Reverting from version 7.0 or later to a pre-7.0 version can be done using the revert-update command with some extra steps. This is also the case when updating or reverting from a pre-6.2.0.2 to 6.2.0.2 or later. These steps are listed when the update and revert-update tool are run as well. You may need to perform one or more of the following tasks, depending on your installation and configuration:

  • When updating or reverting from 6.2.0.2 or later to a pre-6.2.0.2 version, indexes may need to be rebuilt. Older versions of the server use an incompatible format for Local DB Composite Indexes. To update a server with composite indexes in the previous format, delete these indexes and re-run the update. After the update is complete, recreate the indexes and use the rebuild-index tool to rebuild the indexes. The command for recreating an index will be in the "Undo" portion of the logs/config-audit.log file. If you wish to later revert to an older version, delete and recreate those composite indexes again after the revert has completed.
  • When updating to 7.x for the first time, instance names will need to be set for each server in the topology if they were not previously set. This is done with the following dsconfig command:
    $ bin/dsconfig --bindDN "cn=Directory Manager" \
  --bindPassword secret \
  --no-prompt set-global-configuration-prop \
  --set instance-name:<name>
  • Topology information such as server instances, instance and secret keys, server groups, and administrator users have moved to the topology portion of the configuration from the admin backend. As long as new servers are not added to the topology after this update, the revert-update command can be used to return to the previous version.

    However, if new servers are added, then the restored admin backend of this server will not contain information about the new servers, and the local server will not be able to communicate with any other servers in the topology. New servers should not be added to the topology if reverting this update is a possibility.

  • If new servers were added to the topology after the update, the new servers must be temporarily removed from the topology until all servers have been reverted to the previous version.
  • When a server is reverted to a pre-7.x version, any servers in the topology using the topology portion of the configuration (rather than the admin backend) will needto know that the reverted server was downgraded to the admin backend. This is done by running the following dsconfig command on one of the servers that has not been reverted:
    $ bin/dsconfig set-server-instance-prop \
  --instance-name <Reverted server instance name> \
  --set server-version:<Version to which server is reverted>
  • If the topology does not have a primary server when this command is run, it will not succeed. In this case, one of the remaining updated servers in the topology must be made primary with the following command. This will enable the chosen instance to run the first command successfully.
    $ bin/dsconfig set-global-configuration-prop \
  --set force-as-master-for-mirrored-data:true
  • The 7.x server version includes database changes that are not compatible with previous server versions (6.x or older). If you wish to later revert to an older version, the data must be exported to LDIF before performing the reversion. Re-import the data after the revert process has completed. In addition, the changelogDb/ and db/changelog/ directories in the reverted server root must be deleted after the revert has completed.

When starting up the server for the first time after a revert has been run, and the necessary extra steps have been completed, the server will display warnings about "offline configuration changes," but they are not critical and will not appear on subsequent startups.