Planning and preparing for Content Cortex updates

Updates to Content Cortex components are delivered as interim fixes.

Three distinct procedures exist to deploy the Content Platform Engine application into the application server, installation, upgrade, and update. Installation and upgrade both involve the deployment of a new major release version.

An update, however, refers to deploying an interim or test fix on top of an existing Content Platform Engine deployment. For example, moving from Content Platform Engine V5.5.12.0 to CPE 5.5.12.0-P8CPE-IF002 is defined as an update.

Updates provide fixes and improvements to an installed release, while maintaining the level of the release. Updates are usually cumulative, so you can install the latest available update to obtain all fixes going back to the original release level.

Even if you are installing for the first time, check Fix Central External link opens a new window or tab to see what updates are available and apply them to your new installation. Applying updates immediately after installation ensures that your installation and subsequent deployment has all the most recent fixes and improvements that are available.

In a system with multiple Content Platform Engine nodes and a load balancer directing web service based application traffic to these nodes, the individual Content Platform Engine nodes can be updated one at a time.

If you have peripheral components such as Content Federation Services or Centra (deprecated), you can achieve a "zero downtime" deployment when you follow these steps:
  • Update the peripheral components before you update Content Search Services and Content Platform Engine.
  • Update one node at a time or use WebSphere® Application Edition Management (AEM).
Content Platform Engine also supports two features that can make deploying updates less disruptive for your enterprise:
  • Patching one node at a time, if your configuration permits.
  • Using WebSphere Application Edition Management (AEM)

Using WebSphere Application Edition Management (AEM) for Content Platform Engine updates

WebSphere Application Edition Management allows multiple editions of the Content Platform Engine application to be deployed and staged on each server in the Content Platform Engine cluster. While the current Content Platform Engine edition is still running, the new Content Platform Engine edition, for example, the new Content Platform Engine edition with the latest update installed, can be rolled out to minimize service loss and interruptions to end users. The WebSphere Application Edition Management functionality is used to manage the application rollout. This capability provides a "zero downtime" update for Content Platform Engine. Note that the previous edition can be brought back if necessary if an issue is encountered with the new update.

Use the following high-level steps to use Content Platform Engine with Application Edition Management. The steps assume that Content Platform Engine is deployed in a WebSphere Application Server cluster. If there are multiple Content Platform Engine clusters, then follow the instruction for each Content Platform Engine cluster.
  1. Use the instructions in the readme for the interim fix to install the fix on your Content Platform Engine server.
  2. In the Completing Configuration Manager tasks section, make the following updates for the Deploy Application task:
    • For Deployment type, choose Cluster.
    • For the WAS Application Edition Management field, enter a name for this new edition, for example, 2.0, or the name of the specific iFix.
    • Save and run the Deploy Application task.

      If you are using Application Edition Management to create a new edition with every update, you must use the Deploy Application task in Configuration Manager.

      When the deployment completes, the edition you specified for the update displays in your edition management list in the WebSphere Application Server administrative console.

      If you do not update the WAS Application Edition Management field, and the default value remains default, the Configuration Manager updates the base or current edition in WebSphere Application Server.

  3. Use the Edition Control Center in the WebSphere Application Server administrative console to roll out the new edition. For more information, see the following WebSphere Application Server information: Activating an edition External link opens a new window or tab.
  4. Follow the instructions in the readme to install the Content Platform Engine client for your client application.
    Note: Some operations from the client application, like IBM® Content Navigator, might fail during the rollout of the new edition to each of the Content Platform Engine node in the cluster. If the operations are retried and the requests are sent to the Content Platform Engine node that has the new edition rolled out, then the operations complete successfully. For client applications, including custom applications, that use the corbaloc URI without the resolve initial references setting, for example, "corbaloc:rir:", the user operations can succeed if the first Content Platform Engine node in the comma-separated URI has been rolled out with the new edition.

See Deploying and managing application editions with Intelligent Management External link opens a new window or tab for more details on using Application Edition Management.