SUMMARY: Upgrades

From: Sheryl A. Campbell <campbell_at_lvc.edu>
Date: Fri, 7 Jun 1996 15:57:50 -0400 (EDT)

Hello OSF Managers and Info-Datatellians!

Well, I wrote you all earlier this week regarding my upgrades from DU 2.0b
to 3.2c/d and Unidata 3.1.5b to 3.3.2.16 looking for the benefit of your
collective experiences. Thank you ever so much to those who responded:

Kent Poots [KPOOTS_at_gects.ge.com]
Hans Ullitz-Moller [hum_at_biobase.dk]
Jonathan Buchanan [Jonathan.Buchanan_at_ska.com]
Marlene Domoney [mdomoney_at_cariboo.bc.ca]
H. Blakeley Williford [blakew_at_mlm.fuller.com]
   (who also deserves a tip o' the glass for his mixed drink recipes!)
John Neighbors [johnn_at_dbu.edu]
John Hunter [jhunter_at_mailserv.mta.ca]
Harvey Miotoke Jr. [miote_at_mms.water.ci.detroit.mi.us]
Rick Owens [rowens_at_fvcc.cc.mt.us]
   (BTW, Rick, as luck would have it, it's national doughnut day! :D )
Gerry MacKinnon [gmackinn_at_capcollege.bc.ca]

----------------------------------------------------------
Well, we are currently in the middle of the upgrade. So far, the thing that
gave us the most trouble getting the firmware updated! (A plea to
DEC...please, pleasee, please re-think how you document your firmware
upgrades! Somehow, having the only instructions bundled in a file on the
disk with 189K of other stuff -- all of which we had to print out -- and
then obfuscating the instructions so they were difficult to decipher...YIKES!)

We have upgraded our firmware, upgraded DU2.0b to 3.0 to 3.2 to 3.2c and
have only to install the Unidata upgrade, back-up our systems once more and
do the final install of DU3.2d. Then we get to do all the finesse
stuff...merging our customized files, updating Unidata info...how fun!

Outside of the fact that I feel as if I've done this twice (I dreampt about
it all last night!) it's moving fairly smoothly. Thanks to all who helped me
get there. (I know, I know...it's not over yet!) I'm appending all the
replies below. Further, I anticipate formatting my checklist for placement
on the web at some point. I'll keep you posted and thanks again!

        Best Regards and Happy Weekend!

                Sheryl :D
========================================================================
Date: Tue, 04 Jun 1996 00:08:30 +0200
From: Hans Ullitz-Møller <hum_at_biobase.dk>Organization: BioBase
To: "Sheryl A. Campbell" <campbell_at_lvc.edu>
Subject: Re: Upgrades
References: <199606032040.QAA00770_at_oaunx1.ctd.ornl.GOV>

Sheryl A. Campbell wrote:
>
> Hi OSF Managers and those in Datatel-land!
>
> Friday is the big day in which we make our upgrade from Digital Unix 2.0b to
> v3.2c/d. We were also lucky enough to find out late last week (better then
> than on Friday!) that it will be necessary to upgrade our RDBMS to Unidata
> v3.3.2 from v3.1.5b.
>
> What I'm looking for from all of you is the benefit of your collective
> experiences with both Unix and Unidata upgrades...what should I be on the
> lookout for? I have been pouring through release notes, upgrade manuals,
> searching the internet and [hopefully!] have found out all that I need to
> know. However, I recognize it would be foolish not to pose the question to
> the experts before finalizing my upgrade notes.
>
> Words of wisdom? Mixed drink recipes? Creative headache remedies?
>
> Thanks for your expertise!
>
> Sheryl
>

Please remember to upgrade the DEC firmware before doing anything
else. Else it is a peace of cake, no problems.

