Managing Your Lawson System MSPs and CTPs

1. Managing Your Lawson SystemMSPs and CTPs Ron Wright netASPx Corp.

2. CTP Definition Lawson’s Definition: "Critical Transfer Packages ( CTP's )" are individual "high priority" fixes that are available to download immediately without waiting for the scheduled Maintenance Service Package. • Many CTPs released every week

3. MSP Definition Lawson’s Definition: "Maintenance Service Packages ( MSP's )" consist of scheduled, periodic groupings of individual, critical fixes. Each new Transfer Package is built upon the previous one, so all fixes are included in the newest available CTP. • Released every 2-3 months • NOT installed like a collection of CTPs!

4. MSP: When and How Often netASPx applies all MSPs • Give MSPs time for critical problems to be resolved (1 month) • Review CTPs released within 2 weeks of an MSP for applicability • Watch Topica mailing lists for impressions (http://www.topica.com/lists/Lawson_SysAdmin)

5. MSP: Experiences • Call volume increases for a short duration after • Issues are often serious in nature • Number of issues and severity closely related to the amount and quality of the testing performed! • Develop test plans with end user involvement. • Test processes and programs, not just programs • Write down the cutoff CTP for easy retrieval. Useful knowledge for most CTPs installs.

6. CTP: When and How Often • Other than those reviewed after an MSP, CTPs are applied only upon an issue • CTPs are more problematic than MSPs • netASPx has applied over 150 unique CTPs since October, 2002

7. Application Maintenance Toolset Suite of utilities for installing applications and applying MSPs and CTPs • Downloaded from support.lawson.com (Transfer Packages) • Includes lasetup, appmetaload, patchcompile, and the metadata load and dump programs

8. lasetup initial • Used for a new installation or point release • Clears out $LAWDIR/<prodline>/Admin/install.log • Overwrites source files without backup • Performs sysloads

9. lasetup staged (MSP) • Files are staged to a designated location then compared to program code in productline • Programs found to be more recent than code in the MSP are not replaced • Metadata in $LAWDIR/<pl>/metadata • All files and metadata to be replaced are backed up to $LAWDIR/<pl>/backup/<version>-MSP# • Metadata more recent then the MSP is first overwritten in the GEN database then reloaded

10. Backing out an MSP Preparation: • Complete data backup (expsysdb -s) • Backup of LADBDIR and LAWDIR Optional prep step: • sysdump <pl> (more options for recovery)

11. Backing out an MSP (cont) Restore Procedure: • Backup data (if unsure of backup or potential exists that updated data may need to be retrieved) • Drop tables (bldxxxddl –UDq <pl>) • Restore LADBDIR and LAWDIR • Startladb • bldxxxddl –Uq <pl> • Restore data (impexp) • startlaw

12. lasetup patch (CTP) • Files to be replaced are compared for more recent versions. More recent versions are not replaced. • Replaced program files and metadata are backed up to: $LAWDIR/<pl>/backup/<patch #> • GEN data not updated yet

13. appmetaload (CTP & MSP) • Applies changes to the GEN database related to a program or library • Used during MSP install to reload “Reverted” metadata • Information related to workfiles, messages, etc. loaded for you. No more manual entry,, except… • Database changes (dbdef) not handled

14. patchcompile (CTP) • Determines all programs related to the patch that must be recompiled and submits them. • Optionally creates a script to submit all compiles.

15. Backing out a CTP • No prep required • Copy program files from $LAWDIR/<pl>/backup/<patch #> back to appropriate location • Go through “meta” directories (ex. Metagl) and run appropriate metaload<ext> program for each file found. ( ex. metaloadmsg <pl> AP20.msg ) • If manual database changes were done, those must be reversed manually. (dbdef, blddbdict, dbreorg) • Recompile productline or rerun patchcompile

16. Under the Covers Version comparison: • Version compared using the first line in every program file. This line has: <program> <version> <Perl sum32 for file> • Any change to the file changes the chksum value. If chksum doesn’t match the header, version ignored and program overwritten in all circumstances. • To bypass this behavior: perl $GENDIR/bin/addversions –s {version} {file}

17. Under the Covers (cont) • Metaload series of programs update all elements associated with the item being updated. It does not perform a merge within the GEN database. • Be careful if you run the metadump programs. They do not write to stdout. Files in the current directory are overwritten. • Metadump files fairly easy to read. Most contain “prefix” of GEN tables to be updated. Confirm prefix by running dmpdict GEN <table>. Look for index (ie. PGMSET1 - PGM is prefix)

