How To Upgrade IBM Forms Experience Builder 8.0

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Li Xue | Edited by IBM contributor

Li Xue on July 9, 2012 | Version 8

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Abstract

The objective of this document is to detail the experience of upgrating IBM Forms Experience Builder 8.0. This document helps readers on understanding the two methods of how to upgrade IBM Forms Experience Builder from older version to newer version.

Tags: 8.0, Forms Experience Builder, Upgrade

Overview

The components required to install and configure in this scenario are WebSphere Applications server, IBM HTTP Server, DB2 , Domino Mail Server , and IBM Tivoli Directory Server. The operating system used in this environment is SUSE Linux11 Operating System .

The environment included the following components:

•IBM WebSphere Applications Network Deployment 8.0.0.0
•IBM HTTP Server 8.0
•IBM DB2 Enterprise Server Edition Version 9.7 Fix Pack 6
•IBM Tivoli Directory Server 6.2
•IBM Domino Mail Server 8.5.1

Infrastructure Diagram

Specification

The following tables list the specifications for the computers used in the infrastructure.

Machine	OS	Software	Specs
IBM WebSphere Application Server	SUSE 11	IBM WebSphere Applications Network Deployment 8.0.0.0; Forms Experience Builder (FEB)	Kernel Type: 64-bit Memory Size: 4GB Bitness: 64 Bit Hard Disk Size:50GB
DB2	SUSE 11	IBM DB2 Enterprise Server Edition Version 9.7 Fix Pack 6	Same as above
WebServer	SUSE 11	IBM HttpServer 8.0	Same as above
Mail	Windows 2008 R2	IBM Domino Mail Server 8.5.1	Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5310 @ 1.6GHz (8 CPUs), ~1.7GHz Memory: 8196MB RAM
LDAP	Windows 2008 R2	IBM Tivoli Directory Server 6.2	Same as above

For WAS cluster, please refer to WAS Infocenter.
For Forms installation, please refer to:
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/lfwiki.nsf/dx/Configuring_IBM_Forms_8.0

Upgrade Forms Experience Builder

About this task

There are two methods to upgrade Forms experience builder and keep original DB, LDAP, WebServer, Mail Configuration unchanged for Forms Experience Builder. Any method is ok to finish the upgrade operation.

Method one: Simply uninstall the older version and re-install the newer version of Forms Experience Builder .
Method two: Using the application upgrade function on WAS Console. Replace the older Forms Experience Builder.

This article separately introduces the two ways on how to upgrade Forms Experience Builder on WAS Server.

Procedure for Method one (uninstall and re-install)

1. Open the was console, select "Applications"->"Application Types"->"WebSphere enterprise applications" ,select "Experience Builder" from the applications list, proceed to uninstall it.

2. Install the newer version of Experience Builder, detail steps see http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/lfwiki.nsf/dx/Configuring_IBM_Forms_8.0

Procedure for Method two (update and replace)

1. Open the was console. Select "Applications"->"Application Types"->"WebSphere enterprise applications" ,select "Experience Builder" from the applications list, click"update".

2. Select the option "Replace the entire application" ,and specify the location for the enterprise archive (*.ear) of newer version Forms Experience Builder,
for example, "F:\ibm.nitro.packaging.ear-8.0.0.1083.ear "

3. Select Fast Path , re-use the same security configuration as old forms application, set "use existing bindings" .

4. There will be below 5 steps after your select Fast Path, see below picture.
In step2, map modules to servers, specify targets such as application servers or clusters of application servers where you want to install the modules that are contained in your application.
If you want to keep the original settings, just proceed to next step.

In step3, Map resource reference to resources, set mail.Session and DataSource.

5. Update Experience Builder successfully, save the change on WAS Console.
You do not need to modify the Class loader order, it stays the same as you configured for the older version forms application.

6. Try to access Forms, you will get message"IBM Forms Nitro is not completely setup.Until that occurs, all normal requests are disabled.click on Setup to start the setup process",click "Setup", you will get to below picture, just click "Fix" button.

7. Finish. You can access the newer version Forms Server.

In this scenario, the same DB2 instance is used for both older and newer version Forms Server , the applications created in older version Forms Server will automatically migrate to the newer version Forms Server WorkSpace, please Re-Deploy them before launch those applications after upgrading Forms Server Build .

Note:
If you upgrade IBM forms in a WAS cluster environment, you should adapt either method one or method two on DM WAS Console, and then do fully synchronization for all nodes.

Logon DM WAS Console , select " System administration"->"Nodes",then do synchronization for all cluster members. See below.