Chapter 5   NetDynamics to iAS 6.0




Overview

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For those who have significant investments in the Sun/NetDynamics Application Server technology, this chapter and it's online detail provides answers to many of the questions about present and future application development paths

NetDynamics Application Server is now part of the iPlanet Application Server. Customers have different migration paths depending on need.

• Updating from previous versions of NetDynamics

• Updating to the J2EE programming Model

See the complete details of NetDynamics migration on the iPlanet website; http://www.iplanet.com/support/nd/ This chapter will act as a starting point for planning guide for decisions surrounding these migrations. This Chapter also discusses some of the issues surrounding how existing NetDynamics customers can start to take advantage of the J2EE development standard in NetDynamics 5 and iAS

The Need to Migrate

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Migration to NetDynamics 5 and J2EE is something that all NetDynamics installations must consider. Migration to NetDynamics 5, even the non-J2EE version, will provide all installations with adequate time to plan further migrations. End-of-life for some earlier versions has been announced, and support for some will terminate.

Beyond the migration to the NetDynamics object framework in NetDynamics 5, J2EE is the set of standards to which most NetDynamics-type applications are moving. Starting to think now about moving to NetDynamics 5 and eventually to the J2EE standard will pay off in flexibility later.

Some of the reasons to move immediately to NetDynamics 5 or iPlanet:

• bug fixes

• product enhancements

• performance improvements - NetDynamics 5.x offers good performance improvements, with some sites reporting over 100% speedup.

• simplified administration - The web server plugin system has been rewritten, is simpler to configure, and now only uses one fixed port to communicate with the application server for simplified firewall configuration.

• server AND studio support for EJBs and their generation

• support for J2EE for full or partial migrations - including Servlets and JSPs

• continued availability of technical support until the end of 2002

• complete product install available in the first versions of the iPlanet application server

Scoping Migrations

Tasks that should be considered to determine whether migration is necessary or desirable and the scope of the migration effort include:

• An architectural overview, including the use of object tiers and direct object binding

• An overview of any custom classes or NetDynamics framework classes

• An examination of a representative sample of the NetDynamics projects

• A pilot migration

These are some examples of some issues that should be addressed (along with the timelines and resources required) when scoping migrations to NetDynamics 5 and beyond to J2EE.

• The expected life span of the applications

• The number of NetDynamics projects and pages which must be migrated

• The extent to which the NetDynamics class libraries are used

• Have the developed applications been carefully tiered into display, business, and data layers?

• What is the number of custom and base classes which must be migrated (and the breakdown of these which are NetDynamics-specific and those that are not)?

• Does the current development process rely heavily on a framework developed to augment or mask the base product's API?

• The extent to which different applications within the organization are interdependent

• How the use of proprietary features of NetDynamics could be addressed in a more standardized fashion

• Whether existing EJBs and other business logic have been written to be independent of NetDynamics Object Framework classes

• What proprietary NetDynamics features are being used that could endanger the project if these features disappear?

• Whether features are needed which are only available via migration

• Whether features or integrated third-party components could not be used after migration

• The need for the additional features of recent JDK releases

• The need for Y2K compliance

• The need for NetDynamics Technical Support

• The need for additional performance

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Migration Paths

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Several different directions can be taken in moving forward with NetDynamics. The migration can be attempted as a single jump to J2EE, or there are several intermediate steps that can be used to provide waypoints and additional options for migration resources:

• NetDynamics 4

• NetDynamics 5 (non-J2EE)

• NetDynamics 5 (J2EE)

• iPlanet J2EE

Using these steps, several different tactics may be employed as to the use of resources in accomplishing the migration of old and new applications:

• Migrate existing projects to NetDynamics 4 or 5 (non-J2EE) depending upon project life span estimates; continue to develop all new projects in NetDynamics 5 (non-J2EE).

• Migrate existing projects to NetDynamics 4 or 5 depending upon project lifespan estimates; new implementations in NetDynamics 5 (non-J2EE) for short-lifespan projects, other new implementations in NetDynamics J2EE.

• Migrate existing projects to NetDynamics 5 (J2EE) as a phased migration - migrate visual elements to J2EE while retaining NetDynamics methods for business logic and data access.

