Upgrading OpenROAD 6.2 (32-bit) to OpenROAD 11.2 (64-bit)

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Martin Bloomfield

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Oct 18, 2021, 4:16:39 AM10/18/21

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All,

We are looking at upgrading OpenROAD from version 6.2 to 11.2 and are considering the move from 32-bit to 64-bit. However, we are unsure of whether we can do this and wondered if anyone has successfully done this and can provide any pointers or potential pitfalls?

Our initial questions are as follows:

Windows Desktop apps (full OpenROAD)

We have a number of OpenROAD applications that run on Windows 10 and Server 2016 that send email. We currently do this by using the Microsoft MAPI controls 6 to connect to Outlook. We are using the 32-bit version of Office. Is there a work-around for this from a 64-bit version of OpenROAD; I believe 64-bit apps can’t access 32-bit dlls?
We also make a lot of calls to windows dlls for accessing registry and other functions; primarily to find location of office and adobe executables. Will these need changing on moving to 64-bit OpenROAD? The references to the dlls in the 3gl procedure declarations do not contain file paths.
Some of our batch processes (no GUI, running as scheduled tasks) make calls to vb-scripts. I presume these will be unaffected as they use the “call system” command. Is this correct?

Web Apps (accessing OpenROAD Server)

We have a lot of websites that make use of 32-bit dlls for things like Zipping files, generating checksums, hashing data. Being .Net Framework WebApps, we use NuGet packages and other dlls for validation, report generation etc. Currently each of these websites has a copy of the OR6.2 Ca.OpenROAD.dll and Ca.OpenROAD.Orrsolib.dll in the bin folder.
If we rebuild all the Application Server images as 64-bit and upgrade VOSA to the 64-bit version of OpenROAD, would we still be able to access them from the OR6.2 32-bit Ca.OpenROAD dlls in our websites? The websites and VOSA are on the same server.

VB / C# .Net apps

We have a number of .Net applications (written in VB or C#) that make use of ODBC to connect to the database and then create emails for sending using Office controls. If we upgrade to 64-bit OpenROAD, I assume that the Ingres/Net will also need to be upgraded to 64-bit Ingres11.2. I suspect this will cause problems, as the applications are currently compiled for x86 CPU to allow connecting to the ODBC and Office components when running on 64-bit OS. Is there a workaround for this, or does the 64-bit version of Ingres/Net provide ODBC connections that work under both 32 and 64-bit?

General:

Historically we have installed Ingres and OpenROAD in non-standard folders on our machines, and all our application shortcuts for the OpenROAD desktop apps, have this location defined in them. I’ve tried installing the 32-bit version of OpenROAD 11.2 (using setup.exe) and was not able to choose where the software installs.
Is it possible to choose where to install IngresNet & OpenROAD to (under either 32-bit or 64-bit version)? If not we are going to have to try updating all the shortcuts and getting users to update any shortcuts on their desktops. Also on the OpenROAD servers, we have installed Ingres/OpenROAD to our E: drive to keep separate from the OS. Will this be possible?

If anyone can provide any advice or guidance on performing the upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit, that would be extremely helpful.

Martin Bloomfield
Application Developer & Database Administrator
Information Systems Development
Information, Technology and Facilities
Health and Safety Executive
YORK

martin.b...@hse.gov.uk

www.hse.gov.uk

Follow HSE on Twitter @H_S_E

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Bodo Bergmann

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Oct 18, 2021, 6:57:27 AM10/18/21

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Hello Martin,

See my answers below (marked with [Bodo]).

HTH.
Best regards,
Bodo.

From: openroa...@googlegroups.com <openroa...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Martin Bloomfield
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2021 10:17 AM
To: openroa...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [openroad-users] Upgrading OpenROAD 6.2 (32-bit) to OpenROAD 11.2 (64-bit)

All,

Our initial questions are as follows:

Windows Desktop apps (full OpenROAD)

We have a number of OpenROAD applications that run on Windows 10 and Server 2016 that send email. We currently do this by using the Microsoft MAPI controls 6 to connect to Outlook. We are using the 32-bit version of Office. Is there a work-around for this from a 64-bit version of OpenROAD; I believe 64-bit apps can’t access 32-bit dlls?

[Bodo] You are right – 64-bit apps cannot use 32-bit DLLs (and vice versa). There are a few workarounds to send an email, e.g.:

Via SMTP directly from OpenROAD using the UrlConnection class – see example in:
https://docs.actian.com/openroad/11.2/index.html#page/LangRef%2FUrlConnection_Class_Examples.htm%23
Via a VBScript (called via CALL SYSTEM) - executed with 32-bit cscript.exe (the one in %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64)
Using Powershell Script (called via CALL SYSTEM) – see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.utility/send-mailmessage?view=powershell-7.1
Some other solution, e.g. one of those in https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/client-developer/outlook/pia/mail

We also make a lot of calls to windows dlls for accessing registry and other functions; primarily to find location of office and adobe executables. Will these need changing on moving to 64-bit OpenROAD? The references to the dlls in the 3gl procedure declarations do not contain file paths.

[Bodo] WindowsAPI calls should be fine – it will implicitly open the 64-bit version of the DLLs.
The type of parameters and return values might have to be changed, i.e. when you passed/returned a HANDLE or pointer as INTEGER, you’ll have to use INTEGER8 in the 64-bit version.
You will probably have to search for the 32-bit registry keys, e.g. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node rather than HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE.

Some of our batch processes (no GUI, running as scheduled tasks) make calls to vb-scripts. I presume these will be unaffected as they use the “call system” command. Is this correct?

[Bodo] Yep, that should work as before.

