HEP Migration to AP02 - Technical Requirements

Prerequisite Preparations

The prerequisite preparations can start any time and should happen before the cutover date, July 3^rd, 02.00 AM Sydney time. During this time, your library will implement all relevant Prerequisite configurations and preparations indicated by Ex Libris on the current system, which are needed to ensure a smooth transition. For more information, see Prerequisite Setup and Input. 

Ex Libris will run technical diagnostic checks in parallel to ensure the new environment is optimized for your move. These tests will not require any involvement from your side and should have no impact on your current production environment in any way.

Integrated Testing

During Q2, the AP02 environment will be accessible to customers for testing purposes.

Ex Libris will copy your HEP products data to the new environment before the end of Q1, 2022, so your data and configuration will be accessible from it, via a test URL.

Ex Libris staff will ask your institution to follow the steps relevant to you, to ensure your configurations match the needed ones in the AP02 environment, in addition, to assure business continuity until then.

Cutover, July 3^rd

Ex Libris will move all your existing Hep products data to the new AP02 instance. There will be a downtime of up to 12 hours around the maintenance window for this process. Following the cutover, Ex Libris and your library staff will test the HEP products, to ensure the system is ready. Once the process is done, all services, except Analytics, will proceed to function with the new environment, and the old environment will be disabled. Analytics will be available approximately 12 hours later. In order to improve the migration job during the 12-hour window cutover, we would like to request that you complete the Analytics reports move from your private folders over to the Shared folder until June 28^th, and that you do not create new reports from June 29^th and until after the migration completes for Analytics (July 4^th, 2022, at 2.00 AM).

During the following week of the move, Ex Libris will closely monitor your new instance to ensure that the application is working as expected.

The exact cutover date will start at July 3^rd, 02.00 AM Sydney time. Local conversion can be reviewed at this Regional Time Converter. 

The systems will be back again by July 3^rd, 14.00 PM Sydney time. Local conversion can be reviewed at this Regional Time Converter.

Authentication

The access to Alma by librarians and staff members should be done via the institution-specific Ex libris domain name of your institution (<inst-specific>.alma.exlibrisgroup.com). 

If the access to Alma was implemented using the generic Ex Libris domain name (ap01.alma.exlibrisgroup.com), please ensure your staff replaces their bookmark for Alma with the institution-specific Ex libris domain name of your institution.

Before doing so, we advise that you check that you are able to log in to Alma using the institution-specific Ex libris domain name of your institution.
If you are unable to authenticate via the institution-specific Ex libris domain name you would need to set up the authentication to work with the institution-specific Ex libris domain name before advertising the change.

Testing Period: During the integrated testing period (Q2, 2022), you will have access to the AP02 environment that will be populated with your data and configurations. Most SSO logins will not allow you to log in to the testing environment, and log in to the new testing environment will work only with internal users. Please make sure you have internal users by the end of March 2022 (end of Q1, 2022) so that you can use them for this time when the AP02 environment is being made accessible. In Alma user management, “internal users” are users who are created and managed in Alma, rather than an external system such as a Student Information System. In case you do not have any internal users, please create at least 2. You can add a new internal user via the Find and Manage Users page (Admin > User Management > Manage Users), select Add User. For more information on internal users and how to add them, you can find information here and here.

Preparation for the migration: When your institution moves to the new data center at AP02 it may be required to reconfigure the authentication to the HEP products.  

Firstly, the URL that you are using to access HEP will need to point to the new environment. If you are using the generic Ex Libris domain name (ap01.alma.exlibrisgroup.com) to access the HEP products, it is required that your institution start using the institution-specific Ex libris domain name, for example <uni-specific>.alma.exlibrisgroup.com. If you are already using the institution-specific Ex libris domain name, our cloud engineers will perform the DNS switch transparently and there is no configuration required on the part of your institution. The full checklist/guide to starting to use the institution-specific Ex Libris domain name can be found here: 

https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/010Getting_Started/050Alma_User_Interface_%E2%80%93_General_Information/030Logging_Into_and_Out_of_the_User_Interface/Configuring_Alma_and_Primo_to_Use_Your_Institution-Specific_Alma_Domain 

With this change in the domain name, it is required to reconfigure external authentication systems to recognize the change in the domain name. This means your institution would need to add a new relying party to the SAML IDP and/or whitelist the new domain name with your CAS server. There are no configuration changes required in Alma but the IDP/CAS administrators will need to set up the authentication to the new domain name from scratch, and make sure the attributes released to the new relying party match what is configured to be released to the “old” relying party. 

