As developers create applications in m-Power, metadata (data about their applications) are stored in a database. Since 2013, new installs of m-Power store this data in an embedded derby database that is installed on the m-Power server. Prior to 2013, this information was stored on the m-Power database to which you were licensed.
Developers can verify what install they are using by going to Admin-> System Management-> Version & Software Update. The value for the “Database Mode” will either be “Licensed Mode” or “Embedded Mode.”
mrc announced in December of 2018 that support for the the licensed mode of m-Power would be entering a sunset period. Effective July 1st, 2019, the licensed mode of m-Power will be fully deprecated. mrc decided to do this for the following reasons:
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- The majority of m-Power customers are already running embedded mode
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- Support and updates can be more efficient if all customers are running embedded mode, rather than over each licensed database type
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- The derby folder can be easily backed up during the regular m-Power update process
- Future interface enhancements are simpler to make on the embedded database rather than on the licensed database
Ok, I am still using licensed mode…what should I do?
Converting to embedded mode is pretty simple.
The first thing you need to do is edit your mrctool.properties file, located in /m-power/proddata/conf and add “embedded=true” (without the quotes) to a new line. Save and restart Tomcat.
Next, navigate to the m-Power login screen. You’ll notice that the URL ends in MRCPS.MRC001. Please append “Convert” to the end of the URL so it reads as follows: MRCPS.MRC001Convert. Press enter.
Select your database, enter you credentials, and press “Start Conversion” (Older versions will have this button labeled as “Sign In”). This process will go through all of the m-Power data dictionaries that currently reside on the licensed database and copy them over to your embedded database. When completed, you will be prompted to sign in to continue working in m-Power. Head back to the Version & Software screen to see that you are now running in embedded mode.
On your m-Power server, please note that all m-Power metadata will now be stored in the /development/m-power/derby folder. Be sure to back this folder up on a regular basis.
No UX changes should be noticeable between running m-Power in license mode vs embedded mode.
More information can be found here.
Important information
- We only copy data from your licensed database. We do not delete it. This is helpful if you wish to verify that everything was copied over as expected. If you would like, and once you have verified all is working as expected, you can delete any files that begin with “MRCDCT” from your licensed database.
- The conversion process to the m-Power Embedded Database is only performed for your development environment (There is no application metadata in your production environments).
- For 99% of our clients, running the above process will work perfectly. However, if you ever need to query your metadata, please contact mrc support so we can help you setup your derby database in server mode.
- If you are using the job scheduler, please create a temporary job after the conversion. This will create a new file in /m-power/mrcjava/job_streams named mrc_distribution_jobs_mrcdb_DATABASE.txt. This file will now replace mrc_distribution_jobs_DATABASE.txt. Ensure you have removed the later file as leaving both files will cause schedueld tasks to be duplicated.