This is a guest post by Ramanathan Murthy. If you’d like to contribute to our blog, feel free to get in touch with us.
Magento 2 Migration! It has been a matter of ‘Should I definitely do it?’ or ‘When to do it?’ and ‘How should I do it?’ for plenty of eCommerce business owners. As a matter of fact, all the three questions should be taken into serious consideration and let’s see how Magento stores can come out of confusions prevailing in all of these cases.
Why Should I Migrate to Magento 2?
This one’s quite easy and a pretty straightforward question to answer. Statistics would work better than words and here they are.
Facts that suggest why stores in Magento (1.x) should migrate to Magento 2:
– Zend framework and HTML5
– Powered by PHP 7
– Process 135,000+ orders per hour
– Improved performance and scalability
– 50% better loading speed
– 38% faster checkout
– 2.1 million more pageviews per hour
– Built in ‘Full Page’ and ‘Varnish Cache 4’
– Better SEO capabilities
– 117% more orders
– Heightened security features
Source: fmeextensions.com
Magento 2 has been enhanced in a variety of areas and the above gist is a handpicked one from the lot. With Magento 2, the updates cover every segment like the developers’ community, eCommerce store administrators and end users making it a preferred choice for e-retail businesses to constantly evolve and become future proof.
When to Migrate to Magento 2?
Speculations and rumors in the recent past were on a high regarding Magento deciding to stop support for Magento 1.x versions. However, the air was cleared very soon, thanks to Magento Inc for coming up with an announcement through Jason Woosley that banished all the guess works.
Key points from the official report:
– Magento 1.x support won’t be stopped anytime soon
– But no more improvement for Magento 1.x versions
– Support will be stopped with 18 months prior notice
– And finally, the future of open source Magento truly is Magento 2
How to Migrate to Magento 2?
First things first, while migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2, make sure the following components are migrated.
– Product Data
– Customer Data
– Theme
– Extensions
– Custom Code
While theme, code and custom codes can be moved in the initial phases of migration, incremental data like orders, customer reviews, inventory updates and more will have to be carefully timed. The following will be a phase-level guide for planning your move from Magento 1 to Magento 2.
Magento 2 Migration Plan and Flowchart
Magento 2 migration involves both manual setup and automation done using data migration tools at different stages to perform an error-free move. Data migration tools provide a high degree of advantage when it comes to personalizing specific data to be migrated.
Here is a flow of Magento 2 Migration as per official Magento Developers’ Community
Source: http://devdocs.magento.com/
Phase-by-Phase Magento 2 Migration Plan
Phase 1: Check on Extensions
To begin with, audit your extensions. Perform a thorough check on your existing extensions which can identify the least used, or unused extensions which can be discarded.
Additionally, you might require only specific data from extension databases to be migrated. Make a note of everything that’s required.
– Review extensions
– Find their counterparts in Magento 2
– Ditch unwanted extensions
– Choose database assets to be migrated from extensions
Phase 2: Install Magento 2.0
Magento 2 installation happens here. Download the Magento 2.x in a new hardware system and also install the data migration tool to automate certain migration duties.
Using the data migration tool, you can move selected database gathered by extensions to the new Magento 2 store and also migrate the customized changes done to your extensions.
Phase 3: Migration Preview
At this phase perform a test run before getting into real migration action.
– Copy Magento 1 database to a staging URL
– Start migrating databases to Magento 2
– Test the Magento 2 site in staging URL
Phase 4: Start real migration from Magento 1 to 2
Before getting into migration mode, make sure that network access is available in both the hardware systems in which you’ve got Magento 1 and Magento 2 version installed so that the data migration tool can connect both databases without hiccups.
– Stop activities in Magento 1 admin and cron jobs
– Exclude incremental changes. For ex: Orders, inventory, reviews, customer data
– Migrate the settings of your store and website
– Manually move the media files (images, videos etc.,) by copying them from Magento 1 to 2
– Making use of the Data Migration Tool’s file mapping, copy data from extensions
Phase 5: Get incremental data updated
Your accumulated incremental data like inventory, customer comments, reviews, orders etc., should be updated to Magento 2 once after getting store settings and data from extensions moved.
Check your new Magento 2.x store for issues and fix them.
Phase 6: Down Magento 1 and Up Magento 2 store
– Turn on maintenance mode for Magento 1 store
– Start Magento 2 cron job
– Using any tool of your preference to start caching pages in Magento 2 store
– Test your Magento 2 store thoroughly
– Change server settings directing it to Magento 2
– GO LIVE!
Well, that’s it! You’re done and ready to get rolling. Magento 2 migration involves meticulous care and effort. These guidelines would help if you are already a techie. If not, go for a certified Magento Business Solution Partner to mediate your move.
Drop your thoughts in the comments section below. All the best for a clean and sound Magento 2 move.
Author Bio:
Ram is a Content Writer who writes for thecommerceshop.com and finds interest in connecting with tech enthusiasts and businesses through his tech blogs. While not writing, he gets busy with marathon talks and movie plans.
