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Chapter 7. Assessing and analyzing applications with MTA

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You can use the Migration Toolkit for Applications (MTA) user interface to assess and analyze applications:

  • When adding to or editing the Application Inventory, MTA automatically spawns programming language and technology discovery tasks. The tasks apply appropriate tags to the application, reducing the time you spend tagging the application manually.
  • When assessing applications, MTA estimates the risks and costs involved in preparing applications for containerization, including time, personnel, and other factors. You can use the results of an assessment for discussions between stakeholders to determine whether applications are suitable for containerization.
  • When analyzing applications, MTA uses rules to determine which specific lines in an application must be modified before the application can be migrated or modernized.

7.1. The Assessment module features

The Migration Toolkit for Applications (MTA) Assessment module offers the following features for assessing and analyzing applications:

Assessment hub
The Assessment hub integrates with the Application inventory.
Enhanced assessment questionnaire capabilities

In MTA 7.0, you can import and export assessment questionnaires. You can also design custom questionnaires with a downloadable template by using the YAML syntax, which includes the following features:

  • Conditional questions: You can include or exclude questions based on the application or archetype if a certain tag is present on this application or archetype.
  • Application auto-tagging based on answers: You can define tags to be applied to applications or archetypes if a certain answer was provided.
  • Automated answers from tags in applications or archetypes.

For more information, see The custom assessment questionnaire.

Note

You can customize and save the default questionnaire. For more information, see The default assessment questionnaire.

Multiple assessment questionnaires
The Assessment module supports multiple questionnaires, relevant to one or more applications.
Archetypes

You can group applications with similar characteristics into archetypes. This allows you to assess multiple applications at once. Each archetype has a shared taxonomy of tags, stakeholders, and stakeholder groups. All applications inherit assessment and review from their assigned archetypes.

For more information, see Working with archetypes.

7.2. MTA assessment questionnaires

The Migration Toolkit for Applications (MTA) uses an assessment questionnaire, either default or custom, to assess the risks involved in containerizing an application.

The assessment report provides information about applications and risks associated with migration. The report also generates an adoption plan informed by the prioritization, business criticality, and dependencies of the applications submitted for assessment.

7.2.1. The default assessment questionnaire

Legacy Pathfinder is the default Migration Toolkit for Applications (MTA) questionnaire. Pathfinder is a questionnaire-based tool that you can use to evaluate the suitability of applications for modernization in containers on an enterprise Kubernetes platform. 

Through interaction with the default questionnaire and the review process, the system is enriched with application knowledge exposed through the collection of assessment reports.

You can export the default questionnaire to a YAML file:

