Migration From Magento 1 to Magento 2 with BelVG

There are hundreds advices have been given and a number of articles about migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2 has been released. But despite of this, there are too many questions about this complicated process. Let us compile and introduce to you a roadmap for the migration.

Please note that switching from M1 to M2 is not just a regular upgrade, but a migration to a brand new platform. If you decide to upgrade to Magento 2, you’ll need to create a new shop and replicate all the functionality you had on Magento 1.

Below are a couple steps that we recommend to follow if you would like to migrate from M1 to M2 (the process is pretty similar to creating a store from scratch on M2):

1. Initial discussion

First of all you and the developer should be on the same wave about your current business. You should discuss the functionality that you would like to have on your new store, possible product types and category structure, marketing tools and additional services you wish to implement. We should decide what kind of changes should be performed and it’s definitely should be considered on the initial step.

2. Summary overview and analysis of the current site

Allow the developer to analyze the current state of your site (we need accesses to admin panel and SSH);
Developers need to check all the modules that installed and create the list of suggestions concerning new integrations and modules for Magento 2 that are already available on the market and have the same functionality as existing. Additionally to check if you really need all existing extensions or they could be removed without any loss of functionality;
We should decide what database resources of your modules need to be transferred;
Check possible modifications that were made by previous developers for theme and unique customizations.

3. Appearance and final specification

Discuss a new theme with the developer. Theme can be made from scratch or you can use some available on the market;
After all details are discussed the developer will provide you with a specification with features for implementation, as well as functionality you need to achieve and ways to approach each requirement from a technical point of view.

4. Estimation

At the the final stage of the preparatory process you’ll get the roadmap for the migration and get an hourly estimation for every step.

5. Building up Magento 2

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The developer has to set up Magento 2.x system using a structure and design that matches your current Magento 1;
After that it’s highly recommended to make a full copy of your Magento 1 store (that includes database, theme files, customers data, using another words: all required data of your current website ) and continue migration using this replica;
And of course install the latest Magento 2.x version with all extensions on a system that absolutely corresponds all requirements.

6. Launching the migration

And only after we installed Magento 2, theme, installed and checked all the modules, created test database and transferred it from Magento 1, we can start the migration:

Giving a network access to the Data Migration Tool to Magento 1 and Magento 2 databases;
Suspending all activity in the Magento 1 admin panel, except for order management, shipping, invoice creating, credit notes, etc. (and please remember, that activity cannot be processed until your Magento 2 store goes live);
Suspending all Magento 1 cron jobs;
Migrating all the configurations;
Manually copying all media files from M1 to M2;
Copying data from Magento 1 database to Magento 2 database;
Reindexing all Magento 2 indexers;
And finally testing your new Magento 2 web store.

7. Step by step updating

After we migrated all the data, we must capture updates in M1 store (new orders, reviews, changes in customers profiles) step by step and transfer it to M2 store.

Begin migration with continually updates running;
During this process we can identify issues and fix it.

8. Launch Live

After we updated Magento 2 store and it’s functioning properly we transfer existing data to the new website:

Switching Magento 1 system in maintenance mode;
Stop incremental updates;
Launching Magento 2 cron jobs;
Reindex the stock indexer in Magento 2;
Caching pages;
Perform final verification of your Magento 2 store;
Checking payment gateways and shipping methods in test mode at first, then on basis of real data, fixing the errors, Google Analytics integration, social media integration (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, etc. );
Changing DNS, loading balancers, etc.;
Final stage. Magento 2 store is ready to use.