ATG Migration 9_1 to 10_1

Question

To Do ATG Migration from 9.1p4 t0 ATG 10.1.1 commerce platform
After reviewing the migration document following is my understanding on how to do successful migration     
     1. My exitising application is running on ATG9.1p4 with all the OOTB and custom data in it
          - I execute startExportRepository command to export and create an xml file of my entire data [There will be multiple files depending on schema - Pub, Core, Cata, Catb]
     2. Once the existing data is exported, I run the update/add scripts as mentioned in document for ATG 10.0 and then to ATG 10.1
     3. Execute startImportRepository to import all the data to the db that is now having ATG 10.1 schema.
     My question is what happens to my exiting schema and data from ATG 9.1 ? Do I create a new schema for 9.1 and then run the migration scripts or Do I run on the existing data ? If so, what about the custom tables that I created for 9.1 ?

Answer 1

Hi ,
Its always better to practice migration on a copy of your original schema , so that you can be sure that your application runs smoothly , and any mistake can be corrected :
1- You may not need to backup all your data , only backup what the migration guide says.
2- custom tables - it depends on what you have customized and how much , best bet will be to migrate as per migration guide , and then start the server and look out for errors in server console , then fix them as required.
once your are sure of all changes you need , document and do it on your original data.
migration from 9 to 10 is going to be tricky - multisite - pricing - promotion changes , yeah but it will be very easy from 10 to 10.1
Answer to your question - as your are migration your 9.1 schema - and running scripts on same schema - the same schema and your custom tables will be used for 10.1 , your do not need to export and backup everything , migration scripts are written in such a way to avoid that, else it wont be a migration - it will be a new database installation.
other useful points :
1- Use .bat/.sh files of migration kit , they run scrips in proper order.
2- open the scrips in a text editor and go through it , sometimes important comments are written inside them like which tables to backup before running them.
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Praveer