BMC Server 7.1 - Have to upgrade to Patch 007 - What to backup?
Hello, We currently are running ITSM suite and it is currently patched. I have my Server 7.1.00 with no patches installed onto it. I want to install patch 007 to my server but I am not aware of what will be changed or what should we backup or save prior? We have some customization and want to make sure it is not lost... I really need to plan this out properly... Thank you so much for any help Mike -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/BMC-Server-7.1---Have-to-upgrade-to-Patch-007---What-to-backup--tp25787917p25787917.html Sent from the ARS (Action Request System) mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor:rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are
Re: BMC Server 7.1 - Have to upgrade to Patch 007 - What to backup?
Having been through the nightmares of upgrading a remedy server several time here are the things to consider: 1. Make sure you do this in a lower environment and test, test test. There may be bugs in the patch. Never count on a server patch to be 100% bug free. I have been bit by this one several times. 2. Make sure and back up any cusomizations you have done to remedy base forms -- they usually start with AR System. The AR System Email Messages form is a specific one that comes to mind. 3. Don't forget to backup any customizations you have made to mid-tier web pages (login.jsp, lougout.jsp come to mind). 4. Make backups of your ar.conf, armonitor.conf, your license file (since you are on 7.1 not needed), and arsystem files just in case. 5. Don't forget to upgrade flashboards and the e-mail engine too. 6. A new install of mid-tier messes up the CMDB visualization module -- make sure and reinstall that after a new mid-tier install. 7. Make sure an upgrade the LDAP plugins if you are using that. Notes -- If you know you have not made any customizations to the forms/workflow related to Email Engine, Flashboards, Assignment Engine, or the Approval Engine it should be an easy upgrade and go rather smoothly. -- Sometimes a server upgrade can mess up your settings in armonitor.conf. If you made a backup simply just restore the file and you should be good to go. -- Also if you are running any of the LDAP integrations make sure you make a backup of ar.conf so that you can restore it just in case the patch upgrade overwrites it (I don't think it does but best to be safe than sorry). -- By default remedy makes a backup of some of the directories where you installed remedy but it is not a bad idea to make a backup yourself so that you can easily recover if something goes wrong. Remedy's backup is a little bit more difficult to recover from since it only backs up a few directories like bin, conf etc and not the whole install you have of arserver. Other things to consider: Check to see if you need to patch ITSM to work with the newer patch of ARServer. Sometimes the SLA Engine, CMDB Modules, AIE, etc. work better when you upgrade their modules too (and prevent server outages). ITSM upgrades will overwrite custom workflow so make sure and back up any custom workflow before installing the upgrade so that you can put them back. As a general rule of thumb a Server Patch(i.e. patch 0 to patch7) goes rather smoothly but a Server Upgrade (7.0.x-7.5 for example) can be a nightmare depending on the compatibility of the ITSM modules, OS, and DB in addition to restoring customizations after the upgrade. Sean From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arsl...@arslist.org] On Behalf Of MCarnevale Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 10:40 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: BMC Server 7.1 - Have to upgrade to Patch 007 - What to backup? ** Hello, We currently are running ITSM suite and it is currently patched. I have my Server 7.1.00 with no patches installed onto it. I want to install patch 007 to my server but I am not aware of what will be changed or what should we backup or save prior? We have some customization and want to make sure it is not lost... I really need to plan this out properly... Thank you so much for any help Mike View this message in context: BMC Server 7.1 - Have to upgrade to Patch 007 - What to backup?http://www.nabble.com/BMC-Server-7.1---Have-to-upgrade-to-Patch-007---What-to-backup--tp25787917p25787917.html Sent from the ARS (Action Request System) mailing list archivehttp://www.nabble.com/ARS-%28Action-Request-System%29-f716.html at Nabble.com. _Platinum Sponsor: rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are_ ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor:rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are
Re: BMC Server 7.1 - Have to upgrade to Patch 007 - What to backup?
Mike, If you are just going to upgrade the ARS version, you do not have to worry about loosing customizations. You are much better off with Patch 007 or for that matter most of any patches that were released after the unpatched version. That being said backup of the database is always handy in case of any unpredictable result so that you can rollback if necessary. You never know why you may need it - you may loose power and your UPS you thought would work conveniently chose not to just because.. Joe From: MCarnevale mich...@onthesidedesigns.com To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Wed, October 7, 2009 10:39:46 AM Subject: BMC Server 7.1 - Have to upgrade to Patch 007 - What to backup? ** Hello, We currently are running ITSM suite and it is currently patched. I have my Server 7.1.00 with no patches installed onto it. I want to install patch 007 to my server but I am not aware of what will be changed or what should we backup or save prior? We have some customization and want to make sure it is not lost... I really need to plan this out properly... Thank you so much for any help Mike ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor:rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are
Re: BMC Server 7.1 - Have to upgrade to Patch 007 - What to backup?
