Cutover activities for staged upgrade

Pre-cutover tasks

To minimize downtime, perform the following pre-cutover tasks before you actually initiate the cutover.  

1. Create a change request. 
2. Provision for the final files. 
   • In this step, you must prepare all the final files that you will need to replace after IP swap. You must complete the provisioning activities on both the production server and the staging server. 
     You must prepare the following files:
     • BMC Remedy AR System files: ar.cfg, armonitor.cfg, hosts, and all the plug-in XMLs
     • BMC Remedy Mid Tier files: hosts, web.xml, config.properties, viewer.properties, server.xml, and context.xml
   • When you prepare the files, create a copy of the original file and perform the edits in the copy. You must not update the original files on the staging server or the production server.
   • You must replace the prepared files after completing the IP swap that happens during the cutover stage. 
   • When you prepare the files, you must also set the standard parameters in the ar.cfg file to either false or zero. 
     For example, to set Admin-only-mode to false, update the parameter as follows: 
     Admin-Only-Mode:F
     Depending on the parameters you use, you must align the BMC Remedy AR System and BMC Remedy Mid Tier files in this step. You will need to revert these settings as part of the Go Live tasks. 
   • Preparing the files in this stage ensures that only one BMC Remedy AR System restart is required during Go live. 
3. Prepare emails to send to the teams that are affected or are involved in the upgrade process. You must send these emails when you begin the cutover. Typically, you must inform the following teams about the down time:
   1. Database team: Inform this team about renaming the database, performing database backup, and performing database deletion.
   2. NOC team: Inform this team about ignoring the alerts during the cutover period.
   3. Infrastructure team: Inform this team about performing the IP swap.

Cut-over tasks and final Delta Data Migration

With this phase, the down time time begins. As part of the cutover, you must perform the following tasks:

1. Reinforce the restrictions applied before you started the upgrade.
   See Restrictions after restoring the database on a staging system.
2. Put your production URL under Admin-only-mode. With this step, users will be unable to access the production system. 
3. Send the emails you prepared as part of the pre-cutover tasks.
4. Stop the BMC Remedy AR System service. 

5. Complete the database-related activities (the database team typically performs these tasks):

   • Rename the database.
   • Perform database backup.
6. Perform the IP swap (the Infrastructure team typically performs this task).
   Keep the following points in mind:
   
   • This step ensures that the IP of the new production server (the one with which you are going live) and the original production server (current production) are the same.
   • You might want to change the host names of the new production server to match the host names of the original production server. 
7. Replace the final files you prepared during pre-cutover.
   You must replace the files on both the new production and the original production server.
8. Start the BMC Remedy AR System service.
9. Verify that email configuration is disabled on the new production server and the original production server. 
10. Review the server information settings that were make during pre-cutover; if the settings are intact, proceed with the final delta data migration (DDM). For instructions, see Migrating delta data.
11. While DDM is in progress, refresh the F5 settings wherein you must verify if the new production is added in the load balancer, and the original production server is excluded.
12. Add any new instances; for example, BMC Remedy Single Sign-On.
13. Update the DNS settings. (You can perfom this task while DDM is in progress.)

Where to go from here