Upgrading OpenACS

Upgrading 4.5 to 4.6.x

The required platform for OpenACS 4.6 is the same as 4.5, with the exception of OpenFTS. OpenACS 4.6 and later require OpenFTS 0.3.2 for full text search on PostGreSQL. If you have OpenFTS 0.2, you'll need to upgrade.

  1. Make a Backup. Back up the database and file system (see the section called “Manual backup and recovery”).

  2. OPTIONAL: Upgrade OpenFTS. the section called “Upgrading OpenFTS from 0.2 to 0.3.2”

  3. Stop the server

    [root root]# svc -d /service/service0
  4. Upgrade the file system. the section called “Upgrading the OpenACS files”

  5. Start the server

    [root root]# svc -u /service/service0
  6. Use APM to upgrade the database. 

    1. Browse to the package manager, http://yourserver/acs-admin/apm.

    2. Click Install packages.

    3. Select the packages you want to install. This should be everything that says upgrade, plus any new packages you want. It's safest to upgrade the kernel by itself, and then come back and upgrade the rest of the desired packages in a second pass.

    4. On the next screen, click Install Packages

    5. When prompted, restart the server:

      [root root]# restart-aolserver service0
    6. Wait a minute, then browse to the package manager, http://yourserver/acs-admin/apm.

    7. Check that the kernel upgrade worked by clicking All and making sure that acs-kernel version is 5.0.0rc1.

  7. Rollback. If anything goes wrong, roll back to the backup snapshot.

Upgrading OpenACS 4.6.3 to 5.0

  • Oracle. Not yet documented. It should be possible to upgrade via the APM just as when upgrading to 4.6.3.

  • PostGreSQL.  You must use PostGreSQL 7.3.x or newer, or Oracle, to upgrade OpenACS beyond 4.6.3. (OpenACS 5.0 requires PostGreSQL 7.3; OpenACS versions prior to 4.6.3 do not support PostGreSQL 7.3; only OpenACS 4.6.3 supports both 7.2 and 7.3. Upgrade PostGreSQL to 7.3)

    1. Back up the database and file system.

    2. Upgrade the kernel manually:

      [root root]# su - service0
      [service0 aolserver]$ cd /var/lib/aolserver/ service0/packages/acs-kernel/sql/postgresql/upgrade

      Manually execute each of the upgrade scripts in sequence, either from within psql or from the command line with commands such as psql -f upgrade-4.6.3-4.6.4.sql service0. Run the scripts in this order (order is tentative, not verified):

      psql -f upgrade-4.6.3-4.6.4.sql service0
      psql -f upgrade-4.6.4-4.6.5.sql service0
      psql -f upgrade-4.6.5-4.6.6.sql service0
      psql -f upgrade-4.7d-4.7.2d.sql service0
      psql -f upgrade-4.7.2d-5.0d.sql service0
      psql -f upgrade-5.0d-5.0d2.sql service0
      psql -f upgrade-5.0d2-5.0d3.sql service0
      psql -f upgrade-5.0d6-5.0d7.sql service0
      psql -f upgrade-5.0d7-5.0d9.sql service0
      psql -f upgrade-5.0d11-5.0d12.sql service0
      psql -f upgrade-5.0.0a4-5.0.0a5.sql service0
      psql -f upgrade-5.0.0b1-5.0.0b2.sql service0
      psql -f upgrade-5.0.0b2-5.0.0b3.sql service0
      psql -f upgrade-5.0.0b3-5.0.0b4.sql service0
    3. Load acs-authentication data model.

      psql -f /var/lib/aolserver/service0/openacs-5/packages/acs-authentication/sql/postgresql/acs-authentication-create.sql service0
    4. Load acs-lang data model.

      psql -f /var/lib/aolserver/service0/packages/acs-lang/sql/postgresql/acs-lang-create.sql service0
    5. Create a file which will be executed on startup which takes care of a few issues with authentication and internationalization: create service0/tcl/zzz-postload.tcl containing:

      if {![apm_package_installed_p acs-lang]} {
      apm_package_install -enable -mount_path acs-lang [acs_root_dir]/packages/acs-lang/acs-lang.info
      lang::catalog::import -locales [list "en_US"]
      }
      
      if {![apm_package_installed_p acs-authentication]} {
      apm_package_install -enable [acs_root_dir]/packages/acs-authentication/acs-authentication.info
      apm_parameter_register "UsePasswordWidgetForUsername" \
      "Should we hide what the user types in the username
      field, the way we do with the password field? Set
      this to 1 if you are using sensitive information
      such as social security number for username." \
      acs-kernel 0 number \
      security 1 1
      parameter::set_value -package_id [ad_acs_kernel_id] -parameter UsePasswordWidgetForUsername -value 0
      }
    6. If you can login, visit /acs-admin/apm and upgrade acs-kernel and acs-service-contract and uncheck the data model scripts. Restart. If everything is still working, make another backup of the database.

    7. Upgrade other packages via the APM

    See also this forum post: Forum OpenACS Development: 4.6.3 upgrade to 5-HEAD: final results.

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