Application Server Install

Last update: March 11, 2025

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NOTE
JAR and WAR are the file types Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) is released in. These formats are undergoing quality assurance to accommodate the support levels Adobe has committed to.

This section tells you how to install Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) with an application server. Consult the Supported Platforms section to read about the specific support levels provided for the individual application servers.

The installation steps of the following Application Servers are described:

Consult the appropriate application server documentation for more information on installing web applications, server configurations and how to start and stop the server.

General Description

Default behavior when installing AEM in an Application Server

AEM comes as a single war file to deploy.

If deployed, the following happens by default:

  • The run mode is author

  • The instance (Repository, Felix OSGI environment, bundles, and so on) is installed in is ${user.dir}/crx-quickstart, where ${user.dir} is the current working directory. This path to crx-quickstart is called sling.home

  • The context root is the war file name. For example, aem-65-lts.

Configuration

You can change the default behavior in the following way:

  • run mode : configure the sling.run.modes parameter in the WEB-INF/web.xml file of the AEM war file before deployment

  • sling.home: configure the sling.home parameter in the WEB-INF/web.xml file of the AEM war file before deployment

  • context root: rename the AEM war file

Publish installation

To get a publish instance deployed, you need to set the run mode to publish:

  • Unpack the WEB-INF/web.xml from the AEM war file
  • Change sling.run.modes parameter to publish
  • Repack web.xml file into the AEM war file
  • Deploy AEM war file

Installation check

To check if everything is installed, you can:

  • tail the error.logfile to see that all content is installed
  • look in /system/console that all bundles are installed

Two Instances on the same Application Server

For demonstration purposes, it can be appropriate to install both author and publish instance in one application server. In order achieve that, you need to:

  1. Change sling.home variable and sling.run.modes variables of the publish instance
  2. Unpack the WEB-INF/web.xml file from the AEM war file
  3. Change the sling.home parameter to a different path (absolute and relative paths are possible)
  4. Change sling.run.modes to publish for the publish instance
  5. Repack the web.xml file
  6. Rename the war files, so they have different names. For example, rename one to aemauthor.war and the other to aempublish.war
  7. Use higher memory settings. For example, default AEM instances use -Xmx3072m
  8. Deploy the two web applications
  9. After Deployment stop the two web applications
  10. In both author and publish instances make sure that in the sling.properties file the property felix.service.urlhandlers is set to false. (The default is that it is set to true).
  11. Start the two web applications again.

Application Servers Installation Procedures

WebSphere® 24.0.0.7

Before the deployment, please read the General Description above.

Server Preparation

  • Let Basic Auth Headers pass through:

    • One way to let AEM authenticate a user is to disable the global administrative security of the WebSphere® server. In order to do that, go to Security > Global Security and uncheck the Enable administrative security checkbox, save, and restart the server.

  • Set "JAVA_OPTS= -Xmx2048m"

  • If you want to install AEM using context root = /, change the context root of the existing Default web application.

Deploy the AEM Web Application

  • Download the AEM war file

  • Make your configurations in the web.xml file if needed. For more info, see General Description above.

    • Unpack the WEB-INF/web.xml file
    • Change the sling.run.modes parameter to publish
    • Uncomment initial sling.home parameter and set this path as you need
    • Repack the web.xml file.

  • Deploy the AEM war file

    • Choose a context root. If you want to set the sling run modes you need to select the detailed steps of the deploy wizard, then specify it in step 6 of the wizard.

  • Startthe AEM web application