Layer 7 API Developer Portal Legacy: Migrating from Version 3.5 to 4.x Series Using the Migration Tool

Products

• CA API Developer Portal
• CA API Gateway

Issue/Introduction

The CA API Developer Portal ("Portal") received a significant re-write in version 4.0, and as such had no initial migration path from 3.5. A migration path has been developed since then and is discussed in this article.

Environment

This impacts Portal users on version 3.5 CR6 and newer who are wanting to migrate to Portal 4.x.

Resolution

There is a migration tool to get from 3.5 CR6 and newer to the new 4.x series of Portal.

• The migration tool is a utility and is currently in beta. The vision of this tool is to provide a single-click solution. However, due to the current feature gaps between 3.5 and 4.x and potential customizations that are unique to each environment, CA has implemented a process which includes an assessment/analysis phase to determine migration readiness. The steps to determine readiness are the following:
  1. An initial assessment where the CA Portal migration team presents a vanilla migration run, while learning the various use-cases, and any customizations done in the environment.
  2. A second pass where CA has customized the test environment to match the customer environment.
  3. A proof of concept ("PoC") will be run on your dev environment.

• The tool can perform the following tasks:
  
  • A pre-flight step where the 3.5 Portal entities will be analyzed for migration readiness and will notify the user of any incompatible settings.
  • A migrate step that will move 3.5 Portal entities to the new 4.x Portal if the pre-flight step has passed without errors.
  • A download step with the option to download just the CMS assets, or assets plus metrics data if the pre-flight and migrate steps have passed without errors.
• Prerequisites include the following:
  
  • Portal 3.5 CR6 or newer
  • Gateway 9.2 or newer
• Please note that the migration process is not atomic. This means that if any errors occur during the migration step, the target environment will not be rolled back and will contain all portal entities that were successfully migrated prior to any errors.

Additional Information

• Ensure the latest CR (CR16) is always applied. The migration tool requires CR6 on Portal 3.5, but if a newer CR is out at the time of reading this article then it should be used instead.
• Version 3.5 is also known as the "API Portal Legacy" officially and "Classic Portal" unofficially, and the 4.x series is also known as the "Enhanced Experience Portal".
•  As 3.5 is going End of life more CRs for 3.5 will be released for security patches, bug fixes, and improvements to the portal migration tool. Remember to upgrade to at least CR 16 if attempting to migrate from 3.5 to 4.X especially the new 4.5.
• It is recommended to have the assistance of our services team if attempting this procedure, please contact your account manager if you are thinking about attempting this migration.