Mule 3 to Mulesoft 4 migration, why now?


MuleSoft 3 has been a popular choice for organizations seeking to integrate their applications and systems. However, as of December 2021, MuleSoft 3 has reached its end-of-life, which means that it is no longer supported by MuleSoft. This has significant implications for organizations that are still running MuleSoft 3, as they will no longer receive security updates, bug fixes, or technical support.

As MuleSoft 3 is no longer supported, it’s critical for organizations to migrate as quickly as possible to avoid the potential for security vulnerabilities, system downtime, and other issues that could negatively impact their operations.

MuleSoft 3 to MuleSoft 4 migration doesn’t come for free and for sure not without challenges, however it offers an important range of benefits. Some of the most important are: improved performance, better scalability, and enhanced functionality, among others. Additionally, MuleSoft 4 is a more modern and future-proof platform, with a focus on cloud-native integration and the ability to take advantage of the latest innovations in technology.

In this document, we will discuss the key considerations and steps involved in migrating from MuleSoft 3 to MuleSoft 4. We will explore the changes in architecture, development practices, and deployment strategies that organizations need to be aware of when making the transition. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive guide that will help organizations to assess their migration plan to MuleSoft 4 and guarantee a smooth migration and with minimal disruption.

What’s new in Mulesoft 4?


MuleSoft 4 represents a significant upgrade from its predecessor, MuleSoft 3, in terms of architecture, development practices, and deployment strategies. Here are some of the key changes to be aware of:

    • New architecture

MuleSoft 4 introduces a more modular and lightweight architecture compared to MuleSoft 3. It features a domain-driven design with clear separation between domains, application and runtime. The new architecture allows for better performance, scalability, and easier maintenance.

    • New threading profile

MuleSoft 4 introduces a new threading profile, which replaces the complex and error-prone threading model of MuleSoft 3. The new UBER threading profile simplifies the management of threads, improves performance using the Proactor design pattern for asynchronous execution

    • New Mule event structure

MuleSoft 4 introduces a new Mule event structure, which provides a more flexible and extensible way of handling messages compared to MuleSoft 3. The new event structure allows developers to easily add or remove event processors, making it easier to build complex integration flows.

    • New error format

MuleSoft 4 introduces a new error format, which replaces the MuleSoft 3 exception model. The new error format provides more detailed information about errors, including the HTTP status code, the error message, and additional error details. This allows for better error handling and improved troubleshooting.

    • New DataWeave 2.0

Dataweave 1.0 has been replaced by DataWeave 2.0 in Mule 4. DataWeave is a powerful, functional programming language designed specifically for data integration. It offers advanced data transformation capabilities, such as support for complex data structures, filtering, mapping, and more. DataWeave 2.0 also provides a significant performance boost over Dataweave 1.0.

    • Deprecation of MEL script

Mule Expression Language (MEL) script has been deprecated in MuleSoft 4. Instead, developers are encouraged to use DataWeave 2.0 and other MuleSoft 4 features for data transformation and routing.

    • Cloud-native focus

MuleSoft 4 has a strong focus on cloud-native integration, which allows organizations to take advantage of the benefits of cloud computing, such as scalability, agility, and cost-effectiveness. MuleSoft 4 includes new connectors that are optimized for cloud services such as AWS S3, AWS SQS, Azure Blob Storage and GCP PubSub and so on.

Phase 1: Discovery and Assessment

The discovery and assessment phase is a critical step that involves evaluating the current environment against a set of key indicators, and identifying the requirements and constraints of the migration.

    • Identify the business drivers for the migration

Identify the business drivers for the migration, including the goals and objectives of the migration, the expected benefits, and any risks or challenges that need to be addressed.

    • Discover the current environment

Start by discovering the current environment, including the version of MuleSoft being used, the integrations that are currently in place, and any other relevant information about the existing infrastructure.

    • Assess the impact on existing integrations

Assess the impact of the migration on existing integrations, including any potential changes to the API contracts, data models, and message formats. This will help to identify any required changes to the existing integrations.

    • Identify the required changes

Identify the changes that need to be made to the existing integrations, including any required updates to connectors, message processors, and error handling. This may also involve updating the code to conform to the new programming model of Mule 4.

Phase 2: Define a Strategy

Before embarking on a MuleSoft 4 migration, it is essential to define a strategy that outlines the goals, objectives, and approach of the migration. The strategy phase will result in a well-defined plan that outlines the migration approach, timeline, resource requirements, and expected outcomes. A well-defined strategy provides a solid foundation for the migration project.

