Description

This article describes the overall planning and execution of migrating an existing xDB Cloud set to Sitecore Managed Cloud, xDB tier (also referred as xDB Cloud 3.0).

Sitecore Managed Cloud delivers a cutting-edge technology stack of Azure PaaS (Platform-as-a-service), so Sitecore customers can benefit from better reliability, full control, and customization possibilities of the xDB Cloud environment. Read more about Managed Cloud features here.

The migration process requires contractual and architectural changes, so we recommend that you plan an upgrade in advance. During an upgrade process execution, xDB Cloud must be offline. However, migration does not involve data loss, so all collected data is preserved.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure the following prerequisites are met for your environment.

Compatibility requirements:

Source version	Target version
xDB Cloud on Sitecore XP 8.1 Initial or later	Managed Cloud xDB on Sitecore XP 9.3 Initial Release
xDB Cloud on Sitecore XP 8.1 Initial or later	Managed Cloud xDB/xP on Sitecore XP 9.2 Initial Release
xDB Cloud on Sitecore XP 8.1 Initial or later	Managed Cloud xDB on Sitecore XP 9.1 up to Update-1
xDB Cloud on Sitecore XP 8.1 Initial or later	Managed Cloud xDB on Sitecore XP 9.0 up to Update-2

 

Note:

• Migration to Managed Cloud is supported for xDB Cloud 1.0 and 2.0.
• How to upgrade xDB Cloud Sitecore version is described here.

Contractual requirements:

• Sitecore Managed Cloud requires an order contract different than one for xDB Cloud 2.0. Contact your Sitecore sales representative for details.

Solution

To initiate the migration of an xDB Cloud to Managed Cloud xDB, use the following process as general guidance:

Note: The tables that follow refer to RACI matrix for responsibility assignment.

Migrate to Managed Cloud xDB on Sitecore XP 9.0 Initial and later action list:

#	Action	Customer	Sitecore	ETA	Is downtime?
1	Sign Managed Cloud xDB agreement corresponding to previous xDB Cloud legacy agreement	R, A	C, I	N/A
2	Clone existing environment (CD & CM) & upgrade it to target Sitecore version (v9 or later)	R, A	C, I	N/A
3	Schedule upgrade of xDB part with Sitecore within support ticket, provide essential data to Sitecore	R, A	R, C, I	N/A
4	Prepare xDB database migration	C, I	R, A	2 days
5	Create new Managed Cloud xDB v9 set	C, I	R, A	1 day
6	Disable data collection from 8.1 or 8.2 CD & CM	R, A	C, I	N/A	Downtime begins
7	Re-configure live environment to new v9 + connect it with newly created Managed Cloud xDB v9	R, A	C, I	N/A	Downtime ends
8	Execute data migration to new Managed Cloud xDB v9 set	C, I	R, A	From 2 to X days*
9	Redeploy Marketing definitions to new set	R	A, C, I	N/A
10	Begin data processing & aggregation on xDB side	C, I	R, A	N/A

*MongoDB Contacts to xConnect Migration: About 2 days for one million contacts and one million interactions. MongoDB Reference Data to xDB migration: About 2 hours for 500 000 data records.

After migration is completed: The existing xDB Cloud order contract must be scheduled for termination. For termination, use the following process.

Note: If you do not have a valid Sitecore certification, you must contact your Sitecore Implementation Partner to register the support ticket for you. If this is not possible, register a Sitecore user account, then contact your Sitecore representative for access to the Sitecore Support portal.