Example 7.1. The Legacy Pathfinder YAML file

name: Legacy Pathfinder
description: ''
sections:
  - order: 1
    name: Application details
    questions:
      - order: 1
        text: >-
          Does the application development team understand and actively develop
          the application?
        explanation: >-
          How much knowledge does the team have about the application's
          development or usage?
        answers:
          - order: 2
            text: >-
              Maintenance mode, no SME knowledge or adequate documentation
              available
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: >-
              Little knowledge, no development (example: third-party or
              commercial off-the-shelf application)
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: Maintenance mode, SME knowledge is available
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: Actively developed, SME knowledge is available
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: greenfield application
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 2
        text: How is the application supported in production?
        explanation: >-
          Does the team have sufficient knowledge to support the application in
          production?
        answers:
          - order: 3
            text: >-
              Multiple teams provide support using an established escalation
              model
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: >-
              External support provider with a ticket-driven escalation process;
              no inhouse support resources
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: >-
              Separate internal support team, separate from the development
              team, with little interaction between the teams
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: >-
              SRE (Site Reliability Engineering) approach with a knowledgeable
              and experienced operations team
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: >-
              DevOps approach with the same team building the application and
              supporting it in production
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 3
        text: >-
          How much time passes from when code is committed until the application
          is deployed to production?
        explanation: What is the development latency?
        answers:
          - order: 3
            text: 2-6 months
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: Not tracked
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: More than 6 months
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: 8-30 days
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: 1-7 days
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 6
            text: Less than 1 day
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 4
        text: How often is the application deployed to production?
        explanation: Deployment frequency
        answers:
          - order: 3
            text: Between once a month and once every 6 months
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: Not tracked
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: Less than once every 6 months
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: Weekly
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: Daily
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 6
            text: Several times a day
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 5
        text: >-
          What is the application's mean time to recover (MTTR) from failure in
          a production environment?
        explanation: Average time for the application to recover from failure
        answers:
          - order: 5
            text: Less than 1 hour
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: Not tracked
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: 1-7 days
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: 1 month or more
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: 1-24 hours
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 6
        text: Does the application have legal and/or licensing requirements?
        explanation: >-
          Legal and licensing requirements must be assessed to determine their
          possible impact (cost, fault reporting) on the container platform
          hosting the application. Examples of legal requirements: isolated
          clusters, certifications, compliance with the Payment Card Industry
          Data Security Standard or the Health Insurance Portability and
          Accountability Act. Examples of licensing requirements: per server,
          per CPU.
        answers:
          - order: 1
            text: Multiple legal and licensing requirements
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: 'Licensing requirements (examples: per server, per CPU)'
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: >-
              Legal requirements (examples: cluster isolation, hardware, PCI or
              HIPAA compliance)
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: None
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 7
        text: Which model best describes the application architecture?
        explanation: Describe the application architecture in simple terms.
        answers:
          - order: 3
            text: >-
              Complex monolith, strict runtime dependency startup order,
              non-resilient architecture
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: Independently deployable components
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: >-
              Massive monolith (high memory and CPU usage), singleton
              deployment, vertical scale only
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: >-
              Massive monolith (high memory and CPU usage), non-singleton
              deployment, complex to scale horizontally
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: 'Resilient monolith (examples: retries, circuit breakers)'
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
  - order: 2
    name: Application dependencies
    questions:
      - order: 1
        text: Does the application require specific hardware?
        explanation: >-
          OpenShift Container Platform runs only on x86, IBM Power, or IBM Z
          systems
        answers:
          - order: 3
            text: 'Requires specific computer hardware (examples: GPUs, RAM, HDDs)'
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: Requires CPU that is not supported by red Hat
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: 'Requires custom or legacy hardware (example: USB device)'
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: Requires CPU that is supported by red Hat
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 2
        text: What operating system does the application require?
        explanation: >-
          Only Linux and certain Microsoft Windows versions are supported in
          containers. Check the latest versions and requirements.
        answers:
          - order: 4
            text: Microsoft Windows
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: >-
              Operating system that is not compatible with OpenShift Container
              Platform (examples: OS X, AIX, Unix, Solaris)
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: Linux with custom kernel drivers or a specific kernel version
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: 'Linux with custom capabilities (examples: seccomp, root access)'
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: Standard Linux distribution
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 3
        text: >-
          Does the vendor provide support for a third-party component running in
          a container?
        explanation: Will the vendor support a component if you run it in a container?
        answers:
          - order: 2
            text: No vendor support for containers
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: Not recommended to run the component in a container
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: >-
              Vendor supports containers but with limitations (examples:
              functionality is restricted, component has not been tested)
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: >-
              Vendor supports their application running in containers but you
              must build your own images
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: Vendor fully supports containers, provides certified images
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 6
            text: No third-party components required
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 4
        text: Incoming/northbound dependencies
        explanation: Systems or applications that call the application
        answers:
          - order: 3
            text: >-
              Many dependencies exist, can be changed because the systems are
              internally managed
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: Internal dependencies only
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: >-
              Dependencies are difficult or expensive to change because they are
              legacy or third-party
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: >-
              Many dependencies exist, can be changed but the process is
              expensive and time-consuming
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: No incoming/northbound dependencies
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 5
        text: Outgoing/southbound dependencies
        explanation: Systems or applications that the application calls
        answers:
          - order: 3
            text: Application not ready until dependencies are verified available
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: >-
              Dependency availability only verified when application is
              processing traffic
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: Dependencies require a complex and strict startup order
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: Limited processing available if dependencies are unavailable
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: No outgoing/southbound dependencies
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
  - order: 3
    name: Application architecture
    questions:
      - order: 1
        text: >-
          How resilient is the application? How well does it recover from
          outages and restarts?
        explanation: >-
          If the application or one of its dependencies fails, how does the
          application recover from failure? Is manual intervention required?
        answers:
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: >-
              Application cannot be restarted cleanly after failure, requires
              manual intervention
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: >-
              Application fails when a soutbound dependency is unavailable and
              does not recover automatically
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: >-
              Application functionality is limited when a dependency is
              unavailable but recovers when the dependency is available
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: >-
              Application employs resilient architecture patterns (examples:
              circuit breakers, retry mechanisms)
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: >-
              Application containers are randomly terminated to test resiliency;
              chaos engineering principles are followed
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 2
        text: How does the external world communicate with the application?
        explanation: >-
          What protocols do external clients use to communicate with the
          application?
        answers:
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: 'Non-TCP/IP protocols (examples: serial, IPX, AppleTalk)'
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: TCP/IP, with host name or IP address encapsulated in the payload
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: 'TCP/UDP without host addressing (example: SSH)'
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: TCP/UDP encapsulated, using TLS with SNI header
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: HTTP/HTTPS
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 3
        text: How does the application manage its internal state?
        explanation: >-
          If the application must manage or retain an internal state, how is
          this done?
        answers:
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: State maintained in non-shared, non-ephemeral storage
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: Application components use shared memory within a pod
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: >-
              State is managed externally by another product (examples:
              Zookeeper or red Hat Data Grid)
