Snapshot installation

When you install a process application snapshot to a process server, the library items for that snapshot (including toolkit snapshots) are copied from the repository to the selected process server if they do not already exist on the process server. The process server can be connected or offline. Depending on your needs and whether the process server is connected or offline, you can use the Process Center console or wsadmin commands to install the snapshot.

Important:

Make sure the version of the Process Center server is equal to or lower than the version of the connected or offline process server before you install to the process server.
If the snapshot that you want to import was created in IBM® BPM V8.5.5 or V8.5.6, contains Basic Case Management features, and your IBM BPM V8.6.0 was a new installation, you do not have Basic Case Management features, and you must import the TWX file that contains Basic Case Management content into a V8.6.0 Process Center to update the case types to the V8.6.0 model and remove the document types. But if your IBM BPM V8.5.5 or V8.5.6 had Basic Case Management and was upgraded to V8.6.0, your deployment environment still has Basic Case Management, and you can import snapshots that contain Basic Case Management features.

If you plan to install a process application snapshot that contains Integration Designer artifacts or an IBM Business Monitor model, the user or group to which you belong must be assigned to the Configurator, Operator and Deployer administrative security role. If you are not currently assigned to all of these roles, click Users and Groups in the WebSphere administrative console to modify the user or group roles. For more information, see Administrative security roles. In addition, if the snapshot contains BPEL process and human task applications, you can use the serviceDeploy command or the wsadmin tool to deploy the EAR file that contains the applications. For more information, see Deploying BPEL process and human task applications.

Connected process servers

You can install snapshots of process applications to connected process servers in your environment using either the Process Center console or the BPMInstall command. Ordinarily, you have connections to one or more servers in your environment, as shown in the following figure.

This image shows how the process center connects to multiple process servers in your development environment

Offline process servers

You can also install process application snapshots to an offline server that is running but is not connected to Process Center (for example, if the process server is behind a firewall). In this situation, use the wsadmin commands to create an installation package for a particular snapshot on the Process Center server, transfer the package to the offline process server, and then run the wsadmin command to install the package. Always install snapshots to an offline process server from the same Process Center.

Custom and generic installation packages

When you install snapshots for process applications, you can use generic installation packages or custom installation packages. Custom installation packages include migration information for a specific server while generic installation packages omit this information. Instead, you provide the migration instructions separately during the snapshot installation if there is a need to migrate running process instances from existing snapshots to the snapshot you are installing. With generic installation packages, you can use the exact same installation package to install a snapshot onto multiple process servers, even if the process servers are not exactly the same. Additionally, if you are scripting the installation, you can use the same script on the Process Center server to create and extract the installation package. On each process server, you can customize the script that installs the snapshot for that particular server. The following set of diagrams shows the difference between using a generic installation package and using multiple custom installation packages to install a snapshot.

Generic installation packages	Custom installation packages

With custom installation packages, you can continue to use scripts and installation services created for IBM Business Process Manager version 8.5.5.0 or earlier.