Stepping through tasks that optimize upgrades of Corticon Studios and Servers ensures that your files and assets are synchronized with the updated product. These tasks are a checklist of good practices.

If your upgrade was a minimal step forward, such as a patch (such as 5.6.0.11 > 5.6.0.12), you should read the patch notes to see if there are tasks to consider. For a Service Pack (such as 5.7.0 > 5.7.1), it is more likely that there are changes in the product that you should handle, even though they might not present problems. For a minor release -- especially a big step (such as 5.5.2 > 6.2.0) -- every one of these tasks should be reviewed, considered, and performed.

IMPORTANT: Corticon Studio and Corticon Server versions must be consistent throughout your infrastructure.

Note: Do not copy a .war or .ear file from an older version's installation to a new one.

In the order of action:

ON STUDIO MACHINES

ON SERVER MACHINES

ON STUDIO MACHINES

Install Studios

See How to install Corticon Studio

Update the Studio's brms.properties

Compare the brms.properties files that are currently in use. Any property adjustments you made in the past, if still valid, should be copied into the newer installation. While a minor release installs into a separate location, a service pack overlays an existing installation and does not touch an existing brms.properties .

On .NET servers, you can copy the brms.properties file from the Corticon server root, paste it adjacent to the axis.war in the IIS location, and thereafter apply updates to it.

Update eclipse.ini and Java

Some Studio installations benefit from tweaking the eclipse.ini, often for Studio Increase Corticon Studio memory allocation If you are pointing to your preferred Java, it might not be optimal.

Update the Studio license file

A major release will likely require a new license file while minor releases typically do not. When you are provided a license for Corticon Studio and Server, you receive a JAR file, CcLicense.jar. Save the file on the target machine. To avoid performance issues, Progress strongly recommends that you not put your Studio license on a network drive, as this may cause network latency issues in Studio due to the frequent check of this license file when rule assets are edited. In this example, the license file that both Studio and Server will use is placed at C:\licenses.
To update a Studio license:
  1. Select the menu command Window > Preferences.
  2. Expand the Progress Corticon group. In the License File entry area, enter or browse to the location of the license JAR:
    Click Apply, and then click OK.

Upgrade assets

In Studio, be sure to upgrade all project assets. While you could do this file by file or project by project, it is a good idea to advance all the assets you might work with in the current release. Then, it is a good practice to run any Ruletest or unit tests to see that the behaviors are as expected.

Note: If you are using a workspace that was used in a previous installation, you might also need to refresh the workspace's links to Welcome screen topics. In Studio, click the Home button on the upper right to refresh the Welcome links.

Update desktop shortcut

Make changes to your desktop shortcut if you want your new Studio version to run in a different language.

Repackage Decision Services and their Datasource Configuration file

Use any of the several techniques in Studio to package projects as Decision Services, and then stage them for deployment on the new server installations together with a freshly generated Datasource Configuration file.

ON SERVER MACHINES

Undeploy old Decision Services

Undeploy every EDS on the target servers.

Install new Corticon Server and Web Console software

If you are using load balancers to carry the load during upgrade, take one of its peers offline, and stop it. Run the installers, and then start the new Server.

Note: Other application servers - The .war files can be downloaded in the PROGRESS_CORTICON_6.3.x_SERVER.zip package. The axis.war or corticon.war is deployed to the Application Server’s typical deployment directory. For example:
  • For downloaded Tomcat: [TOMCAT_HOME]\webapps
  • For the default Tomcat in the Corticon installer: [CORTICON_HOME]\Server\tomcat\webapps.
Refer to the Progress Software web page Corticon Supported Platforms Matrix to review the currently supported UNIX/Linux platforms and brands of application servers. Also see the Corticon KnowledgeBase entry Corticon Server WAR installation for different Application Servers for detailed instructions on configuring Corticon Server on all supported platforms.

Update Server licenses

The Server requires you to copy the CcLicense.jar file, and then paste it to replace the existing file, as follows:

  • Java server license:
    • [CORTICON_HOME]\Server\lib\The license used for Server tasks and operations.
    • [CORTICON_HOME]\Server\tomcat\webapps\axis\WEB-INF\libThe license deployed to the runtime server. If you are managing a default Java server from the Web Console, you can perform this task through its Edit server groups and servers
    • When your installation is from the .war file for deployment onto other supported platforms and application servers, place the license file adjacent to the Corticon JARs.
  • .NET server license :
    Note: You must have a license issued to you that enables .NET server to work with Corticon. See Knowledge Base article: Corticon 6 licensing
    • [CORTICON_HOME]\Server .NET\ThirdParty\lib\The license propagated to the IIS location by the install utility.
    • The IIS location, typically: C:\inetpub\wwwroot\axis\lib\The license at the IIS location. If you are managing a .NET server from the Web Console, you can perform this task through its Edit server groups and servers

Update the Server's brms.properties

As with Studio, compare and update the brms.properties files on Java and .NET servers with consideration that many properties are effective only on servers.

Clear browser caches that use the Web Console

For administrators that use the Web Console, have them flush their browser caches.

For .NET servers:

  • Install to the IIS - Run install.bat to refresh the IIS server's libraries and samples. Answer Y to all the overwrite choices. Then restart the IIS server.
Note: If the IIS server does not restart, the classic application pool stops running, and no logs are generated, it is likely that the user performing the upgrade did not have adequate write permissions in related folders. For more information, see the Knowledge Base entry Corticon Server for .NET does not start.

Deploy the fresh Decision Services

Deploy the newly created Decision Services to the new server. When using CDDs, be aware that you might have two types of data access configuration files. The legacy format used a .properties file while new format is a datasources.xml file.
  • Where you have a legacy .properties file with EDC, use CDD Property : 
    PROPERTY_DATABASE_ACCESS_PROPERTIES_PATH
  • Where you are have a new style .xml file, use CDD Property : 
    PROPERTY_DATASOURCE_CONFIG_FILE_PATH

Stop load balancers and start the new server

Use Web Console (or other techniques) to deploy the upgraded EDS files and license to the new Server. Bring the other load balancers down, and then expose the upgraded server to carry the load. Uninstall old Servers, and then upgrade and provision to be peers.