Upgrade Documentum 6.5Sp3 to 7.1

Dhana,

For the database tables of Documentum repository, there is no difference between 32-bit or 64-bit. They are just database tables. The step 7) is to add and update Documentum objects that are specific to D6.7 SP2.

Brian

All comments

Dhana,

There are two approaches for your environment:

1) Fresh installation followed with application migration and content file migration;

2) Fresh installation (D6.7 SP2) followed with Docbase cloning and in-place upgrade to D7.1;

You will need to determine which method fits your situation.

Brian

Hi Brian,

Thanks for your response.

Please let me know if approach 1 is correct in doing the below steps,

1) Docbase cloning of the existing system (6.5 SP3 32-bit) to the new OS (64 bit).

2) Then In-Place upgrade to D7.1.

Will this work. My question here would be can fresh installation of the source system (6.5 SP3 32-bit) install in the Windows 64-bit OS. If this is feasible I am good to select this approach.

Thanks and Regards,

Dhana

Alvaro_de_Andres

I think 6.6 is the first release that supports x64. Check the release notes of 6.5 SP3 to be sure.

Hi Alvaro,

Please see the extract from Release Notes 6.5 SP3.

Native 64-bit support

Documentum 6.5 introduces native 64-bit support for running on 64-bit operating systems. The

native 64-bit support takes full advantage of 64-bits of address space and the concurrent use of

more than 4 GB of executable memory. For a fully qualified native 64-bit environment, you must

have a 64-bit processor, 64-bit operating system, 64-bit JVM, and 64-bit application server. Support

continues to be offered on 32-bit platforms.

Hope my question is answered. I could choose Approach 1 would be feasible. Thanks for your help.

Thanks and Regards,
Dhana

Dhana,

The approach 1) works fine. This is the universal approach for cross platform Documentum upgrade or migration.

Here are basic steps:

1) Install a fresh copy of D6.7 SP2 content server

2) Create your Docbases with the same Docbase IDs. (This is important)

3) Copy your D6.5 Docbases to the D6.7 SP2 database server

4) Search and modify database table entries to reflect your new environment (this is the most important step)

5) Modify server.ini to point to your new Docbase

6) Start Docbase services. Evaluate log file and resolve any errors. (you may need several trials)

7) In-place upgrade Docbase to 6.7 SP2 since the binary programs are D6.7 SP2, the Docbase is still D6.5.

8) In-place upgrade to D7.1

Brian

Hi Brian,

Thanks for your reply.

As per your reply it is feasible to use 6.5 SP3 and 6.7 SP2 in conjunction for the Documentum upgrade.

Step 7 would be in-Place upgrade of 6.7 32-bit to 6.7 64-bit right?

Kindly clarify.

Thanks and Regards,

Dhana

Dhana,

Brian

Thanks Brian,

You have thrown more confidence to me on doing this upgrade.

Appreciate your help.

Regards,

Dhana

Ramy1

dear brian,

But do u have any technical explanation why to migrate to intermediate version 67sp2 rather than to 71 directly ?

My case is:

Current Environment:

CS : 6.5 SP3

OS: Linux 5.3

Target Environment on new hardware:

CS : 7.1

OS: Linux 6.3

Thanks

Ramy

msroth

If you are upgrading to 7.x, I'd recommend going all the way to 7.2. Documentum 7.1 had no new features over 7.0 and no bug fixes, it only provided wider platform support. Documentum 7.2 has over 150 bug fixes in addition to some new capabilities (e.g., Lockbox).

Ramy,

If you perform direct upgrade, you need to upgrade to 6.7SP2. Otherwise the upgrade may fail. This is confirmed by EMC support. If you do Docbase cloning, you don't have to upgrade to 6.7SP2. In my case, I did Docbase cloning from SQL Server 2005/Windows 2003 to SQL Server 2008/Windows 2008. So I did not go through D6.7SP2.

Regards,

Brian

Ramy1

Thanks Brian for your confirmation. However you raised my attention to another approach which is cloning, can you please shed some light about what is its usage and what did u use it for ?

In my case, i will just take a back up from 6.5sp3 then restore (only db clone) it to 67sp2 binaries to upgrade it to 6.7sp2 db/repository.

