Upgrading and usability of existing data directory

[Ajay]

Hi All

We are upgrading from 9.0 SP3 U7 to 9.5.1

We have acquired a new server so we will be infact installing a fresh copy of 9.5.1 on the new server. My question was that once I have a system up and running, albeit, with the default data directory, can I simply copy my existing 9.0 data directory into the new data directory location on the new server and simply boot up, or do I need to create the whole instance fro scratch, or a bit of both ?

Your kind words would be most welcome.

Thanks
Ajay

[Alan Kirk]

Hi All

We are upgrading from 9.0 SP3 U7 to 9.5.1

We have acquired a new server so we will be infact installing a fresh copy of 9.5.1 on the new server. My question was that once I have a system up and running, albeit, with the default data directory, can I simply copy my existing 9.0 data directory into the new data directory location on the new server and simply boot up, or do I need to create the whole instance fro scratch, or a bit of both ?

Your kind words would be most welcome.

It's not specifically the data directory that you need to worry about. You need to ensure that you install the services correctly either upon installation or following it. (Unless you're running it as an application, anyway, which I suspect that most people don't.) See this thread for more details.

Once you've done that, you can just dump your existing files into the directory that you've nominated as the data directory via the tm1s.cfg file. (Typically this would be the same folder that you've specified for the .cfg file itself when creating the service.)

This should of course be a copy of the files. Remember that once you move to 9.5 there's no going back because you cross the Unicode barrier.

[Ajay]

Thanks Alan for your speedy answer.

It's the unicode issue that led us to buying another server so that we could still run the 9.0 version separately, thus giving us the "rollback" option if something does go wrong.

Looking at another one of the threads on 9.5.1 I've noticed your thread on the various hot fixes that need to be applied to 9.5.1 so would I be right in thinking it would probably be wise to setup the new system, get the services all sorted out and then apply HF12, before I copy the data directory over ?

Ajay

[Alan Kirk]

Looking at another one of the threads on 9.5.1 I've noticed your thread on the various hot fixes that need to be applied to 9.5.1 so would I be right in thinking it would probably be wise to setup the new system, get the services all sorted out and then apply HF12, before I copy the data directory over ?

Noooooo!!! As I said in another thread just moments ago, Hotfixes aren't general releases but rather are intended to address certain specific problems. I put up the details so that people don't waste hours or days trying to narrow down an issue only to be told by IBM support "Oh yeah, that one was fixed in HF {whatever}, you should apply that."

Generally speaking I wouldn't recommend applying hotfixes unless you speak to IBM support first, unless you're only doing it in a test or development environment. It's important that people know what's out there (well, I think so), not necessarily that they jump straight into it. Remember that there's always going to be a certain amount of risk with applying a hot fix; it may introduce new problems as well as solving existing ones.