Well it seems like my woes with OpenCMS migration seem to be over, but the issue is so strange only experience can enlighten one. This still re-inforces my thoughts that Java based applications are huge, complex and diffcult to work with.

My expectations for a migration are as follows:

a) Copy application files from one server to another

b) Move application database from one server to another

c) Configure application files to use new server

The steps do not matter whether operating systems have been changed or not, as long as the same versions of the application server remain the same (no major version changes). However with OpenCMS it seems like that is not the case. The database files have to be in sync at a point in time, yet this is not mentioned in any of the manuals, my team seems to know this by heart

How did we solve this, almost by accident, it may seem, but we have to give credit to the Three Pipe problem solving technique championed by Sherlock Holmes. Basically we left the problem alone for the time it takes to smoke 3 pipes (3 days), then we had a fresh perspective of the problem.

If the basic migration has failed, how else can one export data from one openCMS installation to another, use the “inbuild CMS export functionality”, but the site is too large! Then export a folder at a time.

And bam!! there it was, almost like a charm, one by one the folders were included in the site and one by one the website took shape. Now I am off for a good nights sleep, the vampires and monsters will have gone for a rest, as we tackle the rest of the problems in this case.

Thanks Sherlock, loved the 2010 edition of your movie too. I promise to re-read all your exploits before 1 year is up