Installation and Upgrade Guides › SiteMinder Upgrade Guide › Planning Migration and Upgrades › How to Distinguish Between Migration and Upgrade

How to Distinguish Between Migration and Upgrade

There are differences between an upgrade and a migration of a SiteMinder environment. An upgrade consists of a series of steps that you perform on a single SiteMinder component, such as Policy Server or Web Agent. During an upgrade, you take each component offline, perform the upgrade, and bring the component online. Each component is unavailable to the others during an upgrade.

A migration is a sequence of upgrades that you perform over an extended period, while maintaining overall system availability. The key to migration is proper planning. To minimize problems, develop a migration plan before starting a migration.

Consider the following:

• List the order in which you plan to upgrade each SiteMinder component.
• Identify the host systems where you plan to upgrade or install SiteMinder components.
• Identify the directory servers and databases functioning as SiteMinder data stores.
• Determine if SiteMinder r6.0 SP6 supports the operating systems, directory servers, and databases in your environment.

  Note: For more information, see the SiteMinder Platform Support Matrix.

• Implement a recovery plan that lets you return to your original configuration if the upgrade fails. You cannot revert a migration or an upgrade. We recommend creating a back–up of the entire environment before beginning a migration.
• Decide where to store exported policy store data files for safekeeping. Avoid overwriting or misplacing these files.
• Decide where to import old policy store data.
• Create a non–production environment where you can perform a test migration. Performing a test migration lets you become familiar with the processes associated with the migration and troubleshoot issues that can compromise mission–critical resources in a production environment.
• Develop a strategy to test the performance of each SiteMinder component.