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Administering Connections 7.0
Welcome to the HCL Connections documentation site. HCL Connections is social networking software designed for the workplace. Its features help you to establish dynamic networks that connect you to the people and information you need to achieve your business goals.
Upgrading and updating
Upgrade HCL Connections and its supporting software to the latest release and then update the installation with the latest interim fixes or cumulative fixes. Refer to the What's New in HCL Connections to review the features in the latest release and gather download links or links to the latest fix list and update strategy information.
Side-by-side upgrades
You can upgrade to Connections 7.0 by installing it in a new environment and then migrating data, configurations, and customizations from the existing production environment before switching over.
Migrating data and updating databases
After you've created your databases in the new environment and installed Connections 7, move the existing Connections data to the new environment. Then update the databases to the Connections 7 structure and schema.

Administering Connections 7.0
Welcome to the HCL Connections documentation site. HCL Connections is social networking software designed for the workplace. Its features help you to establish dynamic networks that connect you to the people and information you need to achieve your business goals.
- What's new in HCL Connections
  Find out about features that are new or updated in this release of HCL Connections.
- Product overview
  Learn how to deploy, customize, and administer the HCL Connections social networking product.
- Planning
  Before installing HCL Connections™, study the system requirements, deployment options, and documentation conventions.
- Installing Connections
  To install HCL Connections™, you need to follow a detailed series of procedures.
- Installing or upgrading Component Pack for Connections
  HCL Connections 7.0 now supports the latest Component Pack based in Harbor, an open-source container and Helm registry hosted by HCL for the Component Pack build. Deployments that are new or carrying Component Pack 7 will use this approach for a simplified installation/upgrade process, while releases prior to 7.0 will first need to upgrade to Component Pack 7 using a zip file and a local Docker registry.
- Post-installation tasks
  After installation, you need to perform further tasks to ensure an efficient deployment.
- Optional: Installing and configuring Tiny Editors for HCL Connections
  The Tiny editors are alternative rich-text editors which can be installed for HCL Connections™. They provide additional features and extensive customization options not available with the default editor.
- Optional post-installation tasks
  Complete the post-installation tasks that are relevant to your deployment.
- Uninstalling
  Uninstall HCL Connections.
- Upgrading and updating
  Upgrade HCL Connections and its supporting software to the latest release and then update the installation with the latest interim fixes or cumulative fixes. Refer to the What's New in HCL Connections to review the features in the latest release and gather download links or links to the latest fix list and update strategy information.
  - Getting ready for upgrading or updating
    Take steps to inform users and protect data before starting an HCL Connections upgrade or update.
  - Ways to upgrade to Connections 7
    You can upgrade to HCL Connections 7 by by doing either a side-by-side or an in-place upgrade, or by taking an approach that is a hybrid of the two.
  - Side-by-side upgrades
    You can upgrade to Connections 7.0 by installing it in a new environment and then migrating data, configurations, and customizations from the existing production environment before switching over.
    - Considerations for a side-by-side upgrade
      Upgrading side-by-side from Connections 6.5 CR1 to 7 consists of installing Connections 7.0 and its supporting software on new systems, and then and migrating data and customizations to the new environment.
    - Sample roadmap for a side-by-side upgrade
      The following roadmap is a guide to upgrading to HCL Connections 7.0 by installing it in a new environment and then migrating data from your existing environment. In this example, the existing environment is Connections 6.5 CR1.
    - Migrating data and updating databases
      After you've created your databases in the new environment and installed Connections 7, move the existing Connections data to the new environment. Then update the databases to the Connections 7 structure and schema.
  - In-place and hybrid upgrades
    With the Update function in IBM Installation Manager, you can upgrade the existing version of Connections to the next version, either in your production environment or in a in a new environment identical to production.
  - Updating Connections 7.0 with the latest fixes
    There are two types of fixes for HCL Connections 7.0 - interim fixes (iFixes) and cumulative fixes (CFixes). iFixes address single issues, while cumulative fixes address groups of issues. Both iFixes and CFixes are installed in the same manner and will be referred to as "fixes" in the installation instructions.
  - Synchronizing nodes
    Synchronize all the nodes in a cluster.
- Administering
  Run administration and maintenance tasks to keep your environment up-to-date. For example, learn how to customize your deployment or how to use the wsadmin utility to edit configuration files. You can also schedule tasks, maintain application databases, moderate content, or manage users and their roles.
- Customizing
  Customize HCL Connections™ to fit your environment.
- Security
  HCL Connections™ provides a flexible security infrastructure that supports an open, easily shareable data model.
- Mobile
  See the HCL Connections™ Mobile documentation for Connections Cloud and Connections on-premises.
- Developing
  Get information about how to use the APIs provided with HCL Connections™ and how to use Connections Customizer to modify the Connections pages that are returned to users.
- Troubleshooting and support
  To isolate and resolve problems with your HCL products, you can use the troubleshooting and support information. This information contains instructions for using the problem-determination resources that are provided with your HCL products, including HCL Connections™.

Migrating data and updating databases

After you've created your databases in the new environment and installed Connections 7, move the existing Connections data to the new environment. Then update the databases to the Connections 7 structure and schema.

Migrating existing Connections databases

In general, an (offline) process for moving your Connections 6.5 CR1 databases to your Connections 7 server is as follows:

Back up your Connections 6.5 CR1 databases and export them to the same server.
Move the exported databases to your Connections 7 database server, and restore them.
Back up the restored databases (then remove they databases that you moved.)

For an example in a Db2 environment, see the whitepaper Upgrading Connections 6.5 to 7: Side by Side.

Note: Depending on your environment, you can also use an online process involving RDBMS backup/restore and then upgrade the database format. For Db2 however, offline full database backups as well as offline incremental database backups can be restored to a later database version, whereas online backups cannot.

Updating the migrated databases

Once the 6.5 CR1 databases are in the Connections 7 environment, you can follow the instructions for Updating databases to the Connections 7 structure and schema. These instructions are the same whether you are doing a side-by-side, in-place, or hybrid upgrade.