Changing the Rational® ClearQuest® feature
level and metaschema version can take several hours. The process changes
the schema repository and all associated user databases. Typically,
new tables are added to all databases, and new columns might be added
to existing tables.
As part of upgrading the
Rational ClearQuest feature
level, perform the upgrade on a test system first, and perform it
again on production databases. At a high level, the process is as
follows:
- Prepare your environment.
- Back up all of your databases.
- Create a test bed based on production databases.
- Upgrade the test bed and validate that the upgrade was successful.
- Create new databases for the production system.
- Upgrade the production databases and verify that the upgrade was
successful.
Note: If you are using Oracle databases with the LONG datatype, you
cannot combine a feature level upgrade with a LONG to CLOB conversion.
Performing these tasks in the same operation can corrupt data.
Performing in-place upgrades of the feature level
The
default method for upgrading the feature level of a schema repository
or user database is to create an empty database container, then use
the Maintenance Tool to upgrade from the existing database to the
new database with the higher feature level.
You can perform
an in-place upgrade to feature level 6 or feature level 7. In this
method, the new version of the database is written back onto the original
database file, replacing the old database structure.
The advantages
of this method are that you do not need to create a new empty database
and you do not have to point clients or servers at the new database.
The disadvantages are that you cannot restore the database to its
previous state and the database is not available to users until the
upgrade process is complete. You must back up a full copy of the database
and store it at another location before you can upgrade the database.
For
more complex environments the risk of this method might outweigh its
benefits.