Our Maximo Application Suite Journey

To start this article, I’d like to preface by stating that I work with an organization that is moving to the Maximo Application Suite. In preparation, we’ve worked for quite a while laying the groundwork. At this point, we’ve installed the Suite in a Dev and Test environment both on one Open Shift cluster. And we’ve accomplished many of the tasks outlined in our pilot project to include:

1. Upgrade to MAS 9.

2. Run Test Scripts against the environment (over 100 steps assessing any functionality breaks).

3. Install Maximo Mobile and explore the product. (Mostly complete but having trouble getting around Security to connect to the server. Researched mobile and application design tools).

4. Test multiple integrations.

5. Coordinate with the team regarding multiple site implementation in an Open Shift cluster (Thirteen separate locations all with heavily customized Maximo environments).

6. Research setting up Maximo Health and using the application (Researched both Meters and Functions).

7. Test Migrations (we’re planning on doing Database migrations going forward).

8. Keep MAS8 updated (We chose the manual method).

9. Install Dev environment.

10. Install Test environment.

11. Determine a strategy for MAS8 users (Authorized -vs- Concurrent). We are now tracking App Points closely and have also re-reviewed current User Rights in our Maximo 7.6.1.3 environment. Follow up with our journey here soon.

12. Research setting up queues with KAFKA vs. JMS (We plan to move to KAFKA for message processing).

13. Set-up Reliability Strategies (This package seems to have a ways to go to be more useful)

14. Configure and test Attachments.

15. Install Eclipse 4.8 and explore new BIRT (This works well. We’ve written several reports since).

16. Set up User Registry Synchronization (We did not go with LDAP. SAML is implemented).

I provide the above list to discuss, in future posts. We’ve faced many challenges along the way that required consultation with IBM’s expert services. We’ve also entered numerous tickets with IBM. The biggest learning curve by far has been changing from a Windows-based system to an Open Shift.

At this point, there is not a great deal of information published on how to get past roadblocks. Perhaps this series will help with that. For those that are already well down the path with the Maximo Application Suite and Open Shift, you might find much of this ‘old news’. For others, I hope this leads to conversations and discoveries.