Planning for migration

Each migration is unique, depending on the earlier version of IBM^® WebSphere^® Portal Express that you are migrating from. Successful migration requires careful planning and execution, understanding the hardware and software requirements, and being aware of the tools, techniques, and issues that are involved.

You can migrate information to WebSphere Portal Express Version 6.1 from these earlier offerings:

IBM WebSphere Portal Express Express Version 5.0.2.2, 5.0.2.3, and 6.0 or later
IBM WebSphere Portal Express Express Plus Version 5.0.2.2 and 5.0.2.3

Throughout the rest of the migration topics, all WebSphere Portal Express versions prior to Version 6.1 are collectively referred to as the previous version and Version 6.1 is referred to as the current version.

Before you begin

Hardware and software requirements vary with each WebSphere Portal Express version. Before migrating, determine whether you need to upgrade your operating system. For example, if you want to migrate data from V5.0.2.2 running on Windows^® 2000 Server, you need to upgrade your operating system to Windows 2003.

You can migrate from an older version of an operating system to a newer supported version of that operating system Migrating between different operating systems, however, is not supported. For example, you cannot migrate from a Windows operating system to a Linux operating system.

When installing to Linux, ensure that the ulimit for your operating system is set to 10240.

WebSphere Portal Express migration reuses the database tables from the earlier version in the current version.

You can migrate from an older version of a database server to a newer version of that database server. Migrating between different database servers, however, is not supported. For example, you cannot migrate from a DB2^® database server to an Oracle database server.

Note: When migrating Microsoft SQL Server database tables to WebSphere Portal Express version 6.1, the minimum level that is supported is SQL Server 2005. If you used Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with WebSphere Portal Express version 6.0.1.x, you need to install and configure SQL Server 2005 before you can migrate to WebSphere Portal Express version 6.1. For details, see technote 1295545 on configuring Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

Important: To ensure that migration works properly, all users and groups must be the same between the previous version and the current version.

What is migrated

The following information is automatically migrated:

Web Content Management Version 6.0 Web content, rendering portlets, and application data
Note: The Version 6.0 authoring portlet is not migrated; you must use the new authoring portlet in WebSphere Portal Express Version 6.1.
Themes and skins configuration information that includes locale-specific titles for your themes and skins and information on what skins are allowed for the themes.
Custom portlet applications and their associated access control information.
Portal resources and their associated access control.
Customizations created by privileged users to modify private copies of their pages.
Markups
Cross-page wires

The following information must be migrated manually either before or after migration:

Custom themes and skins configuration such as, but not limited to, the context menu and drag and drop.
Property files and global and service settings are node and version specific and should be replaced by the configuration changes that are made to the system.
Access control and modification for administrative pages and portlets.
Credential vault data.
Struts portlets built with previous Struts Framework version.
Repackaging of cooperative portlets to update the pbportlet.jar.
Customized portlets.
Search collections.
Collaborative component properties.

The following information must be migrated after migrating WebSphere Portal Express:

Web Content Management Version 2.5, 2.6, or 5.1 Web content data and portlets

The following information must be enabled in the current version:

Favorites
Transcoding Technology, if used in your previous environment

Note: Information in the earlier version is not migrated if it is not supported in the current version. This applies to (but is not limited to) portlets and components that are no longer supported.