D3 is a PICK based DBMS system used by many government institutions and large businesses. I was recently tasked with upgrading an existing RainingData (now TigerLogic) D3 installation from a failed NT server to windows 2003. Although a bit convoluted as far as steps go, the upgrade was surprisingly pain free and straight forward. Had I known it would be this easy, I would have recommended upgrades to various other clients running D3 on their antiquated mini-computer hardware.
Get a new server (i.e. Dell PowerEdge or HP Proliant) with Win2K3R2 Standard pre-installed.
Setup Win2k3 & apply any missing patches and/or service packs.
Download the latest version of D3 at Raining Data’s FTP site (ftp://ftp.rainingdata.com).
Download the latest patches for your version of D3 at the FTP site (ftp://ftp.rainingdata.com).
Set the Windows system page file minimum to the size of RAM you have installed.
Install any printers you may want to use with D3 & ensure that they are working and visible in windows.
If you’ll be backing the database up using a tape device, ensure that you have a tape backup device installed and visible to Windows (in device manager).
Install D3. (NOTE: starting the D3 services during the install can take up to 5 minutes making it seem as if the install is stuck or frozen).
During the installation you’ll be prompted to activate the new software. Don’t worry this will not automatically deactivate the software on your existing legacy D3 installation. You can contact D3 technical support and let them know that you’re upgrading and will be requiring an additional instance for a couple of weeks to do testing. Once the upgrade is complete you should call TigerLogic customer service and have them decommission your legacy system D3 activation.
Perform a backup on your legacy system and restore it on your new D3 installation. In my case this was a bit more complicated since the legacy system used an outdated tape drive no longer in production, so I performed a D3 backup to a pseudo-device (which is just a file on a hard disk location you choose). I then copied the file generated by the pseudo-device backup to the new system.
To setup a pseudo device fire up the D3 Device Manager (in the RainingData program folder) and click the VME Tape Devices Tab. Now simply use the navigator window to setup any disk location as your pseudo tape device. If you have a tape drive installed, you can also add it at this time via the VME Printer devices tab. NOTE: The commander style windows require you to have something selected on the left-hand side and an open slot on the right hand side before you can click the Add button.
Once you have exited the D3 Device Manager you must restart the VME service for your changes to take effect. NOTE: Stopping the D3 VME service can take up 5 minutes (D3 tech support doesn’t know why), but it will stop eventually on its own.
Now that your VME is configured, you are ready to restore your database. The default user name and password to get into your new install are:
User: DM
Pass: DM
I use Putty to access the database, but telnet will work just fine as well. Putty lets you customize the interface to your liking and that’s why I use it. To connect to the DB simply telnet localhost or 127.0.0.1. If you followed all the steps above and your D3 Database and VME are up and running your server should be listening on the telnet port for incoming connections.
You’ll need to set the device you’ll be performing the restore from using the following command:
set-device
Where device number is the device number you setup in the device manager corresponding to your servers backup device. In my case I setup a pseudo-device for each day (MON-FRI) 1-5 in the device manager, so if I wanted to restore a Thursday backup I would set-device 4. Additionally if you have backed up your old server using a pseudo device, I recommend setting up a pseudo-device with the same name on the new server and then copying all files the backup generated on the old server to the corresponding directory on the new server.
Now you are ready to do the restore. Type the following commands:
SEL-RESTORE MD USER-COLDSTART (OIZ
T-REW
SEL-RESTORE PIBS (OIZ
T-REW
SEL-RESTORE DEVICES (OIZ
T-REW
SEL-RESTORE MDS (NZ
T-REW
RESTORE-ACCOUNTS
Your DB items should be restored. If you’ve upgraded versions from your old server some of your custom programs might need recompiling. If all your programs are flash compilable, there is a new command in v7.5 that lets you compile all flash compilable programs at once using compile.flash.all.
You may need to run the UPDATE-MD command on any applicable accounts in your DB.
That’s it, you’re done.