DocumentationAEM 6.5 LTSUser Guide

AEM 6.5 to AEM 6.5 LTS Content Migration Using Oak-upgrade aem-65-to-aem-65lts-content-migration-using-oak-upgrade

Last update: Fri Jan 30 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
  • Applies to:
  • Experience Manager 6.5 LTS

CREATED FOR:

  • Admin

This document explains how to upgrade Adobe Experience Manager from 6.5 to 6.5 LTS, with a focus on migrating the content repository. It covers using the Oak-upgrade tool to transfer content between repositories with precision and control.

Prerequisites prerequisites

Before starting the migration, ensure that the following requirements are met:

  1. Java Compatibility: AEM 6.5 LTS must be installed and configured to run with Java™ 17. Once set up, start the AEM instance and verify that all bundles are active and running without issues
  2. System Resources: Ensure adequate disk space and memory are available to handle both repositories during the migration process
  3. Oak-upgrade Tool: Download the oak-upgrade jar from the official Maven repository. Ensure that the version matches the Oak-core version used in AEM 6.5 LTS. Oak-upgrade tool runs on Oracle® Java™ 11 or later

Migration process step-by-step-migration-process

Stopping AEM 6.5 and AEM 6.5 LTS stopping-aem65-and-aem65lts

Before initiating migration, stop your AEM 6.5 and AEM 6.5 LTS instances. Doing so ensures that the repository is in a stable state and no additional writes occur during the migration.

Backing up the AEM 6.5 Instance backing-up-the-aem65-instance

Take a full backup of your AEM 6.5 instance if not already done.

Using the Oak-upgrade tool for content migration using-the-oak-upgrade-tool-for-content-migration

The Oak-Upgrade tool is executed via the command line, as shown here:

java -jar oak-upgrade-*.jar [options] /path/to/source/repository /path/to/destination/repository

Below are the essential commands and options:

Key options

  • --include-paths: Specify subtrees to include in the migration. See this example for the command usage:

    code language-none 
    java -jar oak-upgrade-*.jar --include-paths=/content/site /old/repository /new/repository

  • --exclude-paths: Exclude specific paths from migration. Be cautious while using this option - if the path exists on the target system, it is removed. See this example for the command usage:

    code language-none 
    java -jar oak-upgrade-*.jar --exclude-paths=/content/old_site /old/repository /new/repository

  • --copy-binaries: By default, Oak-upgrade migrates only references to binaries, leaving the actual files in the original blob/data store. As a result, the new repository still relies on the source store for binaries. To migrate binaries along with the repository content, use the --copy-binaries parameter to copy all binary data to the new store, as shown below:

    code language-none 
    java -jar oak-upgrade-*.jar \
--copy-binaries \
--src-datastore=/old/repository/datastore \
--datastore=/new/repository/datastore \
/old/repository \
/new/repository

Migrating checkpoints migratiing-checkpoints

When migrating an old SegmentMK repository (pre-Oak 1.6) to a new SegmentMK (Oak version greater or equal to 1.6), the checkpoints are migrated as well. This process avoids reindexing when the Oak is being run for the first time on the new repository. However, the checkpoints are not migrated in the following cases:

  1. Custom include-, exclude- or merge- paths are specified or
  2. The system copies the binaries by reference. No source datastore is specified and two different checkpoints contain a different binary under the same path.

In the second case, Oak-upgrade emits the following warning and breaks:

Checkpoints are not copied, because no external datastore has been specified. This results in the full repository reindexing on the first start. Use --skip-checkpoints to force the migration or see https://jackrabbit.apache.org/oak/docs/migration.html#Checkpoints_migration for more info.

The easiest way to fix this issue is specifying the source datastore in the command line options (for example --src-datastore or --src-s3datastore).

The warning may also be ignored, but in this case the repository is fully reindexed on the first startup. It may be a long process, especially for the large instance. The repository is not usable until the reindexing process is done. Use the --skip-checkpoints option to suppress the warning.

You can also offline reindex the repository before starting AEM using offline reindexing to avoid full reindexing on the first startup.

For more information on the Oak-upgrade tool and advanced usage, refer to the official documentation.

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