Portal V6.1.x on application server V6.1: Migrating portal search collections

When you migrate or upgrade IBM® WebSphere® Portal Express® to a later version, the data storage format and index structure of Portal Search is not backward compatible between the different versions. If you migrate your portal to a later version and want to continue using your search collections, you need to preserve them before you migrate your portal and import them into the upgraded portal after the migration.

1. Before you migrate your portal to a later version, export your search collections. This step exports the configuration data and all document URLs of your search collections.
   Notes:

   1. Before you export a collection, make sure that the portal application process has write access to the target directory location. Otherwise you might get an error message, such as File not found.
   2. When you specify the target directory location for the export, be aware that the export overwrites files in that directory.
2. For each collection, document the following data:
   • The target file names and directory locations to which you export the collection.
   • Location, name, description, and language.
   • Settings for the Specify collection language and Remove common words from queries options.
3. Delete the search collections from your existing portal. Otherwise they can be corrupted by the import step that follows later. If you are upgrading from one portal version to another, you do not need to delete the search collections, as the new collections are stored under a different directory path location.
4. Upgrade your WebSphere Portal Express as required.
5. Create empty search collections that you can use later to hold the imported collections. Complete the following fields and select the following options according to the information that you documented in step 2:

   Location of Collection

   The location can match the old setting, but does not have to match it.

   Name of Collection

   The name can match the old setting, but does not have to match it.

   Description of Collection

   The description can match the old setting, but does not have to match it.

   Specify Collection Language

   Select this to match the old setting as documented in step 2.

   Select Summarizer

   The value is overwritten by the import process.

   Remove common words from queries (for example. in, of, on, etc.)

   Check or clear this setting to match the old setting as documented in step 2.

   You do not have to add content sources or documents, as that is completed by the import process.
6. Check that the target search collections that you created in step 5 are empty. Do not import collection data into a target collection that already contains sources or documents.
7. Import the search collection data into the portal. For the import source information, use your documented file names and directory locations to which you exported the collections before the portal upgrade.
8. When importing Web Content Manager collections:
   1. Modify the target URL for the affected content sources to use the IP address of the new portal server. Click the content source, select the General parameters tab, and modify the field Collect documents linked from this URL. In addition, make sure to modify the SeedlistID in the target URL to use site area path, for example SeedlistId=Migration/Site01/SiteArea01.
   2. Modify SeedlistId in the URL to use site area path,
   3. Modify the hostname of security realms for the affected content sources to use the IP address of the new portal server. Click Content source, select the Security tab, click Edit security item button, modify the Host Name field and select the Update check box and click Save.