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Migrating to the latest version of Operational Decision Management

Question & Answer


Question

What do I need to consider when migrating from JRules to Operational Decision Management  (ODM), or to a later version of Operational Decision Management, and in which order should I proceed?

Cause

It is recommended to migrate to the latest available version/release of the product as soon as possible to benefit from the latest released features.



It is also always recommended to apply the latest modification/fix pack for the version you are using (V.R.M.F) as soon as they are available (see Fix pack release notification for Operational Decision Manager).

Applying a modification or a fix pack does not require to migrate your code nor your data, it only requires to:


Refer to the content below for details on those specific steps 4 & 6, or see How to apply a modification or fix pack.

Answer

Before migrating, you will first need to verify that your configuration is still supported with the new version of the product you are migrating to: see our online ODM system requirement page. Migrating to a more recent version of ODM may require you to upgrade your databases and/or application servers.

For instructions to install the distribution of the new product, see Installing WebSphere Operational Decision Management (WODM) V7.5 or the corresponding ODM download page in our Operational Decision Manager Download document.

Make sure to apply the latest modification/fix pack before performing the migration, right after installing the new version/release and before migrating your data. The latest modification/fix packs are also available in our Operational Decision Manager Download document.


Here are the steps you will typically need to consider (if applicable in your case) and the order in which you should proceed to migrate your applications and data to the new version of ODM you installed:

  1. Rule model extensions
  2. Authoring & rule management extensions
  3. Eclipse projects
  4. ODM applications
  5. Database data
  6. Client applications


You can refer to section WebSphere Operational Decision Management V7.5 > Migrating from JRules > Migrating from JRules V7 > How to migrate from JRules V7 of the documentation to help you identify which of the above steps apply to your use of the product.

If migrating from JRules V6.x, you will first need to migrate your data and code to JRules V7.1.1. To do so, follow the steps below by substituting the module names 'Rule Designer' and 'Decision Center' respectively for 'Rule Studio' and 'Rule Team Server'. Also refer to the technotes Installing JRules V7.1.1 and Migrating to JRules v7.1 for more details.


1. Rule model extensions

If you extended the rule model, to add custom properties for example, you will need to add the same model extensions to the default extension model/data files of the new version you are migrating to.

Do not re-use the files of the previous version. To obtain the new extension files, click "File > New > Other... > Rule Designer > Rule Model Extension > Extension [Model/Data]" in Rule Designer.

You will then need to apply those extensions on Rule Designer (in the new workspace preferences) and Decision Center (through the Installation Settings Wizard or dedicated ANT tasks to create the new tables) before you migrate the data.

Read more about on the rule model in the documentation under Decision Center V7.5 > Customizing > Customizing the rule model.

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2. Authoring & rule management extensions

The code for the Rule Designer extensions, applied as plug-ins, and Decision Center extensions, deployed by repackaging the Decision Center application, will need to be re-built in the new Rule Designer version and updated (if you have deprecation warnings/errors).

You will then apply those according to the documented steps for the new version. Same for Rule Solutions for Office, when applicable.

See sections Decision Server Rules V7.5 > Developing rule projects in Rule Designer > Configuring the BOM for rule authoring > Customizing business rule authoring and management and Decision Center V7.5 > Customizing > Integrating business rule authoring extensions for more information on how to apply the updated extensions to the new Rule Designer and Decision Center.


Note that the Decision Center Business console, introduced in V7.5, currently only supports the value editor authoring extension. On the other hand. the Decision Center Enterprise console, formerly called Rule Team Server, supports all documented authoring & rule management extensions of previous versions.

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3. Eclipse projects

Rule projects must be imported in a new workspace and re-built.

You will first apply your model and authoring extensions, if any (see step 1 & 2 above), and also ensure that Rule Designer is given sufficient memory by changing the default -Xmx512m to the recommended -Xmx1024m in the <installDir>\ODM\eclipse.ini. You may need to give it more memory, depending on your configuration and the size of your rule projects.

If you are migrating from V7.1 and wish to deploy additional resources along with each of your Rule projects to Decision Center, you need to manually add a resource folder to your migrated project.

