Managing Your Lawson System MSPs and CTPs

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Managing Your Lawson SystemMSPs and CTPs

• Ron Wright
• netASPx Corp.

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CTP Definition

• Lawsons 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

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MSP Definition

• Lawsons 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!

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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)

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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.

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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

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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

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lasetup initial

• Used for a new installation or point release
• Clears out LAWDIR/ltprodlinegt/Admin/install.log
• Overwrites source files without backup
• Performs sysloads

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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/ltplgt/metadata
• All files and metadata to be replaced are backed
  up to LAWDIR/ltplgt/backup/ltversiongt-MSP
• Metadata more recent then the MSP is first
  overwritten in the GEN database then reloaded

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Backing out an MSP

• Preparation
• Complete data backup (expsysdb -s)
• Backup of LADBDIR and LAWDIR
• Optional prep step
• sysdump ltplgt (more options for recovery)

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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 ltplgt)
• Restore LADBDIR and LAWDIR
• Startladb
• bldxxxddl Uq ltplgt
• Restore data (impexp)
• startlaw

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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/ltplgt/backup/ltpatch gt
• GEN data not updated yet

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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

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patchcompile (CTP)

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

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Backing out a CTP

• No prep required
• Copy program files from LAWDIR/ltplgt/backup/ltpatc
  h gt back to appropriate location
• Go through meta directories (ex. Metagl) and
  run appropriate metaloadltextgt program for each
  file found. ( ex. metaloadmsg ltplgt AP20.msg )
• If manual database changes were done, those must
  be reversed manually. (dbdef, blddbdict, dbreorg)
• Recompile productline or rerun patchcompile

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Under the Covers

• Version comparison
• Version compared using the first line in every
  program file. This line has
• ltprogramgt ltversiongt ltPerl sum32 for filegt
• Any change to the file changes the chksum value.
  If chksum doesnt match the header, version
  ignored and program overwritten in all
  circumstances.
• To bypass this behavior
• perl GENDIR/bin/addversions s version file

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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 lttablegt. Look for
  index (ie. PGMSET1 - PGM is prefix)

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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/AP20P
  D LAWDIR/dev8/apsrc/NA20PD
• (merged program will not compile until edited)

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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
  Do not 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 gt MY01PD
• diff D CTP2345 LAWDIR/pl/ifsrc/MY01.msg
  LAWDIR/pl/metadata/ifmeta/CU01.msg gt
  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)

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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/CU01.2
  345
• 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 gt
  LAWDIR/pl/ifsrc/CU01PD
• diff D CTP2345 LAWDIR/pl/backup/PATCH2345/metada
  ta/ifmeta/CU01.msg LAWDIR/pl/metadata/ifmeta/CU01
  _2345.msg gt 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 CTPd file
  (2nd field)
• Run perl GENDIR/bin/addversions s version
  file
• Ex. perl GENDIR/bin/addversions s 3 CU01PD

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Sample diff D output
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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/ltplgt/metadata
• Create merged versions of metadata and code.
• Edit merged files
• Load merged metadata changes
• Compile
• Optional Re-version files with perl
  addversions

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Script to dump program metadata

• !/bin/ksh
• pl1
• pc2
• 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 metadumptype pl pc
• done
• rngdbdump -n gen workfile1 -f filename -v
  productlinepl_u programcodepc_u \
• while read workfile
• do
• metadumpwrk pl pc workfile
• done

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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.

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Questions

• ron.wright_at_netaspx.com
• 303-499-2338