Learning more about WebSphere Process Server (WPS) migration

Resolving The Problem

• Background
• Planning the migration
• Prepare for migration
• Testing

Background

Version-to-version migration occurs when you install a new version of a product, such as WebSphere Process Server, and copy relevant applications and configuration data from the old installation to the new installation.

Version-to-Version migration is accomplished by a series of scripts (for example WBIPreUpgrade, WBIPostUpgrade and WBIProfileUpgrade.ant) invoked from command line or by using the Migration Wizard. This wizard is a graphical interface that guides you through migrating from an older version to a newer version of WebSphere Process Server.


One advantage of using the migration wizard is that required new profiles are automatically created based on the previous version of the profile. Another advantage is it guides you through the required options for pre-upgrade and post-upgrade. The disadvantage of using the migration wizard is if you have several profiles to be migrated from a single installation, you must launch the Graphical User Interface (GUI) for each profile. The WBIPreUpgrade is executed each time, which backs up all the profiles that consume hard drive space and additional time.

Planning the migration

Identify skills and obtain skills

• WebSphere Process Server Version-to-Version Migration Patterns and Best Practices
  This article discusses some common version-to-version migrations patterns and best practices seen in WebSphere Process Server v6.0.2, v6.1, and v6.2. This article on its own provides a solid understanding of the version-to-version migration process. Concepts in this article are applicable for any WebSphere Process Server version. However, the commands might vary a little.



• Migrating from WebSphere Process Server Version V6.2.0.X to 7.0
  This tutorial provides instructions on migrating from WebSphere Process Server V6.2.0 Fix Pack 2 to V7.0.0 Fix Pack 1. It highlights steps where administrators need to be cautious to prevent losing valuable business data.
  
  
• Migrating from WebSphere Process Server Version V6.0.2 to 7.0
  This tutorial describes how to migrate an example environment running WebSphere Process Server V6.0.2 Fix Pack 5 over DB2 to WebSphere Process Server V7.0.0 Fix Pack 3. Learn how to use checkpoints to verify that the migration is proceeding correctly and how to troubleshoot problems using various log and trace files.
  
  
• Migrating to WebSphere Process Server V6.2
  This document is a tutorial for understanding the step-by-step procedures to be followed to migrate a sample WebSphere Process Server V6.2 deployment environment.
  
  
• WebSphere Process Server migration planning worksheet
  This document gives you a starting point for planning version-to-version (V2V) migration. It helps you position your current project environment, resources, and expectations with the known requirements and methodology of V2V migration.



• WebSphere Process Server V7 Information Center - Overview of migration
  Refer to the WebSphere Process Server information center to understand version-to-version migration.



• WebSphere Process Server V7 Information Center - Pre-migration considerations
  Refer to the previous link for pre-migration considerations and restrictions.



• Knowledge Collection: Migration planning for WebSphere Application Server
  WebSphere Process Server V2V migration heavily relies on the WebSphere Application Server migration code and majority of the work is done by the WebSphere Application Server migration code. All WebSphere Application Server migration restrictions applies to WebSphere Process Server migration. Refer to migration planning for WebSphere Application Server Knowledge Collection for basic understanding, planning and for additional guideline.

Identify corporate maintenance windows

• Depending on the topology and the number of profiles to migrate, it might take a significant amount of time to complete the migration. Identify the requirements for the application, maintenance windows and scheduled down times, to determine the strategy for migration.
  
  
• You will experience some down time during the migration of the cell due to a change in the Business Process Execution (BPE) Container, which does not allow one cluster member of the old version to run at the same time as a newly migrated cluster member. The WebSphere Process Sever Information Center provides the necessary steps to minimize the down time to a minimum by migrating one half of the cluster member first and then migrating second half .

Prepare for migration

• Hardware and Software requirements

Review the list of supported software for WebSphere Process Server detailed system requirements for minimum version and fix level requirements for your operating system and associated software. If your existing WebSphere Process Server installation is on an operating system version that does not meet prerequisites for new version, an operating system upgrade will be required before you can install new version of the WebSphere Process Server.


• Gather information

Before starting the migration procedure using the command line tools, it is important to track down the names of all of the nodes in the V6 cell in addition to the cell name. These values are used when creating V6.1 profiles for each node in the cell.


• Back up your environment

Back up your WebSphere Process Server environments and all the databases before attempting any migration. You can use the backup tool to save the current environment; to learn more about this, review articles related to the backupConfig utility in either WebSphere Process Server V6 Information Center.


• Upgrade your new installation before starting the migration

After installing the new version of WebSphere Process Server, upgrade the installation to the latest available fix pack before starting the migration utility. Technotes for WebSphere Process Server are recommended to be reviewed before starting the migration.
• Practice and document

Practice using the tutorials on a staging environment with same configuration as the production server and document all of the steps for a successful migration before attempting migration on production servers.

Testing

Most organizations have more than one run time environment, including development, system test, performance, and pre-production. Rarely is the migration of a production runtime environment a simple matter of shutting everything down, migrating and starting everything back up. Migration code is very complex and it is essential to test migration on an environment exactly the same as production environment.

Applications migrated from previous versions are binary compatible, nevertheless, testing applications in the new development environment as part of the migration strategy can help isolate problems with application related problems and run time migration related problems.

WebSphere Process Server V6 uses the WebSphere Application Server V6 migration framework. Reviewing WebSphere Application Server Migration documents and WebSphere Process Server Version-to-Version Migration Patterns and Best Practices will help you to gain knowledge and prepare for migration.