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: Disk shared between application instances
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: Stateless or ephemeral container storage
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 4
        text: How does the application handle service discovery?
        explanation: How does the application discover services?
        answers:
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: >-
              Uses technologies that are not compatible with Kubernetes
              (examples: hardcoded IP addresses, custom cluster manager)
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: >-
              Requires an application or cluster restart to discover new service
              instances
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: >-
              Uses technologies that are compatible with Kubernetes but require
              specific libraries or services (examples: HashiCorp Consul,
              Netflix Eureka)
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: Uses Kubernetes DNS name resolution
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: Does not require service discovery
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 5
        text: How is the application clustering managed?
        explanation: >-
          Does the application require clusters? If so, how is clustering
          managed?
        answers:
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: 'Manually configured clustering (example: static clusters)'
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: Managed by an external off-PaaS cluster manager
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: >-
              Managed by an application runtime that is compatible with
              Kubernetes
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: No cluster management required
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
  - order: 4
    name: Application observability
    questions:
      - order: 1
        text: How does the application use logging and how are the logs accessed?
        explanation: How the application logs are accessed
        answers:
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: Logs are unavailable or are internal with no way to export them
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: >-
              Logs are in a custom binary format, exposed with non-standard
              protocols
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: Logs are exposed using syslog
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: Logs are written to a file system, sometimes as multiple files
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: 'Logs are forwarded to an external logging system (example: Splunk)'
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 6
            text: 'Logs are configurable (example: can be sent to stdout)'
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 2
        text: Does the application provide metrics?
        explanation: >-
          Are application metrics available, if necessary (example: OpenShift
          Container Platform collects CPU and memory metrics)?
        answers:
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: No metrics available
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: Metrics collected but not exposed externally
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: 'Metrics exposed using binary protocols (examples: SNMP, JMX)'
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: >-
              Metrics exposed using a third-party solution (examples: Dynatrace,
              AppDynamics)
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: >-
              Metrics collected and exposed with built-in Prometheus endpoint
              support
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 3
        text: >-
          How easy is it to determine the application's health and readiness to
          handle traffic?
        explanation: >-
          How do we determine an application's health (liveness) and readiness
          to handle traffic?
        answers:
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: No health or readiness query functionality available
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: Basic application health requires semi-complex scripting
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: Dedicated, independent liveness and readiness endpoints
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: Monitored and managed by a custom watchdog process
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: Health is verified by probes running synthetic transactions
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 4
        text: What best describes the application's runtime characteristics?
        explanation: >-
          How would the profile of an application appear during runtime
          (examples: graphs showing CPU and memory usage, traffic patterns,
          latency)? What are the implications for a serverless application?
        answers:
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: >-
              Deterministic and predictable real-time execution or control
              requirements
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: >-
              Sensitive to latency (examples: voice applications, high frequency
              trading applications)
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: Constant traffic with a broad range of CPU and memory usage
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: Intermittent traffic with predictable CPU and memory usage
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: Constant traffic with predictable CPU and memory usage
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 5
        text: How long does it take the application to be ready to handle traffic?
        explanation: How long the application takes to boot
        answers:
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: More than 5 minutes
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: 2-5 minutes
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: 1-2 minutes
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: 10-60 seconds
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: Less than 10 seconds
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
  - order: 5
    name: Application cross-cutting concerns
    questions:
      - order: 1
        text: How is the application tested?
        explanation: >-
          Is the application is tested? Is it easy to test (example: automated
          testing)? Is it tested in production?
        answers:
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: No testing or minimal manual testing only
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: Minimal automated testing, focused on the user interface
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: >-
              Some automated unit and regression testing, basic CI/CD pipeline
              testing; modern test practices are not followed
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: >-
              Highly repeatable automated testing (examples: unit, integration,
              smoke tests) before deploying to production; modern test practices
              are followed
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: >-
              Chaos engineering approach, constant testing in production
              (example: A/B testing + experimentation)
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 2
        text: How is the application configured?
        explanation: >-
          How is the application configured? Is the configuration method
          appropriate for a container? External servers are runtime
          dependencies.
        answers:
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: >-
              Configuration files compiled during installation and configured
              using a user interface
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: >-
              Configuration files are stored externally (example: in a database)
              and accessed using specific environment keys (examples: host name,
              IP address)
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: Multiple configuration files in multiple file system locations
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: >-
              Configuration files built into the application and enabled using
              system properties at runtime
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: >-
              Configuration retrieved from an external server (examples: Spring
              Cloud Config Server, HashiCorp Consul)
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 6
            text: >-
              Configuration loaded from files in a single configurable location;
              environment variables used
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 4
        text: How is the application deployed?
        explanation: >-
          How the application is deployed and whether the deployment process is
          suitable for a container platform
        answers:
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: Simple automated deployment scripts
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: Manual deployment using a user interface
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: Manual deployment with some automation
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: >-
              Automated deployment with manual intervention or complex promotion
              through pipeline stages
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: >-
              Automated deployment with a full CI/CD pipeline, minimal
              intervention for promotion through pipeline stages
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 6
            text: Fully automated (GitOps), blue-green, or canary deployment
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 5
        text: Where is the application deployed?
        explanation: Where does the application run?
        answers:
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: Bare metal server
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: 'Virtual machine (examples: red Hat Virtualization, VMware)'
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: 'Private cloud (example: red Hat OpenStack Platform)'
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: >-
              Public cloud provider (examples: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft
              Azure, Google Cloud Platform)
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: >-
              Platform as a service (examples: Heroku, Force.com, Google App
              Engine)
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 7
            text: Other. Specify in the comments field
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 6
            text: Hybrid cloud (public and private cloud providers)
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 6
        text: How mature is the containerization process, if any?
        explanation: If the team has used containers in the past, how was it done?
        answers:
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: Application runs in a container on a laptop or desktop
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: Some experience with containers but not yet fully defined
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: >-
              Proficient with containers and container platforms (examples:
              Swarm, Kubernetes)
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: Application containerization has not yet been attempted
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
      - order: 3
        text: How does the application acquire security keys or certificates?
        explanation: >-
          How does the application retrieve credentials, keys, or certificates?
          External systems are runtime dependencies.
        answers:
          - order: 0
            text: unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 1
            text: Hardware security modules or encryption devices
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 2
            text: >-
              Keys/certificates bound to IP addresses and generated at runtime
              for each application instance
            risk: red
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 3
            text: Keys/certificates compiled into the application
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 4
            text: Loaded from a shared disk
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 5
            text: >-
              Retrieved from an external server (examples: HashiCorp Vault,
              CyberArk Conjur)
            risk: yellow
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 6
            text: Loaded from files
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
          - order: 7
            text: Not required
            risk: green
            rationale: ''
            mitigation: ''
thresholds:
  red: 5
  yellow: 30
  unknown: 5
riskMessages:
  red: ''
  yellow: ''
  green: ''
  unknown: ''
builtin: true

