Planning upgrade Alfresco community 5.0.b to 6.2

[jack_chuong]

Hi all,

My environment : Alfresco communitu 5.0.b on premise , server Centos 6.4 , installed all in one by "alfresco-community-5.0.b-installer-linux-x64.bin" .
Installation dir : /opt/alfresco-5.0.b
I actually only use Alfresco content management feature at simple level : upload soft files from scanner to ECM , store and search them later when needed.
I have applied some customizations in /opt/alfresco-5.0.b/tomcat/shared/classes/alfresco-global.properties:
- Authenticate with Active Directory
- Connect to our mail servers
- Use DB Mysql (5.1) and java-1.5.0
- URL : ecm.mydomain.com/share/ (port 80 , not 8080)
- dir.contentstore --> /opt/contentstore (separate from /opt/alfresco-5.0.b/alf_data/contentstore)
May be afew more, I don't remember.

I want to upgrade my ECM to 6.2 , these are my planning steps :

Upgrade path : 5.0.b --> 5.2 --> 6.0 --> 6.2

Stage 1
- Stop ECM services
- Backup alfresco database and contentstore
- Install Alfresco 5.2 on differrent path : /opt/alfresco-5.2 , db alfresco-new , new contentstore
- Apply customizations from old ECM to the new one (except dir.contentstore and db settings)
- Start Alfresco 5.2 services and validate features if it work ok

Stage 2 (if Stage 1 done well)
- Stop Alfresco 5.2 services
- Change Alfresco 5.2 alfresco-global.properties dir.contentstore and db settings to old ECM 5.0.b
- Start Alfresco 5.2 services and validate features if it work ok

Please give me some advices , thank you very much.

[kaynezhang · Accepted solution]

1.Direct upgrades to acs 6.2 are supported from 5.1.x and later, so your upgrade path can be just 5.0.b --> 5.2  --> 6.2.
2.Solr4 is not recommended in alfresco 6.X,you should use alfresco search servcie instead. So during upgrade to 5.2,you can upgrade to solr6 directly(you don't need to copy solr4 index,because a reindex is required). in this way when upgrade to acs6.2 from acs5.2,you dont' need to upgrade solr any more .About how to upgrade to search servcie please  refer to https://docs.alfresco.com/5.2/concepts/solr6-home.html.
3.For JDK and mysql I suggest you upgrade to to version that alfresco recommended.

[kaynezhang · Accepted solution]

After 6.x alfresco don't provide a full installer any more ,docker is recommended.
You can try to install it manually
Plese refer to
http://beecon.buzz/2017/assets/files/EF09/EF09-Installing-Alfresco-components-1-by-1.pdf
and
https://docs.alfresco.com/community/concepts/install-community-intro.html

[kaynezhang · Accepted solution]

As far as I know there is not any easy way to install T-egines outside docker.
T-egine is developed using spring boot ,if you don't want to install it using docker ,the only option is to install the spring boot jar and imagemagic/openoffice.. manually.
Now you can turn it off  by setting following in your alfresco global properties.

local.transform.service.enabled=false

For fixing the cache problem
Increase the cache size parameter. Add/edit cacheMaxSize within the Context XML element of your $CATALINA_BASE/conf/context.xml. The Resources component inside the <Context block

<Resources
    cachingAllowed="true"
    cacheMaxSize="100000"
/>

[kaynezhang]

Good luck

[EddieMay]

Hi @jack_chuong 

Thanks for updating & let us know how the 6.2 upgrade goes.

Best wishes,

[jack_chuong]

Sorry for bothering you guys again, but I cannot find Alfresco Community 6.2 download link (.bin file with all in one installation) , this link only have docker installation.

[kaynezhang · Accepted solution]

After 6.x alfresco don't provide a full installer any more ,docker is recommended.
You can try to install it manually
Plese refer to
http://beecon.buzz/2017/assets/files/EF09/EF09-Installing-Alfresco-components-1-by-1.pdf
and
https://docs.alfresco.com/community/concepts/install-community-intro.html

[jack_chuong]

Thank you very much, I will try it.

[jack_chuong]

Hi,

It's me again, I read your documents and try to install Alfresco 6.2.0 GA Community on a new Centos 7 (to see if it works , then I can migrate db and contentstore from the current 5.2), my environment :

CentOS Linux release 7.8.2003 (Core)
mysql-community-server-5.7.32
java-11-openjdk-11.0.8
libreoffice-5.3.6.1 (installed via yum , running at port 8100)
ImageMagick-6.9.10 (installed via yum)
alfresco-search-services-1.4.0 (solr6 running at port 8983 ok)
apache-activemq-5.16.0 (running port 61616 , 61613 , 61614 ...)
apache-tomcat-8.5.59 (running port 8080)
alfresco-content-services-community-distribution-6.2.0-ga

This is my alfresco-global.properties :

dir.root=/opt/alfresco-community/alf_data
dir.contentstore=/opt/newcontentstore

alfresco.context=alfresco
alfresco.host=ecm.mydomain.com
alfresco.port=8080
alfresco.protocol=http

share.context=share
share.host=ecm.mydomain.com
share.port=8080
share.protocol=http

### database connection properties ###
db.driver=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
db.username=alfresco
db.password=***********
db.name=alfresco
db.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/alfresco?useUnicode=yes&characterEncoding=UTF-8
# Note: your database must also be able to accept at least this many connections.  Please see your database documentation for instructions on how to configure this.
db.pool.max=275
db.pool.validate.query=SELECT 1