    • Develop a migration plan

Develop a migration plan that outlines the approach, timeline, and resources required for the migration. The plan should include a detailed assessment of the current environment, an analysis of the expected benefits and risks, and a step-by-step plan for migrating to Mule 4.

Phase 3: Adopt Build and Innovate

During this phase, the organization begins to implement the migration plan that was established in the strategy phase. The Adopt, Build, and Innovate phase is an iterative process that involves continuous development, testing, and refinement to ensure that the new platform meets the organization’s evolving needs.

    • Define Best Practise and templates (optional – recommended)

Defining best practices and templates is an important part of promoting consistency, saving time, improving quality, ensuring compliance, and sharing knowledge across development teams.

    • Restructure and modernize API implementations (optional – recommended)

Define a systematic approach to building robust applications following common architectural patterns like: orchestration, transformation, routing, data mapping and connectivity across systems. Starting from the existing specification (API assets), carefully plan and execute each step in the implementation process to ensure that the API meets the requirements.

Phase 4: Migration deployment

The Migration Deployment phase is critical to the success of the MuleSoft 4 migration project, as it ensures that the new system is fully operational, delivers the expected benefits, and meets the needs of the organization. The migration team will work closely with stakeholders to ensure that the new platform meets all of the organization’s requirements and that any issues that arise during the deployment are addressed promptly.

    • Define a clear deployment plan

Before starting the deployment process, it is important to have a clear deployment plan that outlines the steps involved in the deployment process, including the deployment target, configuration settings, and deployment tools.

    • Automate the deployment process (optional – recommended)

Automating the deployment process can help to minimize errors and reduce deployment time. This can be done using deployment tools such as Anypoint Platform or a continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline.

    • Test and validate the migration

Develop a comprehensive testing plan that covers all aspects of the migration,including integration testing, regression testing, and performance testing. This will help to validate that the migrated integrations are functioning correctly and meeting the expected performance metrics.

    • Develop a rollout plan to Production

Develop a rollout plan that outlines how the migrated integrations will be rolled out to production. This may involve a phased rollout to minimize the impact on users and to address any issues that arise during the rollout.

Phase 5: Monitor and governor

The Monitor and Govern phase is an ongoing process that takes place after the MuleSoft 4 migration is complete. In this phase, the organization must continually monitor and manage the new system to ensure that it performs as expected and meets the needs of the business and in addition, train the internal team on how to use the new system effectively. The Monitor and Govern phase is a critical component of the MuleSoft 4 migration process, as it ensures that the new platform delivers ongoing value and remains aligned with the organization’s evolving needs.

    • Monitor and optimize the migrated integrations (optional)

Monitor the performance of the migrated integrations and optimize them as necessary to ensure that they are meeting the expected performance metrics.

    • Document and share

Create clear and comprehensive documentation that outlines the API’s purpose, functionality, and usage of the new architecture, provide a clear understanding of the API ecosystem to developers, operation teams, and end-users, focused on what has been modified

    • Training

Provide education and training on how to manage the new MuleSoft ecosystem, describing development process, new best practices for designing and building APIs, and how to use MuleSoft 4 tools and features.

A successful migration to Mule 4 requires a detailed assessment of the current environment, careful planning and execution, and ongoing monitoring and optimization. By following these steps, the organizations can take advantage of the benefits of Mule 4 and improve their integration capabilities.

Phase 1: Discovery and Assessment

This phase has been proven to be the most critical for the success of the overall migration.

Due to this consideration the approach for its completion has been detailed in this dedicated paragraph.

All the assessments will be collected and reported in a review document split per area of interest:

Section Tab

Description

Platform Architecture

Focused on the configuration of the Anypoint platform

Asset and Mulesoft architecture

Focused application architecture as well as other systems as part of the application landscape

Use case

Focused on the use case and business integration flows to be migrated

implementations and code review

Focused on the code review including recommendations on improving the efficiency and maintainability of the system.

 

The following table will be used to highlight the assessment and rating of each reviewed indicator in a visual manner:

 

Rating %

Description

 90% – 100%

A component with this rating is unlikely to significantly affect the migration process. This may be because the component is not critical to the overall architecture, or because it is relatively straightforward to migrate. While some work may be required to update the component, it is not expected to cause significant delays or issues.