See section Decision Center V7.5 > Synchronizing and storing rules > Introducing synchronization > Rule project items of the documentation for more information on the feature, and section WebSphere Operational Decision Management V7.5 > Migrating from JRules > Migrating from JRules V7 > Migrating rule projects to include the resource folder for more details on manually creating the resource folder.

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4. ODM applications

Those are essentially the product Java EE modules (EARs/WARs) you have deployed to your servers: the Decision Center/Rule Execution Center consoles, the eXecution Unit, the DVS SSP, the Transparent Decision Services…



You will first need to apply the same changes to the descriptors of the new modules that you had applied on the previous version:
  • additional roles for Decision Center
  • any custom settings

After applying your customizations, if any, you will deploy the new Java EE modules following the documentation for the corresponding application server.

See Decision Server Rules V7.5 > Configuring Decision Server > Configuring Rule Execution Server and Decision Center V7.5 > Configuring Decision Center for the detailed steps.

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5. Database data

For the Decision Center rule projects, scripts are provided to migrate the data into a new database schema (to be created in the same database). Refer to the documentation at WebSphere Operational Decision Management V7.5 > Migrating from JRules > Migrating from JRules V7 > Migrating the Rule Team Server database for more details.

If migrating from a version prior to 7.5, see Operational Decision Manager V8.5.1 > Migrating and upgrading your applications > Migrating from JRules > Migrating from JRules V7 > Migrating the business user database > Resolving conflicts in the name attribute prior to migrating the data.

If migrating from RTS 6.X, you may need to refer to document RTS repository migration to JRules V7.1 when persistence locale is defined with 2 letters.

Some additional migration operations may be performed at the first login to the new Decision Center. As it may require some time, it is recommended to increase the application timeout as explained in this technote. Note that it will only affect the first login after migration.

For the Rule Execution Server RuleApps, no data migration is required between V7.X/V8.X versions.

Only when migrating from V6.X will the RuleApps need to be migrated, as explained in technote Migrating RuleApps.

Also, if migrating from JRules V7.0 and you deployed RuleApps directly from Rule Team Server to Rule Execution Server, do the following to redeploy these RuleApps from Decision Center:

    1. Clean the cache in the console.
    2. Redeploy your rule projects to generate a new compatible package declaration in the RuleApps.


If migrating from V7.1 and want to use the new managed XOM feature introduced in V7.5, you need to extend the database to include the XOM repository.

You will either do so through the Installation Settings Wizard that you will be prompted when accessing the new Rule Execution Server console the first time, or by running the xomrepository_<DatabaseName>.sql script, found in the new product distribution directory <InstallDir>/executionserver/databases, on the existing database schema.

For more information on the managed XOM feature, see section Decision Server Rules V7.5 > Managing business rule execution in Rule Execution Server > Deploying Java XOMs of the documentation.

For the Decision Warehouse trace, you may need to run a SQL script (<InstallDir>/executionserver/databases/migrate_trace_<database_name>_from_<version>.sql) on the existing database schema that you can re-use. See WebSphere Operational Decision Management V7.5 > Migrating from JRules > Migrating from JRules V7 > Migrating the Decision Warehouse database and Operational Decision Manager V8.0.1 > Migrating and upgrading your applications > Migrating from WebSphere Operational Decision Management > How to migrate from WebSphere Decision Server and WebSphere Decision Center for more details.

For the WebSphere Business Events (WBE) or ODM Events runtime data, you can re-use the existing database but should make a copy of the original WBE database if you need to run both versions runtimes simultaneously. See Operational Decision Manager V8.5.1 > Migrating and upgrading your applications > Migrating from WebSphere Business Events for more details.

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6. Client applications

To migrate client code for Rule Execution Server or Decision Center, you will need to

    1. re-build it with the new product client libraries,
    2. fix any deprecated warnings (possibly errors, if migrating across several versions) to use the new APIs,
    3. repackage your application(s) with your up-to-date classes and the new product libraries,
    4. re-deploy your application(s) to the servers.
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Once the migration performed, we recommend you verify that

    • all your modules are at the same exact version/fix pack level (see Find the version of JRules/WODM components),
    • you can see your data in the consoles without issue,
    • you can run the Rule Execution Server/Decision Center console diagnostics without errors.

For more details and specific migration use cases, please refer to the below links.

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Document Information

Modified date:
15 June 2018

UID

swg21589725

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