Upgrading ARS is pretty straight forward compared to the ITSM Suite. You do have the ability to "flatten/convert" objects to base mode. In 8.1 you can also convert unmodified to custom. I posted about this awhile back. There are some risks with this when patching. If you create a custom form called FormA and BMC has a patch that now has a BMC FormA your form may be lost. If you have good naming conventions this is more than likely not going to happen. The good thing about ARS is you have the flexability to do whatever you want. The bad things is you can do whatever you want.
In base mode you will not see your overlays and custom code. That's what base mode is. It allows you to see your base system without customizations, so you can't add a field to an form in Best Practice mode using overlays and then move to Base Mode and add that field to an active link. You would have to be in Best Practice mode. Mixing modes will probably lead to issues. Hopefully, your systems are really well documented. As far as using BPCU tool it's probably not the best approach if there is a huge gap in versions. I would analyze all the customizations to see if you can replace them with out of box functionality and manually bring over the customizations you want. Going fresh with ITSM isn't a bad idea. Most organizations only implement a small set of features the ITSM Suite has to offer. If organizations implemented 100% without customizations they would have a smokin system. Unless I'm doing integrations I try my best to stay away from customizations. I leave ITSM development to BMC and Third Party Vendors that have cool plugins. Don't get me wrong I can develop with the best of them and some times it seems easier to customize/develop, but now I try to look at long term strategic decisions for the business. I have seen more people get upset about the cost of upgrades then I have seen people upset that the ITSM Suite doesn't have abc functionality built in. ________________________________ From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) <arslist@ARSLIST.ORG> on behalf of Raj <ravi6...@gmail.com> Sent: Friday, September 13, 2013 3:21 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Using BPCU while ARS Upgrade? ** LJ, Jason, Brian, Understand you are recommending to convert my objects in Custom or Overlays. But here's the challenge I have - may be my limited knowledge - pl excuse me for that. Read some posts where folks mentioned that they initiated the conversion using BPCU but in some cases it didn't detect correctly and they ended up doing the manual re-import and fixes to get those features working correctly. I certainly would want to avoid that considering the time and resource constraint we have. Here's one such thread I am refering to - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/arslist/unmodified$20to$20custom$20or$20base/arslist/vw_xWirOBLI/1gmLDoErRpgJ Yes, HD5.6 it pretty much of our own now. We have done so much heavy customizations on it. So, most likely may take an year or two to move away or even think about installing fresh ITSM and bring the customizations which we can't get away with. In short, I would like to avoid confusion here to upgrade HD 5.6. We are strictly looking into ARS upgrade for now. and HD5.6 we will treat it as home grown app due to heavy customizations. Now, coming on the situation I am yet on ARS 7.6.04 - Q1)so can I still try to run the upgrade installer(ARS to v8.1) with User, SHR:People, SHRCFG:OuterJoinPeopleUser and some workflow as overlays and rest as Base/UnModified? Other potential issue which Misi mentioned(https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/arslist/sUyE_aVBpd8)- If this is your only customizations, I suggest that you leave everything in base mode. It is not an option to make OVERLAYs of these only, you need to make all you other stuff CUSTOM. Otherwise your own workflow will not be able to see the OVERLAY-stuff in User/Group. Is it to go either fully Base Development Mode(leaving all objects intact as unmodified) or completely Best Practice Mode(Convert my objects into Overlays or Custom - but again want to avoid the manual work on Customizations ?) Q2) Since I have already created some Overlays, can I just convert those Overlays back to Base again so they will become Unmodified if I decide to go with complete BASE DEVELOPMENT mode.then run upgrade install? Q3) Does mixing modes and having a mix of objects Unmodified and Overlays / Custom could result in issue which Misi mentioned?( Workflow may not detect Overlay stuff?) Please advise. _ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" and have been for 20 years_ DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this e-mail and its attachments contain confidential information belonging to the sender, which is legally privileged. The information is intended only for the use of the recipient(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or action in reliance upon the contents of the information transmitted is strictly prohibited. If you have received this information in error, please delete it immediately. _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years"