60% – 90%

A component with this rating is moderately important to the migration process. This may be because the component is used in several integrations or because it requires some degree of customization or configuration. While the migration of this component may not be overly complex, it will require some effort and attention to ensure that it is migrated successfully.

30% – 60%

A component with this rating  is likely to significantly affect the migration process. This may be because the component is used in critical integrations, or because it requires significant customization or configuration. Migrating this component will require significant time and effort, and may cause some delays and disruptions. Careful planning and testing will be necessary to ensure that the component is migrated successfully.

0% – 30%

A component with this rating is likely to have a severe impact on the migration process. This may be because the component is critical to the overall architecture or because it requires extensive customization or configuration. Migrating this component will require significant resources and may cause significant delays and disruptions to existing operations. In some cases, it may be necessary to consider alternative solutions or workarounds if the component cannot be migrated successfully.

A higher rating value indicates a lower migration effort  and conversely a lower rating means a higher complexity and greater impacts to the migration

Furthermore, an overall rating will be quantified by calculating a weighted average of all the indicators, helping to estimate the whole migration effort and identify gaps that must to be addressed in the migration design phase.

Platform Architecture Assessment

A platform architecture assessment is particularly important during a MuleSoft migration because it will drive the design decision of the new architecture ensuring that the Mulesoft 4 applications will be well-designed and capable of meeting the needs of the customer.

The platform will be evaluated against the following areas:

  • Appliance
  • Access Management
  • Networking
  • Monitoring

The current As-is configuration is compared with the desired to-be architecture and a rating score is calculated considering the impact and complexity of the transition, as describedabove, a higher rating value indicates a lower migration effort.

The following exhibit is a summary of the related tab of the Migration Assessment Document:

 

Ass. area

Ass. Subjects

As-is

To-be

Rating %

Findings

Appliance

Deployment Model

Cloudhub

Cloudhub

100%

No impacts

Platform version

Cloudhub 1.0

Cloudhub 1.0

100%

No impacts

Managed extra Tools

e.g. AnypointMQ, Titanium monitoring, ELK, etc…

Same

100%

No impacts

Access Management

Business Groups

Only 1 main BG

No change

100%

easy scenario with a single BG

Environments

3 SBX ENVS and 1 PROD env

No change

90%

Relative easy configuration

External Identity Providers

Azure AD for SSO

Azure AD for SSO, no change

100%

should be no impacts

External Client Providers

Not in use

Not in use

100%

no impact

Roles, User and Teams

No teams and no custom roles

No change required

100%

no impact

Connected Apps

External user managed by common user without MFA

External user MUST be managed by connected apps

20%

Need to migrate all the user as connected app, refactor application code and CI/CD pipelines

Networking

VNPs

2 VPN with Tunnel IPsec to the on-premises datacenter

same

100%

common configuration, no major  impact

Transient Gateways

No transient Gateway

same

100%

no impact

VPCs

1 SBX VPC and a dedicated Prod VPC

same

100%

no impact

Load Balancing

1 SBX DLB and a dedicated Prod DLB

Same

70%

no version in the current routing, possible impacts on the api
consumers

Monitoring

Logging

No log centralization, log view on the specific Cloudhub app

Same

100%

no impacts

Alerting

No platform alerts, but though SMTP connector

Same

70%

Need to migrate the SMTP connector

Insights

Insight as Cloudhub notifications

Same

100%

Need to migrate Cloudhub connector

Visualizer

well configured by cloudhub properties

Same

80%

Impacts on CI/CD, Properties must be managed by maven plugin

Assets and Mulesoft Architecture

Reviewing assets and Mulesoft architecture is an important step for managing a Mulesoft 4 migration, it helps to ensure that existing integrations and the whole ecosystem are properly designed and can be successfully migrated to the new version. This allows for a smoother transition with fewer errors and less downtime. Additionally, it provides an opportunity to identify and address any potential issues or areas for improvement in the architecture before the migration takes place.

The Application landscape will be evaluated against the following area ofinterest:

  • API-led connectivity
  • Exchange Assets
  • API Manager
  • External Systems
  • API Lifecycle

The assessment starts with the discovery of the existing landscape and then assesses the impacts to migrate to the new architecture, as described above, a higher rating value indicates a lower migration effort.

