Upgrading: Plan installation of the MobileFirst Administration Services and MobileFirst Operations Console
Before you install the MobileFirst Administration Services and MobileFirst Operations Console, prepare the upgrade: review the topology, define the upgrade strategy, set up the administration database, configure security, and review the configuration of the application server.
The following table lists the upgrade paths for which this step is mandatory.
Required for the upgrade path? System status after this step, if both Application Center and MobileFirst Server are on the same application server Worklight Server V5.0.6.x to MobileFirst Server v6.3.0 Worklight Server v6.0.x to MobileFirst Server v6.3.0 Worklight Server v6.1.x to MobileFirst Server v6.3.0.x Worklight Server v6.2.x to MobileFirst Server v6.3.0 v6.3.0 to v6.3.0.x (fix pack or interim fix) Application Center Status MobileFirst Server Status Yes Yes Yes No No Run Run If we upgrade from v6.3.0 or earlier, install the Administration Services as part of the upgrade process.
To minimize downtime or issues while you follow the upgrade procedure, start with reviewing the installation procedure and configuration options:
- Review the topology and identify whether it is necessary to declare a server farm.
- Define the upgrade strategy if multiple MobileFirst runtimes are installed (project WAR files).
- Prepare the configuration of the application.
- Set up the MobileFirst administration database.
- Review the configuration of the application server.
For installation instructions, see Install the MobileFirst Server administration.
- Review the topology and identify whether it is necessary to declare a server farm.
In any case, install MobileFirst Administration Services on each application server that runs a MobileFirst Server runtime.
- Declare a server farm in the following cases:
- IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation is installed on multiple Tomcat application servers.
- IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation is installed on multiple WebSphere Application Server servers but not on WebSphere Application Server Network Deployer.
- IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation is installed on multiple WebSphere Application Server Liberty servers.
- Do not declare a server farm in the following cases:
- Your application server is stand-alone.
- Multiple application servers are federated by WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment.
To learn how to declare a server farm, see Install a server farm.
Restriction: MobileFirst Server v6.3.0 does not support topologies in which IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation is installed on a heterogeneous server farm.
- Define the upgrade strategy if multiple MobileFirst runtimes are installed (project WAR files).
In this case, we can either manage all the runtimes with the same MobileFirst Administration Services and Console runtime environment or install this environment for each runtime.
- Manage all the runtimes with the same MobileFirst Administration Services and Console runtime environment: This is the default setting. Carefully review the context root of each runtime. The context root is used to identify a runtime in the administration database. After the MobileFirst administration data is migrated to the administration database, we can no longer change the context root of a MobileFirst Server runtime. See Upgrade the runtime and reports databases.
- Install a MobileFirst Administration Services and Console environment for each runtime: In this case, define the environment IDs as follows:
- If we install by running an Ant file, add an environmentID attribute to the Ant tasks for installation administration: <installworklightadmin>, <updateworklightadmin>, <uninstallworklightadmin>, <configureapplicationserver>, <updateapplicationserver>, <unconfigureapplicationserver>. See Ant tasks for installation of MobileFirst runtime environments and Ant tasks for installation of MobileFirst Operations Console and Administration Services.
- If we install manually, update the ibm.worklight.admin.environmentid JNDI property as documented in List of JNDI properties for MobileFirst Server administration and Configure a MobileFirst project in production using JNDI environment entries.
- Prepare the configuration of the application.
Prepare the configuration of the MobileFirst Administration Services and MobileFirst Operations Console. In particular, configure security as explained in Configure user authentication for MobileFirst Server administration. Because the MobileFirst Server runtime environments are no longer used for administration, it is useful to review their configuration and security.
- Set up the MobileFirst administration database.
A MobileFirst administration database is necessary for MobileFirst Administration Services. See Optional creation of the administration database.
- Review the configuration of the application server.
For IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation v6.3.0, configure the application server to enable Java Management Extensions (JMX) communication between the MobileFirst Administration Services and the MobileFirst Server runtime. See Configuration of the application server.
Parent topic: Preparation for upgrades to MobileFirst Server