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Upgrading and migrating Business Automation Workflow

By TODD DEEN posted Wed June 30, 2021 10:04 AM

  


The Business Automation Workflow (BAW) and IBM Integration Designer (IID) lifecycle page is the best place to check for the latest product versions.
You generally want to target either the latest version or latest LTSR for an upgrade. If you go to an LTSR then there might be many more required Ifixes depending on how old the release is.
Note: The version scheme recently changed. It is not unexpected for some version numbers to be skipped so it is good to look at this page for the available versions.

To get to the upgrade steps for a product version, click the link on this page that will take you to the product specific fix list. The fix list includes download links that take you to the page including the upgrade instructions. Then, you need to select the tab for install.

For BAW, I would recommend reviewing the intro sections of the install tab and appropriate profile upgrade tab. You can also review the what's new and fix list to see what has changed since the prior version.
To start an upgrade, start with "Installing the upgrade" on the install tab. This will take you through downloading all the needed files and then point you to the appropriate upgrade instructions. It is highly recommended that you take backups and carefully read the tips associated with each step to avoid problems. Many steps are only needed in certain circumstances so you may want to read through the steps before executing them to ensure you understand which ones are needed.


Migrating Business Automation Workflow to the same version on new hardware
When migrating from one set of hardware to another set of hardware, it must be done between installations of the exact same version. If you also need to upgrade then you must choose to do one then the other. It is recommended to validated the environment in between so you can narrow the scope problems you might need to troubleshoot.
Note: These steps are mainly for when you want to move your database and profiles to make use of a new installation, new hardware, and/or new hostnames. Some profile customization could be lost so it is good to keep a record of customization that has been done to the environment.


Migrating artifacts
If you do not need your runtime data then you can use artifact migration to setup new environments with your applications. This can also be used to move to other BAW platforms types like the Cloud Pak. This is related to development environment migration like Workflow Center. With new runtime environments, you can deploy applications based on what your development environment supports.


Are you still using Business Process Manager? If so, that product went end of support last year and you should be trying to upgrade to BAW. You may want to consider one of IBM's services offerings if you need help. Upgrading IBM Business Process Manager to the latest product level summarizes the upgrade.
At this time you might want to consider BAW 20.0.0.2 as the latest LTSR or BAW 21.0.2 as the latest version.


Are you still using desktop Process Designer? If so, that recently went end of support and you should be trying to move off this tool as soon as possible. If you are using a significant amount of deprecated content then it could require a lot of effort to update your applications. Converting from desktop Process Designer to web-based Process Designer provides guidance on how the process works.
Note: When moving to a container version of BAW, you also need to perform a similar conversion process to remove any deprecated content and unsupported features from existing applications.



#BusinessAutomationWorkflow(BAW)
#BusinessProcessManager(BPM)
#migration
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