Websphere service fixpack upgrade

Name	Points
Greg Moeller	4184
David Williams	3349
Kat V	2984
Woozy	1973
Jimmy Chiu	1883
Kwane McNeal	1437
Ragu Raghavan	1377
Roger French	1315
mark.cook	1244
Chesca	1042

Joel

Basic Member

Posts: 12

8/10/2011 6:33 PM

We are being told by our info sec group that we need to upggrade WAS on our Lawson Application server and the LBI server to a newer fixpack than 7.0.0.9. We picked 7.0.0.13 after talking with the Lawson consultant that helped build our system. We've upgraded dev without issues but our users are concerned with the amount of testing this upgrade may require.

Has anyone gone through this or a similar fixpack upgrade? What level of testing did you do? Our users are seeking testing recommendations and advice on common business practices.

FYI We are on LSF 9.0.1.6 and Apps 9.0.1.5. I'm trying to avoid having them do a full regression test for what I think is a pretty minor change as we have a number of company projects that are keeping everyone busy.

EricS

Veteran Member

Posts: 80

8/10/2011 6:50 PM

I think that may be one of the toughest calls in Lawson right now. If you don't do a full regression test and something is wrong, you could be in deep trouble when you go live. It comes down, to me at any rate, to explaining what is at stake to your user community and let THEM make the decision. For us pointy heads the decision is simple. You changed the underpinning of your entire user interface. Test everything. Use the opportunity to throw in any LSF or App changes you can think of. I do get that there's a lot going on the user group, but if they want to minimize testing senior management needs to understand that it's THEIR call. When they come screaming you don't even have to say "I told you so"

Jimmy Chiu

Veteran Member

Posts: 641

New Poster

8/11/2011 11:38 AM

My dev server has been running on FP17 on WAS7 (It was on FP13 that you are planning to upgrade to). I have not found one problem that's caused by FP17.

ENV: 9.0.1.8
APP: 9.0.1.6

I don't ask for any user testing when applying FP(s). FP does not change any program source code. In worst case scenario, I would back out of the FP which I never needed to.

http://publib.boulder.ibm...updi_unsilfixpk.html

Greg Moeller

Veteran Member

Posts: 1498

MVP

New Poster

Engaged Reader

Avid Reader

8/11/2011 12:20 PM

I'd have to agree with Jimmy... FP installation does nothing to Lawson source code, so I've never asked for user testing when installing/upgrading just that.

EricS

Veteran Member

Posts: 80

8/11/2011 12:40 PM

You folks must have more flexible auditors (or more tech experienced auditors) than I do. They go bonkers if we make a change to a Finance/HR system with out testing.

Greg Moeller

Veteran Member

Posts: 1498

MVP

New Poster

Engaged Reader

Avid Reader

8/11/2011 3:57 PM

But installing/applying a WebSphere FP is not really changing your Finance/HR system, it's just changing the code that your Finance/HR system runs on. Which is a change, yes, but not to the functionality or the integrity of your Finance/HR system.

Jimmy Chiu

Veteran Member

Posts: 641

New Poster

8/12/2011 3:30 PM

I put websphere fixpack in the same category as:

Windows OS patch
JDK patch
PERL patch
NetExpress Patch
TaxFactory Bulletin Patch/Cyclic Patch that does not require Lawson's CTP/PT
etc..

So if the patch/fixpack does not change the source code/cobol programs, then I would skip asking users to test. it does not mean I won't do some basic tests

IE: I would run a full smoketest, do some transactions in Lawson in different forms after a websphere FP upgrade etc.

Joel

Basic Member

Posts: 12

8/23/2011 1:34 PM

Thanks for eveyones responses. It will be a big help to give my users a couple different industry perspectives. I have a feeling that we'll pick a middle option of smoke testing and some light user testing.