The Installation Manager command line tool (imcl) has two different commands that can be used to uninstall a product.

• uninstall
• input

When using the uninstall command, all of the parameters must be used on the command line. When using the input command, most of the parameters are put in an XML file. This article describes the uninstallation procedure using the input command. Refer to this article to use the uninstall command.

Prerequisites

If you have not installed IBM Installation Manager, install IBM Installation Manager. 

Stop services

Before uninstalling a package, stop the services associated with the package. For example, if uninstalling websphere.BASE, you would stop the node agent and stop the application server.

Packages / Package group

Generally speaking, there are two ways to approach the uninstall.

• Specify each package in the package group to uninstall
• Specify the package group to uninstall

Refer to this article to understand what a package group is and now to list the packages in the package group.

Create the XML file

response.xml is a file that contains the XML needed to uninstall a product. The file name does not have to be response.xml. It can be named anything you want, as long as it's an XML file. Create the response file. These examples are based off of a Linux system.

touch /opt/IBM/response.xml

Add the following text to the response.xml file. In this example, <uninstall> is used followed by each package to uninstall.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<agent-input>
  <uninstall modify='false'>
    <offering id='com.ibm.websphere.BASE.v90' 
      profile='IBM WebSphere Application Server V9.0'/>
    <offering id='com.ibm.java.jdk.v8'
      profile='IBM WebSphere Application Server V9.0'/>
  </uninstall>
  <profile id='IBM WebSphere Application Server V9.0' installLocation='/opt/IBM/WebSpere/AppServer'>
    <data key='user.import.profile' value='false'/>
    <data key='cic.selector.nl' value='en'/>
  </profile>
</agent-input>

In this example, <uninstallAll> is used folowed by the package group to uninstall.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<agent-input>
  <uninstallAll profile='IBM WebSphere Application Server V9.0'></uninstallAll>
  <profile id='IBM WebSphere Application Server V9.0' installLocation='/opt/IBM/WebSpere/AppServer'>
    <data key='user.import.profile' value='false'/>
    <data key='cic.selector.nl' value='en'/>
  </profile>
</agent-input>

Perform the uninstall

imcl input response.xml -log uninstall.log -showProgress

Post uninstallation

The websphere_installation_directory/logs/install/log.txt file can be reviewed to ensure the uninstallation was successful.

The Installation Verification Tool can be used to ensure the uninstallation was successful.

The listInstalledPackages command can be used to ensure the uninstalled packages are no longer listed.

The versionInfo.sh utility can be used to verify that the package is not longer installed.

~]# /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/bin/versionInfo.sh
. . .
Installed Product
---------------------------------------------------
. . .