More information on configuring SAML authentication to Alma can be found here: 

https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/integrations/user-management/authentication/inst_idp/saml/ 

More information on configuration CAS authentication to Alma can be found here: 

https://developers.exlibrisgroup.com/alma/integrations/user-management/authentication/inst_idp/cas/ 

Please note that if SAML/CAS/OIDC is used for Primo VE, Leganto or Esploro authentication, and your institution is using the generic Ex Libris domain name for these products, you will need to add a relying party in the IDP for each of these products. For example: 

Alma - <uni-specific>.alma.exlibrisgroup.com 

Primo ve - <uni-specific>.primo.exlibrisgroup.com 

Leganto - <uni-specific>.leganto.exlibrisgroup.com 

Esploro - <uni-specific>.esploro.exlibrisgroup.com 

Finally, if your institution is using LDAP to authenticate to HEP, you will need to whitelist the outgoing IP of the AP02 datacenter to be able to access your LDAP server. The outgoing IP of the AP02 datacenter was mentioned previously in this chapter (Link), and the LDAP server address/port can be found in alma, under Configuration Menu > General > External Systems > Integration Profiles > LDAP profiles. The screenshot below shows where the information appears when LDAP is configured for you.

Please feel free to request assistance, especially regarding setting up the Authentication. When you need help, please open a case through the Support Portal, and inform your focal point of this case, so they can track the progress and serve as the middle-person to help both sides.

Alma

• For customers that use Alma’s Resource Sharing function: Edit all your Alma partner records in Alma that are configured with ap01 to their CNAME.
  1. Go to: Fulfillment > Resource Sharing > Partners
  2. Edit the records that need to be reconfigured and replace the ap01 with your CNAME.
  3. Click here for more information.
• For customers that use Alma’s Resource Sharing function: Inform all non-Alma libraries with whom you do Resource Sharing using the ISO protocol, that these libraries must modify the configuration on their side to send ISO messages to your CNAME instead of ‘ap01.alma…’. Institutions using the LADD system for Inter-Library Loans should review the Appendix regarding LADD.
• For customers that have third-party systems connecting to Alma through OAI: contact the stakeholders and have them replace the base URL from Alma's native URL to the CNAME of the institution. 
• Replace all the “ap01.alma...” prefixes in the letters.
  1. Go to Configuration Menu > General > Letters > Letters Configuration.
  2. Check that all letters use the CNAME instead of the Native URL (ap01.alma...)
  3. Click here for more information.
• In Alma Analytics: Everything in My Folders will not migrate to the new Analytics folder at AP02. Every staff member needs to copy their individual My Folders to Shared Folders/[INSTITUTION FOLDER] to access reports and dashboards after migration. Action needs to be taken until June 28th, end of the day. See Appendices for the full instructions.

Primo (Non-VE / VE)

• Non-VE Primo: Some calls to HEP products are done via the native URL. These calls are in the Mapping Tables or the Authentication Wizard. Ex Libris will perform these changes on behalf of the customers and we will publish in advance the date we will update the Primo Non-VE environments– More information will be provided in this matter.
• Since there will be a downtime for up to 12 hours around the maintenance window, you can notify your users using an alert bar prior to the downtime. Click here the full instructions.
• Primo VE analytics: Everything in My Folders will not migrate to the new Analytics folder at AP02. Every staff member needs to copy their individual My Folders to Shared Folders/[INSTITUTION FOLDER] to access reports and dashboards after migration. Action needs to be taken until June 28^th, end of the day. See Appendices for the full instructions. 

Leganto

1. CiteIT! needs to be reconfigured for the users that configured it originally with the native URL. Send instructions on how to reconfigure “CiteIt!” to the relevant users:
   1. Remove the “CiteIT!” bookmark.
   2. Login to Leganto.
   3. Re-install the CiteIT! bookmark using the CNAME.
   4. Click here for more information.
2. Check the integrations with the citation managers:
   1. Each citation manager integration needs a different approach.
   2. Click here for each citation manager software.

