Hi @tanuj05 You can follow below step-by-step plan:
1. Assess current environment (Discovery)
- Inventory AEM instances (6.0–6.5), custom bundles, third-party libs, ACS AEM Commons usage, workflows, replication agents, Sling/OSGi configs, Dispatcher rules, integrations (SAML, OAuth, external services), active run modes.
- Measure content size (#nodes, assets volume), custom indexes, corrupted nodes, large binary blobs, and response/slowness hotspots.
- Run repository health checks (oak-run checks), and identify deprecated API usage. Why: Pinpoints blockers and helps estimate effort and migration approach.
2. Define target architecture & migration strategy
- Decide approach: lift-and-shift (minimal change) vs. re-architect (cloud-native patterns) vs. hybrid phased migration. For AEMaaCS you typically must modernize code; pure lift-and-shift is rarely possible.
- Define environments, CDN/Dispatcher approach, authentication, integration endpoints, and rollback strategy.
- Plan timeline including content freeze windows and performance acceptance criteria.
3. Prepare project structure for AEMaaCS
- Adopt AEM Project Archetype appropriate for AEMaaCS (cloud-ready archetype).
- Move code to Git (Cloud Manager requires Git repos): code, dispatcher config, and build definitions.
- Convert build to Cloud Manager compatible CI/CD (Maven build, Cloud Manager pipeline). Why: AEMaaCS uses Cloud Manager and Git-first deployments.
4. Modernize custom code (cloud-ready)
- Compile and test code against the target AEM SDK and Java versions.
- Replace deprecated APIs; use Sling Models, Sling servlets, and OSGi Declarative Services (annotations). Avoid repository-dependent hacks.
- Remove unsupported patterns: no direct file-system access for repository data, no custom run-modes relying on local file system, avoid use of Jackrabbit internal APIs.
- Convert custom scheduled jobs to cloud-friendly patterns (Sling Jobs/Quartz alternative).
- Ensure thread-safety and statelessness where possible.
- Containerize configuration: externalize environment-specific values to run-mode-independent OSGi configs or use Cloud Manager-provided secrets. Why: AEMaaCS runtime is ephemeral and managed; code must be stateless and API-compliant.
5. Update front-end & editor experience
- Ensure touch UI compatibility; convert Classic UI components to Touch UI if needed.
- If using SPA frameworks, adopt AEM SPA Editor patterns and AEM SPA SDK.
- Optimize component rendering and caching patterns (make components cache-friendly). Why: Editor behavior and front-end integration can differ in cloud runtime.
6. Dispatcher & caching
- Convert dispatcher configuration to code and place it in the Git repo for Cloud Manager.
- Review caching rules, TTLs, invalidation, allowedUrlParams, and deny lists; adopt CDN and cache invalidation patterns supported by AEMaaCS. Why: Dispatcher is handled as config in Cloud Manager and must be deterministic and versioned.
7. Content preparation and cleanup
- Prune unused content and old assets, remove large unused renditions.
- Standardize content structures and ensure templates/components are compatible.
- Resolve ACL issues and remove system or suspicious nodes. Why: Less content reduces transfer time and post-migration cleanup.
8. Choose content migration method
- Small/medium instances: use validated content package approaches (Vault/CRX packages) with careful ordering.
- Large instances: use Adobe-recommended content transfer tools or custom migration pipelines (e.g., Sling content transfer, ACS Commons bulk move tools, or replication agents to cloud author where available). For repository-level migrations consider oak-run tools or repository dumps only if supported/validated by Adobe.
- Plan asset migration separately (large-volume assets may use CDN or external storage integration). Why: Tool choice depends on volume and complexity.
9. Testing & quality gates
- Build CI/CD pipeline in Cloud Manager to run automated functional tests and performance tests.
- Use local AEM SDK to replicate AEMaaCS behavior during development.
- Functional testing: authoring flows, publishing, workflows, custom integrations, search, asset processing.
- Non-functional testing: performance, scalability, security scans. Why: Cloud Manager enforces QA and performance gates for safe deployment.
10. Final cutover & go-live
- Schedule content freeze and run final delta migration of content and assets.
- Run smoke tests and user acceptance testing (UAT).
- Promote code via Cloud Manager pipeline to production.
- Monitor post-go-live health (Sling health checks, Cloud Manager metrics). Why: Final sync minimizes data drift and ensures a clean start in production.
11. Post-migration stabilization
- Monitor logs and performance metrics; tune caching and CDN.
- Validate backups, disaster recovery behavior, and any scheduled jobs.
- Implement ongoing CI/CD improvements and automate regression tests. Why: Ensure sustained stability and fast rollback if needed.
Key tools & artifacts to use
- AEM Project Archetype (cloud-ready)
- AEM Developer SDK (local cloud-like tests)
- Cloud Manager (pipelines, deployment, QA gates)
- Dispatcher-as-code in Git
- AEM Upgrade Toolkit (helps detect deprecated usage)
- ACS AEM Commons (migration helpers where applicable)
- Oak-run / repository health tools (for repo checks)
- Content Transfer options: CRX Packages, ACS tools, custom scripts, or vendor migration tools (size-dependent)
Typical timeline & effort (very approximate)
- Small sites (low custom code, small content): 4–8 weeks
- Medium sites: 3–6 months
- Large or complex enterprise landscapes: 6–12+ months Factors: custom code amount, asset volumes, integrations, business approvals, compliance testing.
Common risks & mitigations
- Incompatible custom code: run early code scan and remediate.
- Large asset volume slow migration: pre-cleanse assets, use parallel migration.
- Unexpected performance regressions: run load tests in pre-prod and tune caching.
- Integration failovers: validate external endpoints and authentication flows.
Validation checklist before go-live
- All components compile and pass unit/integration tests
- OSGi configs externalized and parameterized
- Dispatcher config in Git and validated
- Content integrity checks passed
- Workflows and scheduled jobs validated
- Performance and security tests passed
- Rollback plan and backups ready
