I used the last day before holiday for a first installation of HCL Connections 6.5 on a test system.
Wizards
dbWizard.sh creates all databases for the core Connections products.
I found a folder icec in Wizards/connections.sql, but tried the installation of Connections without it first.
I could remember, that the installation of Connections 6.0 CR4 or CR5 didn’t run successfully, when the XCC/ICEC database was missing.
I reviewed the documentation about the database creation, but there was no entry that we need to create the XCC/ICEC database manually.
Update: Documentation contains note now, that you have to create ICEC database manually https://help.hcltechsw.com/connections/v65/admin/install/c_inst_create_database_sql.html?hl=icec
populationWizard.sh asked for the configuration properties of databases and LDAP.
On this screen a click on Next does nothing in the GUI. I ran the wizard from the console, so I found following message there:
So the Wizard checks the LDAP vendor here, I use OpenLDAP in the test environment, so I’m not surprised that the vendor is not recognized, but I would expect a more visible error message in the UI.
Create profiles manually
I went to Wizards/TDIPopulation/linux/TDI/ and configured profiles_tdi.properties and map_dbrepos_from_source.properties. Double checked with collect_dns.sh if the LDAP connection works and fired up sync_all_dns.sh. All users were provisioned and I could went to the next step of the installation.
profiles_tdi.properties most important parts
source_ldap_url=ldap://stoeps-cnx-ldap.devops.example.local
source_ldap_search_base=dc=devops,dc=example,dc=local
source_ldap_search_filter=(uid=u0000*)
source_ldap_user_login=cn=ldapadm,dc=devops,dc=example,dc=local
{protect}-source_ldap_user_password={encr}nuncPh0xtEJp00bgeT/wfw8NEwVhlfD=
dbrepos_jdbc_url=jdbc:db2://cnx65-db2.devops.example.local:50000/peopledb
dbrepos_jdbc_driver=com.ibm.db2.jcc.DB2Driver
dbrepos_username=db2inst1
{protect}-dbrepos_password={encr}ca38EsQUBvK0=
dbrepos_mark_manager_if_referenced=true
TDI encrypts/hashes your password, so just use the cleartext password on the first run
Database connection string
Installation
Installing Connections with the Installation Manager validates the databases:
You see here the XCC database is checked and when I tried to validate it, I got the error that the Highlights database is missing.
Create ICEC Highlights database
The database creation scripts are included in the Wizards package, but we need to start them manually.
cd Wizards
cd Wizards/connections.sql/icec/db2
db2 -tvf createDb.sql
db2 -tvf appGrants.sql
Now the validation runs through and I could start the installation.
I exported the databases scripts with dbWizard.sh, but even there the script is not called.
As always the real installation ran around half an hour and ends with
Sidebar, Touchpoint, Invite
Like HCL promised the last weeks, all announced apps (Touchpoint, Sidebar, Invite and ICEC) were installed with Connections 6.5 and no additional download or install was necessary.
Until now I just tested the legacy WebSphere parts, I will do the Orient Me and Kubernetes parts in some days.
Invite with new Layout
I like the new layout of invite:
Social Sidebar
The social sidebar seems to need some configuration, so I will check the documentation next year.
