FileNet Platform upgrade from v5.1 to v5.2.1

FileNet Content Engine Upgrade From v5.1 to v5.2.1

Recently I got an opportunity to work on FileNet upgrade. We have upgraded FileNet P8 v5.1 to v5.2.1. I would like to share my experience.

FileNet Environment Details:

Unix, SQL Server, AD, WAS ND

FileNet Upgrade Approach:

There are two ways to implement the upgrade

1.  In-place upgrade
2. Clone & upgrade

We have chosen the clone & upgrade path.

Pros:

• It will not disturb the existing setup

Cons:

• Need to spend more on infrastructure
• Need to spend more efforts in cloning the environment

FileNet Upgrade Execution:

We can divide the tasks into.

1. Cloning the environment -

• Copy the CE, PE and AE folders 
• Copy the CE, PE databases 
• Configure and deploy the applications
• For PE need to change the pointers from a source server to a destination server

2. Verify the cloned environment

• start the CE, PE and AE
• Check the functionality is working as expected

3. Install the FileNet v5.2.1

• Follow the installation instructions and install the 5.2.1 on the destination server
• Configure and deploy the CE

4. Upgrade Content Engine

• Upon starting the CE the platform will run the auto-upgrade tool
• The progress is monitored using   http://server_name:port/FileNet/AutomaticUpgradeStatus 

5. upgrade Process Engine

• IBM provided peupgrade tool for PE upgrade. 
• Prepare the PE databases for upgrade
• Open the tool and provide the details.
• Run the tool. PE upgrade will take a while compared to CE upgrade.

IBM FileNet CPE v5.5 released

IBM FileNet CPE v5.5 Release Notes

IBM Recently released the new version of the FileNet Content Engine Platform v5.5.

The new features are

• The following components, which were deprecated, are no longer supported in this version:
• IBM FileNet Workplace XT
• Application Engine
• Workplace
• IBM FileNet Integration for Microsoft Office
• IBM FileNet Connector for Microsoft SharePoint Web Parts
• Web-Services Reliable Messaging (WS-RM), UDDI and WSSR as service registry for Process Orchestration (Web Service invocation), stand-alone legacy Component Manager, and Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) provider support are deprecated in this release.

• The Content Platform Engine S3 connector provides the ability to store and retrieve documents to and from an S3-compatible object storage solution that is deployed either on premise or in a private or public cloud.

• Class Designer and Application Designer access to Administration Console for Content Platform Engine

• Use token groups for Windows Active Directory

• Role based access to objects

• LDAP single entity lookup behavior to remove duplicates when using multiple LDAPS configured

• FileNet Deployment manager supports the below object types
• User-defined RecoveryBin subclasses
• User-defined Hold subclasses
• Sweep jobs
• This release includes long list of new classes and properties.
• JBoss Application Server is no longer supported.
• The Composite Platform Installation Tool for installing a single server of FileNet P8 Platform is no longer supported.
• A local installation of the documentation is no longer supported.
• The following platforms are no longer supported:
• HP and HPUX operating systems
• Solaris operating systems