There are three types of version-to-version migration methods
to choose from when considering moving to a new version of IBM® Business Process Manager: runtime
migration, manual migration, and artifact migration.
Runtime migration
(production environment)
In production environments, you
can use runtime migration procedures and tools to migrate topology
configuration, applications, and databases to the new version of IBM Business Process Manager. The
runtime migration procedures and tools support both stand-alone and
network deployment environment migrations, as well as variants that
include migration to a remote system (stand-alone environments only),
migration while an operating system is being upgraded to a supported
version (stand-alone environments only), and network deployment variants
to support full downtime migration windows and minimal downtime migration
windows. The runtime migration process replicates the source production
configuration into the target environment. During the migration process,
the target production environment replaces the source production environment,
so the two environments are never operated in parallel.
The
runtime migration procedures and tools should be used in the following
scenarios:
- You want to move your applications to the new version without
a dependency on the development tools and the development environment.
- You want to have your source production environment configuration
and applications automatically replicated in the target production
environment.
- You have long-running process and/or human task
instances that have started in the source environment and need to
complete in the target environment.
- You have product data in queues or failed events in product databases
that were created in the source environment and need to survive the
migration and be managed in the target production environment.
- You can tolerate a production environment downtime window to perform
the migration.
The high-level tasks involved in runtime migration are:
- Install the new product version.
- Back up all production profiles and databases.
- Migrate each source environment profile to the target environment.
- Migrate or upgrade the product databases.
- Migrate the product database data.
For more information on the runtime migration procedures
and tools, see the Migration overview topic.
Manual migration
(parallel production environment)
An alternative to using
the migration procedures and tools is to use the manual version-to-version
migration process. With the manual migration process, you are free
to create a parallel target production environment that is configured
from scratch differently from the source production environment. Applications
can then be selectively redeployed from the source production environment
to the target production environment. The redeployed applications
create their own database tables and application data in the parallel
production environment so they do not have access to the application
data stored in the databases configured for the source production
environment.
The manual runtime migration process should be
used in following scenarios:
- You want to move your applications to the new version without
depending on the development tools and the development environment.
- You want to reconfigure your topology as part of the process of
migrating to the new version of IBM Business Process Manager.
- You do not have long-running process instances
and human tasks, or you can run parallel production environments while
you drain the process instances and human tasks in the source environment
as new instances are started in the target production environment.
- You have application data in queues or failed events in product
databases that were created in the source environment that can be
managed to completion in the source production environment while new
messages and events are routed in parallel to the target production
environment.
- You cannot incur any downtime in your production environment and
can concurrently manage parallel source and target production environments.
- You want to selectively redeploy applications from your source
production environment to your target production environment.
The high-level tasks involved in manual migration are:
- Install the new product version.
- Configure your desired parallel production environment.
- Manually deploy applications using the previous
version EAR files from the source environment. You can perform the
application deployment using the administrative console on the target
environment.
- Optional: Run both environments in parallel so
that business process instances and human task instances that are
in progress finish in the source environment and new instances start
in the target environment.
Artifact migration
(parallel production environment with development tool migration)
The
artifact migration process is similar to the manual migration process
in terms of the configuration of the parallel target production environment,
but instead of the applications being manually redeployed from the
source environment directly into the target production environment
they are imported into the development environment and migrated by
the development tools. This results in applications whose artifacts
are migrated to the new version, enabling the applications to then
be modified to exploit the new capabilities delivered by the new version
of IBM Business Process Manager.
The application can then be tested and deployed to the parallel target
production environment. Consistent with the manual migration process,
when the applications are deployed to the target production environment,
they create a new set of database tables, so they do not have access
to the application data stored in the databases configured for the
source production environment.
The artifact migration should
be used in the following scenarios:
- You want to leverage the development tools and development environment
to migrate the application artifacts to the new version and validate
the compatibility of your applications.
- You want to leverage the development tools to
update your applications to exploit new capability delivered by IBM Business Process Manager.
- You want to reconfigure your topology as part of the process of
migrating to the new version of IBM Business Process Manager, or
you can manually duplicate your source production environment configuration
in your parallel production environment.
- You do not have long-running process instances
and human tasks, or you can run parallel production environments while
you drain the process instances and human tasks in the source environment
as new instances are started in the target production environment.
- You have application data in queues or failed events in product
databases that were created in the source environment that can be
managed to completion in the source production environment while new
messages and events are routed in parallel to the target production
environment.
- You cannot incur any downtime in your production environment and
can concurrently manage parallel source and target production environments.
- You want to selectively migrate applications from
your source production environment to the new version of IBM Business Process Manager with
the development tools and selectively deploy those applications to
your target production environment.
The high-level tasks involved in artifact migration are:
- Install the new product version.
- Configure your desired parallel production environment.
- Import the applications from the source production environment
into development tools and migrate the applications according to the
development tool's migration procedures.
- Optional: Update the migrated applications to
exploit new capability delivered in IBM Business Process Manager.
- Manually deploy the migrated applications from the development
tools to the target production environment.
- Optional: Run both environments in parallel so
that business process instances and human task instances that are
in progress finish in the source environment and new instances start
in the target environment.
For more information on artifact migration,
see the migration section in the IBM WebSphere Business Modeler information
center.