Many Thanks,

Ramy Mohareb

ECM Consultant

+971554267340

Dubai - UAE

Ramy,

Docbase cloning can only be used when the source and target database engines are same although database engines may be in different versions. This is a good approach for cross-platform Docbase migration. Since the migration does not change existing object IDs, you don’t have to migrate content files. Especially when you have externally linked applications, such as SharePoint, SAP, and PeopleSoft. This approach involves the following major steps:

Copy source Docbase’s database
Modify some database tables to match the new environment, such as server hostnames, installation owner, Domain name, Docbase owner, mail server, etc.
Install a new version of Content Server in a new environment

Replace the newly created database with the copied and modified database
Manage to start the new content server. You may need to try and fix for several times

Perform in-place upgrade if needed

Regards,

Brian

Ramy1

Thanks Brian. I see that cloning (means in-place upgrade) only works when you can do in-place upgrade (there is upgrade path) to OS and/or DB, right ?

In my case unfortunately there is no in-place upgrade from RHEL 5.x to RHEL 6.x, thats why i have to migrate docbase to new 67sp2 binaries installed on target db and os (rhel6.x) versions, upgrade docbase to 6.7sp2 as binaries, then do in-place upgrade to 71 . I hope i got you right.

Many Thanks,

Ramy Mohareb

ECM Consultant

+971554267340

Dubai - UAE

prasan_13

Since you are moving hardware's/servers i think you anyways need to do a clone/copy of the docbase. You can find all the required steps in the content server installation guides.Try the 6.5 or 6.7 installation guides under the section "Copying a repository". The steps should still be valid.its pretty much the same steps the people here have identified.

Also make sure to try all this in a development environment first.

Hi Ramy,

The in-place upgrade refers to Documentum upgrade. It is necessary because after database cloned, your binaries are in new version and your database is still in the old version. After in-place upgrade, the database and binaries are synchronized.

Regards,

Brian

Hi Brian / Ramy,

We have 32bit Documentum server 6.7 sp2 running on SUSE LINUX 11(64bit OS) and DB is Oracle 11.2

Planning to upgrade it to 7.x and we need the data to be AS-IS. Could you please let me know best upgrade approach.

Whether we have to upgrade 32bit Documentum server 6.7 sp2 to 64bit Documentum server 6.7 sp2 then to 64bit Documentum server 7.x ?

Ela

We did it in that way. From Documentum 6.7 32bit to Documentum 6.7 64bit and then upgrade to 7.1

Thanks Ela for your quick reply.

Could you please let me know the high level steps followed for this upgrade ?

Also i wanted to confirm whether the currently installed Documentum 6.7 sp2 is 32 bit or 64 bit ? Anywhere i can check this info?

Ela

You have White Paper D6.5 SP2 to D7.1 Migration Guide from April 2014.
This white paper describes the steps to upgrade an existing 6.5SP2 to Documentum 7.0 or 7.1.

Once it was two steps migration - like it was mentioned before (two steps - first migration to 64bit system (from Win2003 to Win2008, then upgrade to 7.x - after about 15 days - during the weekend days).
Second - direct migration from 6.5SP2 to D7.1 following this White Paper (including DB migration). (Win2003 to Win2012 )

Two customers - first environment based on Oracle DB and D6.7SP2 before migration to D7.0; second on SQL Server and D6.5SP2 before migration to D7.1.

Hi Ela,

you mean 64bit system as the OS or the content server version ?

like i mentioned before, We have 32bit Documentum server 6.7 sp2 running on SUSE LINUX 11(64bit OS) .

Is it possible to do the direct migration from 32bit Documentum server 6.7 sp2 version to 64bit Documentum server 7.x version. Assuming both source and target OS architecture as 64 bit.

Many thanks for your replies.

In the install.properties, i have found the below

VERSION=6.7.2000.0039
DATABASE_TYPE=ORACLE
DM_SERVER_VERSION=6.7.SP2
DM_SERVER_ARCH=32
YEAR=2013

Is the DM_SERVER_ARCH says the content server software is 32 bit?

Ela

"you mean 64bit system as the OS or the content server version ?"
Both

"Is it possible to do the direct migration from 32bit Documentum server 6.7 sp2 version to 64bit Documentum server 7.x version. Assuming both source and target OS architecture as 64 bit."
Yes.