What you need to Prepare for Before your MuleSoft Upgrade to 4.9: Lessons Learned.
Upgrading your MuleSoft environment provides various benefits, including access to new functionality and enhancements to performance and security. It is considered best practice to keep up with the minor version upgrades, and it is usually a smooth transition.
However, in some releases the impact is greater – such as upgrading to MuleSoft 4.9 with Java 17 (from Java 8 or 11). If you are currently on Java 8 or 11 with MuleSoft runtime version 4.6 or below, you may be aware that there is an impending end to standard MuleSoft support and you should make plans to upgrade to Java 17 and MuleSoft 4.9 as soon as possible.
Read more about the MuleSoft support timeline here.
At Apps Associates, we have helped various customers transition from older versions of MuleSoft runtime to the newest release. To help you navigate this process, we have distilled some critical lessons learned from our project experience.
Steps to ensure a successful and smooth MuleSoft upgrade project.
- Inventory of Applications: Before you upgrade, list the application names and thoroughly document the purpose of each application.
- Identify the connector versions: Review your pom.xml files and list the dependency versions, then review MuleSoft release notes for understanding the support for Java 17 and fixes for known issues.
- Configure the Studio Version: MuleSoft has released Anypoint Studio versions to support specific runtime releases. It is important to understand how to configure the studio to support dev activities for your specific requirements. Additionally, knowing how to install and launch the studio and be able to run the applications locally.
- Custom connectors: Review your custom connectors and their dependencies. List them, then prepare to publish the latest version of artifact to Exchange using supported 4.9 Maven and Java versions, so that your custom connector will be compatible to Java 17. This is an important step as all the dependent applications now should use compatible custom connector version.
- Environment & Infrastructure Assessment: Understand your current deployment model such as Cloudhub, On-Prem, Runtime Fabric or Hybrid. While you may keep the same model in the upgrade, it is important to plan the deployment environment and follow specific upgrade steps.
- Code Management strategy: Design a code management strategy such as creating a new copy or version control from the PROD source and a mechanism to support your business enhancements and emergency break fixes etc. It is important that you don’t lose access to working copies.
- Testing Strategy: Testing is a critical step for both your IT team and business team. It’s important to ensure everyone is aware of the impending changes, and plan to test critical business scenarios prior to go-live. Your test plan should include end-to-end regression testing, identify key scenarios, and use automated MUnit testing as necessary.
- Prepare for Go-Live: To prepare a functional go-live plan, document and perform the steps in each non-prod instance including UAT. Once you confirm there have been no issues, you can repeat the same steps in the Production environment. This is a good strategy for all your projects – go-live planning and testing is critical to success.
Lessons Learned: Challenges
In our experience, Apps Associates has learned some important lessons through these migrations. As a trusted technology partner, we have extensive experience in integration systems and understand how to execute upgrades seamlessly. The following are a few key challenges in the migration journey and how we overcome them.
- Error Handling: The access to certain elements in MuleSoft “error” Object has changed with the upgrade. This is due to Java 17 not providing direct access to object’s internal elements. So, some of your custom Error Handling mechanisms may not behave as expected, or cause errors while accessing the elements in runtime. The following are some of the elements that cause errors.
-
-
- error.cause.detailMessage
- error.muleMessage.typedValue
- error.errorType.asString
-
These elements must be replaced with new elements.
- Scripting Modules: The latest version of scripting modules does not come with libraries; you need to specifically add libraries to your pom.xml files. Example: Groovy script, java script and json libraries must be attached to Mule app dependencies list.
- Updating variables in scripting module: This is a common mechanism if your application was originally built on 3.x and upgraded later. Unless the scripting logic specifically returns the updated variable from groovy script, the updated value won’t be available post the scripting component. Similarly, updating values in payload inside a for-each scripting module won’t be accessible after for-each.Other unique challenges that could occur in different connector release versions and fixed in the latest versions must be revisited, such as security fixes, obsolete functionality, mandatory certificate additions or updates and data validations etc.
Connect With Apps:
Apps Associates is a trusted partner with more than twenty years of experience. We excel at complex integrations, and understand how each individual components fits into your strategy – creating tech harmony and giving you peace of mind. To get started on your migration journey, contact the team at Apps today.