Clarity

Hi All,

Greetings !!

For Clarity upgrade from 12.1 to 13.3 we came across the following scenario –

Scenario 1:

• Current system: Clarity 12.1, Oracle 11gR2
• New Clean system available with all compatible hardware and OS
• Copy database from current system (which has DB on 12.1) to clean system and make a fresh install of Clarity 13.3 connecting to that database.

Scenario 2:

• Current system: Clarity 12.1, Oracle 11gR2
• New Clean system available with all compatible hardware and OS
• Clone the new system with current system including DB and clarity application installation (v12.1) and then execute the upgrade script

Need the help on to decide which approach is approach feasible?

Regards,

Khushboo

I don't think #1 works - I have not tried it though, just read a few things that say you can't do it like that.

(We could do things like that in earlier versions, before v13)

--

I think I'd like you try #1 then and let us know how that goes for you!

Point 1 is big no,in that you are not upgrading app and just attaching a clean app to the older version of db. Second is ok but don't do direct upgrade from 12.1 to 13.2 although its supported . Please upgrade to 13.0 and then from 13.0 move to 13.2

Regards

Suman Pramanik

Hello Khushboo

As stated above : linking 12.1 database to 13.3 instance will not work for an upgrade and is not a supported way to upgrade Clarity. I would do the following:

1. Migrate the environment to new platform
2. Bring up Clarity, make sure everything is fine, and application runs
3. Stop the application, take a full backup of everything : database and Clarity directory
4. Launch the upgrade to 13.3
5. Please make sure you read thoroughly  the Change and Impact Guide for all intermediate versions (for your upgrade it will be 13.0, 13.1, 13.2 and 13.3) as there are some changes and suggestions that will avoid you some known upgrade issues.
6. Please make sure you always check Checkinstall log each time the checkinstall runs for r13 and fix any possible issue.
7. It's a supported way to go directly to 13.3, so you can actually do it. The only downside is that if something goes wrong, you will have to rollback all the way to 12.1 before fixing the issue and re-starting the upgrade again.
8. Alternative progressive upgrade does actually exactly the same thing as direct upgrade to 13.3, but it will mean that every time a stage is successful, you will be able to take Clarity files and database backup before running the next stage. It can save you time in case you hit multiple issues, but it can also take more time in case you don't. I would think about it considering your options.

I hope this helps,

Kind Regards

Nika

Thanks to all for your replies. I think we will go with #2

Hi Nika,

we are on the way to decide upon progressive approach to upgade from 12.1 to 13.1 in two stages i) 12.1 to 13.1 and then ii) 13.1 to 13.3

As you stated, its actually can be time saving to directly upgrade to 13.3 so still reserching on which approach to follow.

Can you please highlight some more potential issue or specifiec pros / cons that helps to decide between direct v/s progressive approach.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Khushboo

Hi Khushboo,

In my opinion it will be a decision based on time. For example, most customers do not encounter any issue during the upgrade, and if this is the case, it's best to do direct upgrade as it is time saving. The downside would be that you have to rollback each time after you hit an error. If multiple issues are hit, we usually resolve them and apply same solutions in advance for any subsequent upgrades on higher level environments.
If you do progressive install, it will require taking full database and file backups after each stage, which can be quite time consuming. It will save you time only in case you hit multiple issues as you can work them through one by one, without doing a full rollback.

I generally recommend going with direct upgrade, and seeing how it goes. It is a rare occasion that we at Support recommend to customers to do progressive upgrades, and it is always having a specific reason for it.

Considering your specific path 12.1>13.1>13.3 : there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, but in my opinion it would be more helpful to actually do 12.1.0 > 12.1.1 > 13.3, as this has been the path I would usually recommend to customers for progressive upgrade (12.1.1 stage would not require a rollback so if something goes wrong during first stage, we could fix the issue and re-run the upgrade straight away).

Please let me know in case of any more questions.

Kind Regards
Nika

Yes if direct upgrade goes smoothly in test environment then it is simpler and time saving agreed.

Just wondering again...

If I go from 12.1 to v 13.0 to first I find it easier at that point to install  jdk 7 and set the environmental variables for the later v13.x versions than in a direct upgrade.

Martti K.

Hi Nika,

We have already started upgrade 3 days back with progressive approach.

Currently we are in mid of upgrading from 12.1.0 to 13.0. We are facing issue related to file store.

attached here install.log file. (I have replaced db user and service name with **** for client confidentiality).

to fix the below error, we have deleted Resource_Resume_fr.doc file from template folder and started again and it failed.

Error: Exception encountered in updateTemplateFolders
com.niku.dms.util.DMSException: Document already exists:Resource_Resume_fr.doc
 at com.niku.dms.service.DMSService.submitFileObjectWithoutPermCheck(DMSService.java:1177)

Could you please provide some guidance on that.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Khushboo

Open a case with support or hack the install script to continue past errors.

Martti K.

Hi Khushboo,

I have checked what the install script and code does at this stage and it will basically check the existing templates in the system, see if  there is a valid file in the DMS filesystem for this template and will try to reinsert it. You don't say whether your documents are stored in the database or a filestore?

I would suggest checking whether the file is checked out by a user by any chance. Otherwise we may need to work with your data/filestore, and maybe test this in house so it's best if you open a Support case if not done already as Martti suggested above.

Please let me know how it goes,
Kind Regards
Nika

Hi Nika / Martti

Our filestore is in Clarity_Home.

Finally, we have done the the below work around and successfully installed 12.1.1

1. Deleted Resource_Resume.doc files from filestore and it's entry from database table clb_dms_files

2. Disabled antivirus on the server.

Regards,

Khushboo