SnTT: Rolling Back Domino Versions on AIX08/13/2009 03:33:10 PM
The installation of Domino on AIX is fairly
well documented, and one place to learn is from a posting
by Keith Brooks. Before installing
the new version of Domino, you will want to back up the existing install.
An easy method is to use the tar
command for this purpose. However,
you will want to make sure that you have enough disk space for this file,
probably about 600MB (more or less). To create the tar file, at a command
prompt, type: tar -cfv <directory path of the Domino program files> <directory path of the tar file> * <===Note: the "splat" is part of the command
The v switch puts the command in verbose mode, so that you can see the files being added to the tar file.
Now, install the new version of Domino, following the steps outlined in, for example, Keith's post. Start your server, do your testing to confirm that mail is routing and any Domino add-ins are functioning properly. However, should you install, for example, 64-bit Domino 8.5 on AIX and find that some add-in does not work, you may be required to rollback to your previous version.
[Blog intermission - this is where you realize that operating systems like OS/400, AIX, Linux, and Solaris are really, really good].
Stop the Domino server. The Domino program files, for example, might be found in /opt/lotus/domino. Delete the domino folder. Change your directory to the location of the tar file that you created before you performed the upgrade. In that directory, type:
tar -xvf <tar file name> <directory for the Domino program files>
This command might look like this:
tar -xvf domino801.tar /opt/lotus
Once you have extracted the files from the tar, start the Domino server. You will see that you are now running the previous version. At this point, check the core Domino files, admin4, names, and events for the template versions. You may have to replace the design of those files to use the older version's templates.
Please note: the tar commands and Domino file structure may not be exact, but should provide enough information to assist you.
Technorati tag: Show-n-Tell Thursday SnTT
Comment posted by Patrick Picard08/13/2009 05:51:29 PM
This saved my ass a few times :)
Gotta love nix systems for that!
Comment posted by Gregg Eldred08/13/2009 08:48:00 PM
Homepage: http://www.ns-tech.com/blog/geldred.nsf
@Patrick - thanks for the comment. I did this post as there is plenty of resources on how to install Domino on AIX but very few (or no) resources on how to roll back to a previous version. Plus, I now have it documented, in case I need it again. 
Comment posted by Charles Robinson08/14/2009 09:26:14 AM
Homepage: http://www.cubert.net
The same process works for Linux, by the way. If you're running partitioned servers you want to make sure you also get /opt/lotus/.install.dat . That's where the partition information is stored, and if I recall correctly it is updated with version information after an upgrade.
Comment posted by Keith Brooks08/14/2009 09:47:02 AM
Homepage: http://www.vanessabrooks.com
Excellent post, and thanks for the reference. i in fact rarely found any good documentation for installation.
But this is something I hadn't thought of(I usually just back everything up to a directory, I know lazy of me).
Will add this link/info to my existing post or write a new one.
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