PMC Architecture

Where to find the PMC module

The PMC module is part of Infor Enterprise Server (Tools). The software supplier is the distributor of the solutions, and the user or customer of the applications is the recipient. The PMC module contains functionality and sessions for both the distributor and recipient role.

To navigate to the recipient part of the PMC module:

1. Log on to LN.
2. On the ERP Menu Browser, select Tools > Software Installation > Miscellaneous > Recipient.
3. Select Setup > Operational > Miscellaneous.

Alternatively, to navigate to the recipient part of the PMC module:

1. Log on to LN.
2. On the ERP Menu Browser, select Tools > Application Development > Product Maintenance and Control > Recipient.
3. Select Setup > Operational > Miscellaneous.

To navigate to the distributor part of the PMC module:

1. Log on to LN.
2. On the ERP Menu Browser, select Tools > Application Development > Product Maintenance and Control > Distributor.
3. Select Setup > Operational.

Dependencies

When the PMC recipient installs software updates, the recipient checks the presence of the required dependent solutions.

These dependency types exist:

• Pre-requisites
• Co-requisites
• Post-requisites

This diagram shows a prerequisite dependency: solution 1 must be installed before solution 2.

Individual solutions

A PMC Distributor creates and publishes individual solutions.

Individual solutions that are created for standard products of Infor are available for download 24 hours a day, seven days a week. See the Infor Customer Portal for Infor-owned products.

You can only download these solutions one by one.

After you download and scan a solution, the PMC recipient checks the dependencies with other solutions. Sometimes, other dependent solutions might be missing at the installation system and must also be downloaded and scanned. The process to install individual solutions can take a long time if many dependent solutions must be downloaded and scanned.

You can use the Multilevel Download functionality to download all the dependent solutions, without user interaction, to simplify and speed up the download process.

Collections

Collection dumps enable customers to update their system with the latest software.

Collections are groups of all individual solutions that are released in a particular period.

These individual solutions are gathered at the PMC distributor side in a single dump file.

Collections for standard Infor products are published on the Infor Customer Portal.

You can scan collections in a single action. With the session, the dump file is split into all individual solutions that were included in the collection.

Afterwards, you can install the individual solutions.

You can use collection dumps in two ways: for pro-active installation or corrective installation.

• Pro-active installation

  The user installs all individual solutions of the collection. The user runs the most up-to-date version of the software, including the latest released fixes.

• Corrective installation

  The individual solutions of the collection are not installed. The solutions have status Available in the PMC registry. If the user runs into a problem, and a solution is advised for this problem, the user can install that solution immediately. All dependent solutions are installed automatically.

Feature Packs and patches

Periodically, individual solutions can be bundled into Feature Packs or patches. In general, these types of updates contain solutions created in a larger time period than a collection. In the PMC Tool, the term ‘patch’ is used both for Feature Packs and patches. The patch entity is known at both the PMC distributor and PMC recipient side. Feature Packs and patches are an indivisible set of solutions. You cannot install or uninstall individual solutions that belong to a Feature Pack or a patch by the PMC recipient. You can only install or uninstall entire Feature Packs and patches. Dependencies between Feature Packs and patches can exist.

The subsequent sections describe the justification, characteristics, and differences of Feature Packs and patches.

Justification of Feature Packs and patches

During the life cycle of a product, in general, two types of changes are implemented in the product:

• Corrective fixes for defects.
• Functional enhancements to further enrich the product.

Functional enhancements are often accompanied by changes in the data model, changes in the user interface, and changes in the behavior of the application. In general, functional enhancements require a careful preparation before installation in an operational environment. PMC generates dependencies between solutions, that contain the same components. This is to guarantee that the solutions are installed in the correct order and no required solutions are skipped. Sometimes, users must first install several functional enhancements before they can install a corrective fix for a relative small defect. Installation of the functional enhancements can be required at unexpected and undesirable moments.

With Feature Packs, you can separate functional enhancements from the flow of corrective fixes. This separation enables you to adopt and implement functional enhancements in a more controlled way. Patches do not offer this possibility.

Feature Packs

With Feature Packs, you can separate corrective fixes from functional enhancements. Multiple parallel maintenance baselines exist for the product. Every new baseline is linked to a unique base VRC. Functional enhancements are, in principle, only implemented at the start of a new baseline.

This diagram shows the Feature Packs mechanism:

Feature Pack 1 is linked to base VRC A1. The Feature Pack contains several corrective fixes and some functional enhancements. Corrective maintenance is performed for this Feature Pack, which results in solutions 1, 2, and 3 in the previous diagram.

In parallel, the software distributor develops Feature Pack 2, which is linked to base VRC A2. Whenever possible, the distributor immediately ports and includes corrective solutions created on top of Feature Pack 1 in Feature Pack 2. See solution 1 and the dashed arrow in the previous diagram. These ported solutions are registered in Feature Pack 2 as so-called obsolete solutions.

The same process repeats when the distributor develops Feature Pack 3, which is linked to base VRC A3.

After the release of Feature Pack 2 and 3, the distributor also creates corrective solutions on top of these Feature Packs.

When installing Feature Pack 2 at a recipient, the PMC Tool checks whether solutions that were installed on top of Feature Pack 1 are also available for Feature Pack 2. These solutions can be available in two different shapes for Feature Pack 2:

• As an obsolete solution.

  Included in Feature Pack 2. See solution 1 and the dashed arrow in the previous diagram. These obsolete solutions are integrated in Feature Pack 2 and do not have a separate physical solution dump.

• As an individual solution.

  Available on top of Feature Pack. See solutions 2’ and 3’ in the previous diagram. These so-called missing solutions are not included in Feature Pack 2 and do have a physical solution dump.

