Update an IBM Websphere Installation from 7.4 to 7.5

The following steps describe how to update the Camunda artifacts on an IBM WebSphere application server in a shared process engine setting. For the entire procedure, refer to the update guide. If not already done, make sure to download the Camunda BPM 7.5 IBM WebSphere distribution.

The update procedure takes the following steps:

  1. Uninstall the Camunda Libraries and Archives
  2. Replace Camunda Core Libraries
  3. Replace Optional Camunda Dependencies
  4. Maintain the BPM Platform Configuration
  5. Maintain Process Applications
  6. Install the Camunda Archive
  7. Install the Web Applications

In each of the following steps, the identifiers $*_VERSION refer to the current version and the new versions of the artifacts.

1. Uninstall the Camunda Libraries and Archives

First, uninstall the Camunda web applications, namely the Camunda REST API (artifact name like camunda-engine-rest) and the Camunda applications Cockpit, Tasklist and Admin (artifact name like camunda-webapp).

Uninstall the Camunda EAR. Its name should be camunda-ibm-websphere-ear-$PLATFORM_VERSION.ear.

2. Replace Camunda Core Libraries

With your first Camunda installation or update to 7.2, you have created a shared library named Camunda. We identify the folder to this shared library as $SHARED_LIBRARY_PATH.

After shutting down the server, replace the following libraries in $SHARED_LIBRARY_PATH with their equivalents from $WAS_DISTRIBUTION/modules/lib:

  • camunda-engine-$PLATFORM_VERSION.jar
  • camunda-bpmn-model-$PLATFORM_VERSION.jar
  • camunda-cmmn-model-$PLATFORM_VERSION.jar
  • camunda-dmn-model-$PLATFORM_VERSION.jar
  • camunda-xml-model-$PLATFORM_VERSION.jar
  • camunda-engine-dmn-$PLATFORM_VERSION.jar
  • camunda-engine-feel-api-$PLATFORM_VERSION.jar
  • camunda-engine-feel-juel-$PLATFORM_VERSION.jar
  • camunda-commons-logging-$COMMONS_VERSION.jar
  • camunda-commons-typed-values-$COMMONS_VERSION.jar
  • camunda-commons-utils-$COMMONS_VERSION.jar

3. Replace Optional Camunda Dependencies

In addition to the core libraries, there may be optional artifacts in $SHARED_LIBRARY_PATH for LDAP integration, Camunda Spin, and Groovy scripting. If you use any of these extensions, the following update steps apply:

LDAP integration

Copy the following library from $WAS_DISTRIBUTION/modules/lib to the folder $SHARED_LIBRARY_PATH, if present:

  • camunda-identity-ldap-$PLATFORM_VERSION.jar

Camunda Connect

Copy the following library from $WAS_DISTRIBUTION/modules/lib to the folder $SHARED_LIBRARY_PATH, if present:

  • camunda-connect-core-$CONNECT_VERSION.jar

Camunda Spin

Copy the following library from $WAS_DISTRIBUTION/modules/lib to the folder $SHARED_LIBRARY_PATH, if present:

  • camunda-spin-core-$SPIN_VERSION.jar

Groovy Scripting

Copy the following library from $WAS_DISTRIBUTION/modules/lib to the folder $SHARED_LIBRARY_PATH, if present:

  • groovy-all-$GROOVY_VERSION.jar

4. Maintain the BPM Platform Configuration

If you have previously replaced the default BPM platform configuration by a custom configuration following any of the ways outlined in the deployment descriptor reference, it may be necessary to restore this configuration. This can be done by repeating the configuration replacement steps for the updated platform.

5. Maintain Process Applications

This section describes changes in the internal API of the engine. If you have implemented one of the APIs and replaced the default implementation then you have to adjust your custom implementation. Otherwise, you can skip this section.

Incident Handler

The interface of an Incident Handler has changed. Instead of a long parameter list, the methods pass a context object which bundles all required information, like process definition id, execution id and tenant id. Since the existing methods have been overridden, custom implementations of an incident handler have to be adjusted.

Correlation Handler

A new method has been added to the interface of a Correlation Handler . The new method correlateStartMessage() allows to explicitly trigger a message start event of a process definition. If the default implementation is replaced by a custom one then it has to be adjusted.

Job Handler

The interface of a Job Handler has changed to support multi-tenancy and separate the parsing of the configuration.

6. Install the Camunda Archive

Install the Camunda EAR, i.e., the file $WAS_DISTRIBUTION/modules/camunda-ibm-websphere-ear-$PLATFORM_VERSION.ear. During the installation, the EAR will try to reference the Camunda shared library.

7. Install the Web Applications

REST API

The following steps are required to update the Camunda REST API on an IBM WebSphere instance:

  1. Deploy the web application $WAS_DISTRIBUTION/webapps/camunda-engine-rest-$PLATFORM_VERSION-was.war to your IBM WebSphere instance.
  2. Associate the web application with the Camunda shared library.

Cockpit, Tasklist, and Admin

The following steps are required to update the Camunda web applications Cockpit, Tasklist, and Admin on an IBM WebSphere instance:

  1. Deploy the web application $WAS_DISTRIBUTION/webapps/camunda-webapp-ee-was-$PLATFORM_VERSION.war to your IBM WebSphere instance.
  2. Associate the web application with the Camunda shared library.

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