7.2.2. The custom assessment questionnaire

You can use the Migration Toolkit for Applications (MTA) to import a custom assessment questionnaire by using a custom YAML syntax to define the questionnaire. The YAML syntax supports the following features:

Conditional questions

The YAML syntax supports including or excluding questions based on tags existing on the application or archetype, for example:

  • If the application or archetype has the Language/Java tag, the What is the main JAVA framework used in your application? question is included in the questionnaire:

    ...
      questions:
        - order: 1
          text: What is the main JAVA framework used in your application?
          explanation: Identify the primary JAVA framework used in your application.
          includeFor:
            - category: Language
              tag: Java
    ...
  • If the application or archetype has the Deployment/Serverless and Architecture/Monolith tag, the Are you currently using any form of container orchestration? question is excluded from the questionnaire:

    ...
      questions:
        - order: 4
          text: Are you currently using any form of container orchestration?
          explanation: Determine if the application utilizes container orchestration tools like Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, etc.
          excludeFor:
            - category: Deployment
              tag: Serverless
            - category: Architecture
              tag: Monolith
    ...
Automated answers based on tags present on the assessed application or archetype

Automated answers are selected based on the tags existing on the application or archetype. For example, if an application or archetype has the Runtime/Quarkus tag, the Quarkus answer is automatically selected, and if an application or archetype has the Runtime/Spring Boot tag, the Spring Boot answer is automatically selected:

...
  text: What is the main technology in your application?
    explanation: Identify the main framework or technology used in your application.
      answers:
        - order: 1
          text: Quarkus
          risk: green
          autoAnswerFor:
            - category: Runtime
              tag: Quarkus
        - order: 2
          text: Spring Boot
          risk: green
          autoAnswerFor:
            - category: Runtime
              tag: Spring Boot
...
Automatic tagging of applications based on answers

During the assessment, tags are automatically applied to the application or archetype based on the answer if this answer is selected. Note that the tags are transitive. Therefore, the tags are removed if the assessment is discarded. Each tag is defined by the following elements:

  • category: Category of the target tag (String).
  • tag: Definition for the target tag as (String).

For example, if the selected answer is Quarkus, the Runtime/Quarkus tag is applied to the assessed application or archetype. If the selected answer is Spring Boot, the Runtime/Spring Boot tag is applied to the assessed application or archetype:

...
questions:
  - order: 1
    text: What is the main technology in your application?
    explanation: Identify the main framework or technology used in your application.
    answers:
      - order: 1
        text: Quarkus
        risk: green
        applyTags:
          - category: Runtime
            tag: Quarkus
      - order: 2
        text: Spring Boot
        risk: green
        applyTags:
          - category: Runtime
            tag: Spring Boot
...

7.2.2.1. The YAML template for the custom questionnaire

You can use the following YAML template to build your custom questionnaire. You can download this template by clicking Download YAML template on the Assessment questionnaires page.

Example 7.2. The YAML template for the custom questionnaire

name: Uploadable Cloud Readiness Questionnaire Template
description: This questionnaire is an example template for assessing cloud readiness. It serves as a guide for users to create and customize their own questionnaire templates.
required: true
sections:
  - order: 1
    name: Application Technologies
    questions:
      - order: 1
        text: What is the main technology in your application?
        explanation: Identify the main framework or technology used in your application.
        includeFor:
          - category: Language
            tag: Java
        answers:
          - order: 1
            text: Quarkus
            risk: green
            rationale: Quarkus is a modern, container-friendly framework.
            mitigation: No mitigation needed.
            applyTags:
              - category: Runtime
                tag: Quarkus
            autoAnswerFor:
              - category: Runtime
                tag: Quarkus
          - order: 2
            text: Spring Boot
            risk: green
            rationale: Spring Boot is versatile and widely used.
            mitigation: Ensure container compatibility.
            applyTags:
              - category: Runtime
                tag: Spring Boot
            autoAnswerFor:
              - category: Runtime
                tag: Spring Boot
          - order: 3
            text: Legacy Monolithic Application
            risk: red
            rationale: Legacy monoliths are challenging for cloud adaptation.
            mitigation: Consider refactoring into microservices.
      - order: 2
        text: Does your application use a microservices architecture?
        explanation: Assess if the application is built using a microservices architecture.
        answers:
          - order: 1
            text: Yes
            risk: green
            rationale: Microservices are well-suited for cloud environments.
            mitigation: Continue monitoring service dependencies.
          - order: 2
            text: No
            risk: yellow
            rationale: Non-microservices architectures may face scalability issues.
            mitigation: Assess the feasibility of transitioning to microservices.
          - order: 3
            text: Unknown
            risk: unknown
            rationale: Lack of clarity on architecture can lead to unplanned issues.
            mitigation: Conduct an architectural review.

      - order: 3
        text: Is your application's data storage cloud-optimized?
        explanation: Evaluate if the data storage solution is optimized for cloud usage.
        includeFor:
          - category: Language
            tag: Java
        answers:
          - order: 1
            text: Cloud-Native Storage Solution
            risk: green
            rationale: Cloud-native solutions offer scalability and resilience.
            mitigation: Ensure regular backups and disaster recovery plans.
          - order: 2
            text: Traditional On-Premises Storage
            risk: red
            rationale: Traditional storage might not scale well in the cloud.
            mitigation: Explore cloud-based storage solutions.
          - order: 3
            text: Hybrid Storage Approach
            risk: yellow
            rationale: Hybrid solutions may have integration complexities.
            mitigation: Evaluate and optimize cloud integration points.
thresholds:
  red: 1
  yellow: 30
  unknown: 15
riskMessages:
  red: Requires deep changes in architecture or lifecycle
  yellow: Cloud friendly but needs minor changes
  green: Cloud Native
  unknown: More information needed