  Note: When Feature Pack 1 is installed in multiple update VRCs, then the PMC Tool performs the missing solution check in all update VRCs that contain Feature Pack 1.

The PMC Tools refuses to install Feature Pack 2 if not all solutions that are installed on top of Feature Pack 1 are available for Feature Pack 2. Otherwise, old defects can return after you install Feature Pack 2. The distributor must ensure that all solutions of the preceding Feature Pack are available for the subsequent Feature Pack before publishing the subsequent Feature Pack.

Feature Packs are cumulative. Every new Feature Pack also includes all preceding Feature Packs. This enables you to skip the installation of Feature Packs at the PMC recipient. For example, you can immediately upgrade from Feature Pack 1 to Feature Pack 3 without installing Feature Pack 2 in between. The installation process is optimized in such a way that only components that are changed as compared to the current installed Feature Pack are installed.

You can install Feature Packs in an existing update VRC. Therefore, creating a new update VRC is unnecessary. Therefore, the VRC structure at a recipient system can remain unchanged. The base VRC that is linked to the update VRC changes. You can also install a new Feature Pack in a new update VRC.

To install a 'clean' Feature Pack

You can update an existing environment with a Feature Pack through PMC or through the Installation Wizard. It is required that all the solutions that were installed on top of a previous Feature Pack, are installed for the new Feature Pack too. PMC requires these additional solutions to prevent that old issues return after installation of the Feature Pack. This applies also if you install the Feature Pack in another, or even in a new, Update VRC. This is because you can upgrade your companies to the Package Combination of that Update VRC and then you might see old issues again.

In some situations this functionality is too strict, for example when you want to develop customizations for different customers on different Feature Pack levels.

To change this default behavior, you must set the PMC_IGNORE_SOL environment variable to 1. You can now install a 'clean' Feature Pack, without taking care of the content of already installed Feature Packs and additional solutions.

You can specify the environment variable in different ways:

• In the command field of the BW configuration file (-set PMC_IGNORE_SOL=1). In this way, the setting only applies to the user that uses this configuration.
• In the $BSE/lib/bse_vars file (add the line PMC_IGNORE_SOL=1). If you use the Installation Wizard, you can add this line when you are prompted to change the bse_vars configuration file. In this way, the setting applies to all users.

Patches

Patches do not enable you to separate corrective fixes from functional enhancements. Only one maintenance baseline of the product exists. Changes are always implemented in the latest version of a software component. The base VRC remains the same. Functional enhancements are included in the chain of dependent corrective solutions.

This diagram shows the Patch mechanism:

To install solution 3 in this diagram, you must first install solution 2, which contains a functional enhancement.

Patches are not cumulative, which means you cannot skip the installation of Patches at a recipient's location. For example, before you install Patch 3, you always must install Patch 2 in advance. You cannot immediately upgrade from Patch 1 to Patch 3.

Distributor’s Policy

The software distributor decides if Feature Packs or Patches are being applied. A mix of both types is also possible:

• When applying Feature Packs, the distributor can release a functional enhancement as an individual PMC solution on top of one of the released Feature Packs.
• When applying Feature Packs, the distributor can decide to periodically also release Patches on top of the Feature Pack.

When applying Feature Packs, the distributor’s policy determines how many base VRCs are maintained in parallel and how long the base VRCs are maintained.

PMC Distributor functionality

The software developer generates additional software and makes software changes on the existing LN software packages.

The supplier of the LN software uses the PMC Distributor functionality to manage the software updates and prepares those updates for delivery to the customers.

This list shows a process overview of the PMC Distributor module:

• Create individual solutions:

  1. Define a unique identifier for the solution and a brief description.
  2. Link one or more software components to the solution.
  3. Define or generate the dependencies on other solutions.
  4. Export the solution, the software dumps are now created.
  5. Release the solution, the solution is now ready for delivery.

• Create collections:

  1. Define a unique identifier for the collection and a brief description.
  2. Link one or more individual solutions to the collection.
  3. Export the collection.
  4. Release the collection.

• Create patches:

  1. Define a unique identifier for the patch and a brief description.
  2. Link one or more individual solutions to the patch.
  3. Define or generate the dependencies on other patches.
  4. Validate the patch.
  5. Export the patch.
  6. Release the patch.

• Create Feature Packs:

  1. Define a new base VRC for the Feature Pack.
  2. Define a unique identifier for the Feature Pack and a brief description.
  3. Define the dependency on previous Feature Packs.
  4. Generate the Feature Pack, in other words, link all components in a specified VRC to the Feature Pack.
  5. Validate the Feature Pack.
  6. Export the Feature Pack.
  7. Release the Feature Pack.

• Additional distributor functionality:

  • Mutilevel export.
  • SCM integration.
  • Maintenance History.

PMC Recipient functionality

Customers use the PMC Recipient module to install the LN software updates on their ERP system.

An overview of the PMC Recipient module:

• Download solutions

  You can download solutions from the Infor Customer Portal or copy the solutions from a medium such as a CD-ROM.

• Scan and connect solutions

  The solution files can be scanned. In other words, the user must extract and store the solutions into the PMC registry. The extracted solutions are also connected to an update VRC.

• Process solutions

  1. Check to install. Report this: Pre- and post-installation instructions, customized components, and missing dependent solutions.
  2. Install the solutions: Store the software components in the data dictionary, report additional post-installation instructions.

• Additional recipient functionality

  • Uninstall
  • Mutilevel download
  • Compare installed solutions
  • Solution history
  • PMC cleanup
  • Copy PMC registry
  • View installation runs.