Taking a backup of the CICS Explorer workspace

Before you upgrade to a new release of CICS Explorer®, it is advisable to back up your CICS Explorer workspace so that you can restore the workspace to a previous version, if required.

About this task

For some releases, when you upgrade to a new release of CICS Explorer, data stored in your existing workspaces is automatically migrated to the new data format when you use those workspaces with the new release. The workspaces will no longer work with previous releases of CICS Explorer.

In this situation, if you need to work with a previous release of CICS Explorer, you must back up your existing workspace before you upgrade. An example of this requirement is when you want to test a new release, but continue to work with the previous release.

This situation applies when you upgrade to CICS Explorer Version 5.3 from Version 5.2 or earlier. Therefore, if you need to work with CICS Explorer Version 5.2 or earlier, you must back up your existing workspace before you upgrade.

In CICS Explorer Version 5.2 and earlier, the name of the default workspace is .cicexplorer. In CICS Explorer Version 5.3 or later, the name of the default workspace is .zosexplorer.

To back up your CICS Explorer workspace, including the connection definitions, use the following procedure.

Procedure

  1. Close CICS Explorer to ensure that your current workspace is saved.
  2. Copy the workspace folder in your CICS Explorer workspace location to another folder, or compress it into an archive folder. For example, copy the .cicexplorer or .zosexplorer folder. The location of the workspace folder depends on your operating system and whether you have set your own CICS Explorer workspace location. Typical locations are as follows:
    Windows XP:
    Documents and Settings\$USER\
    Windows 7:
    \Users\$USER\
    Linux:
    /home/$username/
    OS X:
    /Users/user_name/
  3. Upgrade CICS Explorer as normal.

What to do next

To revert to the previous workspace with the previous release of CICS Explorer, replace the workspace folder with the backup copy that you made.
Parent topic: Installing