• New applications in, and migration of critical and long-life subprojects to iPlanet J2EE, others left in NetDynamics 5 (session and EJB cross-communication between the two will be supported)

• Migration of all projects immediately to J2EE.

Costs/Benefits of Migration Steps:

Table 1:

Step		Benefit	Cost / Limitation
ND 3 to ND 4		Supported until end of 2000 Better Development Studio CORBA Based Application Server Native support for more databases (DB2, ...) Support for client-side Java Performance enhancements Bug fixes Improved JDK 1.1.x	Migration to new event model is needed for effective continued development Greater CPU and memory required Support for the NetDynamics 4 will be dropped sooner than 5 Port to JDK 1.1.x
ND 3 to ND 5		Supported until 2002- allows time for thorough investigation of J2EE New Web Server Plugin Architecture Better Development Studio, Administration Tool CORBA Based Application Server JDBC support for more databases (DB2, ...) Support for client-side Java Performance enhancements Bug fixes Improved JDK 1.2	Migration to new event model is needed for effective continued development Greater CPU and memory required DS service based on JDBC, requires JDBC drivers Port to JDK 1.2
ND 4 to ND 5 (non-J2EE)		Supported until 2002 - allows time for thorough investigation of J2EE JDK 1.2 New Web Server Plugin Architecture Better Administration Tool Trivial upgrade for many installations Performance Enhancements Bug fixes	DS service based on JDBC, requires JDBC drivers Support for the proprietary API will eventually end A few version 4 PACs no longer supported Greater CPU and memory required
ND 3, ND 4, ND 5, to J2EE	General	The J2EE API is an open platform with a variety of server and development tool implementations	Pure J2EE requires migration of all code dependant on proprietary APIs Display mechanisms of JSPs/Servlets completely different paradigm to ND events Loss of rich event model and project security model Developer retraining in J2EE necessary Greater CPU and memory required
	ND 5 J2EE	Partial/phased migrations possible using J2EE and ND API Preserves training investment Preserves current deployment timelines	Support for the proprietary API will eventually end
	NAS 4 J2EE	Entity EJBs Server has no single point of failure	Migration of all code dependant on the NetDynamics API JDK 1.1.x (may need to BACK-port from NetDynamics 5 under JDK 1.2) Servlet 0.92 (quite different from 1.0) Support for the proprietary API will eventually end No support for any NetDynamics PAC's Loss of productivity of IDE and automatic data binding No interoperability between running ND and NAS apps Requires immediate re-implementation of base, utility, and framework classes
	iAS J2EE	Entity EJBs Server has no single point of failure Interoperability between running ND apps and iAS apps	Migration of all code dependant on the NetDynamics API Loss of productivity of IDE and automatic data binding Requires re-implementation of base, utility, and framework classes

It can be seen here that the decision into which direction to migrate must take in to account not only technical matters, but product timing, existing investment in technology and training, the timeframe to get the development and deployment forces retrained, and project life spans.

Product Support

Product Support timelines for the different versions of NetDynamics must be taken into consideration in the application migration decision process. The following is a summary of the support NetDynamics offers across the various releases of its products (check the website for up-to-date availability of all platforms).

NetDynamics Product Line	End Of Technical Support	Ship date
ND 3	12/31/1999 *	Available now
ND 4	10/01/2000	Available now
ND 5	12/31/2002	Available now
ND 5 J2EE (development release)	12/31/2002	Available now
ND 5 J2EE (deployment release)	12/31/2002	Jan 2000
iAS	-	April 2000

*HP/UX and AIX versions may be available slightly longer, please check for latest information.

2.3.2.2   NetDynamics 4 Generation Products

The NetDynamics 4.0 Application Server should be migrated to NetDynamics 4.1.3 for NT and Solaris, NetDynamics 4.1.2 for HP-UX and AIX for Y2K compliance. The NetDynamics 4.1.2 Application Server is Y2K compliant with the patch and the NetDynamics 4.1.3 Application Server is Y2K compliant. All the PACs are Y2K compliant.

2.3.2.3   NetDynamics 5 Generation Products

All NetDynamics 5 generation products are Y2K compliant.