IBM WebSphere Application Server Migration Toolkit

The WebSphere Migration Toolkit includes the following tools to speed the migration of applications from competitive application servers to WebSphere Application Server V7, V8, or V8.5:

• Application Migration Tool - Apache Tomcat to WebSphere
• Application Migration Tool - JBoss AS to WebSphere
• Application Migration Tool - OracleAS to WebSphere
• Application Migration Tool - WebLogic to WebSphere

The Application Migration Tools are built on IBM Rational Software Analyzer, a framework that provides a single solution for identifying, analyzing, and fixing application code quality and compliance requirements. The tools use the scanning capabilities of Rational Software Analyzer to locate application elements that should be updated in order to ensure optimal compatibility and performance with WebSphere Application Server V7, V8, or V8.5, as well as unique editing features to review and appropriately change the code. The Application Migration Tools are packaged as features (a collection of plug-ins) that can be installed into an Eclipse or IBM Rational Application Developer or Rational Software Architect IDE. Figure 1 illustrates one of the Application Migration Tools.

Figure 1. Application Migration Tool

Supported application servers

The Application Migration Tools focus on the following major areas when migrating applications from competitive application servers to WebSphere Application Server V7, V8, or V8.5.

Apache Tomcat Server

• Apache Tomcat proprietary Java package references: Detect proprietary package references
• Apache Tomcat JSP issues: Detect non-standard JSP
• Apache Tomcat Context.xml: Detect and migrate context.xml entries
• Best practices for Spring: detect and migrate Spring best practice issues

JBoss Application Server

• Class path setup: Convert Enterprise Archive (EAR) class paths to J2EE specifications
• JBoss Server Startup Classes: Detect and convert JBoss startup and shutdown MBeans
• Non-Portable JNDI lookups: Detect and refactor JNDI lookups to use the parameter-less InitialContext
• Deployment Descriptors: Detect and convert JBoss specific deployment descriptor elements to IBM deployment descriptor elements
• JBoss proprietary Java packages and files: Detect and JBoss proprietary packages and files
• Web services: Migrate JBoss JAXRPC web services

Oracle Application Server

• Oracle Server Startup Classes: Detect the use of Oracle startup and shutdown interfaces
• Deployment Descriptors: Detect and convert Oracle specific deployment descriptor elements to IBM deployment descriptor elements
• Oracle-specific APIs: Detect Oracle proprietary packages in Java code
• Oracle-specific files: Detect Oracle proprietary XML files in the application
• Oracle-specific properties: Detect Oracle proprietary properties used in Java code
• JSP: Detect Oracle proprietary tag libraries
• Web services: Migrate Oracle web services

Oracle WebLogic Server

• Class path setup: Convert Enterprise Archive (EAR) class paths to J2EE specifications
• WebLogic Server Startup Classes: Detect and convert T3StartupDef and T3ShutdownDef classes
• Non-Portable JNDI lookups: Detect and refactor JNDI lookups to use the parameter-less InitialContext
• JSP files: Enforce case sensitivity of JSP tag/attribute names against the TLD file
• Deployment Descriptors: Detect and convert WebLogic specific deployment descriptor elements to IBM deployment descriptor elements
• WebLogic proprietary Java package references: Detect and convert proprietary package references to standards based package references
• Web Services: Generate ANT script, Service Endpoint Interface, WSDL, deployment descriptors, mapping files and other JAXRPC web service artifacts
• Java EE5 items: Detect JPA, JDBC, XML JTA, and logging items and convert many of them

Features of all competitive migration tools

All competitive application migration tools now include:

• Detection of Spring, Hibernate, and SEAM frameworks.
• Expanded coverage to include Java SE version differences and Sun/Oracle vs IBM Java differences
• Enhanced Developer Experience: Compatibility with IBM WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools for Eclipse

Although the Application Migration Tools provide considerable assistance in converting applications to run on WebSphere Application Server V7, V8, or V8.5, all potential migration tasks are not supported. For the most up-to-date description of the supported tasks, see the Competitive Application Migration Tools documentation.

The Application Migration Tools install into your existing Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers 3.6.2 or higher. If you do not have an existing Eclipse IDE, download one before continuing. The tools can also be installed into IBM Rational Application Developer or IBM Rational Software Architect. For more information, refer to the Competitive Application Migration Tools documentation.

To install one of the competitive Application Migration Tools, do the following:

1. Download the appropriate tool to your workstation
2. Start your Eclipse-based IDE.
3. From the Eclipse menu bar, select Help -> Install New Software
4. In the Install window, click Add
5. In the Add Site window, enter the following information:

   Name: Enter an appropriate name for the tool, for example, Application Migration Tool – WebLogic to WebSphere

   Location: Enter the location of the zip file that you downloaded, for example, C:\MigrationToolkit\Application_Migration_Tool_WebLogic_to_WebSphere_v3.5.1.zip

6. In the Install window, select the plug-in that you want to install. Then select "Contact all update sites during install to find required software". Finally, click Next.
7. Click Finish to begin the installation
8. After the Software Updates window is displayed, restart your Eclipse environment.

Complete instructions are included in the Competitive Application Migration Tools documentation. See the forum for information on Command Line Installation of Migration Toolkit Features.

Support

If your organization has a support agreement in place for WebSphere Application Server V7, V8, or V8.5, IBM will provide support for the Application Migration Tools as part of that support agreement. Support is provided for the tools and the included migration rules. Assistance with application coding or design issues would require a Services engagement.

Forum

You can use the Migration Toolkit Forum to ask questions, search for solutions, and provide feedback to the development team.

Survey

If you have used the Application Migration Tools to migrate one or more applications to a WebSphere Application Server environment, please complete this survey to help us to better understand how we can refine and extend the tools in the future.

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