Upgrade: What parts to backup when upgrading xDM

Owned by Anna Rider (Deactivated)
Last updated: Jan 05, 2018
2 min read

This guide helps you prepare for upgrading xDM. It covers what parts must be backed up.

Backing up is important because:

  • if something goes wrong during the upgrade, you can restore
  • there are parts you need to keep for the upgrade. 


Here is the xDM architecture

What to back up to cover your bacon

  1. Back up your database. On RDS that means take a snapshot. Talk to your DBA. Back up BOTH Data location schema (2) where your data is stored and Repository schema (3) where your data model is stored. This is a "just in case" measure".
  2. Back up your semarchy.xml (1) file. Put it in a safe place such as Sharepoint or github (it's an xml file so you can add it to your version control tool). Once you backed up the semarchy.xml file, save a copy to the /tmp directory. This is a necessary measure as the semarchy.xml file is required for the next step to use Tomcat Manager for upgrade. 

    1. If you don't back up semarchy.xml, you will have to recreate it from scratch because undeploying the Semarchy app which is necessary for upgrading via Tomcat Manager will delete everything in your Catalina/localhost file, that is it will delete semarchy.xml.

 

For Your Information: Understanding Major, Minor and Patch Versions

Understanding Major, Minor and Patch Versions

Version numbers in Semarchy xDM are expressed in the following format: <major_version>.<minor_version>.<patch_version>. For example, version 1.3.2.

The upgrade may be a major upgrade, a minor upgrade or a patch. The differences between the old version number and the new version number define the type of upgrade.

  • A Major Upgrade takes place as soon as the major version differs. Major versions include major feature changes, and typically require repository and data locations upgrade. For example, upgrading from 1.3.2 to 2.0.1 is a major version upgrade.

  • A Minor Upgrade takes place when first digit remains the same but the second differs. Minor versions include minor feature changes, and typically require repository and data locations upgrade. For example, upgrading from 2.0.3 to 2.1.0 is a minor version upgrade.

  • A Patch is applied when the patch version only differs. Patches do not require repository and data location upgrade. For example, upgrading from 2.0.0 to 2.0.3 is patching.

Although the process is the same for all types of upgrade, be aware that the repository and data location upgrade steps may be skipped for patches.

Unless specified otherwise, the upgrade path between two version of Semarchy xDM is direct. You do not need to install intermediate versions.

For more information about upgrading xDM, please carefully read the Upgrade Guide. 

Once you have backed up your parts, you are ready to move onto the next step of upgrading. The next step is getting your semarchy.war file on the app server. If you are running on AWS, you may find this guide helpful on how to get your semarchy.war file into the cloud.