Introduction
Adobe Experience Manager is one of the most powerful tools that has driven digital transformation to the next level. Most businesses these days have mammoth asset libraries and data. It covers images, videos, documents, and all types of digital assets. Creating these assets takes a lot of time and money. Therefore, you must make sure that you store them safely for reuse. AEM serves as an efficient digital asset management (DAM) solution.
If you want to use AEM to the fullest, it is of utmost importance to plan your migration to AEM as a cloud service and set it up well.
Migrating your assets to AEM involves eight easy steps, enlisted below.
- Source Data Analysis
- AEM Instance Preparation
- Source Data Extraction and Clean-Up
- Binary Migration
- Metadata Migration
- Post-Migration Processing
- Validation
- Delta Migration
Source: Adobe Experience League
In this article, we shall discuss all these AEM migration steps in greater detail.
AEM Assets Migration: Eight Steps
1. Analyze the Source Data
At the outset, you must understand your current system and its technical factors. Determine the objective of switching to AEM and how it will help overcome the issues pertaining to the existing CMS or DAM.
Answer the following seven questions before migrating:
- How many external sources are involved?
- How many assets need to be migrated?
- What is the folder structure of the existing system? How are asset binaries and metadata for every asset or folder stored?
- How do I access the assets and their metadata?
- Who manages the available APIs?
- Are API gateway timeouts applied?
- What are the asset formats? Does AEM support them?
2. Prepare the AEM Instance
In a new instance, the implementor will have access to all the system resources. Hence,you need not worry about the downtime during the asset migration in AEM. However, if it is an existing system, the AEM migration services provider must make sure that no routine activities are hampered.
The next step is to go through the Adobe doc for performance. In this step, we check whether the instance can handle the migration activities.
If needed, you will have to install extra packages such as ACS AEM Commons, ACS AEM Tools, S3 ingestor package in AEM, ImageMagick, Ghostscript, etc. on the server.
According to the project and use of the system, you must inspect whether the data store is set up properly or needs reconfiguration.
As a best practice, decide on the folder structure in the initial stage to implement the AEM migration steps smoothly. Also, determine whether you need to use “sling:folder” or “sling:orderedFolder”. Generally, it is advisable to use “sling:folder” to ensure optimal performance. As the name suggests, “sling:orderedFolder” helps in storing the entries in order.
Lastly, you must always prepare DAM Update asset workflow according to the project and customize it, if needed. Also, create new tags if needed and check whether workflows have to be disabled or custom namespace needs to be added.
3. Extract the Source Data
Inform the AEM migration services provider about the data clean up or rearrangement. This step involves the extraction of all information of the existing system and its formatting. It covers all the binary information like the asset name, asset size, unique ID, folder location, and also metadata. It is crucial to check that no assets have the same name in a particular folder.
4. Migrate the Binaries
Binaries can be migrated in a number of ways, according to the requirements and parameters discussed in the first point above.
There are three commonly used binary migration methods, as follows:
- Hard Disk exchange
- Utilize custom processes or semi-custom processes with the help of AWS CLI and AWS bucket listeners.
- Use a mount-drive to download assets and enable AEM to avail locally and ingest with the help of tools like ACS AEM Commons MCP Asset Ingestor, S3 ingestor, Data Ingestor, ACS AEM Tools CSV Asset Importer, etc.
5. Migrate the Metadata
Once the metadata has been cleaned up and formatted according to the asset path and AEM support, you have to ingest them with the help of CSV metadata import OOTB AEM feature or ACS AEM Tools CSV Importer (in delta mode). The latter is better in terms of speed and the results display. Moreover, it is easier to customize the code to handle languages besides English. It also helps in handling larger CSV file or more data input.
6. Focus on the Post-Migration Processing
The assets would have to run through the DAM Update asset workflow to create thumbnails, default/OOTB metadata, etc., or any other workflow if needed. This becomes especially important if your migration approach involves disabling workflow launchers and listeners.
7. Validate the Data
In this step, you carry out the validation for the assets – the count, metadata, size, file name, features included, indexes, and asset search and filtering. The enterprise DAM is now ready with migrated assets after complete validation.
8. Carry Out the Delta Migration
Delta migration refers to the process that exclusively moves the changes made to an environment since the last migration. Its benefits are:
- Minimize the burden on authors and consultants
- Move content more efficiently into AEM
- Enhance the developer experience
Indications of Delta Migration:
Delta migration is advisable when you can carry out a “soft” content freeze. It does not allow deletion of the assets or moving them on the legacy system.
Steps to Carry Out Delta Migration:
You can carry out a delta migration with the help of the ACS Commons Query Packager.
- Download and install ACS Commons to the source AEM instance
- Create a Query Packager page
- Build the package of the tags, then assets, and then pages
- Download the packages and upload to the target AEM instance
Other tools that can help with AEM migration include:
- Best Practice Analyzer (BPA): It inspects code against industry best practices
- Cloud Acceleration Manager (CAM): It offers a unified dashboard offering real-time insights into the health, performance, and scalability of your AEM instances
- Content Transfer Tool: It helps migrate content
In addition to AEM assets migration, you can also implement AEM content migration.
AEM Content Migration : Four Steps
1. Content Evaluation
Define and identify the content types and locate the current source. Evaluate the state of your content and its quantity and quality. Filter out outdated content.
2. Content Mapping
After identifying the content, content mapping comes next. It helps in connecting the old and existing Java Content Repository (JCR) properties in AEM. Recognize attributes from the old system to be migrated and the corresponding attributes in the new system.
3. Content Migration
You can either go for manual migration or automatic migration. Manual migration is recommended when you have a small number of pages or content. On the other hand, automatic migration is advisable while dealing with a large volume of pages or content. It is helpful when minimal content cleaning is required. In case you have both structured and unstructured content in the old system, you should go for hybrid migration.
4. Content Verification
The final step following migration is content verification. Make sure that the migrated content is located correctly within AEM. The migrated content and newly authored content should coexist seamlessly without any issues.
Conclusion
Professional AEM migration experts can help you with proper planning and execution of the entire asset and content migration process. Just make sure you consider the steps discussed here for a smooth transition to the new platform. The experts at Krish help in building an effective AEM migration plan that would minimize the downtime without any data loss.
Get in touch with our experts now and kickstart your migration journey>>
Table of Content
- Introduction
- AEM Assets Migration: Eight Steps
- 1. Analyze the Source Data
- 2. Prepare the AEM Instance
- 3. Extract the Source Data
- 4. Migrate the Binaries
- 5. Migrate the Metadata
- 6. Focus on the Post-Migration Processing
- 7. Validate the Data
- 8. Carry Out the Delta Migration
- AEM Content Migration : Four Steps
- 1. Content Evaluation
- 2. Content Mapping
- 3. Content Migration
- 4. Content Verification
- Conclusion
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Sumesh Soman is an Enterprise Sales and Client Management professional with expertise in eCommerce & online marketing. Since a decade, he has been working as a strategic, digital commerce consultative resource for global clients. Having deep relationships with key platform and ecosystem partners, he is an expert at empowering driven and efficient digital transformations that exceeds client goals.
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The Ultimate Guide to AEM Content Migration
15 November, 2024 Customer demands are rising with the introduction of new experience factors and competition from the market. Once brands decide to enhance the customer experience (CX) and offer them the best they can have from their favorite brands, then AEM Cloud services take the lead. When you wish to migrate your existing web application to AEM’s experience platform, the content and other digital assets must be migrated from the existing CMS to AEM. It’s known as AEM content migration, which ensures that each of these digital assets, pages, and content can seamlessly and easily be migrated into the new system without any loss or compromise during transit.
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