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IBM's ifix/iFeature strategy


Sterling Ferguson-II (1.6k12288273) | asked Mar 26 '15, 10:21 a.m.
Hello,

I have a internal test server I am upgrading to 502 from 501. Should I upgrade to 502, then bring the system down and install the patch and start the system back up? Or can I install the patch during the upgrade and bring the system and ifix/iFeature up at the same time?

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Martha (Ruby) Andrews (3.0k44351) | answered Mar 26 '15, 1:16 p.m.
JAZZ DEVELOPER
edited Mar 26 '15, 1:41 p.m.

The iFix CAN be installed BEFORE the upgrade.

For 5.0.2 the iFix SHOULD be installed BEFORE the upgrade, because it contains a fix for the upgrade itself. (See http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21695623 and defect 343736 .)

Ruby
Martha (Ruby) Andrews
Jazz Foundation L3 Development Team Lead
Sterling Ferguson-II selected this answer as the correct answer

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Sterling Ferguson-II commented Mar 26 '15, 1:31 p.m.

The "application/server" is down before/during the upgrade. If I'm correct, the patch is "installed" when the server is up and running. So..., creating the directory and copying the patch...does the system "read" this for the upgrade? 


For this defect it kinda does not make sense. It seems like, "To upgrade to 502 successfully, install the 502ifix003 patch, which you can only apply after upgrading to 502."

:-)


Martha (Ruby) Andrews commented Mar 26 '15, 1:38 p.m. | edited Mar 26 '15, 1:39 p.m.
JAZZ DEVELOPER

Hi Sterling,
Hmm... I would put it like this
"To upgrade to 502 successfully, install 502, unzip the patch, run repotools-<app> -clean,  run the upgrade"

You are correct that the application is down during the upgrade. The upgrade will run repotools commands. The iFix in this case contains a fix for one of the repotools command. The repotools application "Installs" the patch (that is, loads the patched bits) in the same way the application will when it runs.

Does that address your concerns?

Ruby
Martha (Ruby) Andrews
 

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Kevin Ramer (4.5k9186201) | answered Mar 26 '15, 12:25 p.m.
I had a similar question re 5.0.2  ifix2 -- That being can the patch be put down before that particular version was started (tomcat/websphere wise)  The answer was Yes. 

This was for an upgrade from 4.0.7 to 5.0.2; rather than bring our multitude of applications online, install the patch, restart.  In fact, I later got ifix3 and placed it in the patch file, excecuted our upgrades and started the application server.  Seemed to work quite well.

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Isabel Murakami (3811615) | answered Mar 26 '15, 11:53 a.m.
Hi Sterling,
It is better do one step per time. Finish the upgrade first, test it and then, apply the ifix patch.



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Alan Sampson commented Mar 27 '15, 12:40 p.m.
JAZZ DEVELOPER

Except as Ruby mentioned above, iFix002 (and consequently any succeeding iFxes) contains a fix to the upgrade itself.  If you don't install the fix before running the upgrade steps you may find your upgrade fails.

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