Upgrading an TIBCO® Patterns Installation

This section provides guidelines for upgrading an TIBCO® Patterns installation. These guidelines provide only a starting point for migrations and upgrades, you must review each installation for relevant details.

Pre-Migration Steps

Complete the following steps to upgrade the TIBCO® Patterns installation:

  1. Review the functionality of the new and existing versions

  2. Install the new version of TIBCO® Patterns

  3. Transfer data from the existing installation to the new installation

  4. Update applications that use TIBCO Patterns

Warning: Before upgrading production systems, it is a good practice to perform an upgrade on a test system.

Reviewing Functionality

With each release of TIBCO® Patterns, features are modified. Usually new features are added, but occasionally existing features are deprecated or deprecated features are removed.

Features are always deprecated for at least one release cycle before they are removed. Therefore, when updating TIBCO® Patterns from one release version to the next, there should be no immediate compatibility issues.

Perform the following tasks when reviewing the functionality of new and existing functions:

  • Review all applications for the features that they use. This includes the following features:

    • Server Features (e.g., checkpoint/restore)

    • APIs and Plug-ins (Java, .NET, BW6, etc.)

    • Query functionality

  • Review the TIBCO® Patterns Release Notes for new and existing versions of TIBCO® Patterns, and all versions in-between. All feature changes are documented in the TIBCO® Patterns Release Notes.

Note: Reviewing TIBCO® Patterns Release Notes is critical if the upgrade skips versions.

Installing the New Version

To install the new version of TIBCO® Patterns, obtain the installer for the new version and run the installer.

You can run the new installation on the existing hardware, or new hardware. If existing and new installations are run on the same hardware simultaneously:

  • There may be a temporary loss of performance while both installations are running.

  • Configuration must avoid conflicts between the installations. This includes:

    • TCP ports

    • Log locations

    • Data-persistence locations (i.e. checkpoint/restore folders)

Transferring Data

You can transfer data from the existing installation to the new installation in the following ways:

  • Performing a fresh load of data fresh from the original data source.

  • Copying the Checkpoint files.

    This method is only available when checkpoint/restore is in use on the existing installation.

    Complete the following steps to copy the checkpoint files:

    • Perform a checkpoint-all operation on the existing installation.

    • Copy the checkpoint files to the checkpoint existing of the new installation.

    • Perform a restore-all operation on the new installation.

  • Using durable data
    This method is only available when the existing installation is 5.7.1 or a newer version. With the durable-data feature, there is effectively no transfer of data. The new installation can be run using the existing durable-data directory.
    Complete the following steps to use the existing durable-data directory:

    • Shut down the existing installation.

    • Back up the durable-data directory.

    • Run the new installation using the existing durable-data directory.

Note:

  • Shut down or pause applications that perform write operations while performing the data transfer.

  • If the existing installation is version 5.4 or earlier, the copying checkpoint files method only transfers tables. Thesauri, character-maps, and RLINK models must be transferred before the restore-all operation is performed.

Updating Applications

Complete the following steps to update the applications that use TIBCO® Patterns:

  1. Update the following APIs and Plug-ins:

    1. Update the Java applications to use the API jar from the new version.

    2. Update the .NET applications to use the API dll from the new version.

    3. Update the BW5 applications to use the matching plug-in.

    4. Update the BW6 applications to use the matching plug-in.

  2. Change the applications that use a removed feature.

  3. Change the applications that use deprecated features.

Generally, the Java API, .NET APIs, BW6 plug-in, and BW5 plug-in are forward compatible. Updating them is often sufficient to update an application. The primary exception is when an application uses deprecated methods, and those methods are removed.

When updating an application, check if any deprecated methods are in use. Changing these to non-deprecated methods is recommended. The continued use of deprecated methods may cause issues during later upgrades.

For more information about deprecated and removed features, see TIBCO® Patterns Release Notes.