The following exhibit is a summary of the related tab of the Migration Assessment Document:

 

Ass. Area

Ass. Subject

AS-IS Discovery

Rating %

Findings

API-led connectivity

Reusability of the APIs

good level of reuse, some applications have a gross-granularity

80%

no major impact, probably some apps will be broken down further

Level of authentication and authorization

basic auth between mule apps

90%

evaluate whether to improve security, otherwise easy to migrate

Encryption of data in transit

communication between apps in clear (http)

70%

strongly recommended to secure with TLS, requires self-sign certificates,

Dedicated experience API per consumer

1 exp app per API consumer

100%

no major impact

Dedicated system API per target system

mule apps split by functional object instead target system

10%

sys mule apps integrate multiple systems and technologies, changes on a system impact multiple applications, need to be refactored

Dedicated process API per functional domains

correct BSN domain and endpoint segregation

100%

no impacts

Existing documentation

Clear documentation

50%

need to be updated after sys layer refactoring

Exchange Assets

Asset census

No extra documentation

100%

No impact, assets well describe themself

API fragment externalization

APi fragment not defined

20%

Common traits and datatype replicated in every API asset, need to be
redesign, this impacts all the API Design Center assets

Dataweave modules externalization

No Dataweave modules

80%

Evaluate whether if it is appropriate to define

API Templates

Well defined templates

100%

Mule4 will reuse existing api templates

Implementation templates

Well defined templates projects

100%

Positive effects to design mule4 templates

Custom Connectors

No custom connectors

100%

No impact

Asset Documentation

Every asset has extra documentation, bsn process

100%

Positive effects

API Manager

Existing Policies Custom

Oauth 2.0 introspection

85%

Migrate to the existing Mule OAuth Provider Policy

Metrics forwarding ELK

20%

High risk of null pointer with the new threading model Mule 4

Automated Policies

no policies

100%

no impacts

Client Applications and contracts

describe client and contracts

100%

no impacts, implementation will inherit the existing API instances

External Systems

Logica view

Old version, missing several systems

40%

Need to be

External system census

Complete and detailed list

100%

Positive effects

Governance and control

well define, get access to every system in the landscape

100%

No impacts

API Lifecycle

SMC technologies

Azure DevOps Repo

90%

No major impact, new repository in a dedicated folder

Branching Model

Java JGitFlow

100%

no impact, reuse same model

CI /CD

Azure DevOps Pipeline

100%

no impact, reuse existing pipelines

Artifactory Repository

Azure DevOps Artifact

100%

no impact, reuse same groupId

 

Use Cases

The main goal of this phase is to review all the use cases and related Business Integrations Flows.

The first step is to identify all the business use cases and group the corresponding implemented integrations into domains. This review is focused on identifying any changes that may be required to support these use cases and related integrations in Mulesoft runtime version 4.

For every Usecase, the following information are collected:  

  • Business Domains
  • Integration Scope
  • Business Requirements

And besides, the related integrations are review against the following
metrics:

  • Technical Requirement
  • Service Level Agreement
  • Data Quality
  • Performance and Scalability
  • Security and Compliance
  • Integration Patterns
  • Test Data Preparation
  • Performance Testing
  • Security Testing
  • Regression Testing
  • Automation Testing
  • Reporting and Analysis
  • Existing Documentation

The following exhibit is a summary of the related tab of the Migration Assessment Document:

 

Use case

Ass. Area

Ass. Subject

Rating %

Findings

Overall %

Customer Data alignment

General

Business Domains

100%

Account and Customer objects

77,69%

Integration Scope

100%

Integrations between Salesforce API and SAP RFC ABAP….

Business Requirements

40%

No BSN req. found

Integration Flow 1: Account Lookup

Technical Requirement

90%

Clear technical requirement distributed across exchange and sharepoint
documentation

86,92%

Service Level Agreement

100%

Clear SLA, properly reported in the Sharepoint documentation

Data Quality

100%

Accurate, and consistent data, clear transformation and data
enrichments

Performance and Scalability

70%

3 applications need to be scaled, high vCore consumption

Security and Compliance

100%

OAuth2 + 2 way SSL configured on the DLBs, no major impacts on the
migration

Integration Patterns

90%

Synch API and caching strategy applied as API manager policy, no major
impact

Test Data Preparation

90%

Clear test data, unit test reuse RAML specification and properly
documented on exchange

Integration test

70%

Incomplete tests, only few case are tested

Performance Testing

90%

Performance test with JMeter and Postman

Security Testing

40%

No security testing, has to be implemented

Regression Testing

100%

comprehensive regression test library on postman

Reporting and Analysis

100%

Unit test result stored on dedicated sharepoint folder, reused in mule4
without impacts

