Systems Support Perspectives (Second in an occasional series)

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So, end of March, and time to blog again. I was going to do an entry on upgrading from Maximo 7.5.0.6 to Maximo 7.6.0.0. Things didn't work out as I planned. I have 26 screen shots ready for that post (or posts), but at about screen shot 24, I realized that I had goofed. Instead of upgrading from Maximo 7.5.0.6, my upgrade database was at Maximo 7.5.0.5. That is not supposed to be upgradeable to 7.6.0.0. Rules are, follow the instructions step-by-step, and don't magically hope that the 7.6.0.0 upgrade will update my database without a problem, just because it contains the scripts for Fix Pack 7.5.0.6. (This is a database I upgraded from 6.2.8 a few years ago, just before I started blogging. Now that was an epic venture, as far as Maximo installation and upgrade goes. It would have made a great set of blog entries.)

Anyway, this meant that I had first to apply a single dot Fix Pack to my upgrade database. An easy thing, no? I've done it many times. Just make a backup of my database and my SMP directory and I would have it done in a few hours at best.

Over a week later, I have finally wrestled my upgrade database to Maximo 7.5.0.6. What was wrong with it? It was pretty simple. Two things, actually. First, since I had migrated this SMP directory from another machine (virtual, now vanished) my Deployment Engine had the wrong host name. This problem was easy enough to fix: see http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21438206, "Cloning one Maximo Administrative Environment to Another Machine." The second problem was a series of similar errors in CTGINTrace00.log, like the following:

Mar 31, 2015 12:23:55 PM com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.common.config.CfgJ2EEConfigFactory getInstance()
SEVERE: EXIT ^Exception Instantiating Application Server Configuration Object^T^null
Throwable occurred: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:60)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:37)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:611)
    at com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.common.config.CfgJ2EEConfigFactory.getInstance(CfgJ2EEConfigFactory.java:112)
    at com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.common.config.TaskRunner.getConfigurationStep(TaskRunner.java:644)
    at com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.common.config.TaskRunner.addTask(TaskRunner.java:234)
    at com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.foundation.ccmdb.FndConfigurationAction.handleInstall(FndConfigurationAction.java:865)
    at com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.foundation.ccmdb.AFndCustomCodeAction.install(AFndCustomCodeAction.java:127)
    at com.zerog.ia.installer.actions.CustomAction.installSelf(DashoA10*..)
    at ZeroGad8.run(DashoA10*..)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
    at com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.common.config.was.CfgConfigWebSphere.initialize(CfgConfigWebSphere.java:546)
    at com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.common.config.was.CfgConfigWebSphere.getInstance(CfgConfigWebSphere.java:503)
    ... 11 more
Mar 31, 2015 12:23:55 PM com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.common.config.CfgJ2EEConfigFactory getInstance()
SEVERE: EXIT ^Exception Instantiating Application Server Configuration Object^o^{{WebSphere,com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.common.config.was.CfgConfigWebSphere,}}
Mar 31, 2015 12:23:55 PM com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.common.config.TaskRunner addTask(Task)
SEVERE: EXIT ^Exception caught creating Task: com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.common.config.ConfigurationException: CTGIN2373E: Exception caught instantiating Application Server configuration object. Cause: null
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:60)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:37)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:611)
    at com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.common.config.CfgJ2EEConfigFactory.getInstance(CfgJ2EEConfigFactory.java:112)
    at com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.common.config.TaskRunner.getConfigurationStep(TaskRunner.java:644)
    at com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.common.config.TaskRunner.addTask(TaskRunner.java:234)
    at com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.foundation.ccmdb.FndConfigurationAction.handleInstall(FndConfigurationAction.java:865)
    at com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.foundation.ccmdb.AFndCustomCodeAction.install(AFndCustomCodeAction.java:127)
    at com.zerog.ia.installer.actions.CustomAction.installSelf(DashoA10*..)
    at ZeroGad8.run(DashoA10*..)
Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
    ... 11 more
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
    at com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.common.config.was.CfgConfigWebSphere.initialize(CfgConfigWebSphere.java:546)
    at com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.common.config.was.CfgConfigWebSphere.getInstance(CfgConfigWebSphere.java:503)
    ... 11 more
^n^

The first few errors of this type identified a missing parameter that I had to add to my install.properties. After that, null, literally. I tracked it down by comparing successful installation.properties with my upgrade install.properties. The clue that they were related to WebSphere was this line in the log: Object^o^{{WebSphere,com.ibm.tivoli.ccmdb.install.common.config.was.CfgConfigWebSphere,}}. I concluded that I didn't have enough entries for my WebSphere environment. And even though I had no problem running Fix Pack 7.5.0.5 before, it seemed really strange that I had only 3 WAS.* entries in the upgrade install.properties.

Now, there are 50 possible WAS.* entries in installation.properties. I'm not going to list them here, because the installer removes entries from install.properties that it doesn't use. I narrowed it down to 29 entries. The last one (WAS.AutomateConfig) made the Fix Pack installer happy. It flew through the Fix Pack install and completed it, after which I would have to run TASKRUNNER and update the database and deploy the ear files.

This may not seem like a big deal, but I thought it was worth a technote: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21701068, "Errors CTGIN2373E and CTGIN0024E installing Maximo Fix Pack." Just published it 30 minutes ago.

Finally, a few words about technotes. If you find that something is unclear or incorrect in a technote, we want to know about it. Your written feedback is sent directly to the document's owner. We read the feedback, and will, if necessary, change the technote to make it clearer or correct any errors. (In my case, more concise is sometimes in order.) The Feedback button (see right) may be found on the right side of the page.

You can leave your email address as well. In one example, I emailed a customer back about a question he had about it. I had tracked down the answer to it, and wanted him to know what I had found. I also changed the technote to include the answer. The takeaway here: when you have constructive criticism to offer or a question about a technote, send us feedback.

Thanks for reading this entry. Next time (probably): a simple Maximo 7.6 upgrade from Maximo 7.5.