Creating profiles, network deployment environments and database tables using BPMConfig

You can use the BPMConfig command to create a typical network deployment environment using a properties file that contains all of the values used in the configuration of your deployment environment. At the same time as the deployment environment is created, you can create the required database tables, and create a new deployment manager profile and custom profiles for managed nodes by including settings for these profiles in the properties file used by the BPMConfig command.

Before you begin

Before you create a deployment environment using the BPMConfig command-line utility, you may need to manually create all of the databases that are specified in the properties file. Although the BPMConfig command can create the database schema and tables, it cannot create the databases. The databases must be created before the tables are created (and before the servers are started). Depending on the value that is set for the bpm.de.deferSchemaCreation property, the database schema and tables can be created when the BPMConfig command is run or they can be created after the command is run. Information about the bpm.de.deferSchemaCreation property is found in the "About this task" section below.

For your SQL Server database server, make sure that the username and schema exist before the configuration is done. The schema value should be the default schema for the user chosen.

If connections to the database will be made by the current Windows user that the server is running under, the SQL Server must have Windows authentication mode or SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode enabled, as specified through Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. You should also be sure to use the sample properties file that matches your authentication method as a basis for your own configuration properties file. For example, if you base your own configuration properties file on one of the sample configuration files with a name ending in SQLServer-WinAuth, the setting for the attribute sqlServerWinAuth is set to "true" by default.

Important: Run the BPMConfig command with the same properties file on all computers that will participate in the deployment environment. You must first run the command on the computer that has the deployment manager profile and then run it on each computer that has a managed node. At any given time, only one profile creation can be performed on a computer and only one node federation can be performed against a particular deployment manager. For this reason, if you are creating multiple profiles at once on different computers, you must use the federateLater option of the BPMConfig command when creating the managed node profiles and then run the command with the -create -de option sequentially on each computer to federate the managed nodes.

About this task

When run with the -create -de options, the BPMConfig command performs the following tasks:

Creates any local profiles specified in the configuration properties file that do not already exist.
Creates the deployment manager node based on the values in the deployment manager properties file and starts the deployment manager.
For each node specified in the configuration properties file, creates a managed node based on the specified values.
Federates each managed node and adds the node to the deployment environment.
Generates the deployment environment.
If the properties file that is used has the parameter bpm.de.deferSchemaCreation set to false, then the database tables are also created when you run the command.
If the bpm.de.deferSchemaCreation property in the configuration properties file is set to true then only the scripts for creating the database tables are generated. In this case, the database tables need to be created separately using these scripts, and the bootstrap utility will need to be run manually.
Tip: If you run the BPMConfig command to generate the database scripts instead of creating the actual tables, you can pass along these scripts to your database administrator to review and run the scripts.
If the bpm.de.deferSchemaCreation property is set to true, then the Process database is not loaded with system information and you must run the bootstrapProcessServerData utility manually.

Note: If SQL Server Windows Authentication is used and bpm.de.deferSchemaCreation is set to false, you must manually run the bootstrap utility to load the Process database because this step is not done automatically by BPMConfig.

Procedure

To create the deployment environment for the first time, complete the following steps:

If you previously ran the BPMConfig command with the -create -sqlfiles -outputDir parameters to generate the database scripts that are used to create your databases, you should already have a properties file. Verify that the value of the bpm.de.deferSchemaCreation property has been set, and then go to step 5 and complete the remaining steps.
However, if you do not yet have a customized properties file that contains the configuration settings for your profiles, deployment environment, and databases, complete all of the following steps.
On the computer where you want to create the deployment environment, locate the appropriate sample properties file: BPM_Home\BPM\samples\config.
Find the sample properties file that most closely represents your target deployment environment and make a copy of this file. For each of the different product configurations, there is a different folder containing sample configuration files. For example, for configuring an Express deployment environment, there is an express folder containing a set of sample configuration properties files. Within each folder, there is a set of files that are specific to the different database types and configuration environments. The sample files are named according to the following format: de_type[-environment_type]-topology-database_type[-suffix], where:
- de_type can be set to Express.
- environment_type can be set to PS for Process Server or PC for Process Center. .
- topology can be set to Standalone .
- database_type can be set to DB2, DB2zOS, Oracle, or SQLServer.
- suffix can be set to -WinAuth for an SQL Server database.
For example, the sample configuration properties file for configuring an Express deployment environment with Process Server and using an SQL Server database is called Express-PS-Standalone-SQLServer.properties.
Modify your version of the properties file so that the values correspond to your own configuration. When modifying the sample properties file, use the guidance provided within the file for specifying values.
When you are configuring a Process Server environment to use Process Center remotely, you must change the default value for the psProcessCenterHostname property from local host to a valid host name. If you are configuring an offline Process Server and the value for bpm.de.psOffline is set to true, then you do not need to specify a value for the psProcessCenterHostname property.

Note: Your modified properties file must use UTF-8 encoding.

Do not add any custom properties to this file when you perform your modifications or the BPMConfig command will fail when it is run.

If you need to use a backslash character (\) in your properties file, you must use an escape backslash before it, for example bpm.dmgr.installPath=c:\\IBM\\BPM85.

If you are configuring a three-cluster setup that is based on the Advanced or AdvancedOnly template, and you want your deployment environment to include the optional Business Process Archive Manager, include the properties file entries that are described in Configuring Business Process Archive Manager.

For more information about the available properties, read the comments in the sample files, or see the BPMConfig command-line utility and the sample property file descriptions in Configuration properties for the BPMConfig command.
Run the BPMConfig command on the computer that has the deployment manager, passing it the name of the properties file you created.
```
BPM_home\bin\BPMConfig -create -de my_environment.properties
```
Start the deployment manager. Run the BPMConfig command on each computer that has one or more managed nodes, passing it the name of the same properties file. The managed node profiles are created and federated into the deployment manager cell.
Note: For each node that is to be configured on a different machine from the deployment manager, check the soap port of the deployment manager and update the value of bpm.dmgr.soapPort in the properties file before running BPMConfig on the node.

Note: For each cluster member in the properties file, BPMConfig adds http and https ports to the virtual hosts list. Check the virtual hosts list after running BPMConfig to make sure that the assigned ports are acceptable.

What to do next

If you ran BPMConfig with the deferSchemaCreation set to true, then you must create your database tables and if your environment includes the ProcessServer component, you must also load the Process database. To create the database, run the SQL scripts that are generated by the BPMConfig command. To load the Process database, run the bootstrapProcessServerData utility. For more information see the related task link for running the generated scripts for creating database tables. After you have created your deployment environment and your database tables, you can start the deployment manager, node agents, and clusters by running the BPMconfig command with the -start action from the deployment manager computer. If you are creating an Advanced or AdvancedOnly deployment environment, the deployment manager and node agents need to be restarted for the cell scoped configuration to take affect. This is only required for the first deployment environment with Advanced or AdvancedOnly capabilities.

If the new or updated node is on the same computer as the deployment manager node, then the updated or new node is automatically synchronized with the deployment manager node. Before you start the node, ensure that this synchronization has completed by checking the syncNode.log file found in the profile_root\logs directory. If the new or updated node is on a different computer than the deployment manager node, you need to run the syncNode.bat or syncNode.sh command on the new or updated node and wait for the synchronization to complete before starting the node.

If SQLServer Windows Authentication is used, you must manually run the bootstrap utility to load the Process Server database, as described in the topic Loading the database with system information in a network deployment environment on Windows.