Websphere Application Server installation and deployment

As a Java developer, you may need to install IBM Websphere Application Server (WAS) onto machines from time to time. But the process is a little bit intense for most newbies. My post here applies to Websphere Application Server Version 7. Hope it save your valuable time of trouble shoot some non-sense errors or reading through lengthy documentation.

In a very high level, the IBM Websphere Application Server (WAS) installation can be achieved through the following steps:
1. Obtain the license or your IBM Partener world ID
2. Install the latest IBM Installation Manager. Manually add the two links of the repositories if they are missing. Import existing WAS installation if any.
2.1 https://www.ibm.com/software/rational/repositorymanager/repositories/websphere/repository.config
2.2 http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/websphere/repositories/repository.config
3. Install the right version of WAS onto a directory without space
4. Use the latest IBM Update Installer to install the fix pack. Otherwise you may get some weird exceptions or cannot install the desired feature pack. For example,
The EAR contains both xmi and XML bindings files at the application level which is not supported.
I got my eyes hurt trying to find what's wrong with my ears but simply found out it's a typical IBM joke.
5. Use the IBM Installation Manager to install the desired feature pack and update to its latest fix pack version if needed

After the installation is finished, please use your AppSrv01's Administrative Console to
* define any security
* define the environment variables of db driver path and etc
* define the datasource/jdbc properties
* install your application and start it
* access your web application through the port 9080.

All the configuration will be represented in one of the configuration files in a directory like: IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv01\config\cells\...

Please be sure to run the command console as an Administrator if you try to start/stop the server from the command line on a Windows 7 or above.