Web Apps (accessing OpenROAD Server)

We have a lot of websites that make use of 32-bit dlls for things like Zipping files, generating checksums, hashing data. Being .Net Framework WebApps, we use NuGet packages and other dlls for validation, report generation etc. Currently each of these websites has a copy of the OR6.2 Ca.OpenROAD.dll and Ca.OpenROAD.Orrsolib.dll in the bin folder.

[Bodo] The two assemblies (Ca.OpenROAD.dll and Ca.OpenROAD.Orrsolib.dll) are not the problem as they are platform-independent (AnyCPU) .NET assemblies – so they run as 64-bit when used from a 64-bit process and as 32-bit when they run from a 32-bit process. But actually they are only wrappers and will then use the underlying COM libraries (orrso.dll and orps.dll) in %II_SYSTEM%\ingres\bin – and they are 64-bit versions in a 64-bit OpenROAD installation, so they would NOT run from your 32-bit web server process (IIS ?)!

If we rebuild all the Application Server images as 64-bit and upgrade VOSA to the 64-bit version of OpenROAD, would we still be able to access them from the OR6.2 32-bit Ca.OpenROAD dlls in our websites? The websites and VOSA are on the same server.

[Bodo] OpenROAD images are platform independent (there is no difference between a 64-bit and a 32-bit image).
VOSA is just a (GUI) admin interface. In fact it is an OpenROAD application, therefore there is no “64-bit” VOSA, just a 64-bit runtime (w4glrun.exe).
You could also use the orserveradm.py script instead (see https://docs.actian.com/openroad/11.2/index.html#page/ServerRef%2FManage_the_Installation_with_orserveradm.py_Scri.htm%23)
So, I am not sure what you are after.

VB / C# .Net apps

We have a number of .Net applications (written in VB or C#) that make use of ODBC to connect to the database and then create emails for sending using Office controls. If we upgrade to 64-bit OpenROAD, I assume that the Ingres/Net will also need to be upgraded to 64-bit Ingres11.2. I suspect this will cause problems, as the applications are currently compiled for x86 CPU to allow connecting to the ODBC and Office components when running on 64-bit OS. Is there a workaround for this, or does the 64-bit version of Ingres/Net provide ODBC connections that work under both 32 and 64-bit?

[Bodo] No workaround, you’ll have to use a 64-bit ODBC driver (with 64-bit IngresNet) from 64-bit applications.

General:

Historically we have installed Ingres and OpenROAD in non-standard folders on our machines, and all our application shortcuts for the OpenROAD desktop apps, have this location defined in them. I’ve tried installing the 32-bit version of OpenROAD 11.2 (using setup.exe) and was not able to choose where the software installs.

[Bodo] A “Custom” installation using “setup.exe” should allow you to specify the “Location” where OpenROAD will be installed into (on the same page where you select the features to be installed).
In an installation using the “ormsiexec11.bat” you would have to change the INSTALLDIR and INGRESGROUP settings in the response file (use a copy of one that has been provided).

Is it possible to choose where to install IngresNet & OpenROAD to (under either 32-bit or 64-bit version)? If not we are going to have to try updating all the shortcuts and getting users to update any shortcuts on their desktops. Also on the OpenROAD servers, we have installed Ingres/OpenROAD to our E: drive to keep separate from the OS. Will this be possible?

[Bodo] As mentioned before, it is possible to choose where to install OpenROAD (ind IngresNet).

If anyone can provide any advice or guidance on performing the upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit, that would be extremely helpful.

Martin Bloomfield
Application Developer & Database Administrator
Information Systems Development
Information, Technology and Facilities
Health and Safety Executive
YORK

martin.b...@hse.gov.uk

www.hse.gov.uk

Follow HSE on Twitter @H_S_E

*****************************************************************************************************************

Interested in Occupational Health and Safety information?

Please visit the HSE website at the following address to keep yourself up to date

www.hse.gov.uk

*****************************************************************************************************************

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Martin Bloomfield

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Oct 18, 2021, 7:43:33 AM10/18/21

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Hello Bodo,

Many thanks for your replies. They certainly give the detail I was looking for and information I need to discuss with the business. Hopefully it will help them decide whether we go for a 32-bit upgrade to OR11.2; to get it done quickly; and plan for 64-bit when we have more time.

Regards,

Martin Bloomfield
Application Developer & Database Administrator
Information Systems Development
Information, Technology and Facilities
Health and Safety Executive
YORK

martin.b...@hse.gov.uk

www.hse.gov.uk

Follow HSE on Twitter @H_S_E

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/openroad-users/SJ0PR06MB780579ED36DE88DC0A268FB693BC9%40SJ0PR06MB7805.namprd06.prod.outlook.com.

Paul White

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Oct 19, 2021, 7:48:06 PM10/19/21

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Hi Martin,

My sites have been working on 64bit migration for some time. There are similar considerations to the ones you have raised. One big ticket item has been 32bit crystal reports interface. Years ago they developed a wrapper, I believe they plan to upgrade that to 64bit. We are running the full OpenROAD runtime (and developer) 64bit stack along side the 32bit installation. Examples EmpowerHR 64bit, Peercore 32bit, MyWorkplace T&A 32bit. 32bit and 64bit ODBC can co-exist ok. 32bit and 64bit vnodes can co-exist. I don't think you can't do the same with the OpenROAD server installation.

I have not had a problem overriding the location of OpenROAD install because I use ingres net to define create the desired location first. The tricky bit is to undo system variables set by the secondary Ingres+OpenROAD installations.

Paul

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/openroad-users/CWLP123MB4868E8F4143DE0E638DF1952C6BC9%40CWLP123MB4868.GBRP123.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM.

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