Migrating artifacts and then business data and applications

To migrate to IBM® Business Process Manager V8.5.5 and test the migration as you go, you might choose to migrate the Process Center artifacts first, followed by the test Process Server artifacts, before you migrate all business data and applications.

This migration procedure consists of the following steps:
  1. Migrate Process Center (migrating artifacts)
  2. Migrate the test Process Server environment (migrating artifacts)
  3. Migrate the preproduction or staging Process Server environment (migrating business data and applications)
  4. Migrate the Process Server production environment (migrating business data and applications)

1. Migrate Process Center

Because Process Center contains playback instances only, you do not need to migrate the instances to the new product version. You can use the artifact migration approach to migrate Process Center first, rather than extracting database information and upgrading the old databases. With this type of migration, you create both a new database and a new installation and configuration of IBM BPM.

With artifact migration, the Process Center does not keep playback instances and contains only the change history of the snapshots that you choose to import. Runtime data (such as instances, tasks, tracking groups) and offline server deployment information are not migrated.

This migration approach has the following advantages:
  • You can set up Process Center and start migrating applications before you install the new version of the product.
  • You can move applications to the new product version one application at a time.
  • The previous Process Center remains available to handle fixes for the production system.
  • Process Center does not incur any downtime.
Use the new Process Center to test all the process applications from the previous version.
  1. Install Process Center V8.5.5.
  2. Use the BPMConfig command or manually configure the new environment and create new databases.
  3. Start the new deployment environment and move your applications from the source to the target. Follow the instructions in Migrating Process Center artifacts to export all the snapshots from the old environment that you want to keep, and then import them into the new environment. For each application, import the oldest to newest snapshots to preserve the change history.
  4. Test the process applications to ensure that they work in the new environment.
  5. Fix issues and performance tune the new environment in parallel.

2. Migrate the test Process Server environment

Migrate the test Process Server environment using the artifact migration approach. You can use this environment to test all the process applications from the previous version.

  1. Install Process Server V8.5.5.
  2. Use the BPMConfig command or manually configure the new environment and create new databases.
  3. Connect the new Process Center with this Process Server.
  4. Follow the instructions in Installing process application snapshots to install the process applications from the new Process Center.
  5. Test the process applications to ensure that they work in the new environment.
  6. Fix issues and performance tune the new environment in parallel.

3. Migrate the preproduction or staging Process Server environment

Migrate the preproduction or staging Process Server environment using the business data and application migration procedure. Because this migration is a test to prepare for production migration, use a preproduction or staging environment that reflects the characteristics of your production environment. It might also be useful to set up the preproduction or staging environment with a copy of your production database.
  1. Follow the procedure in Migrating business data and applications to IBM Business Process Manager V8.5.5, choosing your specific configuration.
  2. Clone the databases before configuring the new environment and point to the cloned databases to make sure that migration works correctly before you upgrade the databases that are in use.
  3. Test the migrated target environment and resolve migration-related issues by manually updating the target configuration. Performance tune the environment in parallel.

4. Migrate the Process Server production environment

Migrate the Process Server production environment by following the same steps as you did with the preproduction or staging environment.
  1. Follow the procedure in Migrating business data and applications to IBM Business Process Manager V8.5.5, choosing your specific configuration.
  2. Test the migrated target environment and resolve migration-related issues by manually updating the target configuration. Performance tune the environment in parallel.
Parent topic: Choosing a migration approach