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Upgrading

With each new code stream (e.g.5.2.4.x to 5.2.5 or 5.2.6) IBM provides release notes. Despite this we often receive PMRs asking if there are any known issues upgrading from one version of IBM Sterling B2B Integrator to another, unfortunately opening a PMR is not a short cut to reading the release notes. They contain many important sections including one called "Known Issues". For example, here's the release notes for 5.2.6 

IBM Installation Manager (IIM)

One big change in version 5.2.6 is the introduction of the IIM. The IIM is a graphical interface for installing the product but it also performs a set of other functions. As the notice indicates, reading the planning and installation sections are important to a successful installation.

What's new, changed and removed in this release

As you can see it lists several important sections. For example in the "What's new, changed and removed in this release" shows that AIX 6.1 and the MySQL database are no longer supported. It also highlights three security fixes that have been resolved in this release.

Disk Space and System Requirements

Next, before upgrading you should make sure your aware of the base requirements for the release. For example, periodically, a new JDK version is required or more memory or disk space will be necessary for this release to operate optimally.

Known Issues

If there are any known issues, they will be listed here. It is rare that support knows of any additional issues that aren't documented here.

APARs

This section lists all the fixes that are incorporated into this release.

Applying Fixpacks

IBM's Fix Central is the location for product fixpacks: https://www-945.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/help?page=start but did you know you can search for fixes by APARs on this site?

There's even a tab to help you construct search terms:

Pre-requisites

Fix central can be configured to include any required software as part of the fixpack.