Transformation of configuration files

The WebSphere Application Server master configuration repository stores configuration files for all the nodes in the cell. When you upgrade the deployment manager from one release of WebSphere Application Server to another, the configuration files that are stored in the master repository for the nodes on the old release are converted into the format of the new release. With this conversion, the deployment manager can process the configuration files uniformly. However, nodes on an old release cannot readily use configuration files that are in the format of the new release. WebSphere Application Server addresses the problem when it synchronizes the configuration files from the master repository to a node on an old release. The configuration files are first transformed into the old release format before they ship to the node. WebSphere Application Server performs the following transformations on configuration documents:

Changes the XML name space from the format of the new release to the format of the old release
Strips out attributes of cell-level documents that are applicable to the new release only
Strips out new resource definitions that are not understood by old release nodes