.platform=unix
vm.platform.flavor=solaris
vm.name=JavaSoft jre1.4 Sparc/Solaris
vm.exe.path=bin/java

OR

vm.platform=windows
vm.platform.flavor=win32
vm.name=JavaSoft jre1.4 Win32
vm.exe.path=bin\\java.exe

OR

vm.platform=classic mac os
vm.platform.flavor=mac os
vm.name=MRJ 2.2.5
vm.exe.path=

Zip these two files up (vm.zip and vm.properties). Name the resulting zip file with a <CUSTOMVMPACK>.vm extension. It is generally recommended that maximum compression is used here. This, when used with the uncompressed vm.zip, yields the smallest package.

After creating the .vm file, place this file in the <IA_HOME>\resource\installer_vms directory. The IA Advanced Designer must be shut down before the new bundle will appear in the list of available VM packs.

Note: <IA_HOME> is where InstallAnywhere itself is installed.

Additional Information

For UNIX platforms, you may use the compressed tar files created for previous versions of InstallAnywhere -the file must be renamed to vm.tar.Z (case sensitive).

To do this you need to TAR the Virtual Machine you would like to use & then compress it.

1. 'cd' to the directory above the directory that contains the VM to be packaged.
2. TAR the replacement JRE. In your TAR command, specify a relative path to the directory to package. This directory MUST be called "jre" and it must contain the usual bin and lib directories under it. If it exists as another name, you must rename it. Thus the hierarchy should look like:

   [jre]|-->[bin]|-->[lib]COPYRIGHT, etc.

   A sample TAR command would be: tar cvf jre13req.tar jre

   You should see the name of each file in the JRE being included in the TAR archive. You should see a list similar to this:

   jre/jre/lib/jre/lib/securityjre/lib/security/java.security

3. Compress the TAR archive by typing the following: compress jre13req.tar

   You should be left with a file named jre13req.tar.Z. (NOTE: The name of the archive does not have to be jre13req.tar.Z -- you may use any name you please, but it must have the .tar.Z extension.)

   For Windows, you must take the contents of the jre (of any version of Java) and zip it up as vm.zip (case sensitive, must be lowercase).