1.2 Package Management

July 6th, 2025

RBAC required: bear: Package management

Applications are deployed through BEAR package files that use the *.bap extension. Although some packages may have some specific requirements that entail preparation of physical or application storage, they can generally be installed directly without prior knowledge.

Installing a new package will not automatically change the primary site seen by the Public interface.

Managing Installed Packages
Installing an Application Package
Upgrading an Application Package
Backing up an Application Package
Uninstalling an Application Package

1.2.1 Managing Installed Packages

Managing installed applications does not refer to administration tasks for the application itself. In general, that will be managed from the application's own Admin Tools if provided. BEAR lets you manager how the application fits in with the BEAR ecosystem and in the case of installed applications, there is only really one option to control: the Prime application setting.

The Prime Application Setting

Only one application can be set as the Prime application and this is only relevant in for applications with a Public interface.

Setting an application to Prime makes it the application that faces the Public interface when a user inputs the server hostname. This does not hide or prevent other applications from being accessible, but it does mean that other applications must be reached via a specific URL. For example, consider a BEAR deployment with the following three applications installed:

• foo
• bar
• foobar

The BEAR server host is on www.kermitbank.com. If the application foo is set to Prime then accessing the Public interface of the above can be done as follows:

Application	URL	Alternative URL
foo	http(s)://www.kermitbank.com	http(s)://www.kermitbank.com/foo/
bar	http(s)://www.kermitbank.com/bar/
foo	http(S)://www.kermitbank.com/foobar/

Assigning the Prime Application

1. From the Admin Tools menu, select Package Manager and activate the Manage tab if not already activated.

2. Select the application to assign as Prime and click Apply

Changing the Prime application has immediate effect and does not incur any disruption for end users.

1.2.2 Installing an Application Package

Prerequisites

Prior to installing an application, you need to refer to the application documentation for information about specific requirements. If you fail to meet the documented requirements, installation may fail or, possibly worse, succeed and then cause problems a later time.

Ensure that you clarify the following from the application's documentation:

1. Correct stable package version file
2. An installation license key if required
3. Database requirement. If required, you will need to ensure a BEAR database host is available and know the database root password.
4. Fileserver requirement. If required, you will need to ensure a BEAR sharepoint is available.

Installation Steps

1. From the Admin Tools menu, select Package Manager and activate the Install tab.

2. Attache the application file.
3. Fill in any other required information that was obtained as prerequisites. If there are none then all these fields can be left blank.

4. Click Install to begin the installation process.

1.2.3 Upgradig an Application Package

Always check the documentation for the application to determine which versions a package file can be upgrade from and to. Some applications may have specific pre and post upgrade steps that you must manually perform.

It is possible to apply two types of upgrades to installed applications:

• Full packages: These are regular installers that can be used to install and upgrade a package that already exists.
• Patches: These are smaller installers that perform no upgrade logic and simply replace one or more files in the application.

BEAR will prevent installation if a package that is either not compatible with the version of BEAR or not supported for upgrade by the currently installed application package.

Downgrades are not possible. If you need to have the ability to rollback, please refer to the documentation provided with the application package. In some cases it may be possible to rollback/downgrade simply by performing a Backup prior to upgrade and then an uninstall after the upgrade followed by an Install using the backup package.

Prerequisites

Prior to upgrading an application, you need to refer to the application documentation for information about specific requirements. If you fail to meet the documented requirements, installation may fail.

Ensure that you clarify the following from the application's documentation:

1. Correct stable package version file or patch file.
2. An installation license key if required
3. Database requirement. If required, you will need to ensure a BEAR database host is available and know the database root password.

Upgrade Steps

1. From the Admin Tools menu, select Package Manager and activate the Upgrade tab.

2. Attache the application file.
3. Fill in any other required information that was obtained as prerequisites. If there are none then all these fields can be left blank.

4. Click Upgrade to begin the installation process.

1.2.4 Backing Up an Application Package

It is possible to backup a package and it's local state. However, this may not always be the correct solution. If an application has it's own built-in backup utility, you should use that to ensure a reliable backup instead.

The BEAR backup utility is fine for smaller self-contained applications, but is not really designed to cope with sprawling applications and will not include an external database or files in a sharepoint.

Most applications perform small simple functions though and backup provides a good way of packaging the entire application along with any configurations made so that it is easily transferable to another BEAR host or available for disaster recovery.

1. From the Admin Tools menu, select Package Manager and activate the Backup tab.

2. Select the application from the Package dropdown menu.
3. If desired, provide a license key of your choosing to lock the package from unauthorised installation.
4. Click Backup to create a backup package.

If you choose to provide a license key and then forget it, the backup file will not be recoverable.

1.2.5 Uninstalling an Application Package

Uninstalling an application takes immediate effect and may incur user disruption. For this reason, care should be taken when deciding to uninstall a package to minimise potential impact to end users.

Prerequisites

For applications that make use of a BEAR database, you will need the root password for the database instance.

Uninstallation Steps

1. From the Admin Tools menu, select Package Manager and activate the Uninstall tab.

2. Select the application from the Package dropdown menu.
3. If the application uses a BEAR database, provide the instance root password.

4. Click Uninstall to remove the package.