Upgrading your IBM Case Manager system using an external IBM Content Navigator

 Traditional: 
This approach is the only approach for production environments. It is the recommended approach for all environments because it augments IBM Case Manager with IBM Business Automation Workflow while keeping the IBM Case Manager topology similar to the one before the upgrade. It uses an external FileNet content environment that can be shared by other IBM products.

Before you begin

If you haven't done so already, review the requirements and support considerations in Preparing for the upgrade. For download and upgrade instructions, see the support document Upgrading IBM Case Manager to IBM Business Automation Workflow V21.0.3. For answers to upgrade questions, see Frequently asked questions.

About this task

This upgrade requires IBM Case Manager and a new separate installation of Business Automation Workflow andWebSphere® Application Server. Do not install and configure Business Automation Workflow into an existing WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment where Content Platform Engine or IBM Content Navigator is configured.

Figure 1. Topology before and after augmentation
Topology before and after augmentation
Note that in the new topology the case code and custom case widgets and extension packages are onon different servers, Business Automation Workflow versus IBM Content Navigator, which requires adjustments to the custom widget and extension package paths.
During the upgrade process, you will
  1. Back up your source databases.
  2. Update your IBM Content Navigator and Content Platform Engine.
  3. If you haven't already, install and configure Business Automation Workflow.
  4. Configure Business Automation Workflow to use your Content Platform Engine.
  5. Configure Business Automation Workflow to use your IBM Content Navigator.
  6. Run the case configuration tasks.
  7. Update custom extension packages and custom case widgets if you are using them.
  8. Restart the deployment environment.

Procedure

  1. Back up your IBM Case Manager databases, including the databases for the IBM Content Navigator, the design object store, and the target object store. For example, ICNDB, DOSDB, and TOSDB.
  2. Update your IBM Content Navigator and Content Platform Engine to the version supported by Business Automation Workflow.
  3. Optional: If you have already installed Business Automation Workflow and created a deployment environment, skip this step. Otherwise, install Business Automation Workflow and configure the Business Automation Workflow deployment environment with no IBM Content Navigator or Content Platform Engine feature enabled.
    1. Choose a sample properties file from the Workflow_install_root\BPM\samples\config\externalicnexternalcpe directory, based on your database and the type of deployment environment you want.
      For a development environment, choose a properties file with bpm.de.environment=Process Center. For a production environment, choose a file with bpm.de.environment=Process Server. These files do not contain the IBM Content Navigator or Content Platform Engine database configurations.
    2. Modify the properties file by using your real environment values.
      Pay special attention to the following properties and make sure that they are configured correctly:
      • Set the ECMTechnicalUserAlias as the user from the LDAP shared user repository that is used as the administrator for the object store, for example:
        ###########################################
           # ECM technical user authentication alias #
           ###########################################
           bpm.de.authenticationAlias.2.name=ECMTechnicalUserAlias
           bpm.de.authenticationAlias.2.user=admin
           bpm.de.authenticationAlias.2.password=admin
        
      • Modify the network shared directory that is used by the external IBM Content Navigator, for example:
        # The network directory shared among multiple process servers in the deployment environment.
           bpm.de.caseManager.networkSharedDirectory=${WAS_INSTALL_ROOT}/CaseManagement/properties
        
