Preparing to upgrade a geodatabase in DB2

When you upgrade any enterprise system, including a geodatabase, plan ahead. Test the new version on a development or test server to ensure that it works with all your client applications.

When you have determined that the new system works the way you expected, schedule the upgrade; be sure the necessary staff are available to perform the upgrade and that they have the permissions necessary to complete their assigned tasks.

Be aware of the following:

• Upgrades from beta versions of the software are not supported.
• You can upgrade directly from a 9.3.x or 10 geodatabase to a 10.1 geodatabase if your database is at a supported release.
• If your geodatabase is at release 9.2 or earlier, you must first upgrade to a supported geodatabase release then upgrade to 10.1.
• Once a geodatabase has been upgraded, previous versions of ArcGIS may not be able to connect since some older versions of ArcGIS cannot read newer versions of the geodatabase. Releases prior to ArcGIS 10 will not be able to connect to a 10.1 geodatabase. ArcGIS 10 clients will be able to connect to the 10.1 geodatabase.
• There is no formal mechanism to downgrade a geodatabase to a previous version. If after upgrading to a newer version you want to move back to an older version of the geodatabase, you must restore the old database from backup.

You must also complete the following steps before you upgrade your geodatabase in DB2:

Steps:

1. Check the ArcGIS Resource Center to be sure that your database, operating system, and other components meet at least the minimum system requirements.

   Your database must be at a supported release and your hardware must meet at least the minimum system requirements before you upgrade your geodatabase.

2. Create a backup of the database.

   If you are upgrading a geodatabase in DB2 on z/OS, back up all databases that participate in the geodatabase.

3. If you use an ArcSDE service for connections and have customized any of the files in the etc directory of SDEHOME, make a copy of these files.
4. The DB2 parameter DB2_SNAPSHOT_NOAUTH has been deprecated. The sde user needs access to the DB2 Snapshot API to be able to clean out unneeded ArcSDE processes from the PROCESS_INFORMATION system table. Therefore, to give the sde user access to the DB2 Snapshot API, you must add the sde user to an operating system group that has SYSMON authority.

   For example, if you define the group sdegroup, which contains the sde user, you can set the value of the SYSMON_GROUP instance parameter to the value sdegroup using the following commands:

   UPDATE DBM CFG USING SYSMON_GROUP sdegroup
   db2stop
   db2start
   

   Caution:

   If you do not grant this authority, upgrading will fail.

5. If your database administrator has revoked SELECT privileges on the SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 catalog view, he or she may need to either regrant the privilege to PUBLIC or grant it to all users who connect to the geodatabase in DB2. This privilege is necessary for SQL queries to the database.

   If users do not have SELECT privileges on this catalog view, they see an error similar to the following when they try to connect:

   SQL0551N  "ANYA" does not have the privilege to perform operation "SELECT" on object "SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1".  SQLSTATE=42501

   To grant SELECT privileges on this view to PUBLIC, issue the following command while logged in as a user with DBADM permission:

   GRANT SELECT 
   ON SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 
   TO PUBLIC;
   

6. Grant the geodatabase administrator (sde) DBADM authority in the database. This is required to upgrade a geodatabase.
7. Remove any custom functionality you may have added to the ArcSDE geodatabase system tables outside ArcGIS such as triggers or additional indexes.

   The upgrade procedure cannot take into account customizations you make to the system tables. If such customizations prevent the alteration of a system table's schema, the upgrade will fail.

8. If you are upgrading from a 9.3.x geodatabase in DB2 on z/OS, there are three functions you should drop. For more information, see Cleaning up functions.
9. For IBM AIX users who use an ArcSDE service only: If you are installing on AIX, it is recommended that you run slibclean before upgrading or installing ArcSDE to clear inactive libraries from memory. Stop your current ArcSDE service and run slibclean as the root user. See your AIX system administrator documentation for more information on the slibclean command.
10. At this point, you might want to create a second backup of the database to preserve the changes you made in the preceding steps.
11. Install the current release of an ArcGIS client (ArcGIS for Desktop Standard or Advanced, ArcGIS Engine with the Geodatabase Update extension, or ArcGIS for Server Enterprise Standard or Advanced) on a computer that can directly connect to the geodatabase to perform the upgrade.
12. Make sure that the DB2 Runtime Client is installed and configured on the computer where the ArcGIS client you are using to upgrade is installed.

    This is required because you must connect directly to DB2 from ArcGIS to upgrade the geodatabase. If you are connecting from a 32-bit ArcGIS client, such as ArcGIS for Desktop or ArcGIS Engine, you must install a 32-bit DB2 client. If you are connecting from a 64-bit ArcGIS client, such as ArcGIS for Server, you must install a 64-bit DB2 client.

13. Make sure there are no users connected to the geodatabase you are upgrading.

    You can see a list of the users who are currently connected to your geodatabase by opening the Connected Users tab of the Geodatabase Administration dialog box in ArcGIS for Desktop.

14. If you are using an ArcSDE service, do the following:
    1. Stop the ArcSDE service using the sdemon –o shutdown command. Or if the service is running on a Windows server, you can stop the service from the Windows Services interface instead of using the sdemon command.
    2. If you are upgrading to a new, full release of the ArcSDE application server (such as from 9.3.1 or 10 to 10.1), uninstall the old release of ArcSDE. On Windows, delete the old service when prompted to do so.
       Note:

       If you are applying a service pack or patch, do not perform this step.

    3. Obtain the ArcSDE Application Server installation from the Esri Customer Care portal.

The geodatabase is now ready to be upgraded. You can use the Upgrade Geodatabase tool in ArcGIS for Desktop or a Python script run on the ArcGIS client computer.

If you use an ArcSDE service for connections, install the ArcSDE application server after you upgrade your geodatabase.