How to Clone a WebSphere Portal Cluster on VMWare images?

IMPORTANT: When you copy your existing VM images, you must also make a backup of the WebSphere Portal databases. These database backups will be used in conjunction with the VMWare image backups when you create new Portal clones. Doing this ensures that the contents of the database match the contents of the Portal VM images.

Update the Deployment Manager Hostname and Node

1. Ensure the dmgr, nodeagents, and WebSphere_Portal servers are stopped on all the VM images.
2. From the /bin directory, execute this wsadmin command to change the hostname for DMGR:

3. Start dmgr server

Update the WebSphere Portal hostname

1. Edit <wp_profile_root>/properties/wsadmin.properties and make sure the following properties are set correctly for your new DMGR hostname:

   com.ibm.ws.scripting.host=newdmgr.ibm.com com.ibm.ws.scripting.port=8879

2. From <wp_profile>/bin directory, execute this wsadmin command to change the hostname for the Portal Node  on the DMGR

   ./wsadmin.sh -c "\$AdminTask changeHostName {-nodeName myWpNode1 -hostName newwpnode1.ibm.com}"

3. Restart the Deployment Manager server. This is to ensure the new Portal hostname is loaded in the deployment manager configuration.
4. Synchronize the node using the syncNode command from <wp_profile>/bin directory:

   ./syncNode.sh newdmgr.ibm.com 8879 -user dmgrAdmin -password dmgrPassword

5. Edit the <wp_profile>/ConfigEngine/properties/wkplc.properties files and ensure these two properties are accurate:

   WasRemoteHostName=newdmgr.ibm.com WpsHostName=newwpnode1.ibm.com

Update additional properties in the Deployment Manager configuration with the new hostnames

1. Start the Deployment Manager and nodeagents for each node. Do not start WebSphere_Portal on any node yet.
2. Log in to the Deployment Manager
3. Navigate to Environment -> WebSphere Variables
4. Set the Scope to your first WebSphere_Portal server
5. Edit the WCM_HOST variable to be the new hostname of that Portal server.
6. Repeat steps 4-5 for each WebSphere_Portal server in your cluster.
7. Save all changes and synchronize the nodes

Update the database configuration for your Portal cluster

At this point, your new Portal cluster is using the exact same database as your original Portal cluster, so we need to point it to a new database.

1. Restore your database backup that goes with VM images to a new location.
2. On the primary node, edit the wkplc_DbDomain.properties file and make any necessary changes to the following properties for the domain, where domain is release, community, customization, jcr, likeminds, and feedback:

   domain.DbName
   domain.DbURL
   domain.DbSchema
   domain.DbUser
   domain.DbPassword
   domain.DataSourceName

3. On the primary node, execute the following ConfigEngine.sh script to ensure the new properties are valid:

   ./ConfigEngine.sh validate-database-connection

4. On the primary node, execute the following ConfigEngine.sh script to update the database configuration:

   ./ConfigEngine.sh connect-database

5. On the primary node, execute the following ConfigEngine.sh script to remove any potential references to the old hostname from the database:

   ./ConfigEngine.sh action-clean-scheduled-tasks

6. On each secondary node, copy the wkplc_DbDomain.properties file over from the primary node.
7. On each secondary node, execute the following ConfigEngine.sh script to ensure that the database information is accurate for the local JCR configuration:

   ./ConfigEngine.sh action-update-icm-properties