        For setting up a network shared directory, see step 4 in Configuring IBM Business Automation Workflow with an external IBM Content Navigator.
    3. Create the Business Automation Workflow deployment environment by using the BPMConfig command-line utility.
    4. Start the environment and run a deployment environment health check.
  4. Configure Business Automation Workflow to use your previous Content Platform Engine, namely the same environment that IBM Case Manager uses for the design object store (DOS) and target object store (TOS). Follow the instructions in Configuring an existing external Content Platform Engine.
    For considerations on object store configuration, see Planning for an external Content Platform Engine.
  5. Configure properties for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) so that the same configuration is used by both Business Automation Workflow and FileNet® Content Manager.
    For example, the user and group name attributes:
    • Business Automation Workflow - user-full-name-prop and group-name-prop
    • Content Platform Engine - userShortNameAttribute and GroupNameAttribute
    For more information, see Configuring the user registry and Directory service providers.
  6. To continue using the same configurations and customizations in IBM Content Navigator after the upgrade, configure Business Automation Workflow to use your IBM Content Navigator.
    1. Follow the instructions in Configuring IBM Business Automation Workflow with an external IBM Content Navigator.
    2. Restart the Business Automation Workflow deployment manager profile.
    3. Synchronize the custom profiles with the deployment manager profile.
      For each custom profile, run the following command on the custom node:
      custom_profile_install_root/bin/syncNode.bat dmgr_hostname dmgr_soap_port -user de_admin_user -password de_admin_password
    4. Start the custom profiles.
    5. Start the deployment manager environment.
    6. Restart the IBM Content Navigator environment.
      Important: Make sure that the Business Automation Workflow server is available before you restart the IBM Content Navigator environment.
  7. Run the Case configuration tool to deploy the case plug-ins onto the IBM Content Navigator server.
    For information about the Case configuration tool, which is located under Workflow_install_root/CaseManagement/configure/, see the topic for your environment:
    Important:
    • For the Configure Business Rules task, specify the same path that you used in IBM Case Manager.
    • Make sure that the Network Shared Directory property value in the Edit Development Environment Profile Properties wizard is the same as the one that you set in the Business Automation Workflow properties file. If you want to change this network shared directory value, then after you change the value in the wizard, you must also rerun the BPMConfig command, for example:
      BPMConfig  -update -profile DmgrProfile -de De1 -networkDirectory new network directory -component CaseManager
    1. Optional: If you are using custom extension packages, update them.
      1. Update the previous case resource path with the absolute path for the IBM Content Navigator in the Extension.json file. For example, use https://ICN_hostName:ICN_portNumber/navigator/plugin instead of /navigator/plugin.
      2. Enable cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) settings for this custom extension package, which is installed and deployed in IBM Content Navigator. This is done by enabling and configuring the CORS filter servlet in IBM Content Navigator.
        1. Add the filter-mapping for custom extension plug-ins from IBM Content Navigator
          1. Modify the <IBM Content Navigator installation location>\configure\explodedformat\navigator\WEB-INF\web.xml to add
            <filter-mapping>
                    <filter-name>CORSFilter</filter-name>
                    <url-pattern>/plugin/*</url-pattern>
                </filter-mapping>
          2. Run IBM Content Navigator configuration tool to rebuild and redeploy the application.
        2. Create a new CORS.properties.
          1. Add the following text for CORS
            cors.origin.hostname=[bawserver]
            cors.origin.port=[bawserver port]
            cors.allow.methods=GET, OPTIONS, HEAD, PUT, POST
            cors.allow.credentials.boolean=true
            cors.options.status=202

            [bawserver] - This is the URL that client users access Workflow Center, Case Builder.

            [bawserver port] - This is the PORT that client users access Workflow Center, Case Builder.

