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23-Emerald III
BenLoosli23-Emerald III
23-Emerald III
August 30, 2017
Solved

Rehost issues

  • August 30, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 13762 views

I am trying to get a successful rehost or Windchill/PDMLink 10.0 m040 to another set of identical computers for a trial upgrade to Windchill 11.0 m030. I am uisng the Rehost Utility 3.0 m010. After a lot of work and retries, I have finally been able to get Windchill to start, but not without issues.

Let me start by giving a quick over view of my rehost process.

Install Oracle 11g on the test server, run PTC Setup to build the DB

Install Windchill on its test server

OOTB Windchill 10.0 m040 runs fine. I have installed the same modules as on the production serevr, so a Windchill Version report looks idnetical with the exception that I did not install the WinDU/WinRU patches on the test server

Export the Oracle and WindchillDS databases

Copy the vaults using RoboCopy

Copy the cachevaults

Copy the database dumps to the new servers

Copy the db/sql folder over to the new Oracle server

In WindchillDS, create a new base Dn for my company organization

Import the LDIF file into WindchillDS

Put the cachevault file folders back in place

Make sure the main data vaults are in the same location as on the production machine

Copy site.xconf to the new Windchill server

On the oracle server, use SQLPlus to drop user PDM and create a new PDM user

Import the Oracle dump file into the DB

Rehost utility run with setings for clone=InfoEngine, Database, Apache

Rehost utility run with setings for rehost=InfoEngine, Database, Apache

 

Now for the problems.......

Even with all of this, the Rehost utility is leaving traces and pointers to the original Windchill server in the LDAP.

When I open the LDAP with o=ptc and expand Windchill_10.0, configuration, com, <company name>, I see the next node and its children all reference the original server.

I can open each node and change the entries to the new server and save those changes and then I restart eevrything and Windchill will now start.

 

However, there are still problems...

I can only use the wcadmn account to log in.

I can open the Partcipant tab and see my username, but it is not valid for logging in

When looking at a detail page of an item in the system, the version fields has:

???versionInfo.identifier.versinId???

Likewise the State field has: ???state.state???

The action drop down should have a Set State menu option, it is missing.

Detail page of a drawing and click the picture to launch Creo View and I get an Action failed message.

 

Maybe this hsould be an open helpdesk ticket to PTC, and it will be tomorrow, but I wanted to get a feeling from teh community about your experiences with the Rehost Utility and see if anyone has encountered these issues with a simple fix. I know Mike Lockwood has had his frustrations with the utility in the past and has provide me some hints to allow me to get this far.

My complaint with opening a PTC helpdesk call is they want to see my system with a WebEx session. That will not happen as my Windchill system is not even connected to the internet because of data sensitivity. Ant files they want to see, have to be printed and rescanned into my unclassified computer and sent to PTC as PDF files, not original text files.

 

This whole rehost process is just a nightmare and PTC needs to fix their utility and documentation to make it all easier to do. Not all system administrators are computer science majors!

 

Best answer by Syed_PLM

Hello Ben,

I would suggest to add the following line in rehost.properties file under the LDAP section and then execute the rehost utility.

source.local.domain=FQDN of the old hostname

Example:source.local.domain=oldhostname.abc.com

 

hope that helps.

 

regards
~Syed

 

 

 

3 replies

T
23-Emerald IV
TomU23-Emerald IV
23-Emerald IV
August 30, 2017

A couple of problems:

 

In WindchillDS, create a new base Dn for my company organization

Import the LDIF file into WindchillDS

 

You do not need to create a new base Dn.  The LDIF file from your original system needs to completely overwrite anything that was there previously.  You do not want to merge the files.

 

Copy site.xconf to the new Windchill server

I'm not 100% sure on this, but I don't think copying the site.xconf is sufficient.  You need to copy everything from the source system to the target system.  This includes all properties and other configuration files.  I don't think just copying the site.xconf will somehow automatically "fix" all of the other configuration files during the rehost.

 

By the way, if you physically copy the Windchill loadpoint from one system to another, you don't actually have to update the LDAP since it will already be an exact mirror of the source system.

 

What you seem to be doing is mixing the rehost process with the upgrade process.  These are not the same.  With upgrade you install fresh, merge certain pieces, and then run the upgrade manager.  With rehost you copy everything from one system to another and then run the rehost utility to change certain bits of information.  The only real reason to install Windchill (one time) before running a rehost is just to get the shortcuts and services pre-created.  Everything else should be overwritten before running the utility.