If you have made any customizations to the User or Group form (never recommended but sometimes necessary) they will be overwritten. Any AR System form will probably be updated (views overwritten at a minimum) as well, so if you customized the mail form or something else, you will need to back up the modifications. If you have modified any portion of the password management workflow, as we had, it will be overwritten as well. When you upgrade the email engine, be sure to go ahead and configure the mailboxes even though they already are, then go back and delete the new configuration records that creates. Otherwise the password information won't be re-written to the EmailDaemon.properties file correctly and the service may not work (after which you get to uninstall it, and do a new install). In my experience, the 7.0/7.1 patch installers will frequently trash your mid-tier and aremail installations rather than upgrade them properly, so that frequently they must be uninstalled and reinstalled with the newer patch. In a similar 7.x observation, you _do_ want to use the installers instead of file replacement, especially for the AR Server itself. Unlike on ARS 5.1.2 (our last production platform before 7.1.00.002), where by file replacement patching worked fine, the 7.x servers will often have problems starting the java plugins after a by file patch, and you will have to run the installer to fix it anyway. The safest thing to do is upgrade your development environment, then use Migrator to compare it against production to sense the changes. Then migrate the customizations back from production to development and _document_ what you had to move. Now you are ready to upgrade production, after which you will migrate exactly the same customizations back from development according to your checklist. ARS isn't nearly as bad as ITSM about overwriting things, but this was the process I used recently to successfully patch ITSM 7.0.03 from 007 to 009. Your mileage may vary, but this is my experience with 7.x over the last three years, all on Windows 2K3 64 or 32 bit servers. Christopher Strauss, Ph.D. Call Tracking Administration Manager University of North Texas Computing IT Center http://itsm.unt.edu/ From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arsl...@arslist.org] On Behalf Of MCarnevale Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 9:40 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: BMC Server 7.1 - Have to upgrade to Patch 007 - What to backup? ** Hello, We currently are running ITSM suite and it is currently patched. I have my Server 7.1.00 with no patches installed onto it. I want to install patch 007 to my server but I am not aware of what will be changed or what should we backup or save prior? We have some customization and want to make sure it is not lost... I really need to plan this out properly... Thank you so much for any help Mike View this message in context: BMC Server 7.1 - Have to upgrade to Patch 007 - What to backup?http://www.nabble.com/BMC-Server-7.1---Have-to-upgrade-to-Patch-007---What-to-backup--tp25787917p25787917.html Sent from the ARS (Action Request System) mailing list archivehttp://www.nabble.com/ARS-%28Action-Request-System%29-f716.html at Nabble.com. _Platinum Sponsor: rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are_ ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor:rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are
Re: BMC Server 7.1 - Have to upgrade to Patch 007 - What to backup?
Ugh, haha, I was told by BMC that there shouldnt be any changes really to affect me but I wanted to be certain and see what the rest of the community said. I do have CAC integration for mid-tier and now that Sean said it might affect that and also have LDAP integration. wow...nothing is ever easy these days or should I say guaranteed The main reason for the upgrade is that our Print button stopped working and also our reporting console stopped working...I think its related and we cannot pin down what happened, it just sits there like nothing is happening but my log files say everything fired properly. Thanks for the advice all for this. Mike Garrison, Sean (Norcross)-2 wrote: Having been through the nightmares of upgrading a remedy server several time here are the things to consider: 1. Make sure you do this in a lower environment and test, test test. There may be bugs in the patch. Never count on a server patch to be 100% bug free. I have been bit by this one several times. 2. Make sure and back up any cusomizations you have done to remedy base forms -- they usually start with AR System. The AR System Email Messages form is a specific one that comes to mind. 3. Don't forget to backup any customizations you have made to mid-tier web pages (login.jsp, lougout.jsp come to mind). 4. Make backups of your ar.conf, armonitor.conf, your license file (since you are on 7.1 not needed), and arsystem files just in case. 5. Don't forget to upgrade flashboards and the e-mail engine too. 6. A new install of mid-tier messes up the CMDB visualization module -- make sure and reinstall that after a new mid-tier install. 7. Make sure an upgrade the LDAP plugins if you are using that. Notes -- If you know you have not made any customizations to the forms/workflow related to Email Engine, Flashboards, Assignment Engine, or the Approval Engine it should be an easy upgrade and go rather smoothly. -- Sometimes a server upgrade can mess up your settings in armonitor.conf. If you made a backup simply just restore the file and you should be good to go. -- Also if you are running any of the LDAP integrations make sure you make a backup of ar.conf so that you can restore it just in case the patch upgrade overwrites it (I don't think it does but best to be safe than sorry). -- By default remedy makes a backup of some of the directories where you installed remedy but it is not a bad idea to make a backup yourself so that you can easily recover if something goes wrong. Remedy's backup is a little bit more difficult to recover from since it only backs up a few directories like bin, conf etc and not the whole install you have of arserver. Other things to consider: Check to see if you need to patch ITSM to work with the newer patch of ARServer. Sometimes the SLA Engine, CMDB Modules, AIE, etc. work better when you upgrade their modules too (and prevent server outages). ITSM upgrades will overwrite custom workflow so make sure and back up any custom workflow before installing the upgrade so that you can put them back. As a general rule of thumb a Server Patch(i.e. patch 0 to patch7) goes rather smoothly but a Server Upgrade (7.0.x-7.5 for example) can be a nightmare depending on the compatibility of the ITSM modules, OS, and DB in addition to restoring customizations after the upgrade. Sean From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arsl...@arslist.org] On Behalf Of MCarnevale Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 10:40 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: BMC Server 7.1 - Have to upgrade to Patch 007 - What to backup? ** Hello, We currently are running ITSM suite and it is currently patched. I have my Server 7.1.00 with no patches installed onto it. I want to install patch 007 to my server but I am not aware of what will be changed or what should we backup or save prior? We have some customization and want to make sure it is not lost... I really need to plan this out properly... Thank you so much for any help Mike View this message in context: BMC Server 7.1 - Have to upgrade to Patch 007 - What to backup?http://www.nabble.com/BMC-Server-7.1---Have-to-upgrade-to-Patch-007---What-to-backup--tp25787917p25787917.html Sent from the ARS (Action Request System) mailing list archivehttp://www.nabble.com/ARS-%28Action-Request-System%29-f716.html at Nabble.com. _Platinum Sponsor: rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are_ ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor:rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/BMC-Server-7.1---Have-to-upgrade-to-Patch-007---What-to-backup--tp25787917p25790614.html Sent from the ARS (Action Request System) mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