Existing Documentation

90%

Clear documentation distributed across exchange and sharepoint
documentation

Integration Flow 2: Customer Creation

Technical Requirement

30%

No clear requirements, need reverse engineering

68,46%

Service Level Agreement

20%

No SLA defined, must be evaluated directly in the code

Data Quality

100%

Accurate, and consistent data, clear transformation and data
enrichments

Performance and Scalability

80%

Process layer can be scaled only vertically

Security and Compliance

70%

Secured implementation, but sensitive data logged in clear

Integration Patterns

70%

scheduled batch with batch scope and record aggregation

Test Data Preparation

50%

Clear data only for happy path

Performance Testing

90%

Proper testing in UAT enviroment

Performance Testing

90%

Proper testing in UAT enviroment

Security Testing

70%

No security testing, however no major impacts

Regression Testing

100%

comprehensive regression test library on postman

Reporting and Analysis

100%

Unit test result stored on dedicated sharepoint folder, reused in mule4
without impacts

Existing Documentation

20%

poor documentation on Exchange, no sharepoint documents

 

 

Implementation & Code Review

This is the last phase of the assessment process, every Mule app will be reviewed against a set of evaluation metrics in order to estimate the development effort of the new Mule 4 codebase, identify impacts, and mitigate potential issues that could arise during the migration process, such as deprecated features, incompatibilities, and performance bottlenecks. Furthermore, a code review provides an opportunity to optimize the application’s performance, security, and scalability in the new Mule 4 environment

The following exhibit is a summary of the related tab of the Migration Assessment Document:

 

Mule Apps

Assessment area

Rating %

Findings

Overall %

sys-salesforce-api

API Specification (RAML/OAS)

100%

Clear RAML specification, no change required

66%

Nr of API endpoints

50%

About 10 synch enpoints

Nr of Flows and reuse

90%

relatively simple implementation, about one flow per endpoint

Integration patterns

100%

Only synch APIs

APIkit to manage APIs

0%

no apikit, dedicated http listener per endpoint

EE Connectors

80%

Salesforce connector

HTTP requester connector

Custom connectors

100%

no custom connectors

Java classes / Groovy scripts

60%

Found a java class to calculate JWT token, should be migrated to
DW2

Nr of unit tests

0%

NO unit tests, should be implemented

Test coverage

0%

Coverage 0%

Complexity

90%

Easy implementation with few flow processors

Anti patterns

100%

No anti patterns found

Logging

100%

Common logger connector, no extra configuration, easy to be
migrated

Error Handling

100%

Externalized error handling and reuse for all the flow

Existing Documentation

20%

Found just an high level description of the API endoints

These are some of the topics that will be covered during the MuleSoft code review phase. However, the list may vary depending on the specific requirements and architecture of the application in exam.

Every assessment area will be appointed with a percentage rating, the average percentage of all these indicators will provide a first rough estimation of the complexity to migrate the Mule application under scrutiny.

Moreover, considering that during the migration the code will be almost completely rewritten, this would be the right time to identify any issues and technical debts that must (or should) be arranged.

 

Overall Consideration

In conclusion, migrating to MuleSoft 4 can offer significant benefits, such as enhanced performance, increased scalability, and improved developer productivity.

However, the migration process requires careful planning, execution, and ongoing maintenance to ensure a successful outcome.

It is essential to approach the migration process as a multi-phased project that includes all the steps described in this document.

Regarding the use of the MuleSoft Migration Assistant, it is a tool that can help simplify certain aspects of the migration process. However, it is not a complete solution, and it has limitations that make it less than ideal for some use cases. For example, the Migration Assistant may not work well for complex integrations or custom-built components. Additionally, the Migration Assistant does not provide a comprehensive migration plan or address all the aspects of a successful migration project. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate the benefits and limitations of the Migration Assistant carefully and determine if it is the best approach for your specific migration needs.

In conclusion, migrating to Mule 4 can be a complex and challenging process. This document has provided valuable information and guidance to help you navigate this transition successfully. However, if you find that you need additional assistance, we are here to help!

Our consulting services are designed to support you every step of the way, from planning to execution, to ensure a smooth and efficient migration to Mule 4 tailored to your organization’s unique needs.

Reach us out:  info@florencenext.com

 

Author: Alberto Ferrario

 

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