18. Handling Program Modifications • Use the UNIX diff utility to see changes. (works on NT too with MKS Toolkit or others) diff $LAWDIR/dev8/backup/12345/apsrc/AP20PD $LAWDIR/dev8/apsrc/AP20PD • diff can also create a merged version of two programs for you: diff –D12345 $LAWDIR/dev8/backup/12345/apsrc/AP20PD $LAWDIR/dev8/apsrc/NA20PD (merged program will not compile until edited)

19. CTPs: Merging Modifications(copied programs) • Apply CTP • Look in the install.log for a list of updated program files and metadatafiles related to the original program(s) • Dump the same metadata info for the copied program (metadumpwrk, metadumplib, etc) (Note: Donot run the metadump commands in a directory with existing metadata files. They will be overwritten.) • Make backup copies of files to be merged (cp MY01PD MY01PD.backup) • Create merged versions diff –D CTP2345 $LAWDIR/pl/ifsrc/MY01PD.backup $LAWDIR/pl/ifsrc/CU01PD > MY01PD diff –D CTP2345 $LAWDIR/pl/ifsrc/MY01.msg $LAWDIR/pl/metadata/ifmeta/CU01.msg > MY01_new.msg • Edit merged versions. All code needing attention will be bracketed with “#ifdef” or “#ifndef” to “#endif” (Keep the version line from the CTP) • Load merged metadata: metaloadmsg pl MY01_new.msg • Recompile program • Cleanup as desired (MY01*.msg, MY01PD.backup)

20. CTPs: Merging Modifications(programs modified in place) • Apply CTP • Look in the install.log for a list of files and metadata replaced by the CTP. • Make backup copies of files to be merged: cp $LAWDIR/pl/ifsrc/CU01PD $LAWDIR/pl/ifsrc/CU01.2345 cp $LAWDIR/pl/metadata/ifmeta/CU01.msg $LAWDIR/pl/metadata/ifmeta/CU01_2345.msg • Create merged versions diff –D CTP2345 $LAWDIR/pl/backup/PATCH2345/ifsrc/CU01PD $LAWDIR/pl/ifsrc/CU01PD.2345 > $LAWDIR/pl/ifsrc/CU01PD diff –D CTP2345 $LAWDIR/pl/backup/PATCH2345/metadata/ifmeta/CU01.msg $LAWDIR/pl/metadata/ifmeta/CU01_2345.msg > $LAWDIR/pl/metadata/ifmeta/CU01.msg • Edit merged versions. All code needing attention will be bracketed with “#ifdef” or “#ifndef” to “#endif” (Keep the version line from the CTP) • Load merged metadata: metaloadmsg pl $LAWDIR/pl/metadata/ifmeta/CU01.msg • Recompile program • Cleanup as desired (MY01*.msg, MY01PD.1234) • Optional: If you would like any future CTPs or MSPs to not overwrite your merged program with an older version: • Get version from the header of each CTP’d file (2nd field) • Run: perl $GENDIR/bin/addversions –s {version} {file} Ex. perl $GENDIR/bin/addversions –s 3 CU01PD

21. Sample “diff –D” output

22. MSPs and Modifications • Backup source and do a pgmdump for each of your modified programs • Apply MSP • Backup the MSP metadata and code before putting your modifications back in place. Do pgmdump and create copies of source files for programs modified. • pgmload from your pre-MSP • Create metadumps for relevant metadata from install.log or looking at $LAWDIR/<pl>/metadata • Create merged versions of metadata and code. • Edit merged files • Load merged metadata changes • Compile • Optional: Re-version files with “perl addversions”

23. Script to dump program metadata #!/bin/ksh pl=$1 pc=$2 pl_u=$(echo $pl | tr 'a-z' 'A-Z') pc_u=$(echo $pc | tr 'a-z' 'A-Z') for type in msg pgm do eval metadump${type} $pl $pc done rngdbdump -n gen workfile1 -f filename -v productline=$pl_u programcode=$pc_u \ | while read workfile do metadumpwrk $pl $pc $workfile done

24. A Strategy for “dbdef” and Other Manual Changes from CTPs • Breakout each manual step from the README.html into a separate file. The filename should contain the earliest CTP number that contained this step (found in the README.html). Keep in a safe place. If during the manual step an existing value was changed (ex. new field size), this is a good place to keep a record of the original value for backout and audit trail purposes. • Example: $LAWDIR/pl/metadata/manual/12345_dbdef and $LAWDIR/pl/backup/PATCH13579/12345_dbdef • After an MSP it is now easy to identify manual steps that must be completed after the MSP is applied.

25. Questions ron.wright@netaspx.com 303-499-2338