# The server mode. Set value here
# UNKNOWN | TEST | BACKUP | PRODUCTION
system.serverMode=PRODUCTION

### Solr indexing ###
solr.host=localhost
index.subsystem.name=solr6
solr.secureComms=none
solr.port=8983

### Allow extended ResultSet processing
security.anyDenyDenies=false

### External executable locations ###
#ooo.exe=/opt/alfresco-community/libreoffice/program/soffice.bin
ooo.enabled=true
ooo.port=8100
ooo.host=localhost
jodconverter.enabled=true
jodconverter.officeHome=/usr/lib64/libreoffice
jodconverter.portNumbers=8100

#img.root=/opt/alfresco-community/common
img.dyn=/usr/lib64
img.exe=/usr/bin/convert
img.config=/usr/lib64/ImageMagick-6.9.10/config-Q16
img.coders=/usr/lib64/ImageMagick-6.9.10/modules-Q16/coder

alfresco-pdf-renderer.root=/opt/alfresco-community/common
alfresco-pdf-renderer.exe=${alfresco-pdf-renderer.root}/alfresco-pdf-renderer

messaging.broker.url=failover:(tcp://localhost:61616)?timeout=3000

I can access to http://ecm.mydomain.com:8080/share/ , login with username/pass admin/admin .
However if I want to use ACS with port 80 , I change config :
tomcat/conf/server.xml

    <Connector port="80" protocol="HTTP/1.1"
               connectionTimeout="20000"
                maxHttpHeaderSize="32768"
               redirectPort="8443" />

tomcat/shared/classes/alfresco-global.properties

alfresco.context=alfresco
alfresco.host=ecm.mydomain.com
alfresco.port=80
alfresco.protocol=http

share.context=share
share.host=ecm.mydomain.com
share.port=80
share.protocol=http

I cannot login anymore, error in log:

2020-10-21 16:49:27,657  INFO  [webscripts.connector.RemoteClient] [http-nio-80-exec-1] Exception calling (GET) http://localhost:8080/alfresco/s/remoteadm/has/alfresco/
site-data/chrome/.xml?s=sitestore
 org.apache.http.conn.HttpHostConnectException: Connect to localhost:8080 [localhost/127.0.0.1] failed: Connection refused (Connection refused)
2020-10-21 16:49:27,658  INFO  [webscripts.connector.RemoteClient] [http-nio-80-exec-1] Error status 503 The stack details have been removed for security reasons.
 org.apache.http.conn.HttpHostConnectException: Connect to localhost:8080 [localhost/127.0.0.1] failed: Connection refused (Connection refused)

Also I see many errors about "T-Engine" in log :

2020-10-21 16:49:30,010  ERROR [content.transform.LocalTransformServiceRegistry] [QuartzScheduler_Worker-2] 09210069 Failed to connect or to read the response from T-Engine on http://localhost:8090/transform/config

I did some searching and turn out it relating to Transform Engines , I read these :
Alfresco Community Edition 201911 GA Release Notes 
Custom Transforms and Renditions 
Quick reference for transformers in ACS Community 6.2 
But I don't understand very well, whether it affects ?
If yes , is there anyway that I can setup T-engines outside docker ?
If no, can I turn off this error ?

Also there are many WARNING like this :

21-Oct-2020 16:47:27.453 WARNING [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.webresources.Cache.getResource Unable to add the resource at [/WEB-INF/classes/META-INF/sou
rce-map.js] to the cache for web application [/share] because there was insufficient free space available after evicting expired cache entries - consider increasing the maximum size of the cache

How can I increase the maximum size of cache ?

[kaynezhang · Accepted solution]

As far as I know there is not any easy way to install T-egines outside docker.
T-egine is developed using spring boot ,if you don't want to install it using docker ,the only option is to install the spring boot jar and imagemagic/openoffice.. manually.
Now you can turn it off  by setting following in your alfresco global properties.

local.transform.service.enabled=false

For fixing the cache problem
Increase the cache size parameter. Add/edit cacheMaxSize within the Context XML element of your $CATALINA_BASE/conf/context.xml. The Resources component inside the <Context block

<Resources
    cachingAllowed="true"
    cacheMaxSize="100000"
/>

[jack_chuong]

Thank you
T-engines errors and cache warnings have gone.
How can I change Alfresco default port from 8080 to 80 ? (I don't use HTTPS)
I did :

tomcat/conf/server.xml

    <Connector port="80" protocol="HTTP/1.1"
               connectionTimeout="20000"
                maxHttpHeaderSize="32768"
               redirectPort="8443" />

tomcat/shared/classes/alfresco-global.properties

alfresco.context=alfresco
alfresco.host=ecm.mydomain.com
alfresco.port=80
alfresco.protocol=http

share.context=share
share.host=ecm.mydomain.com
share.port=80
share.protocol=http

 I can access "http://ecm.mydomain.com/share/" but login fail, here log :

2020-10-22 09:29:05,601  INFO  [webscripts.connector.RemoteClient] [http-nio-80-exec-9] Exception calling (GET) http://localhost:8080/alfresco/s/api/admin/restrictions?guest=true
 org.apache.http.conn.HttpHostConnectException: Connect to localhost:8080 [localhost/127.0.0.1] failed: Connection refused (Connection refused)

2020-10-22 09:29:05,601  INFO  [webscripts.connector.RemoteClient] [http-nio-80-exec-9] Error status 503 The stack details have been removed for security reasons.
 org.apache.http.conn.HttpHostConnectException: Connect to localhost:8080 [localhost/127.0.0.1] failed: Connection refused (Connection refused)

I can setup a Nginx reverse proxy to do this but I consider why it doesn't work as documentation , did I miss something ?

[kaynezhang · Accepted solution]

you also need to config alfresco endpoint int share-config-custom.xml。

Please refer to 

https://docs.alfresco.com/6.1/tasks/share-change-port.html

[jack_chuong]

Yes, all works fine now.