Best Regards
-- 
#######################################################################
#                                     #                               #
# Hans Ullitz-Moeller                 # Phone:   + 45 89 42 28 46     #
# Centre Leader                       #    or:   + 45 86 13 97 84     #
# BioBase                             #                               #
# Ole Worms Alle, Building 170        # Telefax: + 45 86 13 11 60     #
# Aarhus Universitet                  # E-Mail:   hum_at_biobase.dk      #
# DK-8000 Aarhus C   DENMARK          # WWW:      http://biobase.dk   #
#                                     #                               #
#######################################################################
#                       The Danish EMBnet Node                        #
#######################################################################
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date:     Mon, 3 Jun 1996 21:11 EST
From: KPOOTS_at_gects.ge.com (Kent Poots \(416\)491-9318, Systems Support
_at_SYS$UPDATE:rebuild_the_kernel)
To: campbell_at_lvc.edu
Subject:  RE: Upgrades
X-VMS-To: SMTP%"campbell_at_lvc.edu"
2 cents worth:
Just make sure you do complete backups and understand how to restore
to your original system state. I still get burned on this every
once in awhile.
Make sure you have the right PAKs. 
Did you talk to the vendor of your applications (ie your database) ?
They may have some insight into certain upgrade steps, database
manipulation requirements, etc, etc.
Be patient when Murphy's Law gives you a hand !
Good luck with it.
Kent Poots
GE Capital Technology Services
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jon Buchanan <Jonathan.Buchanan_at_ska.com>
To: "Sheryl A. Campbell" <campbell_at_lvc.edu>
Cc: a628115_at_provolone.dszrh.ska.com
Subject: Re: Upgrades  
Date: Tue, 04 Jun 96 07:55:55 +0200
X-Mts: smtp
Hello Sheryl,
Since you included your FAX number in your mail I'll FAX you a checklist 
that I use for Digital UNIX upgrades.  Hope it helps.
Regards,
Jon Buchanan, Zuerich, Switzerland
[ Jonathan.Buchanan_at_ska.com ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 09:04:48 -0300
X-Sender: jhunter_at_mailserv.mta.ca
To: "Sheryl A. Campbell" <campbell_at_lvc.edu>
From: jhunter_at_mta.ca (John T. Hunter)
Subject: Re: Upgrades
Hi Sheryl,
You wrote:
>Hi OSF Managers and those in Datatel-land!
>
>Friday is the big day in which we make our upgrade from Digital Unix 2.0b to
>v3.2c/d. We were also lucky enough to find out late last week (better then
>than on Friday!) that it will be necessary to upgrade our RDBMS to Unidata
>v3.3.2 from v3.1.5b.
>
We are in the exact same boat. Our upgrade will take place within a month,
but a date has yet to be set. Could you be so kind as to forward any
responses to get to your questions? I'm not sure of my plan of attack on
this yet, but from what I've heard it's a fairly straight forward procedure.
The only problem I can forsee is if/when we hit a snag/bug, should we look
at it as a unix/unidata/datatel problem.
The first thing I'm going to check is the accessability of our dynamic
files. We've waited this long to upgrade, because of the bugs Unidata
was sorting out with reguard to dynamic file structures. Hopefully
all is well :-)
>What I'm looking for from all of you is the benefit of your collective
>experiences with both Unix and Unidata upgrades...what should I be on the
>lookout for? I have been pouring through release notes, upgrade manuals,
>searching the internet and [hopefully!] have found out all that I need to
>know. However, I recognize it would be foolish not to pose the question to
>the experts before finalizing my upgrade notes.
>
Upgrade notes? You wouldn't happen to have these on-line? I'm begging
here, can you tell?
>Words of wisdom? Mixed drink recipes? Creative headache remedies?
>
Maybe you should pass these along as well ;-)
>Thanks for your expertise!
Thanks for yours! Let me know how it goes!
-John
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 96 08:43:00 -0500
From: John Neighbors <johnn_at_dbu.edu>
Sender: John Neighbors <johnn_at_dbu.edu>
Organization: Dallas Baptist University
To: campbell_at_lvc.edu (Sheryl A. Campbell)
Cc: info-datatel_at_calvin.edu
Subject: re: Upgrades
>0100Date: 3-Jun-96 15:40:13 -0500
>From: CAMPBELL _at_ INTERNET (Sheryl A. Campbell) {campbell_at_lvc.edu}
>To: ALPHA-OS _at_ INTERNET {alpha-osf-managers_at_ornl.gov}, INFO-DAT _at_ INTERNET
{info-datatel_at_calvin.edu}
>0010Subject: Upgrades
>
>Hi OSF Managers and those in Datatel-land!
>
>Friday is the big day in which we make our upgrade from Digital Unix 2.0b to
>v3.2c/d. We were also lucky enough to find out late last week (better then
>than on Friday!) that it will be necessary to upgrade our RDBMS to Unidata
>v3.3.2 from v3.1.5b.
>
>What I'm looking for from all of you is the benefit of your collective
>experiences with both Unix and Unidata upgrades...what should I be on the
