SQL MDB Install Order Considerations

Last Updated:
September 26, 2008

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding deployment
of CA solutions which use the CA Management Database (MDB) is:

When 2 or more applications are to be deployed sharing a single MDB,
does the installation order matter?

If the MDB is to be SQL-based, the answer is “no,”
however, you need to be aware of which version of the MDB each product is
using.  Significant changes in the
r1.5 version of the MDB will require you to perform additional steps should
those solutions be sharing an MDB with other product that utilize earlier MDB
releases.

Understanding the MDB Creation Process Flow

The SQL MDB
creation process includes built-in intelligence that performs the following
checks:

n
Does
the MDB already exist? If not, a new MDB will be created

n
If
an MDB does exist, is it the correct version (i.e., 1.0.4)? If not, the
existing MDB will be upgraded. However, if MDB installed by the first product
is at r1.5 and the subsequent product installs utilize earlier versions, you
will need to convert that MDB to be compatible with the other product(s).

n
If
the existing MDB is at the current version level, have all required patches been
applied? If not, the patches will be applied.

The end
result is an MDB that is at the current version and patch level.

The application
that is being installed (e.g., CA NSM, CA Service Desk) should then perform the
following tasks:

n
Create
O/S user ID (if required)

n
Create
Database user ID (if required)

n
Define
roles\grant access for the newly created product and database users

Role of MDB Install Order

If you are installing multiple MDB-based applications, there
are no requirements regarding which
application is installed first.
In fact, the rule of thumb should be to select the Install MDB option for each application.  If the MDB already exists, selecting Install MDB, will:

n
Create database user ID, if required by the
product being installed

n
Define the necessary roles and grant access for
the newly created product database user ID

Considerations for MDB r1.5 Solutions

Previous versions of the MDB created all of the database
objects for all CA products. This caused the MDB to be larger than needed for
the installed CA products. The latest version of the MDB (version 1.5) now
installs only the database objects needed for the product being installed. Two
of the solutions that currently use MDB r1.5 are CA NSM 11.2 and CA Automation
Point r11.1.

Although a new MDB will contain only those product schemas
required by the product that installed it, older products using the older MDB
version will be expecting all of the tables to be present. Therefore, before
installing a CA product that ships with a prior version of the MDB you must
first run the MDB Upgrade Script to restore all of the old MDB tables.

Where to go for Required Procedures

For information on how to determine which version of the MDB
your installed product is running, and what steps may be required to make that
MDB compatible with subsequent product installs, consult the following link:

https://support.ca.com/irj/portal/phpdocs?techDocAccess=N&filePath=7/5786/mdb_104_compat.html

Further details are provided in
the following link:

ftp://ftp.ca.com/pub/ips/MDB/1.04/MAKE_COMPATIBLE/CA_MDB_Install_MDB104_into_partial_MDB15.html