According to the PingAM 8.0.2 Upgrade Guide and the "Plan the upgrade" documentation, a successful upgrade and potential rollback strategy rely on capturing the complete state of the application across three distinct locations on the filesystem. When PingAM is deployed in a container like Apache Tomcat, the configuration is not stored within the WAR file itself but is distributed to maintain persistence across redeployments.
The three critical areas that must be backed up are:
The Web Application Directory (/path/to/tomcat/webapps/openam/): This contains the expanded binaries, JSPs, and web-level configurations. While the upgrade involves replacing the openam.war file, backing up this folder preserves any manual customizations made to the UI, CSS, or specific library additions (JARs) in the WEB-INF/lib folder.
The Configuration Directory (<home directory>/openam/ or similar): This is the most vital component. By default, PingAM stores its instance-specific configuration, cryptographic keys (keystores), and internal metadata here. For file-based configurations (FBC), this directory holds the entire system state. Even with an external PingDS configuration store, this directory contains the bootstrap file and security secrets required to connect to that store.
The Bootstrap Configuration File (<home directory>/.openamcfg/): This hidden directory contains a file (usually named after the deployment path, e.g., am or openam) that tells the PingAM binaries where the actual configuration directory is located. Without this pointer, a restored PingAM instance will behave like a fresh installation and prompt for a new setup.
The documentation explicitly warns: "Always back up your deployment before you upgrade... For AM servers, you can roll back by restoring from a file system backup of the deployed servers and their configuration directories." Relying only on the webapps folder (Option A) or assuming automatic backups (Option B) will lead to data loss or an unrecoverable state.