>lookout for? I have been pouring through release notes, upgrade manuals,
>searching the internet and [hopefully!] have found out all that I need to
>know. However, I recognize it would be foolish not to pose the question to
>the experts before finalizing my upgrade notes.
>
>Words of wisdom? Mixed drink recipes? Creative headache remedies?
>
>Thanks for your expertise!
>
>        Sheryl
>
Sheryl,
Here's a bit of info regarding our UniData upgrade from 3.1.5b to 3.3.2
which occurred back in January of this year:
(NOTE:  I don't at all take credit for knowing beforehand to do most of
this.  Lots of info was gathered up front from Chuck Everett and others.
:-)
. Be prepared to call or e-mail UniData regarding re-licensing the silly
thing.
. We performed an 'update' install which simply wrote over the existing
3.1.5b.
. When running updatevoc, we used option '-A' which traversed our whole
  tree structure updating any VOC files found.
. Some of the potential gotchas in updated VOC entries include: FIRST, CP,
  TAPE & CF.  Investigate BEFORE and AFTER doing the upgrade.
. We created SAVEDLISTS of all our VOC files PRIOR to running updatevoc.
  Then, did likewise AFTER running updatevoc.  Lastly, used LIST.ALGEBRA
  to compare the two.  Our results where roughly as follows:
  15 records were added to all MAIN accounts.  We investigated and ended up
  leaving these additions.
  253 records were added to all USER remote accounts.  We investigated and
  ended up DELETING all these additions.
For our first such upgrade, I was relatively pleased with the ease and
success. It took us about 4 hours in all.  Actually about 30-45 minutes to
do the upgrade. The rest of the time was my meticulously detailed
follow-up, investigation and testing. :-)
HTH!
 John Neighbors, Director of Computing Services <><
 Dallas Baptist University           Internet: johnn_at_dbu.edu
 3000 Mountain Creek Parkway            Voice: (214) 333-5155
 Dallas, TX 75211                         Fax: (214) 333-5164
 COLL 13.6 BEN 4.2 (TEST) Unidata 3.3.2 RS/6000-C10 AIX 3.2.5
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 10:39:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: <miotke_at_mms.water.ci.detroit.mi.us>
To: "Sheryl A. Campbell" <campbell_at_lvc.edu>
Subject: Re: Upgrades
The rule of thumb we work under is that you need to call Unidata to get
their blessings when you port/install or when doing anything with Unidata.
Unfortunately the person who did this previously, has left the company, so
we need to find out details again.  We're interested in any gotchas you find
out.
We are currently planning to move from an Alpha 3000 to a 2100 and we're
running Unidata 3.1.5b, the gotcha we know about is to call Unidata to get
access to just port from one box to the other.
It seems we were notified just in time to call Unidata and it saved us a
lot of grief.
Please post us if you can.
Thanx
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     ___         ___         ____
    /__\\       /__\\       /____\	Harvey Miotke Jr.
   //          //_         //    	Detroit Water & Sewerage Dept.
  //	       \__\       //  __        303 S.Livernois
 //__//      //__//      //___//   	Detroit, Michigan  48209
 \__omputer  \__ervices  \___roup	(313) 297-9213 FAX (313) 297-9429
					miotke_at_mms.water.ci.detroit.mi.us
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 04 Jun 1996 08:11:23 -0700
From: Marlene Domoney <mdomoney_at_cariboo.bc.ca>
Subject: Re: Upgrades
X-Sender: mdomoney_at_cariboo.bc.ca
To: "Sheryl A. Campbell" <campbell_at_lvc.edu>
Hi Sheryl
I am currently running Digitial Unix 3.2c and Unidata 3.3.2 .  My machine is
relatively new so I've never had to upgrade from DU 2.0 but I have upgraded
within the DU 3.2 level a couple of times.  In addition I moved from Unidata
3.1.5 .
All of this went very smooth -- except for the problems I created for
myself!  (I had a problem with the Unix kernel that was causing Unidata
parameters to be set incorrectly - just inexperience with Unix!).  On the
Colleague side, the upgrade of Unidata was totally uneventful - i.e. it
worked the first time with no fiddling!
My big problem was with Advfs on Unix when I installed Unidata for the first
time.   I was not aware that Unidata needed the root, /bin and /???  to be
UFS not Advfs file system.  So I had created all my partitions using Advfs
and then when I tried to install Unidata, I found I had to reconfigure to
UFS.   If this is of interest to your situation, I can look up which files
Unidata requires to be on UFS.
Hope your upgrade goes well.
P.S. If you get any good recipes, don't forget to share them.  <grin>
At 04:40 PM 6/3/96 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi OSF Managers and those in Datatel-land!
>
>Friday is the big day in which we make our upgrade from Digital Unix 2.0b to
>v3.2c/d. We were also lucky enough to find out late last week (better then