Additional resources

7.2.2.2. The custom questionnaire fields

Every custom questionnaire field marked as required is mandatory and must be completed. Otherwise, the YAML syntax will not validate on upload. Each subsection of the field defines a new structure or object in YAML, for example:

...
name: Testing
thresholds:
    red: 30
    yellow: 45
    unknown: 5
...
Table 7.1. The custom questionnaire fields
Questionnaire fieldDescription

name (required, string)

The name of the questionnaire. This field must be unique for the entire MTA instance.

description (optional, string)

A short description of the questionnaire.

thresholds (required)

The definition of a threshold for each risk category of the application or archetype that is considered to be affected by that risk level. The threshold values can be the following:

  • red (required, unsigned integer): Numeric percentage, for example, 30 for 30%, of red answers that the questionnaire can have until the risk level is considered red.
  • yellow (required, unsigned integer): Numeric percentage, for example, 30 for 30%, of yellow answers that the questionnaire can have until the risk level is considered yellow.
  • unknown (required, unsigned integer): Numeric percentage, for example, 30 for 30%, of unknown answers that the questionnaire can have until the risk level is considered unknown.

The higher risk level always takes precedence. For example, if the yellow threshold is set to 30% and red to 5%, and the answers for the application or archetype are set to have 35% yellow and 6% red, the risk level for the application or archetype is red.

riskMessages (required)

Messages to be displayed in reports for each risk category. The risk_messages map is defined by the following fields:

  • red (required, string): A message to be displayed in reports for the red risk level.
  • yellow (required, string): A message to be displayed in reports for the yellow risk level.
  • green (required, string): A message to be displayed in reports for the green risk level.
  • unknown (required, string): A message to be displayed in reports for the unknown risk level.

sections (required)

A list of sections that the questionnaire must include.

  • name (required, string): A name to be displayed for the section.
  • order (required, integer): An order of the question in the section.
  • comment (optional, string): A description the section.
  • questions (required): A list of questions that belong to the section.

    • order (required, integer): An order of the question in the section.
    • text (required, string): A question to be asked.
    • explanation (optional, string): An additional explanation for the question.
    • includeFor (optional): A list that defines if a question must be displayed if any of the tags included in this list is present in the target application or archetype.

      • category (required, string): A category of the target tag.
      • tag (required, string): A target tag.
    • excludeFor (optional): A list that defines if a question must be skipped if any of the tags included in the list is present in the target application or archetype.

      • category (required, string): A category of the target tag.
      • tag (required, string): A target tag.
    • answers (required): A list of answers for the given question.

      • order (required, integer): An order of the question in the section.
      • text (required, string): An answer for the question.
      • risk (required): An implied risk level (red, yellow, green, or unknown) of the current answer.
      • rationale (optional, string): A justification for the answer that is being considered a risk.
      • mitigation (optional, string): An explanation of the potential mitigation strategy for the risk implied by the answer.
      • applyTags (optional): A list of tags to be automatically applied to the assessed application or archetype if this answer is selected.

        • category (required, string): A category of the target tag.
        • tag (required,string): A target tag.
      • autoAnswerFor (optional, list): A list of tags that will lead to this answer being automatically selected when the application or archetype is assessed.

        • category (required, string): A category of the target tag.
        • tag (required, string): A target tag.

7.3. Managing assessment questionnaires

By using the MTA user interface, you can perform the following actions on assessment questionnaires:

  • Display the questionnaire. You can also diplay the answer choices and their associated risk weight.
  • Export the questionnaire to the desired location on your system.
  • Import the questionnaire from your system.

    Warning

    The name of the imported questionnaire must be unique. If the name, which is defined in the YAML syntax (name:<name of questionnaire>), is duplicated, the import will fail with the following error message: UNIQUE constraint failed: Questionnaire.Name.

  • Delete an assessment questionnaire.

    Warning

    When you delete the questionnaire, its answers for all applications that use it in all archetypes are also deleted.

    Important

    You cannot delete the Legacy Pathfinder default questionnaire.

Procedure

  • Depending on your scenario, perform one of the following actions:

    • Display the quest the assessment questionnaire:

      1. In the Administration view, select Assessment questionnaires.
      2. Click the Options menu ( kebab ).
      3. Select View for the questionnaire you want to display.
      4. Optional: Click the arrow to the left from the question to display the answer choices and their risk weight.
    • Export the assessment questionnaire:

      1. In the Administration view, select Assessment questionnaires.
      2. Select the desired questionnaire.
      3. Click the Options menu ( kebab ).
      4. Select Export.
      5. Select the location of the download.
      6. Click Save.
    • Import the assessment questionnaire:

      1. In the Administration view, select Assessment questionnaires.
      2. Click Import questionnaire.
      3. Click Upload.
      4. Navigate to the location of your questionnaire.
      5. Click Open.
      6. Import the desired questionnaire by clicking Import.
    • Delete the assessment questionnaire:

      1. In the Administration view, select Assessment questionnaires.
      2. Select the questionnaire you want to delete.
      3. Click the Options menu ( kebab ).
      4. Select Delete.
      5. Confirm deleting by entering on the Name of the questionnaire.

7.4. Assessing an application

You can estimate the risks and costs involved in preparing applications for containerization by performing application assessment. You can assess an application and display the currently saved assessments by using the Assessment module.

The Migration Toolkit for Applications (MTA) assesses applications according to a set of questions relevant to the application, such as dependencies.

To assess the application, you can use the default Legacy Pathfinder MTA questionnaire or import your custom questionnaires.

Important

You can assess only one application at a time.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to an MTA server.

