More or less Portable WebLogic 12c on Windows

Page content

This article appeared first at techtavern.wordpress.com.

(or, “Oracle SOA Suite” from “Quick Start installation”, as stated in the overworded documentation from Oracle)

(or version 12.2.1.4 of WebLogic)

Yes, it is possible to create a more or less portable installation the WebLogic 12c. This installation will work afterwards without administration privileges. And may run with other JVMs (even non “certified” ones as Adopt Open JDK). The installation might be moved to other directories or computers where one does not own administration privileges.

You will first need to install WebLogic 12c on a computer where you own administration privileges. Then, fix file permissions and copy this installation to any other computer or folder. You will need to replace JVM and installation paths that are hard coded on many configuration and script files.

In order to install, you will need first a “certified JVM”, one of which is Oracles JDK 8. If you don’t want do install Oracle JDK 8, check this article.

Recipe

Remember: It is on your own responsibility and risk!

Download WebLogic 12c from Oracle: https://www.oracle.com/middleware/technologies/weblogic-server-installers-downloads.html, make sure to click on “Quick Installer for Mac OSX, Windows and Linux (225 MB)”.

  1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator.

  2. Set JAVA_HOME to your Oracle JDK 8 installation path, like:

    set JAVA_HOME="C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_211"

  3. Create a directory where WebLogic 12c will be temporarily installed, like:

    mkdir c:\wls-12c-tmp

  4. Set ORACLE_HOME to this diretory, like:

    set ORACLE_HOME= c:\wls-12c-tmp

  5. Install WebLogic 12c on a computer where you own administration privileges, as explained in the official documentation.

    cd c:\users\myuser\Downloads
%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java.exe -jar fmw_12.2.1.4.0_soa_quickstart.jar ORACLE_HOME= c:\wls-12c-tmp

  6. Reset ownership of all files, like:

    icacls c:\wls-12c-tmp /setowner " myuser" /T /C

Now you may copy or zip this directory as a more or less portable WebLogic 12c. I said ‘more or less’ because the JVM and installation paths are stilly hard coded on many configuration and script files. They need to replaced manually…

Changing JVM of an installation

If you need to change the JVM, replace the old JVM path with the new JVM path. As I could not find a single line command, I pointed may favorite IDE to the WebLogic 12c installation directory and searched the files for the old JVM path and replaced them with the new one.

Moving the installation to another directory or another computer

When moving to another computer, replace the original JVM path with the JVM path on the current computer. Then replace

As I could not find a single line command, I pointed may favorite IDE to the WebLogic 12c installation directory and searched the files for the original paths and replaced them with the new ones.