Migrate WebSphere Commerce Version 8 to WebSphere Commerce Version 9

The following section outlines the high-level steps that complete to migrate to WebSphere Commerce Version 9. Start by migrating the development environment, which includes the development database, custom assets, storefront, and search application. With a successfully migrated development environment, you then deploy your migrated assets to the WebSphere Commerce Version 9 runtime environments.


Before beginning

  1. Review Planning to migrate WebSphere Commerce.

  2. Apply Mod Pack 1 or higher to the WebSphere Commerce Version 8 development and runtime environments.

  3. Update the development and runtime databases to one of the following versions.

  4. Update the WebSphere Commerce Version 8 development and runtime environments to the to latest NIST SP 800-131A security standards.

  5. From the WebSphere Commerce Version 8 environment, ensure that all tasks are approved and all workspaces are closed.

  6. From the WebSphere Commerce Version 8 environment, use the following utilities to ensure that the staging database and production database are synchronized:

    1. stagingprop utility

    2. Propagating the search index

    Note: Once the staging and production databases are in sync, a content-freeze must be in effect until the live production database is migrated.

  7. Install the WebSphere Commerce Version 9 development environment, including the latest maintenance package.

  8. Plan and deploy the WebSphere Commerce Version 9 production environment, including the staging environment and the latest maintenance package.


About this task

The following steps outline the entire migration process. It is likely that your migration is completed in planned chunks, starting with migrating the development environments. If we are interested in only migrating the development environment now, complete steps 1 - 12. The remaining steps cover how to package and deploy your migrated assets for ythe production environment, and how to migrate our production database and switch your live traffic to your version 9.0 production environment.


Procedure

  1. Migrate the site security.
    Manually migrate the site security from the WebSphere Commerce Version 8 development environment to the WebSphere Commerce Version 9 development environment.

  2. Migrate your configuration files.
    Migrate the WebSphere Commerce configuration files by manually merging them with or copying them to the WebSphere Commerce Version 9 development environment.

  3. Migrate the development database.
    To migrate the development database from WebSphere Commerce Version 8 to WebSphere Commerce Version 9, we must first prepare the WebSphere Commerce Version 8 development database and the WebSphere Commerce Version 9 development environment. Then, run the migration utility to migrate the WebSphere Commerce Version 8 development database.

  4. Migrate your Aurora store web project.
    To migrate the WebSphere Commerce Version 8 store to WebSphere Commerce Version 9, export your Stores project from the WebSphere Commerce Version 8, then import the project into the WebSphere Commerce Version 9 development environment. Next, configure your imported store project for WebSphere Commerce Version 9.

  5. Migrate our custom struts applications
    WebSphere Commerce Version 9 uses Apache Struts 2 as the preferred platform for developing enterprise Java web applications. Struts 2 provides plugin support for REST and Spring, which are important components of the WebSphere Commerce platform. It is also designed for more streamlined development and is fully integrated with the WebSphere Commerce deployment pipeline.

  6. Migrate the WebSphere Commerce Search customizations.
    Whether you used BOD-based Search of REST-based Search in previous versions of WebSphere Commerce, we can migrate our custom Search assets to use REST-based Search in WebSphere Commerce version 9.0.0.3+.

  7. Migrate your EJB entity beans to Java Persistence API.
    Enterprise Java Entity Beans are no longer supported in WebSphere Commerce Version 9. By using a combination of tools and manual steps, we can migrate your EJB 1.1 entity beans to JPA, and update your code to use WebSphere Commerce Version 9 APIs.

  8. Migrate the Management Center.
    Migrate the Management Center by exporting your LOBTools project from the WebSphere Commerce Version 8 development environment to the WebSphere Commerce Version 9 development environment.

  9. Migrate our custom Physical Service Data Objects.
    Manually migrate our custom physical service data object from the WebSphere Commerce Version 8 development environment to the WebSphere Commerce Version 9 development environment.

  10. Migrate your command and data bean projects.
    Migrating command and data bean projects involves several steps. The WebSphereCommerceServerExtensionsLogic project must be exported from our old development environment, and imported into the WebSphere Commerce Version 9 development environment.

  11. Migrate your Watson Content Hub integration.
    If you integrated Watson Content Hub with the WebSphere Commerce Version 8 development environment, we can migrate this integration to the WebSphere Commerce Version 9 development environment.

  12. Complete your post-migration tasks.
    After you migrate of WebSphere Commerce Version 8 Developer to WebSphere Commerce Version 9 Developer, complete the following post-migration steps.

  13. Verify your migrated application.
    Now in the migration, you have a fully migrated development environment. Verify that your migrated assets are working as designed in the development environment.

  14. Package our custom assets for deployment to the WebSphere Commerce Version 9 environment.
    The WebSphere Commerce Build tool is the tool that we use to build our customizations into input packages. These packages can be used to build new container images and deploy to the runtime environments. If a CI/CD pipeline implemented, you do not need to concern yourself with deployment.

  15. Build and deploy your version 9.0 custom containers.
    Implement a continuous deployment pipeline for WebSphere Commerce Version 9.0.0.1+ by utilizing Docker containers.

  16. Migrate the staging database.
    Migrate the staging database by backing up the database, then restoring the backup to the WebSphere Commerce Version 9 environment. Once the database is restored, we can run the premigration check and migration commands.

  17. Migrate our production database.
    Migrating our production database is completed in two parts: migrating a copy (or offline version) of our production database, and migrating the live version of the database. By migrating an offline version of our production database, we can test that database in the WebSphere Commerce Version 9 production environment.