Patch records

A patch record specifies which files the Differential Upgrade utility should compare, and creates a query that limits the comparison to certain records within files. There must be a patch record for each system in the comparison.

Note: The query should limit the number of records to upgrade. The more files in the patch record, the longer the Differential Upgrade process takes.

In a Differential upgrade comparison, you must have one patch record for each system to be compared. The patch record must point to identical files in each target system and generate the same queries. You can either create it once on each system; or create it on one system, unload it, and load it into the other system. You may prefer to create customized patch records before you start the Differential Upgrade process.

Note: Be sure to include all files that were modified during customizations that you promote to production.

One method of limiting the number of records included in the patch record is to use the sysmodtime field that many dbdicts contain. Service Manager updates this field automatically with each update of the record. If the file does not contain a sysmodtime field, you can either add it before starting the customization work on the development system, or use another limiting field such as update.time.

In the Patch record dialog box, you can specify that the Differential upgrade should perform Add only processing on a specific file. If you choose this option, Service Manager adds only new records to the Differential upgrade unload file and ignores changes to existing records in the development system.

Related concepts

Environment configuration
Applying customizations to the production environment
Differential Upgrade utility
Signature records
Checklist: Differential upgrade steps

Related tasks

Create or update a Patch record
Create Signature records on the production system
Move Signature records to the development system
Create the differential upgrade from the development system
Customize the Differential upgrade unload file
Create a differential upgrade unload from an internal file
Load the Differential upgrade into the production system
Load an unload file