Invalid column name errors in logs and bounced/missing emails after Novell Service Desk upgrade

  • 7012308
  • 20-Aug-2010
  • 29-May-2013

Environment

Novell Service Desk 6.5

Situation

Following an upgrade of Novell Service Desk emails are bouncing/missing and the logs are full of Invalid column name(s).

Resolution

Remove the old Novell Service Desk folder from the webapps folder and restart the application server.

Cause

Users may decide to keep backup of the previous Novell Service Desk installation by copying/moving/renaming the contents of the Novell Service Desk folder inside their folder. ie. /webapps/Novell Service Desk in the case of Tomcat.

However, if this is done by renaming the folder inside the webapps folder, instead of moving it outside of this folder, when the application server is restarted, it may be running both Novell Service Desk instances off of the same database.

This will mean it will also be using the same mailbox and same logfiles. Due to changes of the database schema between versions, this may mean mails not being dealt with correctly and the logs then fill up with invalid column names entries as the old version tries to access fields that are no longer in the upgraded database.

Additional Information

Formerly known as 1001049