Deploying Rational Application Developer installation to multiple desktops

My team uses a specific version of Rational Application Developer, 7.5.5.4 with a specific version of WAS test server, 7.0.0.19.  One challenge that I face every time I upgrade RAD and the test server is applying the upgrade on all my team members workstations. Installing the fixes on each machine takes a lot of time. Sometimes the installation fails halfway, so you have to start from scratch again.


If you are part of a large organization often executing large projects using Rational Application Developer, you would have already faced this issue. The severity of the problem multiplies when you are using products like WebSphere Commerce Developer which requires a set of additional fix packs/feature packs to be installed on top of the base Rational Application Developer.

One solution that I have tried successfully over the years is copying the installed directories of RAD to all the machines. Here are the steps :-

1. Copy RAD installation directories. For e.g., if you have installed RAD 7.5x under D:\IBM\SDP and D:\IBM\SDPShared, copy these folders to the target machine. Make sure that you maintain the same directory structure on the target machine.
2. Copy Installation Manager under the same path on the target machine.
3. Copy C:\ProgramData\IBM\Installation Manager to the target machine.

Note: Please make sure that you have purchased enough number of RAD licenses for development. This approach should not be used for pirating RAD.