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Decrease the amount of production server downtime for upgrades and fix pack installations

Question & Answer


Question

Is there a process or tool I can use to eliminate some of the downtime experienced by my production server when applying a fix pack or upgrading my current deployment?

Answer

When you install a fix pack or upgrade your current deployment, the configuration portion of the process includes steps to update the database and build and deploy application EAR files. The application server must be stopped during this phase of the deployment, which can lead to extended downtime of your production environment.

Starting with the v7.6.0.1 fix pack, you can minimize downtime by using new programs to manually perform these configuration steps. Tasks performed by the updatedb program, preparation of product class files and database updates, have been split into two separate commands.

The updatedblitepreprocessor command can be used to prepare class files before they are built into the application EAR files. The updatedb command can also perform this work, however, it requires that you stop the application server. If you use the updatedblitepreprocessor command, you are not required to stop the application server while class files are prepared.

The updatedblite command can be used to perform updates to the database. The updatedb command can also perform this work. The application server must be stopped before you run either command. The updatedb and updatedblite commands use the exact same parameters.

You can either continue to use the updatedb command as you have in previous releases, or you can use these new commands to complete product configuration. The Maximo Asset Management v7.6 configuration tool uses the updatedb command to complete configuration.

// Install the 7.6.0.1 or later fix pack using updatedblitepreprocessor and updatedblite //

In this scenario, we install the 7.6.0.1 fix pack and configure Maximo Asset Management using the updatedblitepreprocessor and updatedblite commands from the command-line.

1) Use Installation Manager to install the 7.6.0.1 or later fix pack, as described in the fix pack readme file. Do not use the Maximo Asset Management configuration tool to update the database or build and deploy application EAR files.

2) Install any industry solutions and add-ons that you have. Refer to the installation guide provided with each version 7.6 industry solution and add-on for information.

3) Open a command prompt and run the updatedblitepreprocessor command, located in the <Maximo_Home>\tools\maximo\ directory.

<Maximo_Home>\tools\maximo\updatedblitepreprocessor.[bat|sh]

4) Build the application EAR files.

WebLogic:
<Maximo_Home>\deployment\buildmaximoear.[cmd|sh]
<Maximo_Home>\deployment\buildmxiehsear.[cmd|sh]

WebSphere 8.x:
<Maximo_Home>\deployment\buildmaximoearwas8.[cmd|sh]
<Maximo_Home>\deployment\buildmxiehsear.[cmd|sh]


5) Stop the Maximo Asset Management application server.

6) Run the updatedblite command, located in the <Maximo_Home>\tools\maximo\ directory.

<Maximo_Home>\tools\maximo\updatedblite.[bat|sh]

7) Deploy the maximo.ear and maximoiehs.ear application EAR files through the WebLogic Server Administration Console or the WebSphere Application Server Administrative Console

8) Restart the Maximo Asset Management application server.


// Install the 7.6.0.1 or later fix pack using updatedblitepreprocessor and updatedblite in a multi-language environment //

The updatedblite command does not invoke the Report Label Loader. If you need to translate reports in Maximo Asset Management, you must also run the Report Label Loader command before the TDToolkit command during configuration. If the Report Label Loader command is not run, none of the labels in the database will be translated. The Report Label Loader command uses values found in the maximo.properties file to connect to the database. After the labels are translated, you must export them as property values using the Write Report Properties command so they can be used by the Birt report engine,


1) Use Installation Manager to install the 7.6.0.1 or later fix pack, as described in the fix pack readme file. Do not use the Maximo Asset Management configuration tool to update the database or build and deploy application EAR files.

2) Install any industry solutions and add-ons that you have. Refer to the installation guide provided with each version 7.6 industry solution and add-on for information.

3) Open a command prompt and run the updatedblitepreprocessor command, located in the <Maximo_Home>\tools\maximo\ directory.

<Maximo_Home>\tools\maximo\updatedblitepreprocessor.[bat|sh]

4) Build the application EAR files.

WebLogic:
<Maximo_Home>\deployment\buildmaximoear.[cmd|sh]
<Maximo_Home>\deployment\buildmxiehsear.[cmd|sh]

WebSphere 8.x:
<Maximo_Home>\deployment\buildmaximoearwas8.[cmd|sh]
<Maximo_Home>\deployment\buildmxiehsear.[cmd|sh]


5) Stop the Maximo Asset Management application server.

6) Run the updatedblite command, located in the <Maximo_Home>\tools\maximo\ directory.

<Maximo_Home>\tools\maximo\updatedblite.[bat|sh]

7) Run the ReportLabelLoader command.

<Maximo_Home>\tools\maximo\reportlabelloader.[bat|sh]

8) Lay down XLIFF files.

The configuration Utility will install the language files into a language directory,
<install_dir>\lang

Run the following sql against your database to get a list of the installed languages,

select maxlangcode from language where enabled = 1;

This will list all installed languages including the Base Language. For each language, extract the MaximoLangPkgXliff_[Language].zip to, <install_dir>\maximo. For example, if the select statement returned ES, DE and FR, extract MaximoLangPkgXliff_Es.zip, MaximoLangPkgXliff_De.zip and MaximoLangPkgXliff_Fr.zip. When extracting these files, they should over write the current XLIFF files in the directories.

9) Update the base language.

If your base language is not English, you need to update the base language first.

Run the following against your database to get the Base Language,

select varvalue from maxvars where varname = 'BASELANGUAGE';

Use the returned value to run TDToolkit,

<install_dir>\maximo\tools\maximo\TDToolkit.[bat|sh] -import -tl[Base_Language]

For example, on Windows for German,

TDToolkit.bat -import -tlDE

10) Update additional languages.

If you have additional languages installed, you need to update these as well.

Run the following against your database to get a list of additional languages,

select maxlangcode from language where maxlangcode not in (select varvalue from maxvars where varname = 'BASELANGUAGE') and enabled = 1;

For each language, run the following,

<install_dir>\maximo\tools\maximo\TDToolkit.[bat|sh] -addlang[Secondary_Language]

For example, on Windows for Portuguese,

TDToolkit.bat -addlangPT

11) Update translations for each installed PMP.

For each installed PMP, the translation needs to be updated as well.

Run the following against your database to get a list of installed PMPs that need translation,

select distinct pmpname from tdtversion where pmpname not in ('CORE');

For each PMP, run the following,

<install_dir>\maximo\tools\maximo\TDToolkit.[bat|sh] -pmpupdate[PMP_Name]

For example, on Windows for Calibration,
TDToolkit.bat -pmpupdatecalibration

This assume no new PMP was installed and the current PMPs have previously been translated.

If you are unsure, the PMP names can be found as sub directories in
<install_dir>\maximo\tools\maximo\[Base_Language]\xliff

Ignore the files and run the following for each directory,
<install_dir>\maximo\tools\maximo\TDToolkit.[bat|sh] -pmpupdate[Sub_Directory_Name]

For example, if your Base Language is Japanese and you have the following directories,

<install_dir>\maximo\tools\maximo\ja\xliff\calibration
<install_dir>\maximo\tools\maximo\ja\xliff\common_pmp
<install_dir>\maximo\tools\maximo\ja\xliff\service_provider

Then run the following three commands,

TDToolkit.bat -pmpupdatecalibration
TDToolkit.bat -pmpupdatecommon_pmp
TDToolkit.bat -pmpupdateservice_provider

12) Deploy the maximo.ear and maximoiehs.ear application EAR files through the WebLogic Server Administration Console or the WebSphere Application Server Administrative Console

13) Restart the Maximo Asset Management application server.

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Document Information

Modified date:
17 June 2018

UID

swg21902458