    B
    23-Emerald III
    BenLoosli23-Emerald IIIAuthor
    23-Emerald III
    August 31, 2017

    The LDIF import does seem to replace the WindchillDS database, so creating the base dn is a wasted step.

     

    So if I change my procedure to:

    Install Windchill 10 on server

    Delete the loadpoint and all files

    Copy the source WC from loadpoint down to my target system

    Run the rehost utility in rehost mode

     

    Do I need to stop the windchill process on the source machine before doing the copy?

     

     

     

    B
    23-Emerald III
    BenLoosli23-Emerald IIIAuthor
    23-Emerald III
    August 31, 2017

    Did not work!

    Copied the source Windchill folders to the target machine

    Ran the rehost utility with the rehost option

    Didia restart on WindchillDS

    Started Apache

    Did a Windchill Start

    The system did not start. Method server log file shows LDAP error code 53 - Rejecting the requested operation becasue the connection has not been authenticated; remaining name 'cn=configuration, cn=Windchill_10.0, o=ptc'

     

    I did look in the LDAP and the nodes is still looking for my source computer, not the target.

    I have rebooted the serevr and will see what happens if I manually rename all of those service points to the target server.

     

     

    M
    22-Sapphire I
    MikeLockwood22-Sapphire I
    22-Sapphire I
    August 31, 2017

    Interesting observing this...

     

    My offer still stands: I'll buy anyone in PTC management a lobster dinner w/all the trimmings if any of them can actually successfully execute a rehost process using PTC documentation. 

     

    Can be the simplest possible Windchill system:

    - Oracle and Windchill on the same host

    - Only PDMLink installed

    - Total data consists of one document

    - Total LDAP consists of one user

    - No replication, no clustering, no HTTPS, no active directoryh integration, no Solr, no customizations, no other complexity

     

    It's just impossible to dig out of the documentation what you are actually supposed to do.

    B
    23-Emerald III
    BenLoosli23-Emerald IIIAuthor
    23-Emerald III
    September 12, 2017

    Mike,

     

    I got the rehost to finnally work. See the comments above where PTC has left out a critical line from their base rehost.properties file. Once I added that comment, the rehost went through fine.

     

    But......

     

    I still agree with you that there is a lot of digging and writing of a good process flow to get teh rehost utility to work smoothly.

     

      S
      Syed_PLM16-Pearl
      16-Pearl
      September 13, 2017

      Hello Ben,

       

      The line needs to be added as it was a bug, which has been fixed for the latest version of the rehost utility. As regards to the documentation, not sure if you had a chance to go through the latest guide. 

       

      Our team within PTC as end user completely relies on the rehost utility using the rename scenario for a cloud based Windows and Linux environment. R&D has done lot of improvements in the newer releases. If you still feel the guide lacks the details, I would request to put up a list of what is missing and have it translated as product idea.

       

      Hope that helps.

       

      regards
      ~Syed

      B
      23-Emerald III
      BenLoosli23-Emerald IIIAuthor
      23-Emerald III
      September 14, 2017

      Well, it looks like that solution has only partially correct. It got me through the rehost process and I can login to the rehosted system, but I do not have file vaults nor can I administer them from the browser.

      I get this message when I try to open File Administration:

      wt.util.WTRemoteException: Unable to invoke remote method: nested exception is:

               wt.util.WTRemoteException: Unable to locate method server, nested exception is:

               wt.util.WTRemoteException: Unable to locate method server, nested exception is: 

               wt.util.WTRemoteException: Unable to get server, nested exception is: 

               java.security.AccessControlException: access denied ("java.net.SocketPermission" "192.168.xx.xx:5002" "connect, resolve")

      Nested exception is: wt.util.WTRemoteException: Unable to invoke remote method

      Nested exception is: wt.util.WTRemoteException: Unable to locate method server

      Nested exception is: wt.util.WTRemoteException: Unable to locate method server

      Nested exception is: wt.util.WTRemoteException: Unable to get server

      Nested exception is:  java.security.AccessControlException: access denied ("java.net.SocketPermission" "192.168.xx.xx:5002" "connect, resolve")

       

      R
      RandyJones20-Turquoise
      20-Turquoise
      September 15, 2017

      Have you added your new Windchill server to the "Exception Site List" in the "Security" tab from the Java Control Panel on your local client?security.ong.PNG

      B
      23-Emerald III
      BenLoosli23-Emerald IIIAuthor
      23-Emerald III
      September 18, 2017

      My server is listed as an exception.

      Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement