"If an enemy exists not, obstructed you cannot be" Yoda The GWIA has long been a sore point for GroupWise Administrators when it comes to upgrading. It's not that it's a difficult component to upgrade, its just got so much going on that changes to it sometimes show up in the end users face. And no Administrator likes such things.

A quick recall from part 1, 2, 3 and 4. We upgraded our ConsoleOne, extended our eDirectory Tree schema, and upgraded our domains -Primary first, and any/all secondary domains then we upgraded post offices. Finally we upgraded WebAccess. This follows our upgrade process and leads us to the next logical step -upgrading GWIA. Please review the upgrade process below then we will get to it.

Upgrade Process

Here is the Best Practice process for upgrading GroupWise, in general. Here is my process outline for upgrading. Note those items in BOLD are what is covered in this article.

1. Install new ConsoleOne 1.3.6H

• Install the GroupWise 8 Snapins into ConsoleOne 1.3.6H

• Update eDirectory Schema.

• Create a new GroupWise 8 SDD

• Upgrade the Primary Domain

• Upgrade the Post Office(s) Secondary Domain(s)

• Upgrade the Post Office(s)

• Upgrade the WebAccess Gateways Domain(s), if you have them.

• Upgrade the WebAccess Gateway (s) -Agent and Application (Webserver)

• Upgrade the GWIA Gateway Domain(s), if you have them.

• Upgrade the GWIA Gateway(s)

• Upgrade the GroupWise Client

Upgrade GWIA

GWIA upgrade is a very easy process whether it's using the Wizard or doing it manually. As you may recall in older versions of GroupWise, the INSTALL.EXE was located in SDD| INTERNET| GWIA. Well no more. Now if you want to upgrade the GWIA using the Wizard, you must do so from the SDD| SETUP.EXE -the main Wizard.

While using the Wizard has a nice face to it, you can speed the upgrade of GWIA using the manual process. Therefore, I will do both a Wizard Upgrade and a manual, then you can choose. Before we start, let me mention one file that I would backup just to be safe. In the GWIA domain directory, under WPGATE| GWIA| is the GWAC.DB file. This file has all of the Access Control settings as well as a few other configured settings. Backing this up is more of a nicety then a necessity. If you have GWIA running under its own domain, you must upgrade the domain before you can upgrade GWIA, so make sure that is done. Lastly, if you are running GWIA on the same box as other GroupWise components, you will want to unload those components before you run the upgrade. Alright here we go.

Here is the GWIA Upgrade process using the Wizard:

1. Run: GroupWise Software| Setup.exe

• Select: Install GroupWise System

• Select: Yes, on the License

• Select: Standard Install at the Install Type screen. Next

• Select: Install Individual Components

• De-Select: GroupWise Administration and GroupWise Agents

• Select: GroupWise Internet Agent and Next

• Select: NetWare and Next

• Choose: A path for the Agent NLM files to be installed. I like to create a directory like: GW8 which tells me exactly what version I am running. Example: sys:\system\GW8

• Select: Install the Software files, but do not configure the Internet Agent. THIS is the key to upgrading your existing GWIA versus installing a new GWIA.

• Select: Next

• Review: Summary. This screen presents all the options you have selected thus far. Notice "Install Only" is Yes. Also notice the Edit Settings button. This is new to GroupWise 8. You can go through and edit the settings at the Summary screen. A great feature.

• Select: Install. The Installation Wizard will take off, copying files to the NLM location and not overwriting critical GWIA files.

• Select: Finish. Once the Installation Wizard is finished, the Installation Complete window will show. You can save the Installation Configuration as a Predefined. You can have the Installation Wizard launch GWIA. I will show you how to load it manually.

• Change: In ConsoleOne, in the properties of the GWIA gateway, under the GroupWise tab, Identification page, Database Version attribute, use the drop down button to change the database to "8.0"

• Create: New GWIA.CFG file. If you installed the NLM's to a new location other than where GroupWise 6/7 NLM's are located, then you will have to create a new GWIA.CFG. Remember, we told the Installation Wizard not to configure GWIA. To create a new GroupWise 8 GWIA.CFG go to: SDD| Internet| gwia| NLM| ROOT and copy the "GWIA.CFG" file to the sys:\system\gw8 directory. Next, you will need to locate your old GWIA.CFG file, open it and add to the GW8\GWIA.CFG all the customized settings you have in your old GWIA.CFG. OR, if you do NOT want to use the new GWIA.CFG from GroupWise 8, just copy your old GWIA.CFG from its location to the sys:\system\gw8 location. Last note on the GWIA.CFG. Much of the settings in the GWIA.CFG are pushed up to the GWIA object and stored there.

• Create: New GWIA.NCF. If you currently use a GWIA.NCF file to load GWIA, then you can copy it from the old NLM location to the new sys:\system\gw8 location and then edit it to set the new NLM location.

In the NetWare, the load would be something like:

load sys:\system\gw8\gwia @gwia.cfg

Here I assume you installed the agents to a "GW8" directory and configuration file for you. You may also use the "GWIA.ncf" file. Now let's look at loading the GWIA Gateway into Protected Memory. You can either add the lines given below into the GWIA.NCF or type them out. In either case, you will need to update your AUTOEXEC.NCF.

Now if you are going to use Protected Memory for your GWIA Agent, you will type the following for NetWare 6.5 sp4 to sp6, and sp8:

load restart address space=GWIA sys:\system\gw8\gwia @gwia.cfg

If you are using NetWare 6.5 sp7 then your lines will be:

load address space=GWIA sys:\system\gw8\gwia @gwia.cfg
protection restart GWIA

The reason for the difference is in the syntax that was left out in NetWare 6.5 sp7.

Finally if you load in Protected Memory, then you need to make sure to ONLY unload the gateway agent using the following command:

unload address space=GWIA

Here are few of the installation screens:

Click to view.

Figure 1: GroupWise 8 Wizard GWIA Upgrade: Individual Components and GWIA

Click to view.

Figure 2: GroupWise 8 Wizard GWIA Upgrade: NLM Install Path and Do NOT Configure

Click to view.

Figure 3: GroupWise 8 Wizard GWIA Upgrade: Summary Screen with Edit Settings

Click to view.

Figure 4: GroupWise 8 Wizard GWIA Upgrade: Set the Database Version to 8

Click to view.

Figure 5: GroupWise 8 Wizard GWIA Upgrade: New GWIA 8 Agent Running

Now that I have shown you the Wizard Installation, let me show you the manual process. Here is the manual process:

1. Copy: All files from sdd| internet| gwia| NLM| EXE directory to the SYS:\SYSTEM\GW8 directory.

• Copy: All files from sdd| internet| gwia| NLM| LDAP directory to the SYS:\SYSTEM\GW8 directory and overwrite. If you have installed other GroupWise 8 NLM's here, the LDAP files are already there, hence the overwrite.

• Copy: GWIA.CFG from sdd| internet| gwia| NLM| ROOT directory to the SYS:\SYSTEM\GW8 directory. This assumes you want to great a new GroupWise 8 GWIA.CFG. If you do not, then just copy your old GWIA.CFG from to the SYS:\SYSTEM\GW8 directory.

• Change: In ConsoleOne, in the properties of the GWIA gateway, under the GroupWise tab, Identification page, Database Version attribute, use the drop down button to change the database to "8.0"

• Create: A load file. GWIA.NCF is the default name. Or, this may be the same file that you used to load your Domain/Post Office. Since the GWIA is on the same server as its parent domain then just 'add' a line to load the GWIA. You can create this file in your 'load' directory using a text editor. I like to use a name like: GWUP.NCF to load my agents, including GWIA. And I use GWDN.NCF to unload agents. In this file if you are NOT using Protected Memory for GroupWise Agents, you will type the following:
  
  

  load sys:\system\gw8\gwia @gwia.cfg

  
  
  

  If you are using Protected Memory, then just use the commands I have shown you earlier in the article.

  
  

• Load: GWIA

As you can see the manual process for upgrading the GWIA is quicker, less settings and gets you the same results. The manual upgrade process method for all GroupWise components is my preferred method when upgrading my customers. In a single small GroupWise system, it's very easy to get prepared for the upgrade during day time hours then just fire away at the upgrade at night and minimize downtime for GroupWise. With large GroupWise systems, the same applies, but I can also create all configuration files (POA/MTA/GWIA) in advance and I can prepare the GW8 directory as well. Then I just have to copy the GW8 directory along with all configuration files to the appropriate locations on the numerous servers. So I get continuity of files and I speed the upgrade process, minimizing downtime.

Summary

Well, that's it. GWIA is upgraded and the last of this 5 part series. Hopefully, it has helped you to upgrade your current GroupWise system to version 8. 8 really is great! Sales pitch ON: If you find you do not want to tackle an upgrade to GroupWise 8 or just do not have the time, I am offering a discount on my rates to upgrade an organizations GroupWise system to version 8. Contact me and mention "8 is Great!" to take advantage of the discount :Sales pitch OFF. In the meantime, "Mind what you have learned. Save you it can!"

Got comments or article ideas? Need help with GroupWise? Drop me a line at: Gregg@HinchmanConsulting.com . "The Force is strong in this one."