Procedure

  1. In the MTA user interface, select the Migration view.
  2. Click Application inventory in the left menu bar. A list of the available applications appears in the main pane.
  3. Select the application you want to assess.
  4. Click the Options menu ( kebab ) at the right end of the row and select Assess from the drop-down menu.
  5. From the list of available questionnaires, click Take for the desired questionnaire.
  6. Select Stakeholders and Stakeholder groups from the lists to track who contributed to the assessment for future reference.

    Note

    You can also add Stakeholder Groups or Stakeholders in the Controls pane of the Migration view. For more information, see Seeding an instance.

  7. Click Next.
  8. Answer each Application assessment question and click Next.
  9. Click Save to review the assessment and proceed with the steps in Reviewing an application.
Note

If you are seeing false positives in an application that is not fully resolvable, then this is not entirely unexpected.

The reason, is that MTA cannot discover the class is that is being called. Therefore, MTA cannot determine whether it is a valid match or not.

When this happens, MTA defaults to exposing more information than less.

In this situation, the following solutions are suggested:

  1. Ensure that the maven settings can get all the dependencies.
  2. Ensure the application can be fully compiled.

7.5. Reviewing an application

You can use the Migration Toolkit for Applications (MTA) user interface to determine the migration strategy and work priority for each application.

Important

You can review only one application at a time.

Procedure

  1. In the Migration view, click Application inventory.
  2. Select the application you want to review.
  3. Review the application by performing either of the following actions:

    • Click Save and Review while assessing the application. For more information, see Assessing an application.
    • Click the Options menu ( kebab ) at the right end of the row and select Review from the drop-down list. The application Review parameters appear in the main pane.

      Application review
  4. Click Proposed action and select the action.
  5. Click Effort estimate and set the level of effort required to perform the assessment with the selected questionnaire.
  6. In the Business criticality field, enter how critical the application is to the business.
  7. In the Work priority field, enter the application’s priority.
  8. Optional: Enter the assessment questionnaire comments in the Comments field.
  9. Click Submit review.

    The fields from Review are now populated on the Application details page.

7.6. Reviewing an assessment report

An MTA assessment report displays an aggregated assessment of the data obtained from multiple questionnaires for multiple applications.

Procedure

  1. In the Migration view, click Reports. The aggregated assessment report for all applications is displayed.

    Assessment report
  2. Depending on your scenario, perform one of the following actions:

    • Display a report on the data from a particular questionnaire:

      1. Select the required questionnaire from a drop-down list of all questionnaires in the Current landscape pane of the report. By default, all questionnaires are selected.
      2. In the Identified risks pane of the report, sort the displayed list by application name, level of risk, questionnaire, questionnaire section, question, and answer.
    • Display a report for a specific application:

      1. Click the link in the Applications column in the Identified risks pane of the report. The Application inventory page opens. The applications included in the link are displayed as a list.
      2. Click the required application. The Assessment side pane opens.

        • To see the assessed risk level for the application, open the Details tab.
        • To see the details of the assessment, open the Reviews tab.

7.7. Tagging an application

You can attach various tags to the application that you are analyzing. You can use tags to classify applications and instantly identify application information, for example, an application type, data center location, and technologies used within the application. You can also use tagging to associate archetypes to applications for automatic assessment. For more information about archetypes, see Working with archetypes.

Tagging can be done automatically during the analysis manually at any time.

Note

Not all tags can be assigned automatically. For example, an analysis can only tag the application based on its technologies. If you want to tag the application also with the location of the data center where it is deployed, you need to tag the application manually.

7.7.1. Creating application tags

You can create custom tags for applications that MTA assesses or analyzes.

Procedure

  1. In the Migration view, click Controls.
  2. Click the Tags tab.
  3. Click Create tag.
  4. In the Name field in the opened dialogue, enter a unique name for the tag.
  5. Click the Tag category field and select the category tag to associate with the tag.
  6. Click Create.
  7. Optional: Edit the created tag or tag category:

    • Edit the tag:

      1. In the list of tag categories under the Tags tab, open the list of tags in the desired category.
      2. Select Edit from the drop-down menu and edit the tag name in the Name field.
      3. Click the Tag category field and select the category tag to associate with the tag.
      4. Click Save.
    • Edit the tag category:

      1. Under the Tags tab, select a defined tag category and click Edit.
      2. Edit the tag category’s name in the Name field.
      3. Edit the category’s Rank value.
      4. Click the Color field and select a color for the tag category.
      5. Click Save.

7.7.2. Manually tagging an application

You can tag an application manually, both before or after you run an application analysis.

Procedure

  1. In the Migration view, click Application inventory.
  2. In the row of the required application, click Edit ( icon edit ). The Update application window opens.
  3. Select the desired tags from the Select a tag(s) drop-down list.
  4. Click Save.

7.7.3. Automatic tagging

MTA automatically spawns language discovery and technology discovery tasks when adding an application to the Application Inventory. When the language discovery task is running, the technology discovery and analysis tasks wait until the language discovery task is finished. These tasks automatically add tags to the application. MTA can automatically add tags to the application based on the application analysis. Automatic tagging is especially useful when dealing with large portfolios of applications.

Automatic tagging of applications based on application analysis is enabled by default. You can disable automatic tagging during application analysis by deselecting the Enable automated tagging checkbox in the Advanced section of the Analysis configuration wizard.

Note

To tag an application automatically, make sure that the Enable automated tagging checkbox is selected before you run an application analysis.

7.7.4. Displaying application tags

You can display the tags attached to a particular application.

Note

You can display the tags that were attached automatically only after you have run an application analysis.