For example, if our institution has a Mendeley registration, please make sure your Leganto CNAME (for example institution.leganto.exlibrisgroup.com) is registered on the Mendeley side. After doing so, you must update the parameters mendeley_client_id and mendeley_secret in Alma (Configuration -> Customer Settings) with the new values. More information can be found on this link.

• The LTI tool link is probably the native URL and should be udpated. If your LTI tool link uses the Alma native URL, please follow the instructions below:
  1. In Alma: Create a new integration profile
     1. Go to: Configuration > General Integration Profile
     2. Create a new LTI integration profile
     3. Confirm that the base URL for the new LTI tool link is your Leganto CNAME
     4. If the base URL is not your Leganto CNAME, contact your Ex Libris Support Focal Point
  2. In the learning management system: Create a new external tool in the learning management system for testing purposes
     1. Create a new external tool and connect it to the new integration profile
     2. Test the new external tool and make sure it works
     3. Delete the new external tool
  3. In the learning management system: Update the original external tool in the learning management system – this step should update all old LTI links created by the external tool and allow you to create new links using the same tool
     1. Change the LTI link of the original external tool to point to the new integration profile
     2. Create a new LTI link to the reading list and make sure it works
     3. Test an old LTI link to the reading list in the LMS and make sure it works and uses the institution CNAME
  4. In Alma: After verifying that all links are using the new integration profile and the CNAME link
     1. Remove the old integration profile in Alma

1. In case your baseURL for permalinks is the native URL, there is a need to update the baseURL parameter. This parameter can only be changed by Ex Libris and we updated the parameter for all Leganto customers which are not using a CNAME for the Leganto permalinks on March 27^th. All permalinks configured already with the Native URL will continue to work until the cutover, on July 3^rd, 2022, at 2 AM Sydney time. Note that we updated all permalinks to use the Leganto permalink (for example institution.leganto.exlibrisgroup.com) – except for specific institutions.
   However, there is a need to update all users that they must update the permalinks they saved. We recommend your institution informs Leganto users about this change between terms, with a notification sent or displayed that this is happening.

Rapido

Check with your resource sharing partners to make sure they are not pointing to native URL (ap01.alma...) anymore.

Institutions using the LADD system for Inter-Library Loans should review the Appendix regarding LADD.

Rialto, Pivot, Esploro

There are no action items from the customer’s side on Rialto, Pivot, and Esploro.

RapidILL

There are no action items from the customer’s side on RapidILL. Ex Libris will ensure that the RapidILL/Alma integration and the holdings load configuration will include your CNAME as the BaseURL.

CampusM

CampusM is not part of the Alma platform and therefore will not move to the Sydney Data Center. However, CampusM can interact with Alma, Primo VE and Leganto and will need to point to your CNAME instead of the AP01 IP or the native AP01 URL (ap01.alma...).

The institutions working with CampusM will need to contact the people responsible for CampusM (usually within the Institution's IT department) to ensure that CampusM's settings are correct.

The only area that needs to be checked at this point by the CampusM administrators is the AEK codes. If your institution has written AEK codes, there is a need to check them and ensure they do not point to the Native Alma / PrimoVE / Leganto URL or the AP01 IP.

Suggested Checks

After all the above pre-requisites and following Ex Libris’ instructions, we suggest that all integrations in use with Alma are sanity tested.  

Those integrations include at least the following:

HEP Products Health Checklist

In addition to the integration tests noted above, it is recommended to test that basic functionalities are working as expected, based on the below health checklist tests for Alma.

These checks are optional, but it is good practice to perform them. You do not have to follow these exact steps described in each entry. All suggested brief steps start from Alma’s homepage unless stated otherwise and are based on the official Alma Knowledge Center that you can find here. For the rest of the HEP products, you can follow the checks from the action items before the migration section in Prerequisite Setup and Input.

Directing Your Questions and Issues

Throughout the process, you may have questions or issues which arise. In order to report and ask anything during this period, please direct your enquiries to the Ex Libris Support focal point assigned to your institution. In some situations that requires tracking, we might ask you to log a case through the portal.

Technical questions, as well as questions regarding the focal point person can be directed to the following Ex Libris address: ap01-migration-support@proquest.com. 

In case there is an urgent issue that prevents you from working and there isn't a reply from the above email, please open a system down, so we can handle the issue with the highest priority.