IBM FileNet P8, Version 5.2.1

FileNet P8 asset deployment

Ensure that the deployment preparation is complete, and then deploy into the destination environment.

The flow of individual tasks within the deployment of an application into a destination environment can vary widely. The needs of your organization, the architecture of your system, and requirements of the application itself all determine the number and order of these tasks. However, most deployments into the destination environment move through the following high-level stages. The specific plan and procedures for each of these stages are created as part of the general migration and deployment instructions that you develop during the deployment planning phase.

Environment-specific information mapping

Map all assets and dependencies that are associated with an application. The map includes information about all assets that are used with an application, the tools that are used to develop these assets, environment-specific information such as URLs that are embedded in form templates or workflow information, and the user roles and user community that is associated with those roles. Ideally, the creation of this map occurs long before deployment, in the design and development phase for the application, and is refined over time.

System suspension

Temporarily suspend system activities. A temporary suspension of the system activities enables system and application administrators access to the most stable environment for application deployment. The plan for system suspension uses the principles and procedures for FileNet® P8 domain backup and recovery. However, the procedures must be augmented by locally defined procedures appropriate for your system. The plan also includes methods the administrators can use to access the suspended system to complete the necessary deployment and system configuration tasks.

Ensure that all content that is to be deployed is checked in. Stop any running workflow that might contain or reference objects that are to be deployed. Ensure that only those users that perform essential activities are logged on to the system.

System backup

Before any system modification, back up the portions of the system that are affected by the changes. The best possible backup is created from a system where activity on the system is temporarily suspended. The suspension allows a consistent snapshot of all related data to be captured. After the backup is completed, minimize access to the system to avoid further changes that would make the system inconsistent with the backup.

Important: Before you create a backup for a production environment, make sure that the backup and recovery procedure for that environment is validated. Validation of the environment is required to detect problems such as data inconsistencies. Validation also ensures that the backup and recovery procedures meet the business needs of your organization.

Application deployment to the destination environment

Deploy the application to the destination environment. The documented steps provide overall guidance for this deployment. Use those steps in combination with the more specific steps that you documented as migration and deployment instructions for your application, including the information in the asset and dependency mapping.

Importing metadata

Before you import metadata, ensure that the user account given to FileNet Deployment Manager that you use to connect to the destination environment is a member of an administrative group for the targeted object store in the destination environment, and that the user account or group has appropriate permissions. For more information about permission, see Principals and permissions .

If you are importing metadata into a clustered or load balanced set of servers, you need to restrict the server request to one server. Restricting requests necessary to ensure the metadata caches in the set of servers are synchronized. However, if you export the metadata from the source environment and import this metadata into the destination environment as a single deployment operation (without including any other assets), you can ignore this restriction.

Asset dependencies

Some assets might depend on other assets or require more steps to complete the deployment. For more information about FileNet P8 assets, see FileNet P8 assets.