PMDF Installation Guide
OpenVMS Edition
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1.5 Preliminary Tasks for Upgrades

You can elect to install PMDF on top of an existing version, or you might want to place it in a different directory tree. In either case, configuration information from your old installation is always preserved. If you elect to install PMDF in a different location, the old version is not touched, and it is your responsibility to copy over the necessary configuration files from the old version to the new one.

You should take time to familiarize yourself with how PMDF is currently set up on your system. In particular, you should know where PMDF is located on disk, the name, password, and UIC of any existing PMDF server or user accounts, and the structure of the PMDF service queue or queues, as well as any site-specific details of the previous installation.

Important
If you are upgrading from PMDF V5.1 or earlier, note that as of PMDF V5.2, the PMDF IMAP server supports hierarchical folders; as part of that support, IMAP users can no longer use the slash character, /, in normal folder names. So if you are upgrading from PMDF V5.1 or earlier, IMAP users with existing folder names containing the slash character will need to rename those folders using something other than IMAP, e.g., using VMS MAIL or PMDF MAIL, in order to see the folders from IMAP. You might find the FIND_SLASHES program helpful for spotting (and optionally renaming) such folders. You might even want to run this program before upgrading PMDF, to convert folder names before upgrading PMDF.

FIND_SLASHES is a standalone image (not dependent on PMDF). It is distributed in the PMDF executable directory, PMDF_EXE:, or is also available for FTPing from the PMDF anonymous FTP site, ftp.process.com, (especially in case you want to fetch and run it before upgrading PMDF), located under the [.vms_mail_tools] directory.

When you run the FIND_SLASHES, you need READALL privilege to read the SYSUAF and everyone's mail files. It will scan through the SYSUAF and for each user find all folders in the user's default mail file. If a folder with a slash character, /, in the name is found, it will write a renamefolders.com DCL command file (in your current directory) which contains the MAIL commands necessary to rename the folders for all users. FIND_SLASHES does not execute the renamefolders.com DCL procedure automatically, so you can edit the procedure and customize it before running it.

Important
If you are upgrading from PMDF V4.1 or earlier, then owing to directory structure changes since made to PMDF, you must pay careful attention to the post installation tasks for upgrades detailed in Section 1.7.

1.5.1 Shutting Down PMDF for the Upgrade

If an older version of PMDF is currently up and running on your system, it should be shut down at this time as follows:
  1. Advise your users that PMDF is being upgraded and not to use either the "IN%" facility in VMS MAIL or the send command in MultiNet MM, PMDF MAIL or PMDF Pine until after the upgrade is complete.
  2. Issue the PMDF SHUTDOWN/CLUSTER command to shut down, cluster-wide, any detached PMDF processes; (this command is not necessary if you do not use PMDF's IMAP server, do not use PMDF's POP3 server, do not use the multithreaded TCP SMTP server, or any other services handled by the PMDF Service Dispatcher, and do not have any site-specific utilities based on the PMDF API, but it will not hurt to issue it in any case).
  3. The PMDF queues (the directories under PMDF_ROOT:[queue]) should be empty before attempting an upgrade. If the queues are not empty and cannot be emptied conveniently at this time, you should move the files in the old queue to a safe place before performing the upgrade. Remember to note the subdirectory structure so you can restore the queue files to their appropriate subdirectories after the upgrade is complete. The queue subdirectories and files from PMDF V3.1 or later are compatible with the current version of PMDF. If you elect to upgrade PMDF in place, messages in the queue subdirectories will be delivered by PMDF after the upgrade is completed and running. If, however, you are upgrading from a version of PMDF prior to V3.1, the directory structure of the queue has changed---messages are now stored in channel-specific subdirectories. The command file PMDF_COM:convert_queue.com can be used to move messages in PMDF_ROOT:[queue] to the proper subdirectories. This command file should only be used as a last resort; it is better to empty the queue entirely prior to upgrading if at all possible.
  4. Any periodic PMDF service jobs should be deleted from the default MAIL$BATCH queue and all PMDF queues should be stopped. If you are using the PMDF Process Symbiont, then STOP/QUEUE/NEXT your Process Symbiont execution queues. This will cause the queues, when you restart them after the upgrade, to begin using the new symbiont code which the upgrade procedure will have copied to SYS$COMMON:[sysexe]. The command file SYS$STARTUP:PMDF_STOP_QUEUES.COM can be used to stop the queues.
  5. Incoming PMDF traffic should be blocked during the upgrade. The easiest way to shut down PhoneNet is to allocate the terminal lines used by PhoneNet. If you use one of the various PMDF channels that connect to DECnet, NJE or some form of TCP/IP, you should take steps to prevent activity on these channels. The simplest thing to do is simply shut down all your networks for the duration of the installation. Users of site-developed or third-party PMDF channels should take steps to block activity on these channels as well.

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