Procedure

  1. In the Migration view, click Application inventory.
  2. Click the name of the required application. A side pane opens.
  3. Click the Tags tab. The tags attached to the application are displayed.

7.8. Working with archetypes

An archetype is a group of applications with common characteristics. You can use archetypes to assess multiple applications at once.

Application archetypes are defined by criteria tags and the application taxonomy. Each archetype defines how the assessment module assesses the application according to the characteristics defined in that archetype. If the tags of an application match the criteria tags of an archetype, the application is associated with the archetype.

Creation of an archetype is defined by a series of tags, stakeholders, and stakeholder groups. The tags include the following types:

  • Criteria tags are tags that the archetype requires to include an application as a member.

    Note

    If the archetype criteria tags match an application only partially, this application cannot be a member of the archetype. For example, if the application a only has tag a, but the archetype a criteria tags include tags a AND b, the application a will not be a member of the archetype a.

  • Archetype tags are tags that are applied to the archetype entity.
Note

All applications associated with the archetype inherit the assessment and review from the archetype groups to which these applications belong. This is the default setting. You can override inheritance for the application by completing an individual assessment and review.

7.8.1. Creating an archetype

When you create an archetype, an application in the inventory is automatically associated to that archetype if this application has the tags that match the criteria tags of the archetype.

Procedure

  1. Open the MTA web console.
  2. In the left menu, click Archetypes.
  3. Click Create new archetype.
  4. In the form that opens, enter the following information for the new archetype:

    • Name: A name of the new archetype (mandatory).
    • Description: A description of the new archetype (optional).
    • Criteria Tags: Tags that associate the assessed applications with the archetype (mandatory). If criteria tags are updated, the process to calculate the applications, which the archetype is associated with, is triggered again.
    • Archetype Tags: Tags that the archetype assesses in the application (mandatory).
    • Stakeholder(s): Specific stakeholders involved in the application development and migration (optional).
    • Stakeholders Group(s): Groups of stakeholders involved in the application development and migration (optional).
  5. Click Create.

7.8.2. Assessing an archetype

An archetype is considered assessed when all required questionnaires have been answered.

Note

If an application is associated with several archetypes, this application is considered assessed when all associated archetypes have been assessed.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to an MTA server.

Procedure

  1. Open the MTA web console.
  2. Select the Migration view and click Archetype.
  3. Click the Options menu ( kebab ) and select Assess from the drop-down menu.
  4. From the list of available questionnaires, click Take to select the desired questionnaire.
  5. In the Assessment menu, answer the required questions.
  6. Click Save.

7.8.3. Reviewing an archetype

An archetype is considered reviewed when it has been reviewed once even if multiple questionnaires have been marked as required.

Note

If an application is associated with several archetypes, this application is considered reviewed when all associated archetypes have been reviewed.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to an MTA server.

Procedure

  1. Open the MTA web console.
  2. Select the Migration view and click Archetype.
  3. Click the Options menu ( kebab ) and select Review from the drop-down menu..
  4. From the list of available questionnaires, click Take to select the desired assessment questionnaire.
  5. In the Assessment menu, answer the required questions.
  6. Select Save and Review. You will automatically be redirected to the Review tab.
  7. Enter the following information:

    • Proposed Action: Proposed action required to complete the migration or modernization of the archetype.
    • Effort estimate: The level of effort required to perform the modernization or migration of the selected archetype.
    • Business criticality: The level of criticality of the application to the business.
    • Work Priority: The archetype’s priority.
  8. Click Submit review.

7.8.4. Deleting an archetype

Deleting an archetype deletes any associated assessment and review. All associated applications move to the Unassessed and Unreviewed state.

7.9. Analyzing an application

You can use the Migration Toolkit for Applications (MTA) user interface to configure and run an application analysis. The analysis determines which specific lines in the application must be modified before the application can be migrated or modernized.

7.9.1. Configuring and running an application analysis

You can analyze more than one application at a time against more than one transformation target in the same analysis.

Procedure

  1. In the Migration view, click Application inventory.
  2. Select an application that you want to analyze.
  3. Review the credentials assigned to the application.
  4. Click Analyze.
  5. Select the Analysis mode from the list:

    • Binary
    • Source code
    • Source code and dependencies
    • Upload a local binary. This option only appears if you are analyzing a single application. If you chose this option, you are prompted to Upload a local binary. Either drag a file into the area provided or click Upload and select the file to upload.
  6. Click Next.
  7. Select one or more target options for the analysis:

    • Application server migration to either of the following platforms:

      • JBoss EAP 7
      • JBoss EAP 8
    • Containerization
    • Quarkus
    • OracleJDK to OpenJDK
    • OpenJDK. Use this option to upgrade to either of the following JDK versions:

      • OpenJDK 11
      • OpenJDK 17
      • OpenJDK 21
    • Linux. Use this option to ensure that there are no Microsoft Windows paths hard-coded into your applications.
    • Jakarta EE 9. Use this option to migrate from Java EE 8.
    • Spring Boot on Red Hat Runtimes
    • Open Liberty
    • Camel. Use this option to migrate from Apache Camel 2 to Apache Camel 3 or from Apache Camel 3 to Apache Camel 4.
    • Azure App Service
  8. Click Next.
  9. Select one of the following Scope options to better focus the analysis:

    • Application and internal dependencies only.
    • Application and all dependencies, including known Open Source libraries.
    • Select the list of packages to be analyzed manually. If you choose this option, type the file name and click Add.
    • Exclude packages. If you choose this option, type the name of the package and click Add.
  10. Click Next.
  11. In Advanced, you can attach additional custom rules to the analysis by selecting the Manual or Repository mode:

    • In the Manual mode, click Add Rules. Drag the relevant files or select the files from their directory and click Add.
    • In the Repository mode, you can add rule files from a Git or Subversion repository.

