ReleaseBuilder


Overview

ReleaseBuilder enables management of release configurations by using the XML configuration interface to track which configuration entities were removed, added or changed compared to the previous release, and then apply differential updates.

Differential updates are created by detecting the differences between one configuration and another. A third configuration can then be generated to represent the difference and used to apply not only addition and update modifications, but also deletions to the production server. This allows the staging and production servers to remain in synch and eliminates the problem of configuration bloat on the production server

ReleaseBuilder is a configuration management tool. It should not be used for migration purposes.

 

Performance benefits

Massively parallel portal configuration tasks (e.g. hundreds of administrators working in parallel), which could impact the user experience and portal performance, can be distributed to independent portal systems. ReleaseBuilder together with the XML configuration interface allows integration of the resulting configurations.

The ReleaseBuilder tool introduces extensions to the XML configuration interface tool, these extensions should be documented in the corresponding XML configuration interface section of the Information Center.

 

ReleaseBuilder synopsis

The ReleaseBuilder command file(s) reside in wp_root /bin and have the following syntax...

 

NAME

  • releasebuilder - generate differential configurations of a single WP staging server for consumption by a WP production server.

 

SYNOPSIS

releasebuilder -inOld inputfile_old_release \ -inNew inputfile new_release \ [-out outputfile]

...where...

-inOld inputfile_old_release First of the two XML configuration files to compare. Must be an absolute path of an accessible XML configuration file previously generated using the XML configuration interface command.
-inNew inputfile new_release Second of the two XML configuration files to compare. Must be an absolute path of an accessible XML configuration file previously generated using the XML configuration interface command.
-out outputfile The file in which the differential output should be written. Must be an absolute path of of an accessible XML configuration file. The file does not need to exist. If it does not exist, it will be created. If it does exist, the existing file will be backed up and a new file will be created.

For example, to generate the differences file containing the additions and subtractions configuration file, enter;

releasebuilder.sh -inOld stagingserverREV1_config.xml \
                  -inNew stagingserverREV2_config.xml \
                  -out outputfile.xml

The resulting output configuration file will contain the additions and deletions to be imported onto the production portal server.

Before importing, you might want to set the attribute...

transaction-level="request"

...within the <request element.

 

ReleaseBuilder ANT Tasks

The ANT classname for ReleaseBuilder is...

com.ibm.wps.XMLConfigurationInterface.ReleaseBuilderTask

...and is defined in...

$PORTAL/config/actions/wps_cfg.xml

Tasks include...

oldreleasesrcfile File containing the XML configuration export of the old portal solution release.
newreleasesrcfile File containing the XML configuration export of the new portal solution release.
destfile Result file containing the XML configuration that will update the old release to the new release.
failonerror If true, abort build if task fails.
failureProperty Set the name of the property which will be set if a BuildException has been detected.

 

Usage Notes

ReleaseBuilder is installed during WebSphere Portal installation along with the XML configuration interface.

ReleaseBuilder does not interact with the portal server runtime, so if you want to maximize system resources, you can run it on a separate, standalone machine, or turn off Portal during ReleaseBuilder execution.

 

See also

 

WebSphere is a trademark of the IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

 

IBM is a trademark of the IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.