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| messg_wb |
 Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 6:05 am Post subject: WBI Message broker cross platform migration |
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Acolyte
Joined: 29 Sep 2005
Posts: 51
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Hi, We aretrying to consolidate brokers from zOS and AIX onto Solaris, I am assuming below procedure would work:
- back up configmgr / broker / working dir on AIX
- Create config mgr and broker on Solaris (as on AIX)
- Restore config mgr / broker / working dir from AIX onto Solaris
- Backup broker DB on zOS
- Create another broker on Solaris (same as zOS)
- Restore broker DB from zOS onto Solaris
- Add broker (replica of zOS) to configmgr on Solaris so that we have 1 configmgr and 2 brokers
Am I correct (very high level view)? Also, How do I get working directory of broker components on zOS onto Solaris ?
Thanks |
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| smdavies99 |
| Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 6:48 am Post subject: |
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Jedi Council
Joined: 10 Feb 2003
Posts: 6076
Location: Somewhere over the Rainbow this side of Never-never land.
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Why not just re-create everything and then redeploy the bar files into the new environment. Then when everything works, just switch over the input connections and you are away.
As you are moving from AIX then you should have a set of scripts for a unix environment. A few edits and they should work on Solaris (unless someone has really gone to town)
With proper scripts creating a new environment from scratch can take less than 10 minutes. Then you are into deployment of the flows etc. Again if this is properly automated then it should be relatively trouble free.
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Every time you reinvent the wheel the more square it gets (anon). If in doubt think and investigate before you ask silly questions. |
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| messg_wb |
| Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 6:56 am Post subject: |
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Acolyte
Joined: 29 Sep 2005
Posts: 51
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Recreating new environment is less time consuming but the downside is redeploying all the flows, If the procedure, I mentioned is feasible, It would be good
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| Vitor |
| Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:18 am Post subject: |
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Grand High Poobah
Joined: 11 Nov 2005
Posts: 26093
Location: Texas, USA
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| messg_wb wrote: |
| Recreating new environment is less time consuming but the downside is redeploying all the flows |
That's not a downside that's an advantage.
| messg_wb wrote: |
| If the procedure, I mentioned is feasible, It would be good |
I'd be surprised if you could migrate from a z/OS broker using this method. I'd be even more surprised if you could trust the new environment migrated like this. Also, the first time the new environment hit a problem, your migration will be blamed and you waste a lot of time chasing phantoms.
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Honesty is the best policy.
Insanity is the best defence. |
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| messg_wb |
| Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:40 am Post subject: |
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Acolyte
Joined: 29 Sep 2005
Posts: 51
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True Vitor, It is very risky to migrate from zOS to Solaris (I was just curious, If it works). How about AIX to Solaris path, Does the path look ok, Do you see possibility that migration may fail
Thanks for your input |
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| Vitor |
| Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:10 am Post subject: |
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Grand High Poobah
Joined: 11 Nov 2005
Posts: 26093
Location: Texas, USA
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| messg_wb wrote: |
| How about AIX to Solaris path, Does the path look ok, Do you see possibility that migration may fail |
I see a significant possibility it will fail. I repeat my comments regarding trust & blame regarding this migration strategy.
I also (for the record) echo the comments of the previous poster. Building a new environment from scratch and redeploying to it will almost certainly be faster than fiddling about with backups. It will certainly be more reliable, auditable & trustworthy.
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Honesty is the best policy.
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| messg_wb |
| Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:20 am Post subject: |
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Acolyte
Joined: 29 Sep 2005
Posts: 51
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| I hate to say this but all the deployments in this infrastructure were done manually (using toolkit) but not using automated scripts so I fear that there might be some missing bar files and that is the sole reason I am looking at the option of migrating the components instead of recreating. |
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| Vitor |
| Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:33 am Post subject: |
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Grand High Poobah
Joined: 11 Nov 2005
Posts: 26093
Location: Texas, USA
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| messg_wb wrote: |
| I hate to say this but all the deployments in this infrastructure were done manually (using toolkit) but not using automated scripts so I fear that there might be some missing bar files and that is the sole reason I am looking at the option of migrating the components instead of recreating. |
Not a problem. The bar files can be recreated from the original source and redeployed.
The problem comes if you don't know what source code was used to build the original bar files. This is a problem not only with migration, but also with making changes or developing code!
