Technical Tips

How to create a test system and then upgrade it to a new release

If you perform an install instead of a re-install to create a new release test system, you may create problems for yourself. For example an installed system will not contain the customization made to your production system. This could also create problems when you want to migrate the new release into production.

Our OS Installation Guide provides documentation on how to create a test system. If you are on PHOENIX, you can refer to the PHOENIX OS Installation Guide “Chapter 3 - Preferred Test Environment: Duplicate the Production System”. If you are on PREFERENCE, you can refer to the PREFERENCE OS Installation Guide “Chapter 5 - Stage 2: Creating a Test System”.

The procedure below provides guidance on how to create a test system with the new release on it:

Step	Action
1	Run the GSPFASBK utility to backup your production system
2	Inspect the file sizes of all the production files and record this information for step 3 below
3	Run the GSPCLEAR utility to allocate the following files for the test system according to the production file sizes recorded above: GSPROLL GSPPAGE GSPPDUMP GSPLOG GSPLOGX GSPREC GSPRECX GSPUSER GSPAUX GSPDIREC GSPTERM GSP0100 - GSP0199 for files that are present in production. If you wish to reduce this list, you need only allocate GSP0100, GSP0199 and the program file(s) that contain(s) the $GSSYS, $GSWRK, $GSWR0 and GSWORK programs. If in doubt, create them all.
4	Run the GSPRESTR utility to restore the following test system files from the GSPFASBK backup files created in step 1 above: GSPUSER GSPAUX GSPTERM GSP0100 - GSP0199 files created in step 3 above
5	Run the GSPBDIR utility to format the test system GSPDIREC file
6	Copy the following PDS libraries from your production system to your new test system. You may use IEBCOPY or ISPF 3.3 after the new test system PDS datasets have been created. LINKLIB GSPCNTL SAMPLIB MACLIB FONTLIB
7	If your PHOENIX/PREFERENCE system requires it, APF-authorize the new test system LINKLIB.
8	Set up and test your teleprocessing system to ensure that the new test system is independent of the production system and works properly.
9	Run GSPFASBK to back up the new test system prior to performing the re-installation.
10	Copy to your JCL library the appropriate reinstall procedure for upgrading your production release to the new release from the Installation Tape (Please see the PHOENIX OS Installation Guide Chapter 8 - Reinstalling PHOENIX” or the PREFERENCE OS Installation Guide “Chapter 5 - Stage 3: Obtaining the Reinstallation JCL”).
11	Customize the "reinstal" JCL copied to your JCL library to point to the test system datasets you created.
12	Submit the updated "reinstal" JCL to perform a reinstall of the new release over your newly created test system.

After completing the steps above, your test system should be upgraded to the new release. This test system will contain all customization that has been made to the production system and will be ready for testing.