>than on Friday!) that it will be necessary to upgrade our RDBMS to Unidata
>v3.3.2 from v3.1.5b.
>
>What I'm looking for from all of you is the benefit of your collective
>experiences with both Unix and Unidata upgrades...what should I be on the
>lookout for? I have been pouring through release notes, upgrade manuals,
>searching the internet and [hopefully!] have found out all that I need to
>know. However, I recognize it would be foolish not to pose the question to
>the experts before finalizing my upgrade notes.
>
>Words of wisdom? Mixed drink recipes? Creative headache remedies?
>
>Thanks for your expertise!
>
>        Sheryl
>
=========================================================================  
Marlene Domoney                                    Phone: (604) 828-5326
Acting Director, Computer Services                   Fax: (604) 828-5328
The University College of the Cariboo
Kamloops, BC                               email: mdomoney_at_cariboo.bc.ca
=========================================================================
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comments: Authenticated sender is <rowens_at_mail.fvcc.cc.mt.us>
From: rowens_at_fvcc.cc.mt.us
Organization: Flathead Valley Community College
To: "Sheryl A. Campbell" <campbell_at_lvc.edu>, info-datatel_at_calvin.edu
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 10:48:50 -0700
Subject: Re: Upgrades
Priority: normal
On  3 Jun 96 at 16:40, Sheryl A. Campbell <campbell_at_lvc.edu> wrote:
> Hi OSF Managers and those in Datatel-land!
> 
> Friday is the big day in which we make our upgrade from Digital Unix
> 2.0b to v3.2c/d. We were also lucky enough to find out late last
> week (better then than on Friday!) that it will be necessary to
> upgrade our RDBMS to Unidata v3.3.2 from v3.1.5b.
> 
> What I'm looking for from all of you is the benefit of your
> collective experiences with both Unix and Unidata upgrades...what
> should I be on the lookout for? I have been pouring through release
> notes, upgrade manuals, searching the internet and [hopefully!] have
> found out all that I need to know. However, I recognize it would be
> foolish not to pose the question to the experts before finalizing my
> upgrade notes.
Sounds like you've looked in all the right places.
> Words of wisdom? Mixed drink recipes? Creative headache remedies?
Dunno how wise these are, but they've worked for us:
* Make 2 (yes, 2) full backups of your system.  It wouldn't hurt to
  verify that the backups are good, too!  :)
* Threaten mayhem if anyone disturbs you while you're working, then
  close the office door.  A sound card and some spooky audio files
  can help inspire people to keep that door closed.
* Estimate the time it will take to do the upgrades, then double
  that.  If you're lucky, you'll be done in half the time allocated,
  and everything will fly.  If you run into snags, you'll have time
  to fix 'em before the users start asking "Is it up yet?".
* Cookies!  (Or candy, or doughnuts, or... etc.)  Such fare makes
  upgrades go easier.
HTH, and good luck!
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rick Owens <rowens_at_fvcc.cc.mt.us>  | This message delivered
Comp. Op. Tech (aka admin. sysop)  | courtesy of the ESAE
Flathead Valley Community College  | (Electronic Sled-dog
Kalispell, MT                      | Association of Earth).
#include <std-disclaim.h>          | Woof!
------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue,  4 Jun 96 08:38:41 CDT
From: "H. Blakely Williford" <blakew_at_mlm.fuller.com>
Subject: Re: Upgrades
To: campbell_at_lvc.edu
X-VMS-Mail-To: UUCP%"campbell_at_lvc.edu"
|Friday is the big day in which we make our upgrade from Digital Unix 2.0b to
|v3.2c/d. We were also lucky enough to find out late last week (better then
|than on Friday!) that it will be necessary to upgrade our RDBMS to Unidata
|v3.3.2 from v3.1.5b.
|
|What I'm looking for from all of you is the benefit of your collective
|experiences with both Unix and Unidata upgrades...what should I be on the
|lookout for? I have been pouring through release notes, upgrade manuals,
|searching the internet and [hopefully!] have found out all that I need to
|know. However, I recognize it would be foolish not to pose the question to
|the experts before finalizing my upgrade notes.
	1) contact the support teams of each product; tell them what
	   you are doing and when you are going to do it.  Ask if they
	   have any gotch-ya's on file that you need to know about.
	2) make backup's that you are willing to bet your life on that
	   they are good; because you may have to. <grin>
	3) it never hurts to pray to what ever god/God/or gods that you
	   beleve in; or that will listen <grin> (sorry i just had to 
	   put that one in)
|Words of wisdom? Mixed drink recipes? Creative headache remedies?
	1) Cranbarry jello shots
	2) peeled cherry soaked over night in voka make the perfect
	   bloody marry
 