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| messg_wb |
| Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:54 am Post subject: |
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Acolyte
Joined: 29 Sep 2005
Posts: 51
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| I fear, If we might have lost part of source code (which is runing currently in prod) so it might be uphill task to reconstruct that bar file and thats the reason, I felt, If we do migration instead of recreation, there is no possibility that any of the existing flows would be lost. |
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| smdavies99 |
| Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:32 am Post subject: |
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Jedi Council
Joined: 10 Feb 2003
Posts: 6076
Location: Somewhere over the Rainbow this side of Never-never land.
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| messg_wb wrote: |
| I fear, If we might have lost part of source code (which is runing currently in prod) so it might be uphill task to reconstruct that bar file and thats the reason, I felt, If we do migration instead of recreation, there is no possibility that any of the existing flows would be lost. |
you might like to think about asking to bosses the following
What is the DR plan for the current prod environments?
How your your create a new environment?
If I suggested that you do everything manually, to some of my past employers I'd be shown the exit door pronto.
If you have lost source code then I'd check the backups and if they were missing ... Well someone has made some big mistakes.
I'm very pedantic about backups and testing their sanity on a regular basis. This also applies to any digital photos I take. On my last trip to Madagascar I backed everything (11,000+ images) up THREE times just to be sure.
_________________
WMQ User since 1999
MQSI/WBI/WMB/'Thingy' User since 2002
Linux user since 1995
Every time you reinvent the wheel the more square it gets (anon). If in doubt think and investigate before you ask silly questions. |
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| messg_wb |
| Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:52 am Post subject: |
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Acolyte
Joined: 29 Sep 2005
Posts: 51
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I am totally with you smdavies99 on DR/backup aspects. As I was saying in my msg, "Its just my fear", I am 99.99% positive that we have all the source code but I did not want to leave that 0.01%. If my migration works fine, then I eliminate that 0.01% risk factor aswell, right
I guess, we deviated a bit from my original question. Could you plz keep above aspect of re-creation/re-deploy aside and look at migration part from technical point of view i.e. If the below migration steps are ok:
- back up configmgr / broker / working dir on AIX
- Create config mgr and broker on Solaris (as on AIX)
- Restore config mgr / broker / working dir from AIX onto Solaris
Thanks !! |
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| Vitor |
| Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:37 am Post subject: |
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Grand High Poobah
Joined: 11 Nov 2005
Posts: 26093
Location: Texas, USA
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| messg_wb wrote: |
| If my migration works fine, then I eliminate that 0.01% risk factor aswell, right |
Wrong. How can you possible know that the migration will / has worked? Also, if you do have problems how will you resolve them? Contact IBM for support and all they'll say is "your broker was built using an unsupported method".
| messg_wb wrote: |
If the below migration steps are ok:
- back up configmgr / broker / working dir on AIX
- Create config mgr and broker on Solaris (as on AIX)
- Restore config mgr / broker / working dir from AIX onto Solaris
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Well I've never tried this but a few points occur:
- the parameters on the 2 boxes could be different
- the code pages of the 2 boxes could be different
- the UUID of the restored will not match the created one
It's still an unsupported method, IMHO it's less reliable than rebuilding so as you've asked I don't think it's ok.
But try it and let us know how it goes. Then let us know what you're doing about the z/OS.
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Insanity is the best defence. |
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| messg_wb |
| Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 12:13 pm Post subject: |
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Acolyte
Joined: 29 Sep 2005
Posts: 51
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Great !!, That answers my questions. I was under presumption that, this is standard and supported practice to migrate broker, If IBM doesn't support/recommend, then it doesn't make much sense to go with this.
Of my curiosity, I would try to migrate and see. Coming back to your questions, I hoped to claim my migration as success, If I did not see any msg processing errors, system log errors.. etc, I plan to reset UUID after restoring the broker, I guess code pages/parms would not cause issue but then again its pure assumption
Thanks Vitor !!  |
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| PeterPotkay |
| Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 1:04 pm Post subject: |
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Poobah
Joined: 15 May 2001
Posts: 7716
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I think its foolhardy to touch this setup in any way until you have chased down all the source code and have the ability to produce the bar files. WHEN, not if, something goes wrong you will need them. Doing anything to greater the chances of something going wrong, like, oh, I don't know, an unsupported method of migration, is not wise.
You're target locked - gotta migrate, gotta migrate, nothing will get in my way of migrating.
Stop. Evaluate your situation honestly.
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Peter Potkay
Keep Calm and MQ On |
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| fjb_saper |
| Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 1:05 pm Post subject: |
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Grand High Poobah
Joined: 18 Nov 2003
Posts: 20696
Location: LI,NY
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For the config mgr there is a moving the config mgr to a different qmgr.... chapter in the installation manual. You might profit by it.
However for the broker I would encourage you to create a new one and do a full deployment.
Have fun. 
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