Stage 1 - Setting up a staging server for upgrades with overlays already present

The following topics explain the implementation of staging environment for upgrade:

The following topics provide the steps for setting up a staging server for upgrade:

• Restrictions after restoring the database on the staging server with overlays
• Accelerated staging server setup for upgrades with overlays
• Duplicated staging server setup for upgrades with overlays
• Duplicating the production server database for upgrades with overlays

Understanding staging environment implementation for upgrade

The staged-upgrade process allows you to upgrade your application and create overlays or otherwise address pre-existing customizations to your BMC Remedy AR System server objects while your production server remains available to users. The following illustrations shows the set of servers that might be required to perform the upgrade.

Understanding staging server implementation

For setting up a staging environment, you can use one of the following method:

• Accelerated Staging server: You need copy the production server database to the staging server > Upgrade BMC Remedy AR System. 
  See, Setting up accelerated staging server for upgrades with overlays. 
• Duplicated Staging server: You need to duplicate the production server > Copy the production server database to the staging server > Upgrade BMC Remedy AR System. 
  See, Setting up duplicated staging server for upgrades with overlays.

When upgrading using staging server, consider the following: 

• Whether you use the accelerated staging server setup or the duplicated staging server setup, you must copy your entire production database to the staging server.
• At the end of the process, the staging server becomes the new production server.
• Make sure that the staging server you will use, meets the specifications required for the upgrade. See, System requirements.

When you create the staging server, use the same server name to avoid naming issues when you promote the staging server to production. If you change the name, follow the process outlined in Changing a server name when using a duplicated or migrated environment. Also, if you are using the same server name, you need to be careful that the users are not pointed to the staging server during the upgrade process.

Understanding reference server implementation

If you are implementing the reference environment, you might require another server (referred to as the upgrade comparison server) to host upgraded applications. These additional servers do not have to be production quality, but they must have compatible software and a compatible database to hold referenced copies of the BMC software and database objects. The reference server and upgrade comparison server are temporary servers and are not needed after the entire upgrade process is complete.