Migration planning

The order in which you migrate your IBM® App Connect Enterprise 12.0, IBM App Connect Enterprise 11.0, or IBM Integration Bus 10.0 environment depends on whether your priority is to include new development features, take advantage of new operational features, or simply implement a fully supported version of IBM App Connect Enterprise 13.0.

If you are migrating from IBM Integration Bus 10.0, your existing environment might consist of any of the following components:
  • Integration nodes that support production applications
  • Build systems that create deployable resources from the development source files
  • Integration nodes that are used for testing applications
  • Integration nodes that are used for developing applications
  • Instances of the IBM Integration Toolkit
The order in which you migrate your environment to IBM App Connect Enterprise 13.0 is likely to depend on which of the following factors is most important to you:

In both circumstances, you can use parallel migration. If you are migrating an integration server, you can use the ibmint extract server command to migrate the configuration and resources that exist for your integration server to IBM App Connect Enterprise 13.0.

Supported version or new operational features

If your priority in migrating to IBM App Connect Enterprise 13.0 is simply to have an environment that is at a fully-supported version of IBM App Connect Enterprise 13.0, and you do not need to use any of the new Version 13.0 features immediately, there is a minimum number of steps you must complete.

If your priority in migrating to IBM App Connect Enterprise 13.0 is to use the new IBM App Connect Enterprise 13.0 operational features, you can update your integration nodes first. You can use existing development environments and application build processes, and deploy your existing BAR files until you are ready to migrate your development resources.

In either scenario, you migrate the components of your environment in the following order:
  1. Migrate the integration nodes that support your test environment.
  2. Implement new Version 13.0 operational functionality on your test environment or, at a minimum, update existing operational functionality:
    • If you are using IBM Integration Explorer in your existing environment, define new operational procedures that use the web user interface. You cannot use previous versions of IBM Integration Explorer to administer IBM App Connect Enterprise 13.0.
    • If you are using scripts to administer your existing environment, update any scripts that use commands that connect to integration nodes. The parameters in IBM Integration Bus 10.0 that are used by commands that connect to integration nodes have changed in Version 13.0.
  3. Migrate the integration nodes that support your production environment.
  4. Implement new Version 13.0 operational functionality on your production environment or, at a minimum, update existing operational functionality.
  5. If you have any integration nodes that support your development environment, migrate these integration nodes to Version 13.0.
  6. Update your build system to create Version 13.0 deployable resources. If required, update build scripts to take advantage of new Version 13.0 operational functionality but, at a minimum, update any scripts that use commands that connect to integration nodes.
  7. Install IBM App Connect Enterprise 13.0 on your developer workstations. If you cannot migrate all developer workstations at the same time, you must create separate development streams. You cannot use Version 13.0 development tools to build applications for an environment that is running a previous version of IBM App Connect Enterprise or IBM Integration Bus.
  8. Import development resources from your previous Toolkit.

To migrate integration nodes, use parallel migration (see IBM App Connect Enterprise migration options).

When you have imported all the development resources, you can uninstall the previous versions of IBM Integration Toolkit, and any integration nodes that you do not want to migrate.

New application features

If your priority in migrating to IBM App Connect Enterprise 13.0 is to develop applications that take advantage of new functions and features in Version 13.0, you can install a new development environment alongside your existing development environment, and create new build, test, and production environments to support your Version 13.0 development.

In this scenario, you migrate the components of your environment in the following order:
  1. Install IBM App Connect Enterprise 13.0 on your developer workstations. To maintain existing applications in your existing environment while you are building new applications for Version 13.0, you must run two development streams. You cannot use Version 13.0 development tools to build applications for an environment that is running a previous version of IBM App Connect Enterprise or IBM Integration Bus.
  2. If you are updating an existing application, import development resources from your previous Toolkit.
  3. Develop applications that take advantage of the Version 13.0 features.
  4. Create a new build system that creates Version 13.0 deployable resources. You can use build scripts from your previous version but you must update any scripts that use commands that connect to integration nodes. The parameters in IBM Integration Bus 10.0 that are used by commands that connect to integration nodes have changed in Version 13.0.
  5. Create one or more IBM App Connect Enterprise 13.0 integration nodes to support the testing of the Version 13.0 applications.
  6. Update existing operational functionality:
    • If you are using IBM Integration Explorer in your existing IBM Integration Bus environment, define new operational procedures that use the web user interface. You cannot use previous versions of IBM Integration Explorer to administer IBM App Connect Enterprise 13.0.
    • If you are using scripts to administer your existing environment, update any scripts that use commands that connect to integration nodes.
  7. Deploy Version 13.0 applications to the Version 13.0 testing environment as required.
  8. Create one or more IBM App Connect Enterprise 13.0 integration nodes to support production use of the Version 13.0 applications.
  9. Deploy Version 13.0 applications to the Version 13.0 production environment as required.
  10. Migrate or deprecate applications from the original environment as required.

This type of migration is known as parallel migration (see IBM App Connect Enterprise migration options).

When all applications are migrated to Version 13.0, you can uninstall the original environment.