Here is my current setup: I have two servers on the same network. One is Production and the other development/test. The dev/test environment is basically a clone of production. The servers are HPUX11 running Oracle 9.2.

Lets say on Nov 30 I want to freeze what I have in production as far as applications and database, then move it to the dev/test server in a new baan environment. I don't want to lose access to my current environment on the test server. I do, or at least I think I do, want an additional environment on the test server. For example: Current $BSE is /baan1/bse ; I want another BSE to point to /baan2/bse. Is this feasible?

Does anyone have suggestions for a strategy to tackle this project?

Thanks,
-Tim

Yes, it is feasible and was done at several clients.

You basically copy your Baan and Oracle to the new pathes and then you need to do some changes to get it running:

- Baan stores in several tables in company 000 the BSE path.
- When you do "Convert to runtime" these pathes get written to several files in $BSE/lib

Now, if you are luckey, then you have a nice clean Baan installation and the professional, who installed and configured it, made sure, that he used everywhere the variable "${BSE}" instead of the hard coded path. In this case you are fine and can ust start using Baan.

If not, you have to do some changes manually. You might also want to do these changes allready in the production system, so that you have them for the future to save repetative work:

a) Look at the scripts in $BSE/etc. These contain pathes
b) Look at the files in $BSE/lib. Namely: fd*, auditdef6.1, ipc_info, isamdef6.1
c) Find the coorespoding session in Baan and change the entries there too
- ttadv1115m000 ( == fd* )
- ttaad4115m000 ( == isamdef6.1)
- ttaad4116m000 ( == auditdef6.1)

Soo in summary it's possible and straight forward, if you know where to look.

Regards

Markus

We currently swap out Production to Test/Dev on a regular basis. Unfortunately I am on a Windows O/S, but the theory will hold:

1) install BaaN and O/S on the secondary server
2) copy the files in the {BSE} environment from server A to B
3) Use warm backup from database (if you are using one, you don't say) and copy backup files to the proper directories.
4) Start everything up

Note: the trick is to have the EXACT same paths on both boxes. Use links to spoof out the {BSE} point on another mount point, unless you can make the root /baan1/... vs. /baan2/...

i.e. /home/baan1/... setup as /baan1/...

I think that this will overcome even hard coded paths.


I have the file systems setup exactly and have my instances local to the server. This also would work with clusters.

One other thing, I change the Icons to be a different color than Production - My Prod environment is light blue/green, Test is light blue/yellow and Dev is light blue/gray. That way, I know which environment I am in when I open the BECS.

Hope this helped and wasn't too high level or shallow.

;)

Yes in principle you get a very easy cloning process, if life and test system use the same file pathes. But if I understood the origional request correctly, then he wants to create a second BSE with a different path?

Thank you for your suggestions...

Tuple9i.. I do have this current set up and both live and test are identical in path names, hp filesystems, db names, and such.

I want to have a separate additonal BSE environment on the test server.

Markus.. I'm doing some investigating with your suggestion, but I'm kind of hung up on an oracle issue.

I will create a new database (sid=baan2) for example, and set all the tablespaces, etc. Now my question...... I will cold backup the production database (sid=baan1) with DATA, INDX, SYSTEM, USERS, etc. Tablespaces... then move those files to the newly created database areas. Can I just then start the baan2 db and everything will be OK? I'm thinking that it won't be this easy. Maybe just copy the DATA and INDX tablespaces and leave the SYSTEM, etc. alone in the (baan2) database?

System and the other tablespaces form one consistent unit. You can not just restore one and forget about the rest.

But you are right you can not just restore the database and start up with a different SID. But what you want is not so unusual in Oracle and you will find documents, how to do this on Meta Link. Basically it has to do with recreating the control files. If you can not find anything on Metalink, drop me a quick message and I will search in my files for a how to, which I wrote some years ago.

Regards

Markus