Ilink 3.4 upgrades : the wordy summary (part 1)

Previously I've mentioned Intralink upgrades (3.3 >> 3.4 - see here + here for example). Now that I've completed 9 "live" production upgrades, it almost feels like second nature... for example, the other day I was cocky enough to proceed with 2 simultaneously... (1 in Colorado, 1 in France, both done remotely from here in the UK!). They're both complete (after solving a corrupt zip file issue with Colorado).

Anyway, what I'm aiming for here is a summary (more prose, less lists) of this upgrade process, highlighting some useful things and error-prone things... I still have 3 more to do, and I'm guessing others may benefit from these notes. Plus, some of them are generic and will help with any kind of Intralink / Oracle upgrade. Hopefully this new style is easier to read (it's easier to write anyway).

Begin climbing...
Starting at the beginning: get yourself a couple of admin logins - one for the network domain, and one for the local domain. Network is handy for connection, etc... but you really need the local domain for Oracle install. Also, add this username to the ORA_DBA group (create it too if required). I always get RealVNC installed on the server for all Oracle and trouble-shooting work. (It's an excellent piece of software, see my review.)

Next, I'll assume the mighty media list is in place (eg: 9 CDs worth of images in this case) - and a "clean" OS (very important, don't try putting Oracle on a machine with any trace of Oracle). Work through the list of installs (I highly recommend a custom-script if you intend on repeating it at all - I'm so glad I used this method, it means you can sit back and watch some of the time, without having to remember every detail of every file location, etc...)

Then you work through the installs in precise order (see graphic) - and I recommend not importing your dump file until the very end, then there's less chance of messing things up earlier in the process...

For now I'll leave it there, my son needs his breakfast... I'll continue this soon.