Re: Skipping lots of releases - Was: Looking at Power 7

On 1/21/11 2:21 PM, DrFranken wrote:

<<SNIP>>

As Pete says this process seems odd but the sequence is correct and
the net of it is the most effective method for 'far back' upgrades.

<<SNIP Pete's message noting v5r3 to 7.1 upgrade example>>

Mark Murphy on Friday, January 21, 2011 3:26 PM wrote:

So Pete, other than talking to ISV's. Any tips for going from v4r3
to 7.1. From a model 600 to a model 720?

<<SNIP>>

The upgrade method described for restoring from a "far back" release is only supported for install over an N-2 release. The IBM conversion routines have a design specification only to support coming from N-2, N-1, or N-0, so any object provided as part of the OS, an option, or an LPP that is restored from a release level from prior to N-2 may not get converted properly to the level of the installed release, for lack of any conversion capability from the older release. An attempt to effect an install to greater than N+2 may cause the install of an option to fail, or worse, the effects to be unpredictable. Typically such objects are only those that contain "user data", and most would reside in QUSRSYS.

An upgrade from v4r3 should not include restoring any of the IBM product\options nor especially any of the quasi-user quasi-system libraries such as QUSRSYS, QSYS2, and QGPL [or any others], if the installed release is more than N+2. In such a scenario skipping multiple releases, various "user data" should be exported and then re-imported; e.g. DSPDIRE and ADDDIRE. Installing IBM i 7.1 over restored v4r3 objects for which an attempt will be made by that install to "upgrade" any of those v4r3 objects [to the 7.1 equivalent object to contain the user data, again, within an install process] is not even close to being supported, nor likely to function well.

Regards, Chuck