        3. Add a com.ibm.ecm.icn.cors.file JVM parameter pointing to the CORS.properties file that you created in (b)

          For example,

          -Dcom.ibm.ecm.icn.cors.file=/tmp/CORS.properties

      3. In the Case configuration tool, run the Deploy & Register Extensions Package task to deploy the custom extension package plug-in to the IBM Content Navigator.
        1. Right-click the task and select Enable Task.
        2. Enter and check the properties.
        3. Run the task.
      Note: After deploying the package and while using the custom case extensions in Case Builder, it is suggested that you add an exception to your browser to handle an invalid server certificate for the external IBM Content Navigator server. This can be accomplished by opening the IBM Content Navigator URL in the same browser session as Case Builder and then adding the exception for the invalid server certificate when prompted. The IBM Content Navigator URL uses the following format:
      https://ICN_hostName:ICN_portNumber/navigator
    2. Optional: If you are using case custom widgets that refer to IBM Case Manager resources, you must update the implementation code because, after augmentation, the resources are located on the remote Business Automation Workflow computer instead of the IBM Case Manager computer.
      1. Update the previous case resource path with the absolute path for the remote Case Client in the custom plug-in. JAR file. For example, use https://Workflow_hostName:CaseClient_portNumber/ICMClient/icm instead of /ICMClient/icm. Make this replacement in each place that refers to case resources.
      2. Enable CORS settings for this custom widget, for example,
        1. Manually place the following CORS filter Servlet in the web.xml file in the custom widget EAR file:
          <filter>
          	<description>Handling Cross Origin Resource Sharing</description>
          	<display-name>CORSFilter</display-name>
          	<filter-name>CORSFilter</filter-name>
          	<filter-class>com.ibm.casemgmt.cors.filter.CaseCORSFilter</filter-class>
                </filter>
              <filter-mapping>
          	<filter-name>CORSFilter</filter-name>
          	<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
              </filter-mapping>
        2. Put the casecors.jar file in the custom widgets application EAR lib folder. You can get the casecors.jar file from the following locations:

          - On-premise

          Workflow_install_root/BPM/Case/lib/Container
          - In the workflow pod (for example - workflow-authoring-baw-server)
          /opt/ibm/wlp/usr/servers/defaultServer/case/lib/casecors.jar
      3. In the Case configuration tool, run the Deploy & Register Custom Widgets Package task to deploy the Case custom widget plug-in to the IBM Content Navigator.
        1. Right-click the task and select Enable Task.
        2. Enter and check the properties.
        3. Run the task.
      For more information about how to specify the CORS filter, see CORS Filter.
  8. Restart the Business Automation Workflow deployment environment.
  9. To avoid accidentally editing solutions in the previous version of Case Builder after they are already upgraded, remove the previous CaseBuilder app.
    1. In the WebSphere administrative console for IBM Case Manager (https://case_computer:9043/ibm/console) go to Applications > All Applications, select CaseBuilder and click Remove.
    2. Save the changes to the WebSphere Application Server configuration, and restart the WebSphere Application Server profile.

Results

All the desktops that you previously had are augmented to the Business Automation Workflow environment and you can continue to use them as before. The default desktop is baw. You can change the desktop in the IBM Content Navigator administration console.

The following image shows a typical topology with an external IBM Content Navigator.
Typical topology supporting an external IBM Content Navigator
The Case Navigator plug-ins are available through the following URLs:
  • Workflow Task: https://Workflow_hostName:SSL_port/teamworks/navigator-plugins/workflow-icn-plugin.jar
  • Case Client: https://Workflow_hostName:SSL_port/ICMClient/ICMClient.jar
  • Case API: https://Workflow_hostName:SSL_port/ICMClient/ICMAPIPlugin.jar
  • Case Administration: https://Workflow_hostName:SSL_port/ICMClient/ICMAdminClientPlugin.jar
  • Case Monitor Dashboard: https://Workflow_hostName:SSL_port/ICMClient/ICMMonitor.jar
Note: The ICMClient context is the default context. If you changed the ICMClient context, you must specify this custom context instead of the default context.
Tip: The Content Engine Applet support plug-in (CPEAppletsPlugin.jar) can be directly loaded from the Content Engine.

Now that Business Automation Workflow is configured with an external IBM Content Navigator, both Process Designer in Case Builder and case forms are disabled. See Enabling the case management features to enable them.

What to do next

If you encounter case management problems after you install or upgrade to IBM Business Automation Workflow, see Troubleshooting system upgrades.

After a successful upgrade, you can promote your case solutions to workflow projects, which you can easily manage in Business Automation Workflow. See Upgrading or creating case solutions.