ibm cloud - How do I move my existing WebSphere application to Liberty on Bluemix?

Question

I have an existing WebSphere Application Server v7 application and I would like to run it on the Liberty runtime in Bluemix. Can I simply take the app as-is and try importing it into one of the starter apps I see in Bluemix?

Answer 1

The short answer, yes, you can take your existing WebSphere Application Server v7 application, create a Java Cache Web starter application and download the starter code, modify the code with your existing application, bind any appropriate services and push the application to Bluemix. However, there may be Java EE programming model and WebSphere API differences between WebSphere Application Server v7 and the Liberty Runtime on Bluemix that could cause problems for your application.

Because of these potential differences, I recommend that you first get your app working on a standalone Liberty profile, then move it to the Bluemix environment.

There are three migration tools you should be aware of that will assist you in moving your app from a WebSphere Application Server full profile to the Liberty profile:

• Migration Toolkit: Liberty Tech Preview
• Migration Toolkit for Application Binaries (Tech Preview)
• WebSphere Configuration Migration Tool

To download these toolkits, and for more information on how to bring them altogether to accomplish your goals, please see the link below:

https://developer.ibm.com/wasdev/docs/move-applications-liberty-using-migration-toolkit/