      Important

      Attaching custom rules is optional if you have already attached a migration target to the analysis. If you have not attached any migration target, you must attach rules.

  12. Optional: Set any of the following options:

    • Target
    • Source(s)
    • Excluded rules tags. Rules with these tags are not processed. Add or delete as needed.
    • Enable automated tagging. Select the checkbox to automatically attach tags to the application. This checkbox is selected by default.

      Note

      Automatically attached tags are displayed only after you run the analysis.

      You can attach tags to the application manually instead of enabling automated tagging or in addition to it.

      Note

      Analysis engines use standard rules for a comprehensive set of migration targets. However, if the target is not included, is a customized framework, or the application is written in a language that is not supported (for example, Node.js, Python), you can add custom rules by skipping the target selection in the Set Target tab and uploading custom rule files in the Custom Rules tab. Only custom rule files that are uploaded manually are validated.

  13. Click Next.
  14. In Review, verify the analysis parameters.
  15. Click Run.

    The analysis status is Scheduled as MTA downloads the image for the container to execute. When the image is downloaded, the status changes to In-progress.

Note

Analysis takes minutes to hours to run depending on the size of the application and the capacity and resources of the cluster.

Tip

MTA relies on Kubernetes scheduling capabilities to determine how many analyzer instances are created based on cluster capacity. If several applications are selected for analysis, by default, only one analyzer can be provisioned at a time. With more cluster capacity, more analysis processes can be executed in parallel.

  1. Optional: To track the status of your active analysis task, open the Task Manager drawer by clicking the notifications button.

    Alternatively, hover over the application name to display the pop-over window.

  2. When analysis is complete, to see its results, open the application drawer by clicking on the application name.
Note

After creating an application instance on the Application Inventory page, the language discovery task starts, automatically pre-selecting the target filter option. However, you can choose a different language that you prefer.

7.9.2. Reviewing analysis details

You can display the activity log of the analysis. The activity log contains such analysis details as, for example, analysis steps.

Procedure

  1. In the Migration view, click Application inventory.
  2. Click on the application row to open the application drawer.
  3. Click the Reports tab.
  4. Click View analysis details for the activity log of the analysis.
  5. Optional: For issues and dependencies found during the analysis, click the Details tab in the application drawer and click Issues or Dependencies.

    Alternatively, open the Issues or Dependencies page in the Migration view.

7.9.3. Accessing unmatched rules

To access unmatched rules, you must run the analysis with enhanced logging enabled.

  1. Navigate to Advanced under Application analysis.
  2. Select Options.
  3. Check Enhanced advanced analysis details.

When you run an analysis:

  1. Navigate to Reports in the side drawer.
  2. Click View analysis details, which opens the YAML/JSON format log view.
  3. Select the issues.yaml file.
  4. For each ruleset, there is an unmatched section that lists the rule IDs that do not find match rules.

    unmatched rule IDs in issues.yaml

7.9.4. Downloading an analysis report

An MTA analysis report contains a number of sections, including a listing of the technologies used by the application, the dependencies of the application, and the lines of code that must be changed to successfully migrate or modernize the application.

For more information about the contents of an MTA analysis report, see Reviewing the reports.

For your convenience, you can download analysis reports. Note that by default this option is disabled.

Procedure

  1. In Administration view, click General.
  2. Toggle the Allow reports to be downloaded after running an analysis. switch.
  3. Go to the Migration view and click Application inventory.
  4. Click on the application row to open the application drawer.
  5. Click the Reports tab.
  6. Click either the HTML or YAML link:

    • By clicking the HTML link, you download the compressed analysis-report-app-<application_name>.tar file. Extracting this file creates a folder with the same name as the application.
    • By clicking the YAML link, you download the uncompressed analysis-report-app-<application_name>.yaml file.

7.10. Controlling MTA tasks by using Task Manager

Task Manager provides precise information about the Migration Toolkit for Applications (MTA) tasks queued for execution. Task Manager handles the following types of tasks:

  • Application analysis
  • Language discovery
  • Technology discovery

You can display task-related information either of the following ways:

  • To display active tasks, open the Task Manager drawer by clicking the notifications button.
  • To display all tasks, open the Task Manager page in the Migration view.

7.10.1. Reviewing a task log

To find details and logs of a particular Migration Toolkit for Applications (MTA) task, you can use the Task Manager page.

Procedure

  1. In the Migration view, click Task Manager.
  2. Click the Options menu ( kebab ) for the selected task.
  3. Click Task details.

    Alternatively, click on the task status in the Status column.

7.10.2. Controlling the order of task execution

You can use Task Manager to preempt a Migration Toolkit for Applications (MTA) task you have scheduled for execution.

Note

You can enable Preemption on any scheduled task (not in the status of Running, Succeeded, or Failed). However, only lower-priority tasks are candidates to be preempted. When a higher-priority task is blocked by lower-priority tasks and has Preemption enabled, the low-priority tasks might be rescheduled so that the blocked higher-priority task might run. Therefore, it is only useful to enable Preemption on higher-priority tasks, for example, application analysis.

Procedure

  1. In the Migration view, click Task Manager.
  2. Click the Options menu ( kebab ) for the selected task.
  3. Depending on your scenario, complete one of the following steps:

    • To enable Preemption for the task, select Enable preemption.
    • To disable Preemption for the task with enabled Preemption, select Disable preemption.


Revised on 2024-10-10 19:22:32 UTC

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