|%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|%  Sheryl A. Campbell                        Internet: campbell_at_lvc.edu  %
|%  Assistant Director                           Voice:    (717)867-6060  %
|%  Administrative Computing                       FAX:    (717)867-6019  %
|%                                                                        %
|%             L E B A N O N    V A L L E Y    C O L L E G E              %
|%                                                                        %
|%               Never underestimate the power of a smile!                %
|%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
                 |^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-----------------+-- that is good advice too when doing this too.
+--------------------------+------------------------------------------------+
|H. Blakely Williford      | Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully |
|Systems Administrator     | as when they do it from religious conviction.  |
|The Fuller Brush Company  |       - Pascal                                 |
+--------------------------+------------------------------------------------+
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 13:52:24 -700 (PDT)
From: Gerry MacKinnon <gmackinn_at_capcollege.bc.ca>
Subject: Re: Upgrades
To: "Sheryl A. Campbell" <campbell_at_lvc.edu>
On Mon, 3 Jun 1996, Sheryl A. Campbell wrote:
> Hi OSF Managers and those in Datatel-land!
> Friday is the big day in which we make our upgrade from Digital Unix 2.0b to
> v3.2c/d. We were also lucky enough to find out late last week (better then
> than on Friday!) that it will be necessary to upgrade our RDBMS to Unidata
> v3.3.2 from v3.1.5b.
> 
> What I'm looking for from all of you is the benefit of your collective
> experiences with both Unix and Unidata upgrades...what should I be on the
> lookout for? I have been pouring through release notes, upgrade manuals,
> searching the internet and [hopefully!] have found out all that I need to
> know. However, I recognize it would be foolish not to pose the question to
> the experts before finalizing my upgrade notes.
> Words of wisdom? Mixed drink recipes? Creative headache remedies?
> Thanks for your expertise!
>         Sheryl
 Sheryl -
 I've had lots of fun in that area recently. We got a new Alpha 2000 
4/233 last Oct. 3/95. Couldn't install the latest o/s at the time , v3.2c 
as Datatel/Unidata wouldn't gaurantee that Unidata 3.3.2.15 would run on 
it, so we had to get our supplier to install o/s v3.0b, if they could 
find a copy. Then of course this wouldn't work with the new PCI 
controller card so they had to install an EISA card. 
 In early Nov./95 Unidata had a new version, 3.3.2.16, which would run 
o/s v3.2c. So I did the undiata and o/s upgrade on the same day. For 
being new to Digital Unix, Unidata and Datatel it was, umm well, an 
experience. Actually the Unidata install went fairly easily following the 
manual. The trouble came when I got to the 'updatevoc' section. Don't use 
the '-A' option to traverse all user remote accounts, just run it in the 
main remote accounts.
 The o/s upgrade went fairly smoothly also, except it somehow changed the 
type of ethernet connection we had. As we have no terminals and everyone 
logs on to the system via ethernet this could have been a big deal, 
except we still hadn't gone 'live', and most users were at a local 
Datatel Users Group Conference.
 We didn't go live until this April 1st. Bewteen Oct.2/95 and going live 
we have had one o/s upgrade, a unidata upgrade, a hardware upgrade 
(finally got to put our PCI card in - which took DEC 3 trips to get it in 
right!), and 3 Colleague upgrades! For all those the unidata was the 
easiest and the o/s was the next easiest to do.
 So, my advice is:
- for unidata - avoid 'updatevoc -A', just add new voc items to your user 
remote accounts if you really need them.
- for Digital unix - if you do not have access to your network afterwards 
check that your 'ewa0_mode' has not been changed. You check it from the 
'>>>' prompt on the console when you first start the Alpha. Just type 
'show ewa0_mode'. It will either say it is 'aui' or 'twisted-pair'.
Good luck!
Gerry  
 
Gerry MacKinnon			| email: gmackinn_at_capcollege.bc.ca
Computer Support Services	| voicemail: (604) 983-7570 local 2548
Capilano College		| voice: (604) 984-4952
North Vancouver, B.C.		| fax  : (604) 984-1795
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%  Sheryl A. Campbell                        Internet: campbell_at_lvc.edu  %
%  Assistant Director                           Voice:    (717)867-6060  %
%  Administrative Computing                       FAX:    (717)867-6019  %
%                                                                        %
%             L E B A N O N    V A L L E Y    C O L L E G E              %
%                                                                        %
%               Never underestimate the power of a smile!                %
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Received on Fri Jun 07 1996 - 22:19:21 NZST

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