The WebSphere Application Server Migration Tools can be used to analyze the contents of an application and determine what changes are needed to migrate to Liberty, a new version of WebSphere, or a new version of Java. In this post we will explore the new features in the 22.0.0.4 release. Information about how to use our tools can be found in the WebSphere Application Server Migration Toolkit documentation. For an overview of the application modernization process, see the Modernizing applications to use WebSphere Liberty learning path.
The Migration Toolkit for Application Binaries (binary scanner) is a command line tool for analyzing application binaries. After scanning the application, it produces a report with configuration information, a list of necessary code changes for migration, and a view of the contents within the archive. This report can be generated in multiple formats, and you can use different parameters to filter information that you would like to be included. More information about the binary scanner can be found in the What is the Migration Toolkit for Application Binaries? blog post.
The WebSphere Application Server Migration Toolkit (source scanner) is an Eclipse plugin for analyzing source code directly within your development environment. The source scanner uses the same set of rules as the binary scanner to flag code changes that will be necessary for your migration. When possible, automatic code changes (quick fixes) are available. More information about the source scanner can be found in the What is the WebSphere Application Migration Toolkit? blog post.
This quarter's release focuses on the binary scanner, with several improvements to application scanning, reports, and configuration migration. Download the new release of the migration tools today and give them a try!
Binary Scanner
Additional Configuration Migration to Liberty: Session Persistence
Support was added in the binary scanner for migrating additional WebSphere Application Server configuration to Liberty server.xml. Configuration for session persistence using a database, including the required datasource resource, is now migrated to Liberty.
Additional Configuration Migration to Liberty: Transaction Service
Transaction service settings are now migrated to Liberty. This includes transaction recovery, with both file-based and database-based transaction logging configuration. Transaction peer recovery is set up to accelerate deployment in cloud environments.
Inventory Operational Considerations Improvements
The Operational Considerations section of the Inventory report includes more information on session persistence, transaction recovery, and WebSphere Application Server traditional Network Deployment clusters. This can help you better understand the operational environment your application was deployed to in WebSphere traditional as you migrate the application to its new environment.
Transformation Advisor Data Collection Updates
A few months ago in our 22.0.0.2 release, support was added for the binary scanner to generate a data collection to be uploaded to IBM Cloud Transformation Advisor (TA) using the --ta option. The location of the generated archive for upload to Transformation Advisor is printed after running the data collection to make it easier to understand what was produced and should be updated to Transformation Advisor. TA data collection includes additional information on traditional WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment clusters detected during a scan.
The Migration Toolkit for Application Binaries has added parameters for controlling scans using the --ta options:
--stopOnMissingBinary - Specify to stop the data collection when an application binary cannot be found either in the configuration or in its expanded form.
--stopOnMissingSharedLibrary - Specify to stop the data collection when a shared library is not accessible from the scan location.
--excludeApplicationFile - Specify the path to the file containing the names of the applications to exclude from the scan.
JAX-RPC Detection Improvements
We found that sometimes when we detected JAX-RPC in an application it was really old remnants that were no longer used. We've made modifications to reduce flagging of unused JAX-RPC artifacts.
Download the new release of the migration tools today and give these new features a try!