



Products	Support	Download	Contact

Running Two (or more) Versions of XENTIS Concurrently

return to contents or index

Abstract

For various reasons, customers don't necessarily want to uninstall or disable an older XENTIS version when installing a new one.

Discussion

Starting with XENTIS verson 4.3 it is possible to install multiple versions of XENTIS on your system and have all of them active at the same time. A version number is now included in the XENTIS logicals and in the XENTIS executable files. This is especially significant since beginning with version 4.2 of XENTIS, the logicals are set at the system level. With the logicals and executables now version specific there is no concern about logicals pointing to the wrong images when running jobs (especially in batch). This allows you to install a newer version without interfering with the XENTIS version you are currently using in production.

Note: During system startup, the various versions of XENTIS should be started in order with the oldest version first and the newest version last. When shutting down XENTIS, it is best if the reverse order is followed with the latest version first. XENTIS_START.COM is now called XENTISnn_START.COM,where nn is the version of the software.

XENTIS uses a number of logicals to find where the XENTIS programs, datafiles and DCL command files are located. XENTIS also uses several other logicals for a variety of reasons. These logicals, prior to version 4.3, typically began with either XENTIS$ or XENTIS_. Starting with version 4.4, these logicals begin with XENTIS44$ or XENTIS44_, and so forth.

In addition, any executable or shareable image that might be installed with the OpenVMS INSTALL utility, will have the version appended to the image file name. For example, the XENTIS/Report executable image has always been named XRP.EXE. In version 4.4, this image is named XRP44.EXE.We need to have this because the OpenVMS INSTALL utility does not allow any two images with the same name, even though located in different directories, to be installed at the same time.

Reminder about batch jobs

As mentioned above, prior to when version 4.3 was released many or most batch command files contain a line in them similar to "RUN XENTIS$PROGRAM:XRP".Under the old scheme of filenames and logicals, this would always execute the current version of XENTIS. Under the new scheme of filenames and logicals, this would execute the version of XENTIS that was previously installed.

There are several possible solutions to this problem. Here are two methods:

Modify the existing DCL command files as follows:
1. Add the following line at the top of the DCL command file:
  
  IF F$TYPE(xen_ver) .EQS. "" THEN xen_ver := 44
2. Modify all references of XENTIS$PROGRAM to XENTIS'xen_ver'$PROGRAM
3. Modify all references of XRP.EXE to XRP'xen_ver'.EXE
4. Modify the LOGIN.COM file or the SYLOGIN.COM file so that xen_ver is defined to either "" or "44" (for version 4.4, or "45" for version 4.5, etc.).
Another method is to perform the following steps:
1. Copy XRP44.EXE to XRP.EXE in the same directory.
2. Define a logical as:
  
  DEFINE XENTIS$PROGRAM XENTIS44$PROGRAM
This will result in two copies of the same image in the same directory, but with different names. This solution requires that you do not install the images with privileges.